The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Marlene Peterson,  Elementary Media Specialist at John Clark Elementary and Richmond Elementary (Rocori)

TIES 2013 Conference – Fast Forward; Transforming Pedagogy with Technology

 Thanks to a CMLE scholarship, it was my privilege to attend the TIES 2013 Conference in December.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions, vendors and moments of collaboration with other educators and experts.

One session that I attended was the “Best free websites for upper elementary” with presenters Krista Isaacs and Melissa Wilber from Lakeview Elementary.  The presenters demonstrated 21st century initiatives and skills.  I was inspired by the examples of student projects and videos that were shared.  I went away with a handful of websites that I would start using immediately, along with a dozen more websites that would take a little more time to implement.

I was drawn next to a session on “Digital Citizenship,” an important consideration for all educators.  This was a great session presented by Troy Reynolds (Wini-Mac) who shared practical ideas that can be quickly implemented, based upon the Common Sense Media organization.  Their website offers a digital citizenship scope and sequence, student assessment, lesson plans and many other educator resources. I plan on using this resource with the 5^th grade media classes that I teach each week.

My favorite session was “Enticing struggling readers to read a good Nook ” presented by Bonnie Fahning and Kate Tinguely (Prio-Lake-Savage).  I loved their idea that holding a Nook takes away peer pressure and embarrassment for the student who doesn’t want others to see what they are reading.  They found that using a Nook engages the readers with the text.  They shared that they have had very few problems with their Nooks, which are checked out to students just as they would check out a library book.  They were very happy with the Nook professional development, support and reviews given by Barnes and Noble.  This session gave me inspiration and encouragement to further pursue digital books for my reluctant readers.