Tag Archives: TIES Conference

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

TIES Conference: CMLE Scholarship Recipient

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Nancy Lorentz,  Media Specialist at Becker High School

TIES2013logo_web400x140TIES 2013 Conference – Fast Forward; Transforming Pedagogy with Technology

The  very first session I attended this year was “Tech Tools for Reading and Writing in Content Areas,” by Laura Gudmundson.  Using a very organized Google Site, Laura shared many ways to use technology to improve instruction.  One of the ideas that jumped out at me immediately was using Animoto for vocabulary–our students could certainly do the same using iMovie trailers.  How exciting for students to have to demonstrate the meaning of a word and not just copy a definition.   I’ve never been very impressed with teaching students to blog — unless they really have something unique and creative to say.  However, teaching students to comment properly on blogs on the New York Times website or CNN.com–now THAT’s a lifelong writing skill that everyone could use!  Laura also has many, many resources on her presentation site that I will use when I have more time to explore them all.

Sally Mays and Dawn Nelson were an awesome presentation team with their session, “Be Essential:  The Role of Librarians and Media Specialists.”   They very energetically gave us tips on how to make ourselves and what we do visible to administrators, students and parents.  They have every student sign in when they enter the media center so that they can keep statistics for their weekly report to the administrators.  Sally reminded me of several tools that I know are great to use, but are great to hear about again.  We all joined their class in Today’s Meet–a great tool that I can use when doing staff development.  They talked about collaborating with our staff, offering resources, making literature connections, teaching research skills and having outside connections so that we are best able to support our staff.   These are things that I do all of the time, but they emphasize how important it is to make sure our administrators KNOW that we’re doing it.  I can definitely do a better job of that.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

TIES Conference: CMLE Scholarship Recipient

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

1026206_10200793689498228_166602550_oTIES 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 5th 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.

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TIES Technical Leadership Conference in St. Cloud

Mary Mehsikomer, TIES, announces that the TIES Technical Leadership Conference will be held on February 14-15, 2013 at the St. Cloud Convention Center. Click on this link  for more information and a registration link.

Or, go directly to http://tinyurl.com/avmz6rp for the conference website.
I hope to see you there! If you have questions, please feel free to call or e-mail me.ties
Mary

Mary Mehsikomer
Technology Integration Development & Outreach Facilitator
TIES
1667 Snelling Avenue North
St. Paul, MN 55108
(651) 999-6510
E-mail: mary.mehsikomer@ties.k12.mn.us
http://www.ties.k12.mn.us

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TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.TIES

Submitted by: Nancy Lorentz, Becker High School Media Specialist
The first session I attended this year at the TIES Conference was entitled “Need More Tech Support? Enlist Some Students!” by Mary Klauk from Osseo Area Schools. I enlisted student help when we went to 1:1 at Becker High School. Mary had some good ideas for me to improve my program –I should have the students trained to run our new auditorium next year, and students who are able to help substitute teachers hook up projectors, etc. I also need to do a better job of training students to create videos for me — concerts, tutorials, etc. all take up quite a bit of my time. She also has a Tech Crew member who supports the Robotics Club–Becker is just starting one up this winter and I have JUST the right boy for the job!

Simon Sinek was the Keynote on Monday: “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” So inspirational! My favorite quote was “Technology has to solve a human problem. If achievement goes up, it’s the teacher using the technology and not the technology itself.” This is so true–I believe the value in putting the technology in the hands of every student is that it forces people to become better teachers–and THAT’S when transformational teaching happens!

My last session may have ended up being the most valuable to me. Two teachers from South View Middle School in Edina work together on a Challenge-Based Learning project called “Combating Apathy.” I’m hoping one of my next steps at Becker High School is to create a Challenge-Based Learning project with a class or classes–and this session gave me some awesome ideas on how to get started!

Thanks so much for helping me to be able to attend TIES again this year!

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Recap by Holly Pringle: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.hpringle

Submitted by: Holly Pringle, Becker Middle School Media Specialist

I just got home from the TIES conference in Minneapolis, and this year’s experience was, once again, amazing. I am so impressed with all the people who present at these conferences, and the wealth of knowledge that all comes together for the two days of TIES.  Unfortunately, a foot of snow in the Metro made getting to TIES “interesting” this year, but we made it in time!

The theme of the conference was “On the Move: Transforming Pedagogy with Technology”, and there seemed like a million sessions offered for a variety of needs & interests.  As was the case last year, my biggest disappointment was that there were so many concurrent sessions, I had to choose not to see some sessions that looked like they’d be great.  I wish conferences like this were in the summer (and cheaper!), so more staff from my school could attend.  The tech integrationists here would have loved a chance to see some of what I was able to.

Because the 8th graders in my school will be starting a 1:1 iPad project next year, I was interested in attending sessions by Apple, as well as sessions that talked about setting up, deploying, and managing large numbers of iOS devices, since that will be a large part of my job next year. I attended three different sessions about 1:1 deployments and I learned some new ideas, especially in regards to mobile device management.  I think I have a good handle on where I’m heading with this next year (what to do, and what not to do), and I’m glad to have met and networked with some folks who could be great coaches and allies if I have questions next year.

The highlight of the conference for me was the keynote address on the first day by Simon Sinek.  He did a great job addressing the fact that technology is great, but we should never use it for technology’s sake, but for the betterment of our kids….or the world.  After all, it’s all about human connections.  I love that that was the framework my conference began with, and I thought about the role of technology in regards to my kids…..and making their lives richer….the whole time.

In all, the TIES conference was worthwhile for me on many levels, and I’m so thankful CMLE made it possible for me to attend. Thank you!