The "School" track is designed for teachers, school administrators, and technology coordinators. Technology tools and techniques have transformed 21st century learning. Hear from thought leaders who have explored these new trends in education including Google Classroom, Distance/Online Learning, Student Blogs, Technology Planning and ChristLight.
Code On!
You’ve probably been hearing (or have innately known) about the importance of giving kids a chance to learn to code. You may remember messing around with Terrapin Logo or Basic yourself many years ago. There are now tons of tools (for all ages) that will help you spark some computer programming interest in your students. This session will talk about a bunch of them (and get you coding a bit, too!).
Extending Student Writing through Blogging
Why is blogging a Good Thing? We can build stronger home/school connections, increase the audience size of student writing, write across content areas, and develop digital citizenship skills! Learn about kid-friendly blogging sites, modeling best practices of posting and commenting, and building a plan to start your students blogging.
Flipped Classroom on a Budget
It doesn’t take fancy software or expensive equipment to develop engaging, accessible video lessons for your students. If you have a laptop or mobile device and Internet access, you can flip your classroom! In this session, you will learn about free tools for multiple platforms that you can use to flip your classroom at little or no expense.
Google Classroom...Is It For You?
Google Classroom weaves together Google Docs, Drive and Gmail to help educators create and organize assignments quickly, provide feedback efficiently, and communicate with their classes easily. It also allows students to organize their work, complete and turn it in, and communicate directly with their teachers and peers.
Classroom was designed hand-in-hand with teachers to help them save time, keep classes organized, and improve communication with students. This session will cover the basics of Classroom and how any congregation/school with Google Apps for Education could use this tool.
Online Courses: Expanding Your Curriculum
Many WELS high schools are expanding their curriculum by including online courses offered through ALHS Online, which offered its first two courses in 2011. The program has now expanded to more than 30 courses and servers over 200 students each semester. Due to requests from WELS elementary schools, starting in fall 2015, ALHS Online plans to begin offering a limited number of courses to middle school students. Come to this session to learn more about this rapidly expanding program and how you and your congregation or school can be a part of it!
Panel Session: School Technology
Come and meet with like minded friends to discuss getting technology plans or initiatives going at your school. Ask questions: what works, how to, what to avoid.
Tablet Shoot-Out - Parts 1 & 2
A few thousand years ago...tablets were used for writing. Today...well...they're still used for writing (but also a ton more!). Much of the power of tablets comes in the creative application market for each model, but also in the ease of deployment and use. During this session, you'll see iPads and Google Tablets duel it out for tablet supremacy (or maybe just see some similarities/differences in use cases and transformational potential)!
There's so much to share, 50 minutes isn't enough time! Come for either or both parts of this special double session.
Technology Planning for Schools
Come and answer these questions and more: Where to start? What to include? How far to go? How to train teachers? What kind of technology? E-rate?
Who needs to attend: Are you a new Director of Technology? Are you a member of a Technology Committee? Do you just want to take your slow moving ship of a school down a path to the 21st Century (BTW, we've been in the 21st Century for 14 years now)? Is your school going through strategic planning?
Using Google Apps in WELSSA
Whether your school is already accredited, working towards accreditation, or thinking of starting the process, this session is for you. Learn how your committee can use various Google tools to gather your evidence and present your self-study. WELSSA site team members can also learn about the standard tracking spreadsheet. Templates for a Google site and other resources will be available to participants.
Using Technology in Christ Light
Come discover a variety of ways that technology can be applied to lesson telling, student comprehension, and life applications in your Christ Light lesson. Leave with ideas and resources that can easily be used in your most important class of the day.