Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Hour of Code Week December 7-13 2015

The Hour of Code, is during Computer Science Education Week Dec. 7-13 2015. 

It is a one-hour coding activity where students choose from self-guided tutorials.  The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics

Click Here to get started and learn more.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Innovative Education 2016 ISTE Conference Stipend / Special Project Grants 16-17

Applications Open Oct. 1, 2015

Innovative Education Grants, funded by InnEdCo (formerly TIE Colorado), is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for two different grant opportunities for Colorado educators:
1. Need-based stipends to attend the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference, June 26-29, 2016 at the Denver Convention Center - The stipends will provide $500 towards conference registration and other expenses. Please review the ISTE 2016 Program Guide to be sure the conference will meet your needs.
Qualified educators must be certified teachers. Administrators need not apply. Applicants must demonstrate: a focus for their learning that will impact their classroom and/or school, and be willing to share their learning with others in their organization. and complete a follow-up evaluation/survey.  Administrator support is also required. Application deadline is midnight Nov 15. Awards will be announced Feb 1, 2016.
2. 2016-17 Special Project Grants to improve student achievement through the integration of technology into K-12 classrooms, a school, or district - Applicants could include Classroom Teachers, Information Technology, Media, and Library specialists, etc. Teams are encouraged to apply. They could Include other specialty areas, i.e. gifted and talented, STEM, literacy, the arts, etc. Grants will be awarded in the amount of $500 to $5,000. Application deadline is midnight Jan 15. Awards will be announced March 1, 2016.
Visit the Endowment’s web pages for grant specifics and updates:
Applications are accepted online. This is a professional application - high quality content and writing skills are important. Be concise, yet thorough in your responses.

Contact: grants@innedco.org

Friday, July 24, 2015

Google for Education Summit

We invite you to join us for the 2015 EdTechTeam Colorado Summit featuring Google for Education. Join Us!

 
Register now for two full days of learning! This two-day, high-intensity event focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education (and other Google tools) to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education.

 Pass along to colleagues & friends and enjoy special discounted group rates!


Register before 8/11 for early bird pricing!
REGISTER NOW
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Friday, July 10, 2015

SAVE the DATE!
Share Fair Nation is coming to Denver - September 26, 2015

Join us for a day of hands-on, brains-on adventures! 
Share Fair Nation is a FREE two-part event for educators, students, and communities to come together with education leaders to experience  innovative education practices and strategies. Join us on Saturday, September 26, 2015 at the Morgridge College of Education and be part of the transformation of teaching and learning.

Part 1: Classroom Intensives for Educators
Educators will select from a variety of thought-provoking professional development workshops.
Part 2: STEMosphere for Learners of All AgesStudents, families, teachers, and communities will enjoy an expo of highly interactive, STEM-inspired projects.

 

Monday, June 8, 2015

GafeSummit Oct 10th & 11th 2015


GAFE = Google Apps For Educators

Gafe Summit Website

Come join hundreds of educators at this years GAFESummit on October 10th and 11th (Saturday and Sunday) at Monarch High School in Boulder Colorado. Littleton teachers have presented at this event for the last several years.  Maybe this is your year to share what you know.  "This two-day high intensity event focuses on deploying, integrating, and using Google Apps for Education ( and other Google tools ) to promote student learning in K-12 and higher education."

There is also a Pre-Summit Workship available on October 9th.  "This one-day experience is designed to inform, inspire, and empower educational leaders. Workshops include sessions for leaders, educators, and technical staff. Breakfast and lunch are provided for all ticketed workshops."

The conference does have a registration fee of $275 if you register before August 10th.
REGISTER NOW

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

DENapalooza Denver - Learn more about Discovery Education

DENapalooza Denver


Littleton uses Discovery Streaming and Discovery Techbook K-12.  This professional development opportunity is a great way to learn more about the online resources that we all have access to.  Read more about DENapalooza and how you can participate.


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Discovery Education, provider of DEstreaming, is proud to bring the DENapalooza Tour back to Colorado on Saturday, May 16th, 2015at Castle View High School in Castle Rock! Now in it's third year, this tour continues to bring educators together for a day of professional learning, networking, and sharing.

With a mix of presentations by STAR Discovery Educators and members of the Discovery Education team, you'll be sure to leave with new ideas and strategies you can use in your classroom immediately. This FREE learning opportunity is open to any Discovery Education user.

Colorado is a special DENapalooza tour stop! We are fortunate to have Dr. Lodge McCammon joining us to kick off the day! In his opening session, Lodge will share the idea of kinesthetic lessons and engaging our students with movement. He'll get us moving as we learn a variety of his educational songs including "El Rio Colorado" from his Fifty States Project. To learn more about Lodge and his work, visit his web site (http://lodgemccammon.com/) or search for his content within DEstreaming.

Do you use Discovery Education resources with your students? Would you like to share your experiences, project ideas or lessons with other educators? The Colorado DENapalooza team is looking for educators who would be willing to share the projects, ideas, resources, and tools they have used in their classrooms. These 45 minute sessions will be open to all educators at the DENapalooza event. If you have an idea for a formal presentation in the morning, submit your proposal here. Contact Emily Murn with any presentation questions:Emily_Murn@discovery.com If there's something you'd like to discuss during the Strategy Sharing Showcase, be sure to indicate that when you register. 


So join fellow educators for a day of connecting, collaborating and learning on May 16th from 8:30AM-2:30PM. A light breakfast, as well as lunch and PRIZES will be provided! For more information or to register, visit http://www.denapalooza.com. You may also contact Jennifer Jensen, jennifer.jensen@dcsdk12.org, STAR Discovery Educators in DCSD, with questions you might have about this event.


Shared by: Kim McMonagle

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

2015 Inspired Learning Conference

Inspired Learning Conference - Teachers Leading Best Practices

Littleton Public Schools was proud, for the 7th time, to host the Inspired Learning Conference on April 25th, 2015.   Teachers from Littleton Public Schools as well as Weld District 6, Falcon District 49, Weld Re-8, Academy 20, Brighton 27J, Denver Public Schools and Douglas County Schools were leading and sharing best practices. We were excited to have 4 school board members and our new Superintendent Brian Ewert attend and address the conference participants..

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Sessions covered a range of topics:  Virtual Exit Slips, Student Conferencing, Formative Assessment, Google Classroom, Blogging, Personalized Learning, Gamification, Flipped Classroom, Student Feedback, Getting Started and more.  We are fortunate to have active professional colleagues who take a Saturday to learn and share with others.

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This year we combined a traditional conference (pre-planned sessions) with an EdCamp strand that Chris Moore and Nate Ubowski guided.  See schedule of sessions here. This open discussion gave everyone a platform to share their experiences/success/struggles and was a great addition to the conference.
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I would like to thank the following individuals who helped support/organize this event.
Our fabulous School Board Members, our current Superintendent Scott Murphy, and new Superintendent Brian Ewert, Mark Lindstone - CIO, Mike Porter - Director of Technology, Patty Turner - Director of Learning Services, Randy Stall - Instructional Technology Specialist

Amy McIntosh, Penny Potts and Erin Gonshor for co-leading the Inspired Writing Cohort and helping prepare these teachers to present at this conference.

Arapahoe for the use of their facilities



Thursday, April 16, 2015

Showcase: 2015 Innovation Avenue

Innovation Avenue was April 11th at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center
Innovation Avenue is Littleton’s yearly student showcase that occurs before the LPS Foundation Spirit Dinner.  This year the Spirit dinner was sold out with over 550 in attendance.  This was a great crowd to showcase the work happening in Littleton Public Schools classrooms.  We once again had a group of nearly 100 students and teachers proudly showcasing how technology supports the content standards they are learning.




Kindergartners confidently walking the crowd showing off their iPad project.







High school students explaining the construction process of building a prosthetic foot for a duck and more... 











Middle school showcasing the Middle School STEM programs and more...










A wonderful night for Littleton Public Schools. We are so thankful to have students and teachers that take time on a Saturday to share with the Littleton community their expertise and great work happening in LPS classrooms.


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Showcase: Poetry Inspired by Art

Arapahoe High School Poetry Inspired by LPS Elementary Student Artwork

April is National Poetry Month.   This topic sparked a collaborative connection between  several of our Littleton elementary schools  Highland, Centennial, Field  and Arapahoe High School.  The outcome we were hoping for would be poems generated by high school students that were inspired by elementary artwork along with a greater connection between buildings and learners of all ages.
Here is one example of over 100 to choose from
Poem by: Kirk Zieser (Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream) CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO

First our elementary art teachers shared artwork with Arapahoe High School language arts teachers by using tools like Google photo albums or Google docs. (handout)

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The language arts teachers Anne Smith and Maura Moritz had their students choose a piece of artwork from this list that inspired them and had them write a poem about it. These students then used tools like Screencastify, WeVideo, Prezi and SnagIt to capture a video or audio of themselves reading the poem with a picture of the artwork. These poems were then shared back with the elementary art students.  Imagine the excitement of a kindergartner that saw how a "big kid" in the district was inspired by their artwork.

Here is the complete 2015 collaborative Poetry Inspired by Art project:  

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Art Teachers:
Gayla Ruckhaus: Centennial Elementary
Scarlet Lammers: Highland Elementary  

To see other amazing collaborative projects happening at Arapahoe High School visit Anne Smith’s or Maura Moritz’s websites.  Student voice is a centerpiece for these Master Teachers. Checkout their Wikified Research Project, Skyping with Authors like Daniel Pink and Ted Talks just to name a few.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Showcase: Celebrate Pi Day on March 14th ( 3.14 )

March 14th each year ( 3.14 ) is a special holiday for math-lovers.  It is called Pi Day.  This day is used to celebrate the mathematical constant pi. Pi is an irrational number and is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius, and it starts with 3.1415926535897…this number continues into infinity.

Lynn Duran a math teacher at Euclid Middle School celebrated today (March 10th) a few days early.
Here are a few great pictures of her students, working with online math simulations, learning from outside speakers (engineers..), using manipulatives, and of course eating Pi.
Incorporating technology with online math simulations
Working with guest speakers ( engineers... )
Using manipulatives

Eating Pi

To learn more about Pi day and what Lynn and other LPS math teachers do contact Lynn Duran at Euclid Middle School.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Showcase: Collaborative Tools in the Math Classroom

Padlet an online collaborative sticky board has been around for awhile, it was previously called Wallwisher.  We have seen Padlet used in lots of classrooms.  I wanted to showcase Elena Jones a math teacher at Goddard Middle School using this with her 8th grade students in Geometry.


Rather than a typical study guide Elena decided to shift this from an independent activity to a collaborative activity that held students accountable for the information they were sharing.


Elena created a different Padlet for each topic (chapter) that was going to be assessed on the midterm exam. Students were required to contribute to at least five different boards. Their next step was to analyze each board to see if all vocabulary was covered. As they worked, students would ask her to "clean-up" or organize the board by re-arranging student comments so they were all visible. As they found a word missing, the students would ask who wants to add this missing information.  As Elena saw duplicate vocabulary words on a page, she would address the two students and have them discuss their definitions and come up with one 'best' definition. When students didn't know the definition of a word, she encouraged them to use their resources (internet...).


Here is one example of her student generated boards.



Students used these boards to study vocabulary and concepts for their midterm. Students really enjoyed collaborating and critically reading other student contributions to create these collaborative boards.


When I asked Elena if she would do it again and how effective she thought this was she responded. “This was a very effective and efficient way to engage all students to review for a dreaded mid term. Students had to collaborate to review vocabulary rather than complete a study guide. I will do this again for the final!”


In addition to using collaborative tools in her class, Elena is presenting at the InnEdCo Conference this summer at Keystone and has previously presented at our district Inspired Learning Conference that happens each April.  If that was not enough she also has a class set of iPads that she uses very effectively in her math classroom.  If you have questions or want to get a hold of Elena Jones check out her class website.


Thursday, January 22, 2015

Showcase: Outsmarting the Smartphone: Using Technology to Create/Enhance Student Work

Only a LPS teacher for one year, Colleen Monahan has already become an outstanding addition and leader to our LPS teaching staff.  She is an educator of 8th and 7th grade students at Powell Middle School.  Not only did she come to Littleton Public Schools with a National Board Certification (2008) but she came with a clear connection to middle schoolers and how to use technology to ignite a topic and have students create amazing student work products.


Let me share just a few examples.
Project 1: Colleen used WeVideo which is an online video editor.  Last year students created book trailers. This year she is using WeVideo to create short story trailers.   Take a look at her WeVideo Presentation presented to teachers at the LPS District Inspired Learning Conference 2014.
Additional Documents: Student Directions and Collaboration Space (Google Doc)


Student WeVideo Example: Hatchet
If you are viewing this at LPS you must go through the filter to view the video below 

Project 2: Vine/Instagram
Students created 6 second (on Vine) or 15 second (Instagram) videos to demonstrate the understanding of the main idea/supporting details in an article from Junior Scholastic!  The purpose was for students to share the main idea with supporting details.
Sample Student Product: 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics


Project 3: Poll Everywhere
Here students used their smartphones or chromebooks to access Poll Everywhere, an online poll.  This was used to integrate math into language arts.  Students answered where they were in their reading progress based on a list of choices.  They then calculated averages and discussed how to analyze a bar graph.


Project 4: Project Discovery
Purpose: To get out of the box and have students try something new (volunteer, crochet, indoor skydiving, new food, skiing, sport...) Only topics off limits (video game, movie or book)
Students used their smartphone to take a photo of themselves outside of school trying out their Project Discovery choice.  
Project Discovery Student Guide  Students needed to:
  • identify/create research questions ( not ‘look-upable’ - as Colleen tells her students )
  • reflect on their experiences and research
  • present online through Ustream where parents could login and watch presentations online
  Parents had great feedback.  Here is just one of many parent emails.
Good Morning,
I want to tell you how much fun it has been learning about, cupcakes, bell ringers, pasta, sushi, scuba diving and horses!   
My Mother and I have been watching for a few days, as I have been sick and recovering from surgery.   
It has been fun watching the smiles, nervousness and creativity of your kids.
Thank you so much,
Tina ( parent )


Parent Communication Colleen used to participate in the online viewing of student presentations


All of these projects can be done using a smartphone and/or chromebook/other device.


To top it off, Colleen was accepted to present at CCIRA (Colorado Council International Reading Association)  
Her session write-up: Outsmarting the Smartphone (middle school)
This presentation will focus on how educators can easily use technology to increase student engagement and meet standards. Attendees will walk away with an array of tech tools, and tips for successful implementation in the classroom!


Take a look at the other tools she uses with students and will be showcasing at CCIRA.  
Vine/InstagramWeVideoPoll EverywhereRemind 101UstreamSocrativeClass Dojo, Twitter, phone camera feature and Google split screen for PARCC prep
If you are interested in learning more about what Colleen Monahan does with her students using technology, check out her class website.


If you are involved in innovative work in your classroom let us know so we can highlight your students great work.