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Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Big Deal Book, November 15th, 2022

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VSTE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you carefully curated resources designed for K-12 educators. Grants, competitions, web-based and mobile resources and more. We select our favorites from each newsletter but be sure to scroll down and view the whole newsletter. And, since not all the Big Deal Book resources are time sensitive, we provide an archive for you to browse.

This newsletter will help you with Making Sense of the News, Meaningful Discussion About Thanksgiving & More...

 

Virtual Access to Museums Where Every Visit Is an Adventure

Museums are a vital part of the American landscape, showcasing the greatest achievements of the human experience—past, present, and future. Visitors remember, discover, and learn in these museums that present the best of our country’s culture, accomplishments, and heritage.

 

Media Literacy Resources for Making Sense of the News

On November 8, 2022, people across the country voted in the nation’s midterm elections. Facing History has created a collection of short, easily digestible resources to help teachers and their students enhance their media literacy skills.

 

SPOTLIGHT! On Meaningful Discussion About Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches, teachers have the opportunity to engage their students in meaningful discourse about history and how it is remembered. Here are some resources to embrace a new approach to Thanksgiving.

 

STEM-Friendly Adventure Tale Integrating Foundational Coding Concepts

Coding Capers: Luci and the Missing Robot is an empowering picture book from the National Center for Youth Issues that inspires children to dream big and harness the power of computer science in their own lives.

 

 

View the whole Big Book Deal Newsletter for November 15th, 2022

The Archives

Common Sense Education – November 9, 2022

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Common Sense Education - Resource Share

An image of students working on laptops in a classroom. A Common Sense Education text overlay appears in the top right of the graphic."Common Sense is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to helping all kids thrive in a world of media and technology. They support pre-K–12 schools with lesson plans, edtech reviews, family resources, and everything else students need to thrive in a connected world." Below is a custom set of resources pulled from this month's newest updates! Check them out via the links and explore even more at www.commonsense.org/education. VSTE is proud to partner with Common Sense Education.

For Teachers:

For Parents & Caregivers:

 

All Resources via Common Sense Education

All VSTE Posts of Common Sense Education Resources

Solving the Problem of Notebooks in a Digital Classroom

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Although many of us have begun to conduct learning as we did before the pandemic, this former post suggests the use of digital notebooks for use with students may still be beneficial. There are definite takeaways from the methods used over the last couple of years. Maybe this is one of those for you and your students. Former UnisonEdu member Biz Summers originally wrote this article in August of 2020. You can connect with her on Twitter at @BizzyITC.

4 types of notebooks

As we attempt to prepare for a year of new challenges and rethinking our teaching-style, I’ve heard incredibly innovative ideas. I’ve heard teachers prioritizing accessibility and student voice like never before. And as I hear all these ideas, I think that teaching might never be the same again, even when it’s safe for us all to be back in the classroom. That is, with one exception: the interactive notebook. Reimagining the notebook--with its engaging activities and cloze notes--is a challenge for many. Although there is no perfect duplicate, I offer the following suggestions.

Microsoft’s OneNote Class Notebook provides the closest digital approximation to a traditional notebook, but it also presents the most hurdles. If you’re not in a Microsoft district, go on and skip to the next paragraph now. However, if you and your students have access to Office 365, this may be a great solution. Class Notebook provides each of your students with a digital Notebook that only you and they can access. With a few clicks, you can push content to each student, and they can type or draw or add images to the pages that you send them. I don’t know of another tool that so closely mimics the interactive notebook experience, but there are a few drawbacks. OneNote can be used on a phone or tablet, but it takes up a lot of space on the device--too much, if several teachers are using this. For this reason, OneNote is only ideal for a class in which each student has their own, unshared laptop.

A much more flexible solution is available in Google Slides. Teachers can create a notebook in which each slide is a notes template and use Google Classroom or their LMS to deliver those activities and templates to each student. There are so many creative ways to organize these Slides, and because this is a popular technique, great templates are only a short Google away. The Slides notebook limits you only in how far in advance you can plan. Unless you have all of your note templates planned for the year, you’ll have to push out notes over the course of many assignments, which means that instead of one cohesive notebook, students have multiple files to review.

A more traditional approach is to remember that our new normal is not our forever normal. Eventually, most of us and our students will return to a traditional classroom. To this end, students might be best served by keeping a traditional notebook with paper and pencil. Although this does make the “interactive” portion challenging, we know that students who are headed into higher education will need note-taking skills, and synchronous meeting time is an excellent opportunity to model that while delivering content. And in a distance learning situation, students can’t say, “I left my notebook at home!” 

If none of these solutions feels just right to you, I challenge you to consider the purpose of an interactive notebook. I believe our most common goals are that students will have a centralized place from which to study and that they will actively engage with the material we are teaching. If a traditional notebook is no longer an option, how else might we help our students meet these goals? For example, what if a teacher kept a blog covering the content for the year, and asked students to engage with that blog via comments or games or activities within their LMS? If we consider the “why” behind the notebook, what other creative solutions can we find that will help us continue to transform the way we teach?

VSTE Pilots New EdTech Coach Certification!

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The Virginia Society of Technology in Education (VSTE) is proud to announce that it is currently piloting the first cohort of the VSTE Coach Certification (VCC) program. As part of VSTE’s mission to promote excellence in education through professional development and our vision to be an influential leader and change agent for technological innovation in education, the development of a rigorous program for certifying instructional technology coaches across the Commonwealth is an exciting endeavor. Now that the first cohort is underway, we want our membership to know more about the program.

What is the VCC?
The VSTE Coach Certification program was spearheaded by the VSTE Education Committee. After exploring existing coaching models and certifications, VSTE decided to partner with Forward Edge to create a customized instructional technology coaching program for the Commonwealth. Forward Edge is an Ohio-based instructional coaching company that specializes in providing professional learning and support for instructional coaches and technology integration. Several of the VSTE Board members were invited to attend their Forward Edge Coaches Camp in July of 2022. After experiencing the Coaches Camp it was clear that the program was a great fit for what VSTE was looking for, and a collaboration began to redesign the Forward Edge curriculum to specifically meet the needs of our diverse school divisions and technology environments in Virginia. The content adapted from Forward Edge that is provided in the VCC program has earned the ISTE Seal of Alignment for Coaching Standards, and is designed to positively impact division goals, teacher instruction, and student learning.

After completing the VCC program, coaches will:
  • Have a clear understanding of their role as an educational technology coach.
  • Think systematically about the role their coaching program plays in larger district goals and initiatives.
  • Approach technology integration from a learning objective first mindset.
  • Be prepared to incorporate formal coaching cycles into their coaching program.
  • Create and market professional learning experiences founded in andragogical best practice that are personalized, memorable, and lead to classroom implementation.
  • Possess a strong skill set for building relationships and deepening coaching conversations with educators.
  • Utilize data to make informed decisions about their work as a coach and the needs of educators they support.

 

The VCC Pilot

In order to launch the VCC successfully, VSTE is piloting the program with an initial cohort. Under the direction of Rod Carnill, VSTE’s Executive Director, the first group to participate in the VCC was chosen as a representative group from across the Commonwealth. Starting in the 2021-2022 school year, VSTE established a grant funded advisory group of regional technology coaches. This group is now known as the VSTE Coaching Crew and consists of members from each of the 8 public school regions across the state. Prior to this year, the VSTE Coaching Crew provided presentations and resources on a monthly basis through the Virtual Virginia statewide and regional meetings, and they also presented at the 2021 VSTE Annual Conference in Roanoke. This year, the VSTE Coaching Crew has been selected to participate in the VCC pilot, so that VSTE can gain feedback and data on the program during its inaugural cohort. So far, the program has been a huge success! The group kicked off in September with a two hour learning session and reconvened again in October for a one hour collaborative session. All meetings have been synchronous and virtual, and the learning and sharing of knowledge has been exciting!

Future VCC Cohorts
VSTE will be announcing the launch of its next two cohorts at the 2022 VSTE Annual Conference in December. If you haven’t already registered, be sure to join us in Virginia Beach, from December 4-6th. The pilot cohort members, Education Committee chair, and Forward Edge representatives will be presenting on the VCC Program and will be available at several times throughout the conference. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the VCC program in detail, hear from those participating on how it is impacting their work, and find out how you can apply to join one of our future cohorts!
Our hope is that the VSTE Coach Certification will provide credibility and clarity to the role of instructional technology coach across the state of Virginia. We encourage supervisors of instructional technology coaches, current coaches, and aspiring coaches to consider earning their VSTE Coach Certification. This credential will demonstrate a deep professional knowledge of instructional coaching, systemic thinking, and technological innovation that divisions will value for its impact on teaching and learning in all areas.
Interested in earning your VCC?
Be sure to follow @VSTE on social media, become a member of VSTE and follow our newsletters for more information, and join us in December to be the first to learn more and sign up! We are building a network of VCC coaches and we want you to be a part of it!

 

Nominations Open! 2022 Outstanding Technology Teacher, Coach and Leader of the Year Award

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VSTE will recognize and honor Virginia Educators, Technology Coaches and Leaders who are VSTE members (nominee not a member have them join here) and who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education. Award recipients will be selected from a pool of nominations submitted by VSTE members from around Virginia.

Nominations will be accepted from October 12 -October 26. Nominations will be reviewed by the VSTE Board of Directors and past winners. Select nominators will be contacted by November 5 to provide additional evidence and documentation. Nominators are encouraged to work with the nominee to gather this additional information.

Decisions will be made prior to the VSTE Annual Conference. Award winners will be recognized during the opening general session at the annual conference. They are also provided with a complimentary conference registration and two nights of hotel accommodations for the annual conference. This year's conference will be held December 4-6, 2022, in Virginia Beach.

The Awards Committee uses the ISTE standards as the basis for judging the Outstanding Technology Coach awards. Please review the appropriate standards when preparing nomination materials. Nominees are rated solely using criteria identified in the rubric.

Please use this form to nominate a technology coach for this award.

More information about the ISTE Standards for Coaches, ISTE Standards for Educators, ISTE Standards for Education Leaders.

Questions should be addressed to awards@vste.org.

2021 Winner for Outstanding Coach

  • Fara Faust, Virginia Beach Public Schools

2018 Winners for Outstanding Coach

  • Patrick Hausammann, Clarke County Public Schools
    Krystle Demas, Goochland County Public Schools
    Timothy Signorelli, Fairfax County Public Schools

2017 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Tim Taylor, Instructional Technology Supervisor, Shenandoah County Public Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Nichole Thomas, Instructional Facilitator for Technology, Liberty Elementary School, Loudoun County Public Schools

2016 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Dr. Amy Cashwell, Chief Academic Officer, Virginia Beach City Public Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Dr. Ann Nash, ITRT, Henrico County Public Schools

2015 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Dr. Helen Crompton, Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University
  • Outstanding Teacher: Doug Saunders, ITRT, Henrico County Public Schools

2014 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Janet Copenhaver, Director of Technology, Henry County Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Daniel Nemerow, Math and Special Education, Prince William County Schools

2013 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Richard Pierce, Associate Professor, Shenandoah University
  • Outstanding Teacher: Wendy Phillips, literacy specialist at Belview Elementary School, Montgomery County Schools

2012 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Mark Nichols, Special Education Supervisor for Assistive Technology and Individual Education Programs, Loudoun County Public Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Norene Skiles, library media specialist at Windsor Oaks Elementary School, Virginia Beach City Public Schools

2011 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Thomas Woodward, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology, Henrico County Public Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Kristina Peck, Riverbend High School Math Teacher, Spotsylvania County Public Schools

2010 Winners

  • Outstanding Leader: Katie Knapp, Computer Resource Specialist, Virginia Beach Public Schools
  • Outstanding Teacher: Lacy Krell, Salem High School English Teacher, Virginia Beach Public Schools