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I think this is awesome because she is a librarian who is very involved in social media, educational technology, and has a lot of experience with ISTE.

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is the Future Ready Teacher Librarian & Ed Tech Leader at Murray Hill Middle School in Howard County, Maryland. She's also a blogger, a Tweeter, an International Keynote EdTech & Librarian speaker, a trope and meme archivist, creator of content, a citizen of advocacy, and a resident of social media. Gwyneth is a Google Certified Innovator, a PBS / MPT American Graduate Champion of Change, Teacher of the Year, and the author of the award winning The Daring Librarian blog. In recognition of being a change agent in her field, Ms. Jones was named an Innovator and one of 50 international Movers & Shakers 2011 by Library Journal Magazine and one of 15 Librarians to Follow on Instagram by Scholastic. She's also been named a Gale/Cengage New Leader, and the Best of the Best and a Visionary Leader by Teacher Librarian Magazine.

As a leader of Education Technology, Ms. Jones was honored to have been elected twice to the ISTE Board of Directors representing all PK-12 educators and school librarians. Her work & writings have been featured in the New York Times, NEA Today Magazine, Information Today Magazine, The Washington Post, and the Huffington Post. Admittedly, she's also a goofball, a geek, and ridiculously humble.

During the school year, you can find her most every day at in the Library Media Center helping kids to find their favorite new book, in the #MHTVNews studio inspiring kids to be their authentic (goofy cool) selves, team teaching with other educators, supporting her administration, and at 7th grade lunch duty.

Third person aside:
My CV is here and here's an interview by Middleweb called: A Daring Middle Grades Librarian I gotta admit, Middle school is my JAM!

Contact:
If you should ever need to contact me with questions or fabulous invites, you can find me on:
Twitter
Instagram
Internet email: gwynethanne @ gmail (dot) com (preferred)

Mailing Address
Gwyneth Jones - Library Media Center
Murray Hill Middle School
9989 Winter Sun Road
Laurel, Maryland 20723
School Phone: 410-880-5897

Shameless Swagger:
PBS / MPT American Graduate Champion 2015
Library Journal's Top 50 Movers & Shakers 2011
Teacher Librarian Magazine - Visionary Leader 2012
ISTE Board of Directors - PK-12 Representative 2010-2014
GOOGLE Certified Teacher - #GTAWA11
PBS/ MPT NTTI Teacher of the Year 2001

Stalk My Sites:
The Daring Librarian Blog, Twitter, Instagram, Slideshare, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Portfolio, Scoopit, Daring School Edublog, Google+, YouTube Channel, Top Contributor Trip Advisor, Yelp, & Virtual Steampunk Second Life

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is the Future Ready Teacher Librarian & Ed Tech Leader at Murray Hill Middle School in Howard County, Maryland. She's also a blogger, a Tweeter, an International Keynote EdTech & Librarian speaker, a trope and meme archivist, creator of content, a citizen of advocacy, and a resident of social media.

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This website has a lot of information regarding the future of raising children in a world with so much technology. They have a social media page and weekly newsletter where parents, teachers, policy makers engage in meaningful conversations about new ideas to help students learn, technology, and so much more.

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KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We're the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California.

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Discusses the importance of student curiosity fueled learning and using technology as a strategic partnering the learning process.

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I was honored to teach an elective class called "Engineering for Social Good" last semester. Our final project in the course was the design of computer controllers for individuals with quadriplegia. Our goal was to create prototypes, and then share the construction process on the site Instructables for individuals to recreate. The entire engineering design process can be seen on our class Padlet shelf here. A final student Instructable can be seen here. See a few images below.

See a video of a controller in action below.

I recently discovered this amazing YouTube channel that proposes, WELL PRODUCED, video scenarios about perplexing "What if..." scenarios and then animates/describes what would occur? For example: "What if the oxygen disappeared from the world for 5 seconds?" or "What if the moon exploded?", etc.

Keeping "What if" in mind, I have been struggling with hands-on labs during distance learning, and have recently been experimenting with leveraging the scenarios described in on the channel to empower " Thought Experiments" rather than forcing distance learning labs while student are not in class. I did two "What if" thought experiments this week, one in my Chemistry class, and one in my Biology class. Students LOVED THEM!
The went like this:

1. Place students in Zoom Breakout rooms.

2. Broadcast the "What if" scenario to their room. For example, "What if oxygen in the earth's atmosphere was doubled?".

3. Given student 10 minutes, in groups, to develop a many answers to the hypothetical scenario as possible without looking online for a solution.

4. Bring students back and elect one member to type their answers into the public chat.

5. Allow all students time to read the responses and reflect on their favorite.

6. Play the "What if" solution video! THIS IS THE BEST PART. For example, the below video answers the above "What if" scenario.

Use "What if" thought experiments to spark curiosity about an upcoming unit (as I did above prior to a unit on Cellular Respiration), or challenge student's ability to apply learned content to a new, hypothetical situation. Either way, "What if" thought experiments have transformed engagement in my online classes this week.

This is a short post/journal entry about something that has been on my mind, and nagging at me since the beginning of distance learning.

I have noticed a shift in my teaching that occurs when I minimize student cameras while teaching in Zoom. That is, they can see me, and the screen I am sharing, but I cannot see them.

Paradoxically, I have noticed that my instruction, and ability to connect with them increases. I feel more comfortable, free, and open to share knowledge in clear and structured ways.

This realization has been strange, in that I depend heavily on my relationships with students during face-to-face instruction, however in the Zoom setting, seeing their faces while teaching particularly complex information seems to decrease my ability to connect via the content.

My working hypothesis is that, while face-to-face instructions offers a true, human connection, a Zoom window places emphasis on facial expression. Perhaps my empathetic side is overly drawn to student facial expressions, inhibiting me from pushing through complex concepts, while I am pulled into looks of frustration, confusion, etc?

When I do not see them (gallery minimized) I can push through this moment better, allowing time for students to negotiate the complexity before I jump in and "rescue" them from their perplexity, something I do naturally.

In the face-to-face setting, this perplexity exists in the context of a myriad of other variables that make the relationship more simple, meaningful, and real. With only a confused face I almost feel paralyzed at times.

Thus, I have been exposing the entire class during discussion/Q&A and minimizing their visibility during direct instruction. I'm not sure what I'm saying here, but I felt a need to put it into writing. I am very much looking forward to being with my students in the classroom once again.

Side note, this came back to bite me once when, in the middle of a lecture where I was sharing my screen and had their cameras minimized, the students surprised me with the below. I was not responding and kind student said "Um...Ramsey, can you see us?". Ha! awkwardly caught red-handed!

I just finished the audiobook for the autobiography of the legendary Physics Professor Richard Feynman. A fabulous listen, I have always been inspired by Feynman's contagious curiosity and desire to learn all things with a seemingly vicious intensity. I find myself also drawn towards a similar, addictive need, to ask questions and search for answers to things that others might find meaningless or not directly relate to vocation. Or perhaps, I'm trying to justify my late night YouTube deep dives. Either way...Feynman's spirit speaks to me and listening to his life story added an unexpected sense direction to my own midlife contemplations.

Through a lens of science instruction, I was endlessly inspired by the way Feynman's own personal sense of curiosity naturally mingled into his instructional pedagogy. That is, it was clear that he deeply values the question asking process and made it clear throughout the book that questions must precede any form of direct instruction or delivery of equations. My own passion for translating individual curiosity about the world into formal lesson plans was my motivation for this TED talk I delivered in 2013. This passion for "Delayed Direct Instruction" is intrinsic to the inquiry learning cycle and its efficacy in helping students develop conceptual models for understanding is outlined in the literature. Click here for example of the plethora of research articles that underscore the importance of questions BEFORE lecture.

The first 30 seconds of this clip from The Challenger Disaster, a film about Feynman's role in uncovering the the true cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, clearly demonstrates Feynman's inability to separate conceptual understanding and curiosity from instructional pedagogy. I could watch this clip all day long!

Perhaps the below quote sums up the purpose of this post and its relationship to Feynman best. I read the quote as Feynman challenging educators of today to find a way, despite the myriad forms of resistance, to figure out ways to spark student curiosity in search of authentic, conceptual understanding.

I think, however, that there isn't any solution to this problem of education other than to realize that the best teaching can be done only when there is a direct individual relationship between a student and a good teacher - a situation in which the student discusses the ideas, thinks about the things, and talks about the things. It's impossible to learn very much by simply sitting in a lecture, or even by simply doing problems that are assigned. But in our modern times we have so many students to teach that we have to try to find some substitute for the ideal. - Richard Feynman

There is so much complaining and frustration around the use/overuse of Zoom during distance learning. Trust me,I get it...students are burnt out, I am burnt out. Zoom Fatigue is a real thing.

Keeping the above in mind, I find myself equally fascinated with the idea of going back to face-to-face teaching 100% next fall with a classroom of students who are EXPERTS in using a video conferencing platform. Kinda amazing!?!

The reality of this new skill set might just open up a bunch of new opportunities for leveraging Zoom while all students are on campus. I am excited to see what this new skill set can offer. Below are a some initial ideas I have:
​

Host online office hours/study groups the night before a test or exam.

Use as a simple substitute to screencasting application to record their presentations and office hours.

Quickly get questions answered from teachers when students are on a different part of campus.

Encourage students to rehearse and record presentations via Zoom prior to class for analysis.

Collaborate during lab experiments/activities with students at another school simultaneously.

The above list is small (hopefully growing) but again, I am still SO FASCINATED with the fact that students K-12, all are walking around the world with the ability to video conference in their back pocket. Crazy!

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I was honored to teach an elective class called "Engineering for Social Good" last semester. Our final project in the course was the design of computer controllers for individuals with quadriplegia. Our goal was to create prototypes, and then share the construction process on the site Instructables for individuals to recreate.

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He breaks down concepts from elementary math- high level high school math.

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Please find all of your Go Math Lessons, Integrated Math, and all of your High School Math at www.mrmathblog.com. There, you will find the lessons in a more organized fashion. Thanks for watching; and don’t forget to “Like” Mr Math Blog on Facebook! :)
~ Mr. Math Blog

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She tweets ideas for science k-8 lesson plans and posts videos to her twitter breaking down how to do them.

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improving the relationship between education and technology

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Sophie Bailey is the founder of The Edtech Podcast. Her previous role was as Head of Content at Bett, the world's largest education technology event and prior to that, she enjoyed a ten-year career in tech events including at Informa Telecoms and Media (the founders of the Mobile World Congress). In 2016, she left her role to launch The Edtech Podcast and to consult on strategic content partnerships under the name 'Tangential Brain'.

The mission statement of The Edtech Podcast is to improve the dialogue between 'ed' and 'tech' through storytelling, for better innovation and impact. The podcast audience consists of education leaders from around the world, plus startups, learning and development specialists, blue-chips, investors, Government and media. The Edtech Podcast is downloaded 2000 - 3000 times each week from 145 countries in total, with the U.S, U.K & Australia the top 3 downloading countries. The Edtech Podcast recently celebrated five years and 200+ episodes published. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the podcast reached 40k downloads a month as listeners grapple with all things remote learning and working.

The Edtech Podcast also convenes its audience through events, written series, and online community. Previously, The Edtech Podcast Festival brought together over 200 listeners from around the world to meet in the Olympic Park, London with the resultant The Edtech Podcast LIVE stage now spinning off in its own right.

Sophie has spoken and moderated at a variety of events including SXSWEDU, Yidan Education Prize, ASU GSV Summit, and the Next Billion Edtech Summit. She is an industry mentor and advisor, including to the UCL Knowledge Lab initiative EDUCATE, and a Reimagine Education, GESA Awards, Bett Awards and XPrize Adult Literacy judge, as well as previous Edtech50, Edtech I.T in Higher Education Influencer and Edtech Digest winner.

Sophie is passionate about lifelong and everyday learning. If she's not interviewing a University Vice-Chancellor, Edtech Investor, School Leader, or StartUp about education innovation, she's engrossed in Teach Your Monster to Read or wrestling her lockdown baby. A keen cyclist, she lives in West Devon which she considers the English version of the Pyrenees. She is very lucky to work with a distributed team on The Edtech Podcast.

Consultancy

I work with clients in the following areas:

Advisor/Non-Exec

Stakeholder management and partnerships

Research analysis and strategy development

Audience and community engagement

Cross-discipline in sales/marketing/content

International experience and product launch

Team leading and motivation

Events, content marketing, and PR.

I'd love to hear from you on your project big or small. If I can't help, maybe I know someone who can.

Testimonials

Here are some of the nice things people have said about me. (I am very lucky).

'Sophie is a dependable, can-do, creative and professional person to work with. No challenge is too big, no issue to complex and the end results are always very high quality.'
Peter Sigrist
Head of Communications at TES Global Limited

'We recently commissioned Sophie to advise us about the EdTech market place.
Not only is she delightful personally but she has a great networks of contacts and comprehensive insight into the issues and trends in EdTech. I spent a very stimulating afternoon with Sophie and her followup has been extensive. Thank you Sophie!'
Meriel Winwood
Director at Ascent IT Ltd & Enterprise Asset Management Solutions

'Sophie is a super connected and super smart operator in the EdTech space and provided some brilliant consultancy to us at Zzish. She also has an awesome podcast that drove some great interest in our business. I highly recommend working with her!'
Charles Wiles
Founder and CEO at Zzish. EdTech Angel Investor and Mentor

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Sophie Bailey is the founder of The Edtech Podcast. Her previous role was as Head of Content at Bett, the world's largest education technology event and prior to that, she enjoyed a ten-year career in tech events including at Informa Telecoms and Media (the founders of the Mobile World Congress).