NMSA2010 Conference Blog

Watching the 21st Century Classroom Being Constructed

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:50:00 GMT

I am sitting in the exhibit hall of the Indianapolis Convention Center. Construction on the 21st Century Classroom began yesterday morning at 6:30. Interior Solutions of Indianapolis had done some partial wall sections off site and trucked them in. The walls were completely up and the drywall was taped and mudded by the end of the day. Today they are sanding the drywall and a company called FreeAxez is putting in this amazing 1.6 inch flooring that allows free access (get it?) underneath for wiring. A really great thing for remodeling and renovation. I cannot put any pictures on the blog, so I will upload a couple I took yesterday to the conference ning site. If you have not been there, you can access it at http://nmsa09.ning.com

More details on the Pacers game

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:31:00 GMT

Susie Highley sent this along:
Today's Indianapolis Star added these details: the 1999-2000 Pacers team will be honored (the team that made it to the NBA finals against Shaq and Kobe), as well as this year's WNBA Fever team. There will be free commemorative posters, and some short sleeve T shirts will be $10 (for those needing souvenirs) I assume that means Reggie Miller will be in the house, probably the most popular Pacer of all time.

A Conference Within A Conference

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:14:00 GMT

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.

Tech Savvy Saturday Sessions in the 21st Century Classroom

—8:00AM – 8:55AM—

Beyond Our Walls
Erica King, Jimmy Angelov
During this session, students will be using technology to discover and explore the French-speaking world around them. They will be learning about cultural diversities as well as geography, history, and language. The students will understand how they can connect with others outside of their community, reaching to France and beyond!

New Tech School of IDEAS
Tom Wachnicki, Allison Gary, Keisha Merriweather
In this session, we will discuss the implementation of the New Tech Network model at School of IDEAS in Decatur Township. Topics to be discussed will include: Integrated Courses, master schedule, technology integration and the tenets of project based learning.

—9:00AM – 9:55AM—

Moodle For Middle School
Tom Jenkins
Are you looking for a way to interact with your students online? Moodle is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. It's free, open source, and can be adapted to any learning environment. Create calendars, message boards, resource pages, wikis, surveys, tests, and more. Tom has used Moodle with his 5th–8th graders for the past 3 years to teach science and technology and will share his experiences with this e-learning platform.

Eight (or more) Tech Tools to Blend into your Classroom
Todd Williamson
This session will focus on web-based tools that allow your students to collaborate, communicate, and create. Join us for a fast-paced (possibly lightning fast) look at eight (or more) tech tools that you can use to enhance your teaching and student learning. Oh, and they're free too!

—10:00AM – 10:55AM—

Creative ways to Finance Technology for Schools
Robert Heimbrock
We are in a tough economy but we still have a responsibility to teach today's students better than ever. Technology is a big part of the process but with budget cuts, how do we afford it? Leasing has been a great way to tackle the big projects and keep them in the budget. One-to-One, computer labs, wireless campuses all can be put on lease to do them now not years from now.

Using Google Groups and Docs with Students
Karolee Smiley
Need an introduction to Google Groups and Google Docs? This presentation will provide an overview of Google Groups: set-up, pages, files, discussions, chats, and using Google Docs for student collaborative products. Learn the basics to create a Google Group for your class.

—11:00AM – 11:55AM—

Polar Bears, Climate Change, and the Subarctic and How That Can Fit Into Your Classroom
Mark Weaver
Participants will be introduced into the world of the polar bear and learn some background about these animals, the area that they live in, the human interactions, and then some classroom connections. A website, film and teacher materials will also be presented. I have had the opportunity to visit Churchill Manitoba and spend quite a bit of time out on the tundra, living in the Tundra Buggies (like what are in the National Geographic) during Oct/Nov a couple of different times with support from the school corp. I was able to teach my students from there a few times, even taught in a native school there, and spent lots of time learning about these top of the food chain creatures. http://www.ccs.k12.in.us/polar/polarbear.html.

The Promethean Classroom
Margaret Hollies
All instruction for this lesson will be by the use of the Promethean whiteboard. Both the teacher and the students will use the board at different times throughout the course of the lesson. The teacher will introduce a new concept, and students will be tested at various intervals to see how they are understanding new ideas. The Promethean whiteboard allows student interaction in various ways. Students can write directly on to the board or remain at their desks and use the Active slate to write on the board. By using the Active voters, the students will answer questions about the concepts being taught and will receive immediate feedback. The Active voters will be used to poll the class of options as well. The Promethean whiteboard, Active Slate, Active Arena, and Avtive voters all promote an environment of collaboration among the teacher and students. The entire class becomes an interactive classroom. Paper and pencil are not needed because everything is recorded by the Promethean board. Students enjoy interacting with the whiteboard.

Another reason the NMSA night with the Pacers is going to be special

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:41:00 GMT

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 do know that there are going to be some special attractions that night- besides NMSA being there as a group, shooting on their practice court before the game, and seeing our name up on the scoreboard. Also, please remember that each ticket sale supports the NMSA Foundation. I will be there in person and I hope to see you there!

Schedule for the 21st Century Classroom

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:41:00 GMT

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.orghttp://nmsa.org/portals/6/pdf/NMSA09_ClassroomSchedule.pdf

Don't Miss Robert Marzano

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:53:00 GMT

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.

Please don't miss Dr. Marzano's sessions. They alone will be worth the price of admission.

Personal note: the fact that Dr. Marzano's study utilized the Promethean ActivClassroom system is a double bonus as Promethean is a collaborative sponsor of NMSA and tremendous supporter of our 21st Century Classroom.

If You're Going to be in Indianapolis on Wed Nov 4

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:55:00 GMT

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!

Calling All Coaches

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:12:00 GMT

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 course that they are urging coaches of all sports to take. I personally am in the process of becoming a trainer for the course, as I believe in it's power to help coaches deepen their understanding of fundamentals and developmentally appropriate activities and approaches. See more at www.nfhslearn.com

The National Federation is going to be an exhibitor at our annual conference this year (their national headquarters is in Indianapolis.) Stop by their booth (#218) and learn more about how this organization is working to promote the quality of interactions between youth, parents, coaches, and fans. To honor the game is the height of sportsmanship.

The French Connection

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:35:00 GMT

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. More...

NMSA Night Out with the Indiana Pacers

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:10:00 GMT

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 before the game. The practice facility will open at 6:00 PM and the game begins at 7:00 PM. There is also the possibility of a very special additional surprise that will interest IU fans—especially us older fans. I will blog about that as soon as I know for sure.

A portion of every ticket sale will go to the NMSA Foundation and you can find the details and information on purchasing tickets at the following link. If you can’t use the link directly from this blog, please make sure you cut and paste the entire link. The link is http://www.consecofieldhouse.com/group.asp?
test=Test&tmonth=11&tyear=2009&cat=1&sx.x=36&sx.y=3

Use NMSA when they ask you for the group ID.

Join us to shoot around, take in an NBA game, see NMSA's name up on the scoreboard—AND benefit the NMSA Foundation at the same time.