VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

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Six Leaders Earn CETL Certification from CoSN

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From left: Rod Carnill, Jenn Rowan, and Scott Lewis from Frederick County Public Schools

Six educational leaders from two school divisions in Virginia earned the Certified Education Technology Leader (CETL™) certification in early 2019. This rigorous exam was developed by CoSN based on its Framework of Essential Skills of the K-12 CTO. These six educators join 13 other CETL certified leaders in the state.

CETL Andrew Wolfenbarger from Prince William County Schools, led the study group.

From left, Andrew Wolfenbarger, AJ Phillips, Diane Harazin, Deborah Miller from Prince William County Public Schools

 

Achieving CETL certification demonstrates mastery of the knowledge and skills required to build and maintain a 21st digital learning environments in K-12 schools. CETL certified educators must complete 60 hours of professional development every three years in order to maintain their certification.

VSTE is the CoSN state chapter.

Learn More About Certification

 

 

CETL is a registered trademark of CoSN.

 

Award Winning Coaches Say Relationships Are Key

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Krystle Demas, Patrick Hausammann, and Timothy Signorelli, the 2018 Tech Coach of the Year winners, will be featured in VSTE's Digital Day Learning Webinar, Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM. They will be highlighting innovative practices and answering questions about technology and coaching. You can use this link to join us live. 

VSTE asked these leaders to share their best coaching tip and, perhaps not surprisingly, they all focused on the importance of empathy of relationships:

Krystle: One size doesn’t fit all. Working with teachers is similar to working with students in that we can’t expect everyone to be at the same place at the same time. Teachers appreciate a coach that understands and empathizes with their needs and celebrates their successes! I have found that building relationships first and offering a helping hand open the door to allow conversations to start about teaching and learning.

Patrick: When coaching teachers, administrators, or even students… start with empathy. Think back to when you started your journey or align to where your colleague is in theirs. Innovation for each person is different and can be a small step or a giant leap. Taking the time to empathize and build a relationship ensures that you know better how to scaffold your help and how much you can push outside of comfort zones for growth, stopping short of frustration or overwhelming.

Tim: Relationships are key. Empathy helps to build those relationships, and is a learnable skill. Krznaric claims, "Our personal empathy quota is not fixed: we can develop our empathic potential throughout our lives.” Knight suggests that, to build this skill, we need to look back (consider interactions we’ve had with others and how we can be more effective in the future), look at (reflecting on action and identifying when/how we demonstrate empathy), and look ahead (make plans for our interactions in the future).

Join us on February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM, to learn more about how these award-winning coaches have built those kinds of relationships. And, learn about other Digital Learning Day events here. 

 

 

VSTE Partners with Wonder Workshop to Bring Dash and Cue Robots to Virginia Teachers

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banner for Teach Wonder Program

VSTE is pleased to bring the TEACH WONDER 

Professional Learning Program to Virginia Schools

Virginia's recent adoption of K-12 Computer Science Standards has made computational thinking and coding part of every educator's vocabulary throughout K-12. Robots offer an engaging way to integrate these skills across content areas and grade levels. VSTE, in partnership with Wonder Workshop, is pleased to be able to offer the Teach Wonder program to educators in Virginia.

We’re excited to partner with Wonder Workshop to bring the Teach Wonder Professional Learning Program to VSTE members at a deep discount. Save $325-$350 when you register for the Teach Wonder program using the discount code provided through our organization.

ACCESS YOUR DISCOUNT CODE  NOW!

http://www.teachwonder.com/partner-forms.html

Learn  More

 

We've chosen to partner with Wonder Workshop because they are uniquely positioned to provide this resource to educators. Their team of experienced educators and instructional design specialists have also developed a K-5 Learn to Code Curriculum and an Applied Robotics Curriculum for more advanced students.  In addition, they provide an extensive library of cross-curricular lesson plans that address topics from science to storytelling.