To be an LREI teacher is to be immersed in the planning for, thinking about, and reflecting on one’s own teaching practice. This happens individually and in collaboration with colleagues. It happens within the LREI community and beyond at conferences, workshops and school visits and through each teacher’s professional learning network. In many instances, LREI faculty share their learning and learn with peers as presenters and facilitators at professional conferences and workshops. Today, Middle School music teacher Matt Mclean and technology integrator Saber Khan and I had planned to present at the annual NYSAIS Teaching with Technology Conference, but the snow conspired against us. Here is a peak into what will present when the conference is rescheduled for the spring. Matt will facilitate the following two workshops:
Music Composition as Experience: New Composition Strategies for the Modern — In the visual art class every student is an artist. Every student can now be a composer in music class. The art student develops skills and learns concepts through experiences such as painting or drawing. With new technologies like Noteflight and other iPad apps, students can now benefit from the same kind of experience. In this session, we’ll examine progressive techniques that help students explore music as composers. The presentation includes video of students working and covers strategies used for first time composers. These strategies come from implementing a composition curriculum, which leads to compositions being performed by professional musicians. After taking this workshop, participants will have new strategies that they can immediately use in their own classrooms. These strategies include key concepts that I’ve found vitally important in engaging every student, regardless of experience, in their first original composition. I will lead participants through the technologies that help me facilitate the “sound before “ concept.
Teaching with Open Badges: An LMS for Awarding Achievement — Mozilla Open Badges are a powerful tool for awarding student achievement that can be shared in the real world! These virtual badges can be created by any teacher and used with a number of LMS’s like Moodle, Haiku and Edmodo. In this session we will see how a teacher can easily create their own custom LMS using the Credly Badges plugin with a free WordPress site. After taking this workshop, participants will have the knowledge and information to create their own Open Badges for awarding any kind of achievement. Participants will learn how they can use a system of achievement badges that reflects their own curriculum in the creation of a custom Learning Management System.
Saber and I along with a colleague from another school will use our schools’ experiences as a jumping off point for new areas of inquiry related to the use of digital portfolios:
Digital Portfolios: Curating a Life of Learning — Digital portfolios leverage technology in exciting ways to support innovation in learning and assessment. They provide a powerful medium for students to collect, curate and reflect on the work they create. The portfolio helps teachers to engage in authentic and ongoing assessment with each student. In this workshop, we hope to bring together colleagues who are already exploring the use of digital portfolios, and those who are still thinking about it, to learn and share together. We aim to minimize presenter directed time and to rather facilitate small group conversations aimed at eliciting best practices and compelling questions. After taking this workshop, participants will be able to identify next steps in their action plan for implementing a digital portfolio program or furthering a program that is already in place.
On Tuesday, February 18, the entire LREI faculty will meet for a day of learning designed and facilitated by colleagues on the importance of student voice. We will hear from thought leaders on this subject and dialog with each other about how we create space and time in the curriculum and in the community for the cultivation of student voice. We will also learn from each other through a series of workshops facilitated by teachers and students. The Middle School will be well represented during this portion of the day as evidenced below:
The Hidden Curriculum of Smartness: Middle School learning specialist Susannah Flicker will facilitate a dialog about the ways we communicate ideas to students in the classroom about intelligence and ability.
Theater in the Classroom: Middle School core teacher Dave Edson will explore the idea that dramatic play does not have to end after Kindergarten. Getting on one’s feet and exploring empathy by using bodies and voices with peers is invaluable. Together, we’ll explore how and why dramatic play can work for all kinds of learning and all kinds of students.
Student Voice via Spoken Word Compositions: Middle School music teacher Matt Mclean will share how this fall every 6th grader composed an original music composition for which they wrote a text that captured an important moment in their lives. They composed music that brought the text to life in terms of mood, rhythm and feeling. Each student performed her/his spoken word text at our Young Composers concert. We’ll examine the work as well as discuss how students were challenged to find their “voice.”
Gear Girls: Technology Support Associate Victoria Niemi will report on how our new girls tech group is creating space for voice and discovery.
Student Voice in the Professional Community: Middle School librarian Jennifer Hubert Swan will share how experiences bringing student commentary to adult classes and conferences has huge benefits for both student and adult learners.
The Weekly Knights: Eighth grader Camilo will talk about the successes and challenges of how the the Middle School’s student led newspaper found its voice.
What is abundantly clear from the descriptions above that are only partially representative of the work that take place throughout the year is that a defining characteristic of a progressive learning community is a deep commitment to learning for all of its members. A faculty that sees itself as a community of learners models those very same dispositions that are at the center of the learning experience for students everyday. We look forward to our continued learning together with you and your family.