CUE 17 Conference

There is something special about the CUE conference.  It might be that the conference is held in sunny Palm Springs or it could be the fact that 6,000+ educators were onsite eager to learn new ideas for the classrooms.  Regardless, we had an amazing time meet up with new and old friends.  

CUE Live

While walking down the hallway after our workshop on the Key Ingredients of Blended and Personalized Learning, I was asked to participate in CUE Live hosted by Chris Walsh.  The idea of the interview was to share out resources, suggestions, and tips for setting up a blended or personalized learning classroom.  

• Workshop Notes and Resources 
• Breakfast with Newsela
• Poolside Chat

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The DSD Professional Development team was prevailed to present an hour and half workshop on the Key Ingredients of Blended and Personalized Learning.  This workshop focused in on allowing participants to experience what it feels and looks like in a blended learning environment while learning about the aspects of blended. 

We broke the lesson into five key areas

Mini Lesson:  Participants learned about Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 of blended learning.  Together we watched a sample Fourth Grade classroom from Santa Monica and looked at the key aspects from the video.

Independent Practice is where the participants had the chance to read about blended learning, explore different tech tools, or take on the Newsela Scavenger Hunt challenge.  

Digital Content area was set aside so participants could learn more about the three phases of blended learning and watch blended learning in action.  One of the stops that most participants took was to take a look at how educators set up checklist in their classrooms for the three phases. 

4C's Gallery Walk took the participants on a photo tour of different blended and personalized classrooms.  Each poster has three questions that the participant could answer.  The goal was to move to all eight posters within the 10 minute session.  

4C's Maker Space allowed time for the participants to explore different types of tech tools that can be added into the classroom environment.  From building with K'Nex, to coding with Puzzlets, to Code.org, to Little Bits, and creating a paper kite.  Maker Space is a great 4C's activity that can be dropped into any classroom environment.  

We concluded the 90 minute session with a quick overview of tech tools that would fit into a blended learning classroom.  One participant asked me to name just three tools that I would put into an English Language Arts environment.  My answer: Newsela, Actively Learn, and No Red Ink 

Download the slides from the presentation by clicking the link below. 

blended_learning_mini_lesson_cue_17.pdf
File Size:	1383 kb
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Grab a copy of the packet from the session by clicking on this link.  Use the code: march17 to receive 50% off any of the products in the store.  

The DSD Professional Development Team had the previage to be guest at the Newsela Breakfast on the 16th of March.  Not only did we enjoy a fantastic breakfast but we had the chance to talk with amazing educators from around the country.  Thanks to Newsela for letting us join in on the fun and for breakfast.  

It's HOT in Palm Springs!  So why not have a Tech Showcase while sitting pool side?  That is exactly what we did.  After our sessions were over, we headed to the pool to cool off.  While sitting there, we started to talk with educators from the conference.  In just a 10 minutes we were able to provide a snap shot of tech tools to use in the classroom.  This was an impromptu session that was just for fun but of course very practical.  Here our the top 10 tech tools that we recommend to the teachers that were sitting poolside. ​

• Frontrowed- Math, ELA, and Social Studies adaptive program
• GoFromative - Save 80% of your time by grading less
• Telagami- Create an avatar with this amazing iPad App
• Seesaw- a student portfolio builder
• Class Hub - control and lock student devices
• Quiver- an aqumented reality app to use with the iPads
• Videonot.es- take notes while watching a video, ties into Google Docs
• PearDeck- interactive slides that can be shared through Google Docs
• Quizziz- review game like Kahoot
• Smore- an online poster generator that can be shared around the world