Digital Literacy and Google Tools

Diana Benner, Featured Presenter:  TCEA

Students need to be able to recognize the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living in an interconnected digital world. Join me as I discuss Google resources for digital literacy.

Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment

Janet Corder, Featured Presenter: J2 Training

Teachers and students can be provided ongoing, real-time feedback utilizing many technology tools that are currently available in schools. The immediate results that can be accessed through technology tools can assist educators as they strive to improve instructional strategies and student learning in their classroom. Attendees in this session will learn how teachers can utilize technology to easily assess student understanding before they move on to the next topic or lesson.

Ignite Creativity: Elevate Classroom Activities with Canva

Scott Nunes, Featured Presenter: Canva

Prepare to unleash your creativity and revolutionize your classroom with Canva for Education. Discover how to create visually captivating and interactive resources that will captivate your students. From mastering the basics of navigation and templates to collaborating with colleagues, this session will empower you to personalize learning and empower your students to express themselves creatively. Embrace the power of Canva and take your teaching to the next level!

STEM Unplugged

Joy Schwartz, Featured Presenter: UT - Austin

During this session, participants will be introduced to a wide range of activities related to STEM without relying on electronic devices. Hands-on activities such as binary code bracelets will allow collaboration, problem solving and will be presented in a way to help connect theory with practice! Everyone will leave with multiple activities and resources they can implement immediately!

Create SPACE by Organizing Your Google Drive

Amy Storer, Featured Presenter: friEd Technology

How do I keep Google Drive organized?" is one of the top questions we hear from educators. Organization is key to success AND helps educators save time. In a physical space, a decluttered and organized environment is “conducive to producing our best work” (Sanchez, 2016). The same holds true for the digital spaces we occupy. For educators, an organized Google Drive makes planning, collaborating, and creating less stressful.

Save Your Sanity: From Endless “To-Do” to Enthusiastic “Ta-Da”!

Kristofer Thurston & Destiny Wager, Featured Presenters: edtech Nerds

Learn to effectively set boundaries and manage your time as we show you tools for organizing tasks and appointments, maximizing your efficiency, and saving your sanity in the process.

Structured Biliteracy Grounded in the Science of Reading 

Hector Gomez: Amplify

¡La ciencia de la lectura es para todos! The Science of Reading is for everyone, but how can we best support our emergent bilinguals? Attendees will learn why celebrating bilingualism and biliteracy as assets and cognitive strengths in assessment and instruction can propel emergent bilinguals to reading success in English and Spanish.

Kami 101

Samantha Camacho: Kami

Kami is a web-based tool that is phenomenal across grade levels, subjects, and abilities. This is a session for those new to using Kami, or those that haven't used it in quite some time and need a basic refresher.

Technology Freebies

Tim Etlzer: Ricardo ISD

A demonstration of installed and web-based applications that teachers/students can use in their classroom.

Getting Started with Book Creator

Will Pursey: Book Creator

Just getting started with Book Creator? Come join our Will and Catherine, and discover how Book Creator can transform classroom engagement. Learn all about Book Creator's powerful features allowing everyone to be creators of their own content as well as published authors of digital books. Help build confidence and authentic learning across the curriculum and empower every learner to have a voice.

Formative Assessment Tools for the Digital Classroom

Diana Benner, Featured Presenter: TCEA

Assessment and instruction go hand in hand in a classroom that focuses on the student. Join me as we explore a variety of digital tools and strategies to assess student readiness in order to make decisions about current and future instruction.

Using Tech Tools to Support Your Inclusion Students

Janet Corder, Featured Presenter: J2 Training

Let's explore together the many tech tools that are available to successfully support the inclusion students in your classroom. This session is designed for the teacher who needs to know more about strategies, extensions, websites and accessibility features that will enable them to best support their students.

Present with Impact: Master Canva for Engaging Presentations

Scott Nunes, Featured Presenter: Canva

Dive into the endless possibilities of Canva as a presentation tool in this session. Explore how to add animations, embed content, and deliver captivating live presentations that will leave your students, colleagues, and families in awe. Unleash your creativity and become a pro at presenting with Canva.

Basic Training Drone Style

Joy Schwartz, Featured Presenter: UT - Austin

In this session, participants will fly a Tello drone AND learn the basics to Code a drone using Droneblocks. We will look at ways to add drones to all subjects as well as complete some real-world “missions” and obstacle courses. Drones are a wonderful way to grow your Computer Science program and give your students a tool to become gainfully employed.

Google House Party: Tools for All

Amy Storer, Featured Presenter: friEd Technology

It's a Google House Party and all are invited! Come learn how to use Slides & Drawings to create interactive assignments and manipulatives. Use Google Docs dropdowns, Google Sheets for pixel art, and chrome extensions that pop! There is something for everybody! These are tools that work for all contents, even Fine Arts!

The Feedback Loop: Improve Your Efficacy with Formative Assessment Tools

Kristofer Thurston & Destiny Wager, Featured Presenters: edtech Nerds

The reciprocity of formative assessments is that teachers improve their teaching, and students improve their learning by identifying strengths and weaknesses in real time, providing ongoing feedback throughout a lesson.

Kami for Admin

Samantha Camacho: Kami

How can Kami be utilized for educators outside of the classroom? If you're an administrator, instructional support specialist, or you serve your school in another way outside of the classroom, this training is for you.

Open AI and Chat GPT- How are we preparing our students for the future of Artificial Intelligence

Simon Rios: ESC 2

With the explosion of artificial intelligence, we are all seeing a rapid change in processes and applications of new tools. This workshop will look to explore how open AI and chat GPT can be used as a classroom tool.

Successful Summer Planning for STAAR 2.0 with Progress Learning

Kanon Hess, Vendor: Progress Learning

The 2022-2023 school year has presented many challenges for educators, especially with the transition to online STAAR assessments. It has been difficult to ensure all TEKS have been mastered. Explore how Progress Learning recovers learning gaps with targeted remediation to achieve TEKS mastery for K-12th grade students using STAAR 2.0 question in math, reading, science, and social studies. We will explore engaging strategies to actively progress, monitor and raise student accountability.

Making Your Students Published Authors

Will Pursey: Book Creator

From Consumer to Producer. Use Book Creator's publishing features to engage your students with authentic audiences and have them go from consumers to producers by being published authors before they graduate.

Activating Prior Knowledge

Diana Benner, Featured Presenter: TCEA

Activating prior knowledge is a powerful teaching strategy. In this session, you will learn different ways you can use digital tools to assess students prior to starting your lesson.

I Didn’t Know Google Chrome Could Do That!

Janet Corder, Featured Presenter:  J2 Training

Even if you have been using Google Chrome for years, there are probably a few tips and tricks you might not know about. Let’s explore some of the most useful Google Chrome features that can help make your life easier!

Unleashing the Creative Potential of Gen Z: From Passive Content Consumers to Active Content Creator

Scott Nunes, Featured Presenter: Canva

Get ready to ignite your creativity and transform your teaching! Join for a mind-blowing session designed exclusively for teachers of Gen Z students, where you'll unlock the secrets to creating visually stunning and interactive resources that will captivate your students. You'll also explore the power of collaboration as we delve into dynamic teamwork activities. Learn how to seamlessly collaborate , exchange ideas, and co-create innovative resources that will leave your students buzzing with excitement.

A-I, A-I, Oooooo!

Joy Schwartz, Featured Presenter: UT - Austin

During the session, we will explore ways to add AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) activities and opportunities to your K12 classes. Participants will leave with a wealth of resources to use ASAP!

First Dive into Wakelet

Amy Storer, Featured Presenter: friEd Technology

If you haven’t dived into the Wakelet Wave yet, this is the perfect session for you! We will begin by learning how to create a free account and then explore how this tool can be meaningfully integrated into any content and/or job role. You will leave with ideas and ready-made templates to use tomorrow.

Engage and Empower: Enhancing Classroom Interaction with Pear Deck

Kristofer Thurston & Destiny Wager, Featured Presenters: edtech Nerds

Discover how Pear Deck's interactive tools and Flashcard Factory's game-based approach can improve student engagement and create an empowering learning experience for all.

STAAR Prep with Kami

Samantha Camacho: Kami

This will be a session on best practices and ideas for using Kami's features to help prepare your students for greater success on STAAR testing. Updated to work with the newest types of STAAR questions.

Empowering All Students To Code The Future - NOW!

Elizabeth Nash Imagine Learning

Imagine Robotify offers a best-in-class browser-based 3D robotics simulator to engage students in learning to code using Blockly and Python. The three-part “Learn, Create, Compete” instructional framework empowers any school or district to get up to speed in computer science with zero experience required! Instructional content is combined with in-depth guides, lesson plans, presentation slides, curriculum maps, & more.  Imagine Robotify works on any device, requires no physical hardware and is aligned to TEKS Standards for Technology Applications (Grade 3-8). This is an interactive session, so please bring a device!

Tech Wizardry

Audreana Underbrink: Flour Bluff ISD

Want to learn how you can make your life easier with technology? A multitude of tips, tricks, and a few jokes just for kicks; we will start the session with YOU telling me what makes your life difficult, and I will help guide you to the right technology to help. This course will show you ways to use Google Forms to accomodate students, how Google Classroom works, and ways to use technology to save you time and effort.

Will Pursey: Book Creator

Train the Trainer

All the tips and tricks to support your colleagues. Sharing resources, assigning co-teachers. Accessibilty features and more! Open Q&A to end with.

High-Yield Instructional Strategies with a Google Twist

Diana Benner, Featured Presenter: TCEA

Get the most bang for your buck by utilizing the high quality instructional strategies made famous by Hattie and the wonderful free tools from G Suite for Education. Move beyond the guessing game of whether or not a strategy is working by employing teaching practices that are scientifically proven to work coupled with Google tools.

Tech Tools for Early Learners

Janet Corder, Featured Presenter: J2 Training

Your little ones love to use devices to play "games", but how can they be used for instruction? You'll be amazed at the things even your tiny tots can do when given the chance to use technology to create and learn. Walk away with ideas that can be used immediately in the classroom.

Experience Magic: Unlock the Power of AI in Education!

Scott Nunes, Featured Presenter: Canva

Ever feel the need to bilocate, well now you can! Immerse yourself in the transformative capabilities of AI in this interactive workshop. Discover how to multiply your efforts with the assistance of AI-powered! Use these tips to revolutionize your teaching, saving you valuable time and generating engaging classroom activities and comprehensive lesson plans. Witness the magic of Canva's Magic Studio as your everyday teaching materials come to life. Don't miss this opportunity to unlock countless hours of productivity with these stellar tips and tricks. You'll get your time back!

Scratch: Just the Facts, Ma’am!

Joy Schwartz, Featured Presenter: UT - Austin

Come learn a visual programming language to use with your students to teach computer science fundamentals in a fun and engaging way! We will look at sample projects, how to get started and create student accounts, basic programming concepts and simple games and animation.

Vocab Vibes

Amy Storer, Featured Presenter: friEd Technology

Let's catch a vibe - a VOCAB vibe- and learn about some extra special Google and Microsoft tools that can support vocabulary development in student learning. Whether your students are emerging readers, language learners, or just need a little extra reading support, this session is perfect for you! Join me for an overview and to get started right away helping your students engage with their vocabulary during lessons and digital activities.

Oooh, Shiny!: Geek out with Gadgets

Kristofer Thurston & Destiny Wager, Featured Presenters: edtech Nerds

We apologize in advance to your wallet... Catch up on the sweetest tools and toys for your classroom and “personal production studios”. Learn what all the cool kids are using to enhance teaching and learning in their classrooms.

Inclusion and Accessibility with Kami

Samantha Camacho: Kami

Want to know how to use Kami with ALL of your students in your class? Come to this session and get all the hot accessibility features gossip for Kami. You'll be ready to differentiate and customize your lessons, right at Day One of the school year!

Cybersecurity: Tips & Tools

Tim Etlzer: Ricardo ISD

Cybersecurity is no longer just a challenge. It is a constant threat! Learn tips & tricks to protect yourself from attacks.

iPhone Photography Phun: Unleashing Your Mobile Photography Skills 

Roland Rios

Discover the hidden potential of your mobile device as a powerful photography tool! Join us for an engaging and interactive session where we will dive into photography best practices, explore various features of mobile cameras, and unveil a selection of valuable apps that can enhance your photography experience. Whether you're looking to incorporate visual content into your lessons, or simply an enthusiast wanting to improve your photography skills, this session is for you! Note: This session is not limited to iPhone users; it is applicable to all mobile device users.

Back to the Future - Exploring Career Pathways with Augmented/Virtual Reality

Jennifer King, Vendor: zSpace

Discover how districts across Texas have taken their STEM and CTE programs and labs through creative approaches that include augmented and virtual reality. Discover how historically under-served students are now able to explore career pathways and prepare for college and industry credentials in Health Science, Advanced Manufacturing, Agri-Science, and Transportation.

Take Your Students on a Virtual Field Trip

Diana Benner, Featured Presenter: TCEA

Taking your students on a virtual field trip has so many benefits. Discover why you should be taking your students around the world virtually and learn of places they can go for free.

The Best Tools for Busy Teachers

Janet Corder, Featured Presenter: J2 Training

Teachers are known for sharing what works best in their classrooms. I’ve curated a list of awesome tech tools and ideas that I have discovered on social media, at conferences, and through my educator PLN and I want to share them with you! The session will include safe music playlists, video resources other than YouTube, free presentation templates, free font sources, sound effects and more!

Unleash Creativity: Create Stunning Videos with Canva

Scott Nunes, Featured Presenter: Canva

Step into the world of Canva for Education's video editor and unleash your creativity. Learn how to create and edit videos on any device, record yourself and your screen, and publish your creations. Explore the variety of video templates and tools available, including the ability to remove backgrounds from videos. Let Canva Video Suite inspire your students and amplify their creativity.

Create SPACE by Organizing Your Google Drive (Repeat Session)

Amy Storer, Featured Presenter: friEd Technology

How do I keep Google Drive organized?" is one of the top questions we hear from educators. Organization is key to success AND helps educators save time. In a physical space, a decluttered and organized environment is “conducive to producing our best work” (Sanchez, 2016). The same holds true for the digital spaces we occupy. For educators, an organized Google Drive makes planning, collaborating, and creating less stressful.

Calm and RestED: Educators Need a Break!

Kristofer Thurston & Destiny Wager, Featured Presenters: edtech Nerds

Learn tools to use in the classroom and in the real world to self regulate, ease anxiety, prevent burnout, and cultivate a sense of calm in your daily lives.

Kami Advanced - The Latest and Greatest!

Samantha Camacho: Kami

Looking for an infusion of new ways to incorporate Kami into your classroom. It's WAY more than *just* a PDF annotator. Come learn about the newest features and tools in Kami, as well as exciting, engaging, innovative ways to use Kami.

Google Keep: Accommodations and You

Audreana Underbrink: Flour Bluff ISD

Google Keep is a wonder4ful tool found in G-Suite that can help you to organize anecdotal notes, accommodations, modifications, and BIPs. It can be tough to keep up with special populations students' needs, but Google Keep can bridge the gap by sharing these notes and allowing a case manager to update the student needs all in the blink of an eye. In this session we will learn to create, share and label Google Keep Notes.

Successful Summer Planning for STAAR 2.0 with Progress Learning.

Kanon Hess, Vendor : Progress Learning

The 2022-2023 school year has presented many challenges for educators, especially with the transition to online STAAR assessments. It has been difficult to ensure all TEKS have been mastered. Explore how Progress Learning recovers learning gaps with targeted remediation to achieve TEKS mastery for K-12th grade students using STAAR 2.0 question in math, reading, science, and social studies. We will explore engaging strategies to actively progress, monitor and raise student accountability.

Empowering Teachers to Empower Families - Build Your Family Engagement Tool Box with Waterford Mentor

Deena Fell, Vendor: Waterford.org

Waterford.org has tools for teachers, students, and families. In this session, you will learn how to access Waterford's Free Mentor Tools for Teachers, Students, and Families. Waterford Mentor provides hundreds of age-appropriate literacy resources including books, family newsletters, practice pages, and social emotional activities to provide to students, parents or caregivers, or use in your classroom everyday. All of Waterford's family materials are in English and Spanish!