August 12, 2019

We Are Northmont Because We… INSPIRE

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to the “T-Bolt Talk” Podcast where you will learn how we strive to provide students an exceptional education to each of our students. This is our initial podcast and we hope you not only enjoy it but learn a little something along the way. I am Susanne Lintz, the Assistant Superintendent and Director of the Curriculum, Instruction, Technology Department here at Northmont.

The purpose of this podcast is to share information with you, our Northmont staff, about things that are happening in the curriculum, instruction, and technology world. We have a wealth of knowledge and expertise within our own district, so I will be interviewing various staff members each time to pick their brains about topics that will help you out in the classroom when working with your students. Eventually, I would like to incorporate some Q&A sessions based on questions you submit about what you’re hearing and learning about each time. There will be a link on the webpage where you accessed this podcast to a form where you can submit your questions.

There will typically be two podcasts per month. If you do not want to listen to the podcast, the same information will be available for you to read on the webpage where you found this podcast.

Throughout the “T-Bolt Talk” podcasts, we are going to focus on the word “INSPIRE”. As I was preparing for the beginning of the school year, I asked some teachers to interview students and get their Northmont stories. What came out of those interviews was this theme of “Inspire”. They each talked a lot about what and who inspires them. As I reflected on this, I begin to see the word INSPIRE as an acronym for the work we are already doing and how this work is inspiring our students and hopefully you as an educator. During each podcast, I will tie it back to the word INSPIRE. Check out the infographic that I have linked on the webpage that shows how we strive to INSPIRE at Northmont.

One of the ways we INSPIRE at Northmont, is by providing High Quality Curriculum and Professional Learning opportunities. This year, we are going to be trying some new and exciting ways to help you learn that I hope INSPIRES you to grow and push yourself professionally. To help you learn about these new opportunities, I am going to be talking with Evan Houdieshell. He is our Instructional Technology Curriculum Specialist and has been working on a few ways to help you learn and grow this year.

INTERVIEW:

Q: Evan, we are talking today about ways teachers and staff can grow in their profession this year. All of the ideas we are going to discuss are voluntary for staff members. Tell us about the Staff Challenge that we would love to see staff members participate in.

A: Thanks for having me today, Susanne. During the first quarter, we are looking to provide a fun, engaging challenge for the staff of Northmont. This challenge is completely VOLUNTARY, but we feel it is a great way to re-engage yourself at the beginning of the school year! Challenges range from joining Twitter and following some district profiles to incorporating district-sponsored technology into one of your lessons to attending an event of a student in your classroom outside of school hours. We realize some of these are things you already do. Even though you may not be a classroom teacher, there are still challenges that you can participate in. This first challenge will last throughout the first quarter and will be on a “trust system”. Random drawings from prizes will be made available for those who participate, so be on the lookout for an email from Susanne that details this challenge!

Q: You’ve been working on this summer is what you’re calling our “T-Bolt Tech Cafe”. Explain to those listening what that is and how this will benefit them.

A: Definitely! Many staff members reached out last year and wanted sessions to learn about new ways to engage their students using technology. With the concept of meeting and learning while having some coffee, the “T-Bolt Tech Cafe” idea was formed. These short 30-45 minute sessions will be a learning opportunity centered around an app or concept that you can immediately take back and use in your class. These sessions may take place before school, as a “lunch and learn” session in your building, or after school. A finalized schedule will be delivered to each building in late August. And as always, your recommendations for sessions are what drives these ideas. If there is something that you would like to see covered, please reach out and let me know so that we can build a session around that topic!

Q: One last thing, we have been talking about using a system where staff can earn badges for professional learning. Can you share with us where we’re thinking about heading with this and give us a little preview of what this might look like.

A: For sure! At several conferences we have attended, the idea of gamification and professional development have been hot topics. In collaboration with our district Professional Development team, we are working to create a series of badges that staff can earn to showcase their professional learning. The concepts floated around thus far are wide-ranging, including things such as a badge for completing sessions in Apple Teacher to presenting at Fall Institute to completing the aforementioned Staff Challenge. After some finalizing of this opportunity, we are looking to roll this out during our Fall Institute in November. More information will be forthcoming!

Thank you, Evan for your time today. It is great to have someone like Evan available to work with our teachers on a daily basis. If you have not had the opportunity to work with Evan, please reach out to him. He will help you with anything from using Apple Classroom to supporting your work with creating authentic learning experiences through the use of technology in your classroom.

The key takeaways from today’s Podcast are the following:

FIRST, We are striving to INSPIRE each of our students and we’re going to do this by learning and growing professionally this year

And SECOND, There are going to be three new ways to help you learn this year:

1. Staff Challenge

2. T-Bolt Tech Cafe

3. Badges

Be sure to check out our next Podcast coming out in a couple weeks where we will have Evan back and Roni Sedor to talk about a new Universal Screener called FASTbridge that we are using this year.

Remember, that you GET the opportunity to INSPIRE others each day! See you next time.