Summer 2012 Professional Learning Opportunities

Are you a classroom teacher, district administrator, campus leader and hoping to hone your communication and collaboration skills in a technology-enhanced environment like East Central ISD?

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You have the opportunity to attend a variety of face to face workshops, but you can also work on building your own professional learning network (PLN)! And, you may be excited to know that we'll soon be offering webinars that you can attend from anywhere--home, work, that beachfront hotel you are staying at this summer!

Register for Face to Face Workshops via Eduphoria Workshops NOW!

In this blog entry, you'll find 3 sources of professional learning, including the following:

1. Face to Face Workshops in ECISD
2. Building Your PLN
3. Online Conference Archives

#1 - FACE TO FACE WORKSHOPS
Gateway to Engagement: Classroom Websites
You do amazing things in your classroom everyday! In this fun filled workshop participants will learn how to share what they do in their classrooms with the world. You will learn how to add pictures, announcements, calendar events, files, links to websites and blogs that will engage students. See how your site directly connects with the students and parents in your class and how it can improve communication. Classroom websites give teachers the opportunity to make their students into published artists, photographers, writers, and producers with a single click.


Window to Our World: Creating Transparency Through District Websites
Are you wondering how you can get thousands of people to visit your website? Wonder no more! Participants in this workshop will find new ways to attract visitors to their department, community or district webpages. We will start with the basics and move into more advanced tools. Collaborate with other as you learn ways to attract visitors to your site.


A One Stop Shop: Campus Webmasters Ignite
Time, time and more time! Finding time during the school year to learn the basics of maintaining a campus website can be very challenging. Please take this opportunity to come collaborate with other district webmasters, or just sit and learn in a one-to-one environment. Stay for 1 hour or all 3 hours. This is a special time for you to learn how to make your website an information highway.


My Mailbox is Driving me Crazy!
Is your Google mailbox driving you crazy? Are you looking for a better and quicker way to manage your mail? Participants in this hands on workshop will learn how to maximize the features of Google mail to simplify their mailbox. Learn new ways to organize your inbox, personalize your background, enable labs and gadgets, view and download attachments, search for specific emails, and use Google’s chat feature.


Be Your Own Web Designer
Are you looking for a way to share information on the web with students, parents or other staff members.? With Google Sites you can create custom webpages that allow you to embed documents, calendars, videos, pictures, gadgets and more. Participants will have fun designing their own personalized website for classroom, department or district use. You will be amazed at how fun you can have designing webpages.


Classroom Learning Communities Made Easy
Teachers are constantly looking for new ways to connect learning with technology. Join us in exploring how Edmodo can turn your classroom into a learning community both on and off campus. Participants will learn how this secure social environment can give teachers a secure place to post messages, create assignments, have work turned in, post graded assignments, create calendar events, add items in a digital library, create private class groups and connect with parents. Come and experience how Edmodo can change how you communicate with your students and parent in an online environment.

Connect*Communicate*Collaborate*Create
Create a connected workspace with Google Docs! Store your word documents, excel spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations, and PDFs  in “the cloud” and access them from any internet-enabled device. Share your documents with others and multiple users can collaborate on the same document, at the same time! Don’t have Microsoft Office? You can CREATE new documents in Google Docs - no software required! Come see what it’s all about!


Surveys Made Easy (and did I mention FREE?)
Take surveys to the next level with Google Forms! Learn how to create surveys, questionnaires, and even assessment tools that will allow you to collect data for almost anything. Surveys can be shared via URL, emailed, or even embedded on your website. You’ll also learn how to use the web-based tool Flubaroo to create self-grading assessments in a single step! Harness the power of Google Forms!


Videos - Images - Lesson plans - Oh my!
“There’s no place like … Discovery Education!” Explore the many resources available with your Discovery Education account - movies, images, sound clips, documents, presentations, even lesson plans. Put a new “twist” on learning and create your own virtual classroom utilizing Discovery Education tools - complete with assignments, quizzes, and more!


I’ve Got an iPad/iPod … Now What Do I Do? (Grades K-5)
Whether you’ve got one iPad or several iPods in your classroom, come discover engaging ways to integrate these devices into your curriculum. You’ll get ideas for using iDevices as center activities, as assessment tools, for remediation activities, and for the creation of projects. We’ll conclude with an ‘Appy Hour session during which we will spotlight some of our favorite apps!

Operation Engagement! (Grades K-5)
Come learn how to transform your lessons into extraordinary learning opportunities! You’ll discover ways to infuse your lessons with web-based resources and tools that are sure to enhance your instruction and increase student engagement! Participants will walk away with ideas for classroom projects, collaborative group work, skill reinforcement, and much more!


Operation Engagement! (Grades 6-12)
Come learn how to transform your lessons into extraordinary learning opportunities! You’ll discover ways to infuse your lessons with web-based resources and tools that are sure to your instruction and increase student engagement! Participants will walk away with ideas for classroom projects, collaborative group work, skill reinforcement, and much more!

#2 - STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK (PLN)

1. Read the "Build your PLN" article
2. Create accounts in Evernote.com and Twitter.com

#3 - OTHER SOURCES OF ONLINE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

• K12OnlineConference.org - Find online workshops from 2009 through 2011 available to you at no cost from the global community of educators! If you'd like to earn CPE hours--one hour Max for each session--for sessions you participate in, check the Summer 2012 Professional Learning Wiki! (available online 6/1/2012)
• 2011 Global Education Conference - View the 2011 Global Education Conference archive, which features recordings and conference materials. If you'd like to earn CPE hours--one hour Max for each session--for sessions you participate in, check the Summer 2012 Professional Learning Wiki! (available online 6/1/2012)