Our Faculty/Staff Forum team has recruited facilitators and coordinated learning experience for our first Faculty/Staff Forum.  Faculty were offered sessions to prepare to use Haiku for their peer-to-peer learning sessions. They’ve organized the offerings on our Haiku site and have launched an invitation to sign up for a course that interests the learner.

The offerings for this Wednesday’s peer-to-peer learning are shown below.  Isn’t it interesting that what we want to learn aligns with what we want to teach? Learners want to grow together, share what they are learning, and collaborate on next steps.

What will we learn? Will we apply what we learn? How might we grow and learn together by sharing bright spots and successes?

Title: Evernote Workflow
Teacher(s): Rhonda Mitchell
Class description: Your students are engaged in meaningful learning experiences everyday. How can you help students extend and deepen that learning by using the portfolio process? We will develop a workflow for capturing learning in Evernote.  Please bring a computer or iPad to this session.

Prerequisite: None
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 15

Sign up:12:30pm class
Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title: Integrating iPads with Young Learners
Teacher(s): Erin Lindsey and Karen Boykins
Class description: In this workshop we will highlight several apps that are geared towards 3’s through 1st grade. These will include, Story Wheel, My Story, Show Me, and Skitch. We will show how it has been incorporated in our class as well as have time to work with one another on other ways it each can be utilized.

Prerequisite: Please bring and iPad and have at least 2 of these apps ALREADY downloaded.
Minimum: 5     Maximum: 12

Sign up:12:30pm class
Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title: Children’s Literature: Polacco, Pulver, and More
Teacher(s): Meredith Burris
Class description: Don’t have time for a full-length book for reading aloud to your class? Come explore some picture books that can be used with older children that address a range of curricular areas: science, math, social studies, grammar, writing, etc.

Prerequisite: None
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 18

Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title: Introduction to Haiku
Teacher(s): Amanda Thomas
Class description: You’ve had a glimpse into the world of Haiku and now you are hooked. Let’s learn how to create a page, post pictures, add documents, and maybe more. Be sure to bring your computer with you.

Prerequisite: Be able to sign into Haiku on your own.
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 10

Sign up: 12:30pm class
Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title: Advanced Haiku
Teacher(s): Melissa Walker
Class description: Come and learn more about how to use Haiku class polls, assessment, link your Twitter feed to your page, and create class Wikis. Please bring any questions or future assignments for Haiku. Be sure to bring your computer with you.

Prerequisite: Already using Haiku and have ideas on ways you want to use this tool in the classroom
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 25

Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title:  Using Dropbox as a Teaching Tool
Teacher(s): Janet Lee
Class description: Learn all about Dropbox and how to use it in your classroom! We will discuss ideas for how to use Dropbox to make your workflow smoother and how your students can use it to learn more dynamically. Please bring a laptop. An iPad is optional.

Prerequisite: None
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 15

Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title: Using Twitter in the Classroom
Teacher(s): Ashley Johnston
Class description: Learn how you can introduce your students to the world of social media through Twitter! Twitter is widely recognized for its professional development community, but it can also be used to improve class lessons, facilitate distance learning, encourage and improve student reflection, give your students an audience, and act as a tool for formative assessment. Come learn how putting Twitter in the hands of students can enhance your lessons and student learning in the classroom.

Prerequisite: None
Minimum: 3     Maximum: 20

Sign up:3:30pm class

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Title: Leading Learners to Level Up
Teacher(s): Jill Gough and Shelley Paul
Class description: How many times are teachers shocked to discover after the learning episodes are complete, that the learners did not, in fact, learn? This conversation is designed to help teachers design paths for formative assessment that leads learners to level up. In her book Grading and Learning, Susan Brookhart calls for assessment that motivates effort and achievement. We will tackle the problem of proficiency by developing and implementing a system of formative assessment that harnesses the power of positivity. Learners will be able to say “I can…” and “Can you help me…” based on the assessment empowering the learner to have control over the path to success.

Prerequisite: Curiosity, willingness to prototype
Minimum: 5     Maximum: 20

Sign up: 3:30pm class

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Title:  My Learning Entries
Teacher(s): Jack Parrish
Class description: What things are grade levels incorporating into their student’s My Learning folder? What are good additions and what are poor additions? How do we make their additions add to student personal understanding? In this conversation we will discuss and examine My Learning among class participants. Attendees should be willing to share their student folders with others in order to help the class see what different grades are adding.

Prerequisite: How to access student My Learning folders on Evernote. Need to bring whatever device from which you access Evernote.

Minimum: At least one representative from two different grade levels     Maximum: none

Sign up: 3:30pm class

Is there something that intrigues you from this list? Are these compelling learning sessions? If they are from the needs and interests of the teacher-learners in our community, will we build capacity as we learn together?