Pre-Convention Sessions
8:30–3:45 | Pre-Con Sessions
201. Wisconsin Future Ready Leadership Summit - Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, Zero-based Thinking Change Schools
The Wisconsin Digital Learning Collaborative (WDLC) and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction are excited to host our third Wisconsin Future Ready Leadership Summit. The Wisconsin Digital Learning Plan is built on elements of Future Ready Schools that support empowered and innovative district leaders as they adopt creative instructional strategies and personalized learning options for students.
Tom Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, returns to Wisconsin to set the stage around collaborative leadership strategies and instructional re-design. Pam Moran and Ira Socol, authors of Timeless Learning, will workshop teams in a structured inquiry activity to create a district action plan for innovation and student-centered learning transformation, including a “pitch” strategy to communicate new strategies to stakeholders.
Wisconsin leaders in personalized and digital learning will participate alongside our featured speakers to support districts throughout the day. Please join us with your district leadership team for this exciting day!
Speaker: Janice Mertes, Tom Murray, Pam Moran, Ira Socol, Dawn Nordine, and Brenda Vogds
12:00–4:00 | Pre-Con Sessions
202. Introduction to Design Thinking
Design Thinking is both a method and a mindset that can be leveraged by educators to creatively solve challenges in their classrooms and also with students as a framework for personalized learning. The Introduction to Design Thinking workshop that will introduce educators to a mindset and methodology for creative problem solving, giving participants hands-on experience with actionable tools for rapid brainstorming, user storyboarding and soliciting collaborative feedback. During this session participants will tackle a real problem that is personally relevant to each participant’s context and experience.
Speaker: Diane Rutherford and Mike Patterson
Strands:
Grades: K-12
Experience Level: Novice
Convention Track: LPD
203. Developing a Culture of Innovation
Developing a culture of innovation relies on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset and thinking. Entrepreneurs possess common traits: they see opportunities in challenges, are unfailingly resourceful, and can creatively problem-solve on the fly. They are also confident in their personal capacity to affect change and are passionate about their individual pursuits.
At Future Design School, we want to inspire this kind of entrepreneurial thinking at an early age. We teach a repeatable process of ideation, validation, and rapid execution so that all students are confident in their ability to innovate. Schools are uniquely complex ecosystems. Every school has their own values, mindsets, and behaviors working in combination with those of their stakeholders. The complexity of these relationships working together creates the culture of a school.
The first step in shifting school culture is for school leaders to take a user-centered approach to understanding the needs of various stakeholders, starting with teachers and students. In uncovering needs of teachers, school leaders can empower them to develop a culture that facilitates growth in emotional intelligence, and values failures, optimism, empathy, and creative confidence.
Speaker: Leslie McBeth
Strands:
Grades: K-12
Experience Level: Novice
Convention Track: LPD
204. G Suite for Leaders
Description coming soon!
2:00-4:00 Pre-Con Sessions
205. Google Playground
All things Google! Come explore this hands-on playground and learn about the many fun, free and creative ways to get the most out of Google products. In this engaging playground, you will have an opportunity to move from station to station earning your “Passport to Learning” stamps. Come and join the fun and return to your school district as a super Google hero!
Stations:
- Add-ons & Extensions
Join us to see real examples of lessons prepared with Google Slides with Pear Deck add-ons. You will be able to interact as students to get a taste of all the different options Pear Deck offers, not just for presenting material, but also to obtain formative and summative assessments. Instead of static informational slides, you will see interactive slides that will allow full participation with 100% engagement. A code will be given to you to allow them to participate in a presentation from your device.
- Google Draw
We used Google Draw to make games based off questions about literature and inferencing. The students would put the answers choices on shapes then the player would move the shape to reveal if they were correct or not. Game makers would have the words correct or try again behind the answers.
- Google Drive
Having an organized google drive can help you keep any information you need at your fingertips. In this session, have your mind blown by some basic tips that can help keep your google drive manageable.
- Google Jamboard
Learn how to spark Innovation using Jamboard and Design Thinking Sprints.
- Google Keep
Google Keep is a versatile digital note and reminder app that can have a significant impact in the classroom. Learn how to make yours and your students’ life easier with Google Keep for grading and note taking!
- Google Photos
Capture your classroom memories with Google Photos! Not using Google Photos yet? Come to this Idea Spark to get some ideas started for how you can use Google Photos right now both professionally and personally!
- Google Sheets
Do you ever wish that you could send personalized emails to 100+ students and their family quicker? How about encourage a greater response to class-wide messages? Send out more personal missing work reports, course updates, or accolades en masse? Yet Another Mail Merge can do all that! By doing a bit of work on the front end to set-up a spreadsheet with contact emails, all the above becomes a breeze! Come learn how easy it is to send personal messages to all your students and families.
- Google Sites
Using Google Sites for digital portfolios for students to do student led conferences is amazing! You’ll learn how to help your students create their own site and make a template/page for each subject with reflection stems and the ability to add artifacts and reflections throughout the year. Use this great learning tool for both parents and students for your own student led conferences.
- Google Slides
Creating a digital scrapbook is a wonderful way for students to showcase their understanding. You’ll learn how to set up & share a scrapbook template with Google Slides, and then how your students will be able to use and interact with the digital scrapbook.
206. Come Create with Us! Learning with Apple and Apple Distinguished Educators: Enhancing Accessibility, Creativity, Productivity and Content Creation
Keynote on loop to orient people and highlight the best of each station to encourage participants to visit everything.
Green Screening and Photos
Learn the magic behind how to green screen with ease. You will be able to transport you and your students to any location around the world. With the new iOS feature, you can now do green screening using the built in features on your iPad or iOS device. I will share tips, techniques and plenty of ideas to utilize a green screen in the classroom. Imagine creating a puppet show or historical speech in the time and era that it occurred. The possibilities are endless.
Coding
Everyone can code with Swift Playgrounds. Learn and teach computer science through playful puzzles and creative problem solving. Everyone can imagine apps with Keynote. Empower your students to solve real world problems with animated user interface design. Walk away with a toolkit for teaching Swift Playgrounds and organizing an App Showcase to celebrate your students coding work.
Music
Turn your classroom into a recording studio. Learn how GarageBand can provide every learner with the tools and ability to create music. Investigate voice recording and Apple Loops to bring student voice to life and encourage content creation in all learning environments.
Video
Clips is fun and free iOS apps for you and your students. It makes creating videos fun and easy to create and share with others. It is great for creating stories, sharing memories and documenting classroom activities. With access to free filters, animated text, music, emoji, and fun stickers featuring characters from Star Wars, Disney•Pixar it is engaging for all learners.
Drawing / Sketchnotes
Drawing, doodling and more! You will learn a wide variety of ways that you can enhance your lessons with some powerful free apps and resources to incorporate creativity in every classroom, with students of all ages.
Augmented Reality
Turn your classroom into the Cosmos. Climb inside the earth to see the different layers. Augmented reality allows educators to combine the digital and the real world, and enhance the learning experience.
Accessibility
Let’s explore the iPad and Mac’s powerful built-in accessibility features to allow all learners to lift-off! We’ll explore ways that Siri can become a learner’s personal assistant during research, showcase multiple ways to access print, and highlight alternative access methods as well as Shortcuts to support learner variability and workflow to increase independence and blast-off learning to new heights!