SEssion Descriptions 

Breakout session descriptions are provided below.  For Learning Strand designations, visit the Schedule page

Adventures in Cross-Curricular Coding with Kai's Clan

Daniel Rich

When students have finished their lesson or activity for the day, what do they do? Set up anchor activities in your Google Classroom. Anchor activities are given to students when they have completed their daily work. Anchor activities could include current events, typing fluency, fun grammar/vocab challenges, skill-related activities, trivia, and useless time killers. 

Anchor Activities

Daniel Rich

When students have finished their lesson or activity for the day, what do they do? Set up anchor activities in your Google Classroom. Anchor activities are given to students when they have completed their daily work. Anchor activities could include current events, typing fluency, fun grammar/vocab challenges, skill-related activities, trivia, and useless time killers. 

Assess, Assess Baby!

Courtni Jackson

How do you assess?  Game-based learning has totally changed the way we assess in the classroom!  Join my session to see what's new with many of our old familiar formative assessment programs and learn about new ones you may not know about.  

Blended Learning and TTESS

Danieli Parker

Does TTESS and technology integration go together?   How do we evaluate the technology, lessons, and activities to see if blended learning is occuring?  What should a campus leader look for when visiting classrooms? With devices, online testing, and blended learning taking place on our campuses it is more critical now than ever to understand how technology integration blends with TTESS.  Join us as we explore how TTESS and technology go together and what to look for as you support your campus journey and growth with meaningful technology integration.   

Books, STEM, and a YAG, Oh My!

Angela Gregory & Ashley Hefley

Explore innovative ways to engage students and teachers in your school library!

Building Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Using a Multi-Sensory Approach

Jennifer Burchfiel

Join us as we discuss ways you can enhance your small group instruction of phonemic awareness and phonics through differentiation, multi-sensory learning, and digital learning opportunities.  Learn ways to engage students as they master sound and spelling relationships and decoding strategies on their way to becoming fluent readers. 

Canva Creations in Nearpod

Danieli Parker

The Canva world has opened up tools and resources that allow us to create documents and images that grab our students' attention.  By utilizing Canva tools we are able to embed in Nearpod and create engaging activities for our students.  We will be exploring the templates and tools in Canva and how to integrate our creations into Nearpod activities and lessons.  

Cleaning Up the Front Porch:  Using Canva to Create Polished Designs

Ashten Ordmandy

Are you an MTS or campus leader who has been placed in charge of a website? Do you find that your posters or flyers often look homemade, ill-fitting, or blurry? Do you know very little about graphic design? Have no fear - Canva is here! With free educator accounts, access to an easy-to-use system, and abilities like resizing, uploading, beautiful templates, and a wide library of copyright-free material, you too can create polished website graphics, flyers, posters, and more! Use Canva to create that lasting positive first impression for students, families, new-hirees, and administration (and here's the best secret of all... students can use Canva too!).

You don't have to know anything about graphic design. You just have to bring a device...and desire to create something beautiful. 

Creating With BlackOut Poetry

Shelli Harrel

Creating "Blackout or Erasure" Poetry is the process of taking a written piece of text and redacting words in order to create a poem. Whether it is utilizing information from historical texts, classic literature, newspapers or original writings, this version of "found" poetry is a fun way for students to explore various topics. Join us as we investigate creative ways that "Blackout" poetry can be utilized to help students improve their ability to summarize content and creatively express their thoughts/ideas/feelings.  

Cut the Cords in the Classroom!

Benjamin Wood

Are you tired of being tied down in your teaching style due to your technology constraints? Its time to cut the cord in the classroom! Join in as we cover several ways in which teachers can take advantage of casting to open up a world of possibilities of movement throughout the room to keep students engaged, on task, and at the center of the lesson! 

Endpoint and Other Security Options

Ben Warriner

Join us as we examine ways to manage your endpoint and other security options.

Equatio:  Much More Than Digital Math!

Sherry Morton

Equatio: a free Chrome extension for teachers. It is so much more than a way to make math digital.  Science teachers, do you want an interactive Periodic Table and atom composition of elements? Equatio’s Got Your 6!  Math & Science Teachers, do you want to create activities with interactive manipulatives for all grade levels? Equatio’s Got Your 6! Math & Science Teachers, do you want to create activities with ease and stress-free? Equatio’s Got Your 6!

Do you just want to know what “got your 6" means?

Join me and Get the Free Extension and your 6 covered! 

Evaluating the Efficacy of a Lesson

Kari Noland

You know students are in different places in their understanding, and you know you need to differentiate your instruction. Join this course to get some hands-on ideas for how to grow your students to meet their potential, get motivated, and develop a growth mindset. 

Exterior Security Door Check - The Digital Solution

Benjamin Wood

With the new guidance from the state, all exterior doors must be checked and reported on. This can be a painstaking process typically involving paper logs that may get lost in the shuffle of the various end users. 

Come join us as we delve into a digital platform that will make this process as simple as scan, select, submit! With dashboards, automated alerts, and reporting this system will enhance security, reduce workload, and ensure your school is ready to submit data to the state. 

Flippin' Sweet Google Sheets with Flippity.net

James Slaughter

Learn how to easily turn google sheets into Flashcards, Quiz Show, Random Name Picker, Timeline, digital manipulatives, Hangman, Wordle-style puzzle, and other cool stuff using flippity.net        

Frame Your Lessons with EduProtocols

Deborah Trujillo

Teach better, work less, and achieve more with easy-to-use lesson frames to spark student engagement. EduProtocols are a modern take on classic strategies that incorporate communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. 

Free Templates Galore!

Marquita Stottern

If you are always looking for those perfect templates to add to your lessons, you will find a treasure trove of them in this session!  Come join us and receive access to a searchable index of 3000 plus templates and more.  Be sure to bring digital templates you are willing to share and help develop a coalition of teachers and admin that will be developing a TEKS-based searchable index with all the free templates shared here and at my TCEA session in February this year. 

Get Where You Are Growing

Kari Noland

You know students are in different places in their understanding, and you know you need to differentiate your instruction. Join this course to get some hands-on ideas for how to grow your students to meet their potential, get motivated, and develop a growth mindset. 

Giving Killer Presentations

Hunter McConnell

Tips & ideas to help your next presentation be AWESOME! Lots of discussions to generate ideas to keep your audience engaged. 

How to Survive a Ransomeware Attack and Live to Tell About It

Brad Stewart

Ransomware is no longer just a problem for businesses and industries, it has begun to affect school districts.   Many have succumbed to the various forms of ransom-based malware. Whether it is Cryptolocker, Wannacry, Crysis, or the many other forms of ransomware, many school districts assume they are not at risk and end up having to respond to a ransomware attack without proper preparation. This presentation will include firsthand information and lessons learned during my time handling the ransomware incident that occurred this year to help attendees better prepare for a potential ransomware attack. 

It Will Stink if You Click That Link

Hunter McConnell

This session is about being a Responsible Media User. We will discuss how to share carefully, determine if something is trustworthy, spot phony URLs, and more! 

Junk Box Wars

Marquita Stottern

This session will incorporate a bit of technology and a whole lot of ingenuity.  You will receive ideas of how to present students with junk in a box and watch them create. Many of these can be done virtually with items the students have in their home.  You can choose activities for your students integrating technology or you can choose activities for your students using no technology.  Tons of great activities will be shared for you to try when you get back to school.  Come join! 

Kick Formative Assessments Into Gear with Dipsticks

Kari Noland

It is important to understand that all students are at varying levels of understanding of content and that every student learns differently. When you are assessing student understanding, you might find that they are more successful in exemplifying their understanding in certain ways than others. You can do quick formative assessments when you pull students into small groups as an option, but more likely, you will use that time to help students get a better understanding of the topic based on the results of your formative assessment data.

Leadership is Key!  How to Use the Texas School Library Standards to Support and Expand Your Leadership

Liz Philippi

This session will look at the Leadership strand of the standards in-depth to form connections and plans for taking your campus leadership to the next level! Join us for a lively discussion on how to use the Leadership strand of the Texas School Library Program Standards. 

Let's Go Clubbing!  Code Clubbing, That is!

Linsey Taylor

Come join me for an exciting time of clubbing!  We will share ideas on creating a Code club in your library and explore different coding websites, apps and other options. 

Littles Code, Too!

Meg Whittaker

Coding can apply to early childhood when done in a developmentally appropriate way. The skills used in coding can integrate with math, science, and oral language skills. Come explore with us! 

Making Story Time Fun

Marquita Stottern

There is no better way to motivate students to read than to find a way to make it fun. With Facebook, Instagram, TicToc, etc., everyone lives in a video world. Come discuss ways you can incorporate videos into your library or classroom to promote reading and create engaging activities your students will be excited to participate in.  

This session will provide a wealth of ideas and resources you can take back to your school and share with others.       

Making Those New Question Types an Everyday Thing

Kelci Meadows & Brianna Hulshouser

In this session, we will look at numerous options for creating the New STAAR Question Types and incorporating them into the everyday classroom. From preparing the littles to see the questions in the future, to helping high school kids get EOC ready, let's look at some ways to make this happen. Come prepared to create your own questions and collaborate with others on the methods they are using. A few of the programs we will explore will be Teachermade, Nearpod, all things Google, and more! Don't let not having a premium account stop you- let's figure out how to make it work together!   

Math Standards + Digital Manipulatives = Engagement

Jennifer Burchfiel

Join us as we show how to bring math to life by using digital manipulatives to enhance learning the Math TEKS in the elementary math classroom. By implementing Brainingcamp, your students will see how hands-on manipulatives can transform, enhance, and bring student engagement to the core of your math block. 

Metrics?  What Does That Even Mean?? Learn How to Use the Metrics from the School Library Standards to Evaluate, Promote, and Improve Your School Library Program

Liz Philippi

Are you wondering what the Metrics section of the standards mean and what you are supposed to do with them? Then join us for a unique look at how to use the Metrics from the School Library Standards and a lively discussion with both campus librarians and library administration. 

Nearpod for Newbies

Danieli Parker

Ever heard of this program called Nearpod?  Not sure what it can do?  Feeling overwhelmed with one more thing?  Come join us as we explore the Nearpod world and learn about tools and lessons that you can implement in your classroom tomorrow!!! 

PhET Interactive Simulations

James Slaughter

Explore this collection of excellent (and free!) science and math simulations that can move your students from passive receivers of knowledge to active meaning-makers through inquiry. 

Produce Quality Graphics Easily With Canva

Marquita Stottern

If you ever wanted to know how some people make those great graphic designs, come and up your graphics game with Canva!  This session is designed to work with multiple levels of experience from the novice to the intermediate.  You can work at your own pace or follow along with the instructor in order to best meet your learning needs. Canva is simple to use, and best of all, free for educators!  There are templates galore for almost anything you can imagine that can easily be tweaked to meet your needs.  Come and join us! 

So You Want to be an Instructional Coach

Marquita Stottern

You waited for this position and suddenly you have it!  Now what? Come join us as together we examine ways to reshape what we know as Professional Development and meet other fellow coaches.  Together we will share ideas about what works and doesn’t work at our schools and you will walk away with tons of resources.  

Spike Prime for Beginners

Barrie Horne

Join us to get a quick preview of Spike Prime, learn how to program with it, and discover ways to incorporate it into your classroom!

State Assessment Supports in an Online Environment

Stacey Perkins

How will the move to STAAR online impact designated supports? Learn about accommodations available to eligible students both within—and outside—the online testing platform. 

Stay Digitally Organized

Hunter McConnell

Come get some time and practical steps to Organize your Google Drive, then dip into Google Keep to learn how it can help you stay organized! 

Taking a Deeper Dive with Nearpod

Melisa LeBlanc

You've dipped your toe into the Nearpod library, but what's next?  Take a deeper dive and learn how to create custom lessons and experience some of the newest features that have been added in the last year in order to keep your audience engaged in the learning! 

Tech-Tac-Toe:  Choice Boards are the Way to Go!

Donna Baker & Susan Witt

Discover how to use digital choice boards to personalize student learning experiences!  A choice board is a grid of activities that students can choose from. They are a great way to foster active learning and allow teachers to cater to different learning styles and needs at the same time. 

Techie Tuesday

Lori Tolar, Becky Goodwin, & Monica Price

Ongoing tech PD in bite-sized chunks that magically transforms teachers into leading breakout sessions for back-to-school.  Tech PD that doesn't over power but empowers! 

The Inter"ACTIVE" Class:  Using Technology to Make Learning More Relevant and Engaging

Janelle Safford

This session will dive into why it is important to create active learning experiences for students and showcase some of the Ideas and projects from the book “The InterACTIVE Class” by Joe and Kristin Merrill. 

Using STEAM as Remediation

Jason Johnson, Berny Duke, & Brittany Kiefer

As educators across the globe continue to get students caught up after "Covid learning loss," Van ISD has turned to "STEAM Remediation."  Work sheets and apps are boring!  Disguise the learning in the form of hands-on, engaging STEAM activities to help students review and relearn important concepts! 

What Can I Do with FlipGrid?

Sherry Luna

FlipGrid can be the TikTok of education! Students need to create and LOVE to video themselves so use that to your advantage. Have students share their thinking, show their learning, analyze an issue, demonstrate a solution, or redefine a problem in short TikTok style videos they can edit and add their personal touch. 

Whooo's Reading?

Shelli Harrel

Help your students learn to "think outside the bubbles" while working to improve their reading comprehension and writing skills. Participants will be introduced to the features of Whooo's Reading Program. This program works with virtually any text source and allows students to demonstrate reading comprehension through a variety of question formats with personalized feedback and TEKS-aligned questioning. Individual accommodations and customizable settings for each student make this program user-friendly. With free, individual, and school subscriptions available, you are invited to come and explore the variety of ways that Whooo's Reading can benefit your learners.  

Why We Love a Loud Library

Karla Carr

Do you want to create an atmosphere in your Library where students and teachers feel welcomed to gather? Do you want your Administration to take an interest in why you and your Library are relevant? Walk away from this session with fresh and new ideas to implement in your Library TOMORROW in order to create a buzz around your school that the Library is THE place to be!