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A Quick Note from Brooke:

Is it summer? Is it winter? There are flowers blooming- it must be spring?

Nobody knows! I hope that you are staying healthy and enjoying the small bits of warm weather as it comes!

Here's your March Tech newsletter, filled with resources, ideas, and advice on making learning more ACTIVE with technology. I hope you'll find it useful this month! Please send me an email ( bconklin@mtces.org) with any questions you have!

This month's focus: Creativity

What ways have you found to build more creativity into student learning this month?

One thing that has stuck with me over the last several years was a piece of advice that came from a veteran teacher I taught down the hall from. (Although I'm sure she borrowed the quote from someone else, so you may have heard it before!)

She said, "If all student projects turn out the same, you didn't give them a project, you gave them a recipe."

Does your project tell students exactly what to do? Do you have a list of steps you expect all students to follow? If so, you might be conditioning them more for compliance than for critical thinking and creative expression.

Students (esp. gifted students) need opportunities to grapple with ambiguity, critical thinking, and creative choice in their learning.

I'd love to brainstorm with you about how you can have the best of BOTH worlds in your upcoming project- creative thinking and expression AND clear demonstration of content mastery.

☕ News from the Conklin Family

Here's what's new with us this month!

Eloise turned ONE! WHAT?! Not possible.

We broke out the baby splash pad (for one day, and then it quickly became cold again)

Camille successfully pulled herself out of the pool at swim lessons. One step closer to safer swimming!

What's new with you? I'd love to catch up!

📧 Let's Chat!

Have a question? Want help planning your next ACTIVE lesson? Want help teaching students new technology for your upcoming project?

I've got you! Shoot me an email.
bconklin@mtces.org

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Is it summer? Is it winter? There are flowers blooming- it must be spring? Nobody knows! I hope that you are staying healthy and enjoying the small bits of warm weather as it comes! Here's your March Tech newsletter, filled with resources, ideas, and advice on making learning more ACTIVE with technology.

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Featuring Genial.ly! Make your instruction and your student projects more interactive!

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A tool that can make instruction and/or student work interactive! Interactive presentations, game templates, interactive images, infographics, and more!

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Active Learning Focus: Creativity

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cospaces.io - Students can create virtual worlds to showcase their learning.

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Highlights: Ideas to infuse creativity into learning, Appy Hour reminder, ChatGPT Valentines preview

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A Quick Note from Brooke:

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope your day (and week) is filled with love. Read on to find a few poems I had ChatGPT create for you for Valentines Day!

Here's your February Tech newsletter, filled with resources, ideas, and advice on making learning more ACTIVE with technology. I hope you'll find it useful this month! Please send me an email ( bconklin@mtces.org) with any questions you have!

This month's focus: Creativity

Creativity in the classroom is all about encouraging students to think outside the box, come up with unique solutions to problems, and express themselves in new and exciting ways.
It's like giving them permission to color outside the lines!
By encouraging students to think outside the box, you can help them develop a variety of valuable skills, such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication, that will benefit them both academically and in their future careers.

Providing opportunities for creative expression can help students build confidence and cultivate their individuality!

So go ahead and let those creative juices flow - who knows what amazing ideas might come out of it!

Poem #1:

To the teachers at Mother Teresa,

Your love for tech makes learning shine,

You turn each screen into a window,

And help each student's future align.

Your skill with digital tools is truly amazing,

You bring innovation to every class,

Thank you for all that you do,

You help us stay ahead of the curve with each passing task.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Poem #2:

To the teachers at Mother Teresa,

Your tech skills are truly next level,

You turn each screen into a window,

And make our learning truly special.

Your Zoom skills are truly out of sight,

Your troubleshooting skills we hold tight,

Thank you for making tech so easy,

You make our lives a lot more breezy.

Happy Valentine's Day, you tech gurus!
Copied and pasted from ChatGPT, if you found these poems cheesy, you can blame the robot! If you're interested in how ChatGPT works, I embedded a video of my prompts below. If you'd like to chat about how ChatGPT can work FOR YOU, let me know!
☕ News from the Conklin Family

Here's what's new with us this month!

Camille is rocking potty training!

Hadley turned 12. (Crazy!)

Eloise sported her first pony-tail

We took a weekend trip to Washington DC to visit family

What's new with you? I'd love to catch up!

📧 Let's Chat!

Have a question? Want help planning your next ACTIVE lesson? Want help teaching students new technology for your upcoming project?

I've got you! Shoot me an email.
bconklin@mtces.org

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Happy Valentines Day! I hope your day (and week) is filled with love. Read on to find a few poems I had ChatGPT create for you for Valentines Day! Here's your February Tech newsletter, filled with resources, ideas, and advice on making learning more ACTIVE with technology.

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www.peardeck.com

Make direct instruction more engaging with activities and formative assessments that are built right into your Google slide deck.

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www.canva.com

The ULTIMATE graphic design tool for you and your students.

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www.classroomscreen.com

The perfect teacher dashboard to display to your students- full of built in classroom management tools and organization life savers!

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Featuring: YouTube without ads and extras, direct links to the middle of a video.

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Featuring: Chrome tab groups, creating QR codes

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Copy of  Halloween themed Tech Take Out - OCT 22 (1)

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Highlights:
Cooperation vs. Collaboration
3 Tools for Collaboration
1 Picture to Teach Collaboration for Students

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This month's focus: Collaboration

Are you asking your students to COLLABORATE or COOPERATE? Watch this 2 min video to check!
👩‍🏫Team Meetings
You should have received an email from me to coordinate our first team tech meeting.

Once every other month I would like to meet with your team to talk about any tech-related challenges you're experiencing with your students and to share a few tech-infused strategies you can use in your instruction.

If your team does not have a meeting set up with me for December or January, please let me know!

☕ News from the Conklin Family

Here's what's new with us this month!

Eloise fell in love with food on Thanksgiving! (FINALLY).

Camille deconstructed my wireless mouse and filled the battery compartment with yogurt

I visited Virginia Beach for a quick 24 hr trip to launch a new certification program for Virginia's ed tech coaches

What's new with you? I'd love to catch up!

Keep an eye on your mailbox!

We're going to start optional after-school "Appy Hours" soon! These will be quick 30min PD sessions held once a month to share quick and easy active learning strategies that you can take back to your class and use RIGHT AWAY!

I'll bring the snacks!

Our Appy Hour will be on Jan 31st after school. More details are coming soon!

📧 Let's Chat!

Have a question? Want help planning your next ACTIVE lesson? Need someone to sit by that rowdy kid in your class so you can have one hour without interruption?

I've got you! Shoot me an email.
bconklin@mtces.org

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Are you asking your students to COLLABORATE or COOPERATE? Watch this 2 min video to check! 👩‍🏫Team Meetings You should have received an email from me to coordinate our first team tech meeting.

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Highlights:
Instructional technology focus for the year
Next round of class visits
3 ways to promote critical thinking with Google Slides

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🏃‍♀️ Announcing our Technology Integration Theme for the Year: Let's Get Active!

I know it's a little bit early to start setting our workout goals. If you're like me, you tend to get REALLY optimistic about fitness at the end of December, and then let your fitness dreams fade by about mid- January.

I promise I'm not about to suggest that you sign up for a Zumba class or buy a Peloton.

As I've sat in classes and talked to many of you I'm noticing that a common point of conversation is wanting to make students more ACTIVE in their learning. (See where my theme is coming into play?💪🏋️‍♀️)

I've seen YOU leading instruction, YOU asking the big questions, YOU making amazingly creative lessons. YOU are crushing it.

I'm wondering if we can build more opportunities for your students to exercise their leadership skills, their questioning skills, and their creative brains.

I think it helps to approach technology with a focus. There is SO MUCH tech out there it is overwhelming to try to understand all of it well. It is also really easy to get carried away and use tech just because it seems cool without it really impacting LEARNING. But a little bit of technology used with purpose can support student learning in a really cool way.

This year, our tech integration focus is...

We will increase active learning opportunities, by designing learning tasks that allow for student collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking.

Increasing student engagement with active learning opportunities helps students be more involved in and have more responsibility for their learning.

You can expect that any PD or tech suggestions I share with you will be rooted in increasing active learning through the 4C's (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity).

It's been about a month since I've stopped into your class to see you in action. Time FLIES.

In that first round of visits, I saw incredible personalized small groups, creative projects, and some of the most impressive student collaboration I've witnessed as a coach.

With a new focus on active learning, this time I'll be looking for the active learning strategies you're using to engage your students. I expect to start making rounds on Tuesday, Nov. 15th.

Please don't make special accommodations for me. I completely understand that every day is different and that what I see in 15 minutes might not be representative of your full instructional plans. I'm here to offer ideas and resources, not to evaluate your effectiveness.

If the 15th or the 29th of November are not good days for me to pop in, please shoot me an email and I'll reschedule!

A few ways Google Slides can be used to promote active learning with Critical Thinking.

☕ News from the Conklin Family

Because I don't get the opportunity to chat with many of you as often as I'd like- I wanted to take a quick minute to share a few updates that aren't really related to school or technology.

Here's what's new with us this month!

Eloise has two teeth but refuses to eat any solids.

I gave my first-ever at home hair-cut to trim Eloise's baby mullet

Camille LOVED trick-or-treating but now wants to do it EVERY night.

What's new with you? I'd love to catch up!

I'll bring the snacks!

📧 Let's Chat!

Have a question? Want help planning your next ACTIVE lesson? Need someone to sit by that rowdy kid in your class so you can have one hour without interruption?

I've got you! Shoot me an email.
bconklin@mtces.org

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I know it's a little bit early to start setting our workout goals. If you're like me, you tend to get REALLY optimistic about fitness at the end of December, and then let your fitness dreams fade by about mid- January.

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Active Learning Focus: Collaboration

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Active Learning Focus: Critical Thinking