Catalog of Professional Courses

Design 2015 Workshop Registration Link (sign in required):

http://www2.k12albemarle.org/dept/instruction/arc/PD/Lists/Design2015CourseList/AllItems.aspx

I. The Maker-infused Curriculum - Making as essential to all learning

"Making in education and the community is already underway in many different forms. Educators have found that students and people who have not developed confidence and identity in STEAM subjects through traditional courses have a different relationship to STEAM learning when embraced through the process of Making. Making encourages experimentation — students can make mistakes and still have confidence and a strong sense of identity to pursue their interests."- New York Hall of Science.

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Monday May 6, Tuesday May 7, Wednesday May 8, 4:30 - 6:00 PM

  • Facilitators: Jeff Prillaman, Erica Payne, Diane Harding, Peggy Riso, Matt Caduff, Joan Ackroyd, Paula White

  • Key questions: What is the work we find most engaging and why? Are you a writer? A computer programmer? A stained glass artist? What makes you tick as a learner? How does making lead to meaning?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed so that teachers and principals explore the why and the how of the Maker-infused Curriculum and the Maker Culture, how it spans curricular areas, crosses age and development levels, and brings diverse student interests together to create powerful learning experiences that are simply not available through traditional instruction. Focus groups will form around specific platforms for making, e.g. engineering, design thinking, music and video production, digital fabrication, coding, writing as making, etc.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://makered.org/2012/11/09/making-from-clubs-to-curriculum/ and http://makered.org/2013/02/27/the-maker-mindset-albemarle-county-public-schools-maker-corps/

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    • the integration of the academic curriculum (including SOLs) into the Maker-infused Curriculum and Project-Based Learning, so that this becomes how we teach, not just add-ons to other assignments and lessons

    • the concept of student choice in the classroom

    • the power of global connectivity to transform learning

    • the leveraging of choice, projects, and the Maker-infused Curriculum with all learners

  • The human brain is a maker brain. This is especially true of the developing child brain and the teenage brain. The natural rhythms of human learning respond most actively to taking things and ideas apart and building the new out of what is discovered. The American economy is a maker economy; we tinker, invent, and build. From the cotton gin to the Model T to the personal computer to new models of the universe and airliners built of carbon composites, Americans innovate through making.

II. Interactive Technologies

“Parents and staff alike know that young people need to be able to use both tools of yesterday and today as well as anticipate changes that will come next. This means that our teachers can’t ignore their own professional development as they themselves learn to use interactive technologies instead of static boards, to communicate virtually, and to search and connect content via the Internet rather than through print textbooks that are out of date as they roll off the presses.”

Pam Moran, https://superintendent.k12albemarle.org/?p=672

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Tuesday May 28, Wednesday 29,Thursday 30

  • Facilitators: Kate Howard, Diane Harding, Monica Cabarcas, Peggy Riso, Paula White

  • Key questions: How will our students learn to choose and use tools effectively based on (a) the task at hand, (b) the environment in which we must perform the task, (c) our skillset at the moment, and (d) our knowledge of tool choices? How do we build tasks that require students to choose and use authentic tools to learn content and skills, and design and create products that matter? How can a variety of tools support students’ deep thinking within the content and allow learners to move beyond rote recall and algorithmic work?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed so that teachers and principals can explore a wide variety of tools available to connect students to content, experiences, and the world while developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for them to choose tools appropriate for the individual and the task. We will build strategies and protocols for resource management and access to a variety of contemporary learning tools within class structures that empower students to actively construct understanding.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2009/01/toolbelt-as-school-policy.html

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the infusion of the academic curriculum into all we do with contemporary devices, so that this becomes how we teach, not add-ons to other assignments and lessons

    2. the navigation of learner choice with multiple technologies

    3. the power of global connectivity to transform learning

    4. the application of the Toolbelt Theory with all learners

    5. the development of etiquette and patterns of contemporary tool use for productive work and digital citizenry

Humans are tool users. Without tools we are a long way from the top of the food chain, and without tools we would be unable to create efficiencies in our daily lives and enjoy much more than survival. In today’s world, as tools change rapidly, we must grow a generation of not just tool users, but tool adapters and tool makers who will create solutions, not simply buy them from an app store.

A. Choice and Comfort – Amplifying the 4Cs

“We set mindless targets for results, outcomes, performance indicators, and measurements of standards that represent reductionist thinking about what’s important to learn in this century. In doing so, we subtract joy, passion, interest, choice, and quality, losing valuable opportunities to optimize access to powerful learning.”

Pam Moran - http://spacesforlearning.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/our-kids-are-talking-but-are-we-listening/

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Wednesday May 15, Wednesday May 22, Thursday, May 23

  • Facilitators: Andrew Sherogan, Joan Ackroyd, Diane Harding, Andy Johnson, David Glover, Matt Caduff

  • Key questions: How do we set ourselves up to learn effectively? How do we assemble what we need to think critically in order to be a creator? How do we make ourselves comfortable? How do we communicate effectively across all barriers? How do we collaborate efficiently and effectively, making best uses of individual skills? How do we honor various learning dispositions?

  • Description: In this workshop we will explore how choice and comfort amplify the 4Cs (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration). Choice and comfort drive productivity and imagination. We will explore and design ways to provide students with choices that matter in physically and emotionally comfortable learning spaces.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://bit.ly/WAYqq4

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the creation of learning spaces which are both comfortable and effective

    2. the concept of students finding physical comfort in all learning spaces/situations

    3. the design of learning experiences that embed choice and intensify child and adolescent creativity

    4. the support of learners as they make a range of choices - some effective/some not

    5. the identification of opportunities that exist (and more that could) for students to actively make more choices within the current structures of school

    6. the importance of authentic audiences, crowdsourcing, and communication beyond the classroom

    7. the creation of collaborative learning environments without limiting individual initiative and individual exploration

Our students will attend colleges where they will decide how and when (and if) to attend classes, how and when and where to study, how and when and what tools to use to write, which computing devices to choose… They will take jobs often without physical locations and set time schedules, surely without desks and cubicles and offices, with meetings more likely to be held via Skype or on the floor than around a table… They will communicate via a range of systems and tools we can only begin to imagine, whether for work, family, or play… They will need to find ways, through the choices they make, to create solutions to problems in their world.

B. Designing the Learning for Every Student (Differentiation and UDL)

“Making learning experiences accessible to all learners requires universal design, a concept well established in the field of architecture, where all modern public buildings, including schools, are designed to be accessible by everyone. Principles and guidelines have been established for universal design in education based on decades of research and are known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL).”

National Education Technology Plan - http://1.usa.gov/Z7S3oY

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Wednesday May 1, 8, 15

  • Facilitators: Brian Kayser, Martha Smith, Peter Mehring, Stephanie Passman, Lisa Baker, Monica Cabarcas

  • Key questions: What is Universal Design for Learning? How do I ensure all students can access the curriculum? How do I design assessment tasks that provide every student opportunities to show what they know and can do using authentic skills? What is the intersection of differentiation and UDL (i.e, content/process/product and representation/expression/engagement)?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed so that teachers and principals will examine the fundamentals of differentiation and Universal Design for Learning in the context of student ownership of content, skills, and strategies for learning. Differentiation and UDL offer paths to success for every student, while embracing our diverse and democratic future. We will look at the best routes to authentic learning while exploring the range of design choices which move from teacher hands to student hands. We will look at how to assess student needs and competencies in the classroom designed for all learners.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/differentiated_instruction_udl

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the concepts of Differentiation and Universal Design for Learning, with strategies to move from teacher- and school- based decisions toward informed student-based decisions.

    2. the use of varied tools, media, and learning paths in both pursuit and demonstration of the same learning goals and learning expectations for all students

    3. the design of universally designed, differentiated classroom learning plans

    4. the importance and characteristics of the look and feel of a universally designed classroom and a universally designed day

    5. the application of the idea of “instructional tolerance” and why that is not “disorder”

Our schools have traditionally been designed for “some” students. Those who differed from the “design norm” were labeled “special education” or “gifted” and required interventions. Others were (unintentionally) punished for differences ranging from cultural to language to even physical size. The result was the “rule of thirds” which we have lived with since the 1860s – one third of students do very well, one third get by, one third fail to reach our proficiencies. Differentiation – in which the teacher is fundamentally responsible for choices – and UDL – in which the learning space design enables student choice – offer paths to success for every student, while embracing our diverse and democratic future.

C. Project-Based Learning - Passion-Based Learning

“What we need to scale is more creative customization aiming towards passion-based learning inside all our schools, not rote standardization of a one-size fits all model.”

Pam Moran - http://bit.ly/VXv2Yi

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Tuesday May 21, Wednesday May 22, Tuesday May 28

  • Facilitators: Jennifer Graham-Wright, Peggy Riso, Jeff Prillaman, Teresa Goodin

  • Key questions: How do we build cross-curricular content into projects which have all of our kids begging to learn, rather than simply complying?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed to investigate how to bring the curriculum alive through projects where student choices, student passions, and student creativity are essential parts of the learning process. We will develop in-depth, comprehensive knowledge of project-based curriculum, assessment, and instruction that is authentic and personal.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LMCZvGesRz8

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the integration of the academic curriculum (including SOLs) into Project-Based Learning - Passion-Based Learning, so that this becomes how we teach, not just add-ons to other assignments and lessons

    2. the leveraging of student passions to drive the academic curriculum forward

    3. the effects of the Maker Culture to transform global learning

    4. the design of learning experiences that embed choice and intensify child and adolescent creativity in pursuit of our learning goals

    5. the workings of a teenage brain and how to take advantage of the logical decisions adolescents make

    6. the many ways to build cross-curricular educational strategies at every level

To fully leverage what we now know about the child and adolescent brain we must tap into natural patterns of human learning in order to gain the kind of deep understandings we need our students to develop.

D. Why Connectivity is Essential in Every Learning Space

“Connectivity is a given in the lives of our young people; allowing them to search, connect, communicate and create with others beyond the boundaries of physical communities, states – and nations.”

Pam Moran - http://bit.ly/13zDrGb

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): May 13, 14, 20 - 3:00 - 4:30 and 4:30 - 6:00 <-- offered both times (we may consolidate based on enrollment)

  • Facilitators: Kate Howard, Paula White, Michael Thornton

  • Key questions: Who is in your personal learning network? How are you made smarter by them? How do you make them smarter? How can we help students develop their own personal learning networks as they contribute to the learning of others?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed for teachers and principals to explore the benefits of connected learning. Participants will develop a personal learning network and publish reflections, work, and other artifacts that contribute to this network. From utilizing global expertise to shared problem-solving, from peer-to-peer teaching across distance and cultures to multi-site projects, from crowdsourcing questions to writing for authentic audiences, we will explore both the “how to” and the power of the connected classroom.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the power in social networking, and why digital social networking is essential for every student from every socio-economic level

    2. the etiquette and patterns of contemporary tool use for productive work, communication, and digital citizenry

    3. the importance and power of authentic audiences, crowdsourcing, and communication beyond the classroom

    4. the many ways to communicate across ages, cultures, communities, and continents and the skills necessary to do so effectively

    5. the methods to develop one’s strength as a socially networked educator

The “search, connect, communicate, make” required skills of this century cannot be developed by isolated students or in isolated classrooms. Nor can we, as educators, continue to abdicate our responsibility to help students learn to connect effectively and globally via the tools available in nearly everyone’s pocket.

E. "Maybe it is about the tools..." Instructional Tolerance in the Digital/Comfortable Learning Space

“I concluded that it made as much sense to deny student use of mobile devices and social networking as if I’d been told as a child to leave my pencil box at home.”

Pam Moran - http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=25032

  • Meeting dates (please attend all three): Thursday May 2, Tuesday May 14, Tuesday May 21

  • Facilitators: Edmund Leclere, Erica Payne, Laura Shifflett, Becky Ellis, Anita Nixon

  • Key questions: What is the etiquette of this century’s learning spaces? Why does comfort matter? And how do you help students learn to negotiate that? How will mobile phones, tablets, laptops be continuous and effective parts of your classroom experience? When are deadlines important, and when are they not? What can, and should, be expected regarding attention? Why will students do better if not “locked” into the classroom?

  • Description: This workshop series is designed for teachers and principals to upgrade current rules, procedures, protocols, and practices constructed during the industrial age to ones more appropriate to the promise of and expectation for connected, personalized learning in the information age. We will explore why and how to lead the contemporary classroom, in which BYOD and Tool Cribs, differentiated devices and divided attention, open scheduling and flexible furniture are essential tools for life, learning, and work.

  • Pre-workshop exploration: http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2011/02/instructional-tolerance-and-universal.html

  • Those attending will leave the workshop with understandings of...

    1. the extent to which their current school and classroom environments are working for the full range of students in them

    2. the ways to deconstruct the learning environments we have created so we can look at what really works, and what does not

    3. the nature of contemporary universities and contemporary workspaces

    4. the concept of “zero-based” design. If we were starting a learning experience from scratch, what rules, policies, procedures, structures would we create?

    5. the latest in what contemporary brain research tells us about how children and teens learn, and how they make decisions

    6. the varied ways to explore and build new attitudes and policies which work across an entire school

For almost 200 years our “classroom management” and “school procedures” have been built around the technologies brought into schools in the 1840s and 1850s: desks and chairs, blackboards in the front of each classroom, books and paper and pens, double-loaded corridors and evenly lit classrooms, definitive class schedules, absolute class attendance requirements, the equivalence of “gaze” and “attention.”The information and communication tools of this century are forcing a dramatic rethink of all of these techniques, procedures, and patterns.

rebootED - Every Monday - Thursday during the month of July, beginning July 8 and ending July 25

Looking for FREE Summer Professional Learning Opportunities? Check out the ACPS rebootED workshops scheduled for July!

The purpose of rebootED is to provide all ACPS educators access to high quality FQL/Design 2015-informed professional learning opportunities around our seven areas of concentration (Interactive Technologies, Maker-infused Curriculum, PBL, UDL/DI, Instructional Tolerance, Connectivity, and Choice & Comfort) while also providing "how to" workshops around high-demand topics. The workshops are scheduled for the first floor of the MESA wing at AHS each day Monday through Thursday during the weeks of July 8, 15, and 22 (note: not all workshops are available each day).

In addition to workshops, there will be opportunities for exploring the various technologies made available through Design 2015 and engaging in informal or formal conversations around curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Even if you choose not to enroll in a workshop, please consider "dropping in" as there will be something for everyone!

To see the detailed offerings and register for a workshop, visit http://www2.k12albemarle.org/dept/instruction/arc/Lists/rebootED/AllItems.aspx (login required).

Opportunities Workshops that Correlate to Design 2015 Courses

please visit http://bit.ly/OppSpr13 for details and to register.

for an updated list of all Opportunities Workshops, please visit http://bit.ly/ACPS-PD