ULearn14 Breakouts - Booked!!

This post is dedicated to all of the incredibly amazing people who helped me get to this point where I can blog about the breakouts for ULearn14 that I have finally booked. You guys are amazing.

It's still a full week out from the craziness that I'm sure will ensue with the Twitter Dinner, Connected Educator Month and ULearn itself - however I figured it was timely to post up the breakouts that I've picked.

Reasonings for choosing these breakouts are at the very end :)

- Copied from the Core Education site :)

Alex Le Long's Breakouts

Registered for the following breakouts

Breakout One :: Raising Writing Performance in the 21st century classroom: tools, tips, and opportunities
Type: Presentation
Time: 08 Oct 2014 - 11:15 to 12:30
Delegates: 68 / 100
Lead Presenter: Dr Ian Hunter /Write that Essay
Venue: not yet assigned
As the demands of literacy spread across curriculum areas it is important that all teachers improve their ability to guide students in academic writing.

In this interactive presentation, best-selling author and educator Dr Ian Hunter will discuss the key barriers to student writing success and offer tools and techniques to overcome them.  He will demonstrate how digital writing tools can help students become better writers, and offer practical teaching strategies to assist reluctant writers; creative techniques for planning and idea generation; show how to fix overwriting and underwriting; how to demonstrate analysis and use evidence effectively, and strategies to raise school-wide writing performance in external examinations.

Breakout Two :: The BYOD Journey
Type: Workshop
Time: 08 Oct 2014 - 13:45 to 15:00
Delegates: 27 / 40
Lead Presenter: Kate Olliff /Wairakei School
Venue: not yet assigned
BYOD is among the favoured education topics of the year. Wairakei School has successfully embarked on an exciting BYOD 1to1 iPad journey through 2014.  Hear how the iPad programme was initiated, the trials and tribulations throughout the Journey and the integration with the flipped learning approach. 

See how the classroom teacher manages the devices and programme on a daily basis. Hapara Dashboard, Google Apps for Education and more… Discuss how parts of the programme could be incorporated into your own class or school, what are the learning benefits?

Work with other delegates on a plan fit for your needs.  How have the children and parents embraced the move into digital learning? How has it changed teacher planning and assessment? Delegates will require an internet capable device (laptop or tablet, windows or mac) for this workshop.

Breakout Three :: Turning the vision into reality
Type: Presentation
Time: 09 Oct 2014 - 11:15 to 12:30
Delegates: 4 / 18
Lead Presenter: Philippa Nicoll /Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
Extra Presenters:
Jacqui Brown /Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
Venue: not yet assigned
That it is necessary to shift our pedagogy in order to better meet the needs of our students as they move into a world of hyperchange, and that we can integrate technology into our teaching as one method of doing this, is not in question.

Increasingly, and rightly, the acknowledgement of the ‘why’ of technology is expressed in school’s vision documents. What sometimes seems to be missing from the discussion is the ‘how’.
How can a school, rooted in tradition, inspire change and take measurable, concrete steps to upskill staff in both pedagogy and technology tools?

This presentation shares one school’s experiences as they embark on precisely this journey; turning the vision into reality.

Breakout Four A :: Before collaboration teachers need to make connections
Type: Taster
Time: 09 Oct 2014 - 13:45 to 14:15
Delegates: 38 / 80
Lead Presenter: Sonya Van Schaijik /Newmarket School
Extra Presenters:
Wendy Kofoed /Newmarket School
Venue: not yet assigned
Hattie states that it is teachers who account for about 30% of the variance in student achievement. An aspect of this variance is likely to include what teachers know, do, and care about, as these are powerful aspects of the learning equation.

Before teachers and their classes can collaborate and share their learning, teachers need to connect with the students that they teach, connect with their student’s families and connect with each other. The following questions will be addressed in the session:

How do teachers make connections with their students and families? How do teachers share learning? How do teachers work collaboratively? How do teachers know that they are making a difference to learning?

At Newmarket School teachers make connections, share learning, collaborate in a variety of ways. In class and across the school teachers use Google Docs and Sites to collaborate with each other. Some teachers are involved with the Mutukaroa project to build learning partnerships with families. Some teachers use KidBlog to share their children’s learning. Some teachers share their learning at conferences or via a reflective blog. Some teachers use twitter as a professional learning tool to build their professional learning network. Some teachers use the Virtual Learning Network to collaborate across schools and POND to curate resources. Some teachers have knowledge and skills to create digital products with their students using a variety of multimodal tools. Some teachers support children in their leadership inquiries while other teachers mentor and coach other teachers in the school and in other schools. Some teachers work closely with the local community on a variety of school projects.

However,  at Newmarket school all teachers undertake inquiry into their own practice. Inquiry is a powerful strategy that has been shown to have an effect in accelerating achievement or in supporting students learning progress.  Teachers identify problems of practice, develop action plans for researching the problem and work with a coach or colleagues to trial strategies that makes a difference to their students learning.

These learning practices are changing the way Newmarket School operates. Learning has been re-configured as teachers share their changing practices in visible ways. Because of the transparency involved in the inquiry into teaching, much is learnt from each other, with each other, and with the children that they teach.

Breakout Four B :: Enhance learning - Chrome apps and extensions
Type: Taster
Time: 09 Oct 2014 - 14:30 to 15:00
Delegates: 43 / 50
Lead Presenter: Angela Lee /Rowandale School
Venue: not yet assigned
Have a go at making your internet browser work for you.  In this workshop delegates will discover the wonderful world of Chrome extensions.  A quick whistle stop tour of some great extensions that will do things you never thought possible with your browser.

Some of the extension we will look at are:
Pinterest, Drive, Diigo, Chromecast, Sreencastify, Evernote, Hootsuite, Adblock, Google dictionary, Google Plus, Snagit.

Some of the Chrome apps we will look at are: Pixlr, Wevideo, movnote, Powtoon.

Delegates will receive access to notes that include links and how to information for each extension. Where possible these notes will also include classroom applications for the extension. Delegates will be invited to add to these notes to create a shared presentation resource for all to use.

Breakout Five :: Engagement: The key to learning success
Type: Presentation
Time: 10 Oct 2014 - 09:00 to 10:15
Delegates: 111 / 120
Lead Presenter: Mike Scaddon /Brain Stems Ltd
Venue: not yet assigned
Teachers spend a large amount of time planning and then actively trying to motivate students to learn. However, direct motivation is not our job. It actually increases the gap between the student and their learning. Rather, our job is to create an engaging state where student want to motivate themselves.

This requires teachers helping students to understand their strengths and gaps and providing opportunities for this to happen.

This practical and absorbing workshop looks at the role of the emotional brain, how we can use this to advantage in the classroom, why risk is crucial to learning, the significance of interruptions and more. Not to be missed.

Breakout Six :: Coaching conversations for educational leaders
Type: Presentation
Time: 10 Oct 2014 - 11:15 to 12:30
Delegates: 50 / 50
Lead Presenter: Mary-Anne Murphy /CORE Education
Venue: not yet assigned
Are you in a position of leadership within your school and want to refine your ability to coach people towards realising their full potential? Are you dealing with resistance and want a way of working forward in co-operative relationships? Are you wanting to take your skills to a deeper level? YES? Well this session is for you!

Reasoning behind choosing each Breakout:

1. A look into how literacy is within every subject and how digital tools can effectively improve student outcomes with literacy and their overall success as a result. Am interested in seeing some different apps that can be used effectively with my students to improve their literacy - particularly with my lower and higher ability students.

2. A BYOD journey towards 1:1. Looking forward to hearing the struggles and many successes for advice in helping our Rotorua schools move forward towards 1:1 in the coming years. Particularly interested in seeing how Hapara is being used at their kura.

3. Incredibly looking forward to Philippa's breakout on integrating technology into a traditional school - particularly how to go about phrasing school vision documents to ensure that the why and the how is covered.

4 a. Building on collaboration and networking skills. Interested in seeing how Newmarket school effectively implements the inquiry process because I want to get better at defining my own inquiries and developing them as I go. Great chance to see Sonya and Wendy in action presenting like this! :) Looking forward to meeting with other like minded teachers who also want to connect and share their ideas.

4 b. A good chance to brush up on my Chrome skills - in an interactive workshop having a tutu. Who wouldn't want to do this one? Am looking forward to seeing how different apps are implemented into classroom teaching and how effective they can be given the right purpose.

5. I really enjoy learning about the brain and how it works - this breakout looked incredibly interesting and was the first one I chose. Hopefully I'll learn some new strategies to motivate my students - including my Y13 students.

6. Chose this because I want to learn how to have effective conversations and learn how to teach and help my colleagues more effectively - particularly in integrating technology into their classrooms.

I am very much looking forward to ULEARN14 and am so incredibly thankful to you all. Nga mihi nunui ki a koutou katoa. He arohanui ki a koutou katoa. So looking forward to seeing you all again in person. You'll be getting a massive hug that's for sure. :)