Tag Archives: TIES Conference

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Deborah Disher, Holdingford Media Specialist

 The place to be on December 12 & 13th was the TIES Conference at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.  Here you would have found 3,100 educators learning about new technology and what others are doing in their classrooms and districts.  I have attended TIES for more years than I would like to admit too, but it never fails to give me new ideas, renew my passion for technology, and motivate me to share ideas with staff and students.  This year was no exception.

 One of the most interesting things that seemed to come up in many sessions was that of a “flipped classroom”.  Where teachers tape their presentation and post to the web and students then listen to the presentations as homework.  During class time students do what would normally have been assigned as homework and the teacher is there to assist them.  Class time can also be used to go more in-depth.  I can see this being very beneficial, especially in math classes.  What a different way to think of teaching!  

 I attended a session on staff training that gave me some new ideas.  One idea I liked was what they called, “Speed Geeking”. During “Speed Geeking”, staff will spend ten minutes at different stations being introduced to some new tool.  After offering a “Speed Geeking” program it’s a good idea to offer a period of time for post-session discussion. During the post-session discussion, questions can be asked of staff attendees about what they learned, what they liked, whether the format of the class effective, and suggestions for improvement.  Later on, a follow-up can be done, asking if staff is using what they learned and if they need further help, advice, or assistance.

 I am anxiously awaiting our next staff development days so that we can try “Speed Geeking”. I also plan to setup up some after school sessions to share some of the other great ideas I learned.  All in all, the conference was great and I would encourage anyone who has never attended to try it next year.

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Mark Krueger, North Junior High School (St. Cloud) Media Specialist

 The TIES Conference 2012 was an excellent conference.  There were many great sessions to take part in.  It seemed like the focus was mostly on mobile devices and less on interactive whiteboards.  In past years interactive whiteboards were a major focus and drive of education.  Such devices that were discussed in many sessions were iPods and iPads.  One main session that I went to was Tips and Tricks of Mac OS and iOS for iPads.  There were many tools that were discussed, such as using Preview as an interactive tool.  They also discussed mini tips on ease of use of both operating systems. 

 I also went to a session called How to Use iPods in ELL Classrooms.  This was informative because it allowed me to see what other schools with large ELL populations are doing with mobile devices.  Some schools are using iPods as tools for reading fluency by using specific apps that record student’s voices as they read, and then the student can play the recording to hear their own reading of the passage. Teachers use these recordings to modify their teaching and will have students read the passages again later to see their progress.  Teachers also have used the iPods and the recording feature to make a slideshow with students narrating the text for the pictures to create a story.  These were just a couple of the ways that iPods were used with the ELL students.

 Overall, I thought TIES 2012 was worth the trip.  It is always a good experience to meet with other professionals in the area of education and technology.  It is also a great time to talk with vendors about individual school needs.  For example, I talked with numerous vendors for multiple hours about what they have that could contribute to my school’s success.  Such tools include projectors, document cameras, and iPad carts.  I would recommend the TIES conference in the future for any teacher or media specialist interested in technology and education.