By Al Summers on 10/25/2009 10:14 AM
The 21st Century Classroom has become a conference within a conference, with wall to wall action throughout the entire conference.
Students and teachers from Clay Middle School and School 91 will have the classroom rocking with engaging teaching and learning activities from 9-4 on Thursday and Friday. Educators could spend their entire days there, observing best practices in all aspects. Nothing wrong with that. But the classroom will also have two sessions per hour all morning Saturday, starting with the world languages lesson between Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township (IN) and College (Junior High School) Jacques Twinger, Strasbourg, France.
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By Al Summers on 10/8/2009 7:41 PM
Susie Highley has posted a comment to my original "Night with the Pacers" post. The game on Friday November 6 is the night they are celebrating the 10th anniversary of Conseco Fieldhouse (please don't pronounce Conseco with the e having a long a sound like Jose Conseco- it is a long e sound.) Although we don't know yet what all they have planned for the event, we... Read More » |
By Al Summers on 10/7/2009 12:41 PM
The schedule of events for the 21st Century Classroom at the NMSA conference is now online. You can see the daily schedule for Clay Middle School on Thursday November 5 as well as the daily schedule for School 91 of Indianapolis Public Schools on Friday November 6. Also included is the schedule for "Tech Savvy Saturday" November 7. See all the information at http://www.nmsa.org/portals/6/pdf/NMSA09_ClassroomSchedule.pdfRead More » |
By Al Summers on 10/3/2009 7:53 AM
Dr. Robert Marzano will be a featured speaker at the NMSA conference in Indy. To my knowledge, it will be his first appearance for NMSA and it will be a very welcome one. Dr. Marzano will be doing two sessions, one of which is called "The Art and Science of Teaching."
In his other session, he will be presenting his latest research that involves "Engaging Students Through Technology." We should have called it "Improving Student Achievement Using Technology." It is difficult to summarize in-depth research in a sentence or two, but I have listened to Dr. Marzano discuss this research and I have read the preliminary report. When properly utilizing a classroom adequately equipped with technology, teachers with minimal teaching experience can expect a 16 percentile gain in academic achievement. A teacher with 10 or more years of teaching experience who has utilized the technology for 2 years or more and utilizes it for 75-80% of classroom instruction time can expect a 29 percentile gain in academic achievement! Impressive stuff.
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By Al Summers on 10/2/2009 12:55 PM
And if you are interested in funding technology for your school, you might want to look into an event that is being held that morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (one of the hotels in our conference block.) The Center for Digital Education is hosting a special event about such funding called "Making the Most of Grant Opportunities, ARRA, and Beyond" It should be a very informative morning, and they are even going to provide the lunch.
I hope I see you there!
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By Al Summers on 10/2/2009 12:12 PM
Most coaches of interscholastic sports are familiar with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS.) Each state association is a member of the national and these associations are to high school and middle school athletics what the NCAA is to collegiate athletics. I coached middle school and high school sports for 28 years and am very familiar with the Ohio High School Athletic Association and the NFHS.
The National Federation has developed a coaching fundamentals... Read More » |
By Al Summers on 9/17/2009 12:35 PM
View a special session at the NMSA conference where an Engish class in Indianapolis will connect with a French class in Strasbourg, France for a world language lesson. Read More » |
By Al Summers on 9/14/2009 1:10 PM
If you are looking for something to do on Friday night at the conference, let me suggest a fun option that will also add a donation to the NMSA Foundation. The Indiana Pacers have put together a special package with a special discount for NMSA attendees for their game that night against the Washington Wizards. The Pacers are offering deep discounts to NMSA conference attendees at all seating levels and they are also opening their practice facility to NMSA attendees to shoot around for an hour... Read More » |
By Al Summers on 9/9/2009 4:16 PM
While at NECC earlier this summer, I had the privilege of meeting one of the most fascinating young people I have ever met. Her name is Adora Svitak and she is a published author and accomplished writer and poet. She has been teaching formally since she was 7. Adora is now 11 but her wisdom and character are light years beyond her chronological age. I had the opportunity to speak to her and her mother and I told Adora- “you are a middle schooler, you should be at our conference.” Long story short,... Read More » |
By Al Summers on 8/12/2009 5:50 AM
The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) is a wonderful organization in Indianapolis that has a plethora of online content and virtual field trips. The CILC will be very involved in the 2009 NMSA Annual Conference. They are working with the schools who will be involved in the 21st Century Classroom as well as hosting a series of virtual field trips on Tech Savvy Saturday. Watch www.nmsa.org/annual for details. The content providers for this series include:... Read More » |