VSTE News

Big Book Deal, March 1, 2019

March 2, 2019 by Mike Scott

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 Diversity in STEM, News in the Digital Age, Shakespeare in VR & More....

Profiles of Diversity in STEM

Helping students see the possibilities of careers in STEM fields means providing them with diverse role models. PBS LearningMedia has made a list of some of the top black scientists, engineers, inventors, and mathematicians, along with media resources to help teachers to bring their work—and stories—into the classroom.

Coding Adventures for Beginners

Grasshopper is an app by Area 120 for both Android and iOS users who want to learn to code with JavaScript. The app was created by one of Google’s experimental project teams.

3D Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company has taken Shakespeare’s most iconic play to the cutting edge of immersive storytelling in Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, using the power of virtual reality (VR) to plunge viewers into Hamlet’s harrowing journey. This cinematic 360-degree adaptation explores new dimensions of the photoplay medium by casting the viewer as the Ghost of Hamlet’s dead father.

Art Competition Encouraging Preservation of the World’s Oceans

The Science Without Borders Challenge engages students around the world in promoting the need to preserve, protect, and restore the world’s oceans and aquatic resources. The challenge is sponsored by the Khaled bin Sultan Living OceansFoundation to get students and teachers interested in ocean conservation through various forms of art.

Big Book Deal, March 1st, 2019

The Archives

Vote Now for Virginia’s NextGen: Emerging EdTech Leaders

February 4, 2019 by vsteadmin

Two Virginia educators--Chanel Alford-Campbell from Alexandria City and Scott Lewis from Frederick County--have been nominated for the NextGen Emerging EdTech Leaders award, an annual recognition developed and co-sponsored by CoSN and EdScoop. This award is meant to recognize and support emerging leaders who are passionate about K-12 education technology and committed to taking their career to the next level.

Finalists are selected via online voting, and you can help select the NextGen: Emerging EdTech Leaders by casting your vote today. Voting ends at midnight, February 19, 2019. Click here to learn more and cast your vote.

Here's a bit more information about the outstanding nominees from Virginia:

CHANEL ALFORD-CAMPBELL

In just a few months with Alexandria City Public Schools, Chanel Alford-Campbell, a Technology Integration Specialist, has helped to create a professional development plan that includes both digital and in-person components. She also works with a group of girls after school teaching block coding, JavaScript, and coding with sphero robots. With a passion for programming languages, she says she aspires to further the field of instructional technology by conducting research, writing articles, and designing a nationwide professional development model.

SCOTT LEWIS

From Middle School Dean to Instructional Technology Coach, Scott Lewis from Frederick County now mentors and offers feedback for 80 teachers as they figure out how to incorporate technology into their lesson planning. As part of this role, Lewis worked with co-taught and self-contained special education teachers who teach students with learning and physical disabilities on online portfolios and coding. Lewis, along with a teacher and student, were invited to speak before Congress on this work. In addition to his day-to-day work, Lewis founded a weekly Twitter-based edchat centered around instructional leadership called #fcpslearn. He also created the district's first podcast that shares innovative teaching practices and lessons.

Click here to learn more and cast your vote.

Celebrate Digital Learning “Day” with VSTE

February 4, 2019 by vsteadmin

Digital Learning Day, sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education, will be held February 28, 2019.

You can participate: tell us how you define digital learning. Learn More

Our annual award winner webinar will be held via YouTube Live on February 28, 2019, at 7:30 PM. We will feature our three Tech Coach of the Year finalists discussing innovation in their schools and divisions. Use this link to join us live.

VSTE partnered with Common Sense Media for a webinar featuring two VSTE leaders. Meg Swecker, VSTE Board member from Roanoke County, and Tamara Letter, VSTE Conference Committee member from Hanover County, will be discussing Cultivating Kindness: A Foundation for Digital Citizenship on Thursday, February 21, 2019, at 4:00 PM. Recording Available Here

We will be announcing additional events as they are scheduled.

Big Book Deal, February 1, 2019

February 2, 2019 by Mike Scott

This newsletter will help you with Emotional Learning, VR Lab Experiences, Arts Integration & More ........

Tool for Creating Arts-Integrated Curricula

The Phillips Collection’s education team collaborated with K–12 teachers and researchers to develop Prism.K12, an innovative teaching tool for K–12 teachers—of any subject—to create rich arts-integrated curricula. Prism.K12 helps teachers enhance current lessons or build new ones from scratch.

Inquiry-based, Learning-by-Doing Robotics Activity

The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle school and high school students in a team-oriented robotics competition and serves as a way to meet the Next Generation Science and Common Core Standards.

Books Inspiring Children to See Math in the World Around Them

One way to bring the subject of mathematics to life, according to the Mathematical Science Research Institute (MSRI), is through literature. According to the organization, “books connect with the sense of wonder and imagination and creativity.”

The Archives

Making Connections School Safety Summit, April 8, 2019

January 30, 2019 by vsteadmin

The Honorable James Clapper, former US Director of National Intelligence, will provide the keynote for the Making Connections School Safety Summit, co-sponsored by the Roanoke County Public Schools and VSTE.

The summit will be held Monday, April 8, 2019, at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia. Together, presenters and attendees will explore a range of school safety issues including cybersecurity, building security and digital citizenship. Additionally, featured speakers will examine school safety from both the parent and students perspective.

Registration for the event is $100 and includes breakfast, lunch and snacks. A hotel block has been reserved at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.

Conference Program

Hotel Block Booking Link

Featured Speakers:

The Honorable James R. Clapper served as the fourth US Director of Intelligence from August 9, 2010 to January 20, 2017. In this position, Mr. Clapper led the United States Intelligence Community and served as the principal intelligence advisor to President Barack Obama. He is the author of the best selling book, Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence.

Lisa Hamp is a writer and advocate for school safety. She is a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting that took place on April 16, 2007. With her classmates, she built a barricade to prevent the shooter from entering their classroom. Lisa suffered with PTSD for many years after, and she’ll share with you a variety of hard — but powerful — lessons that she has learned since that day.

Michele Gay is a mother, former teacher, and one of the founders of Safe and Sound Schools: A Sandy Hook Initiative. Following the tragic loss of her daughter, Josephine, in the Sandy Hook School tragedy, Michele Gay joined Sandy Hook mother Alissa Parker to establish Safe and Sound Schools as a national resource for school safety. She now travels across the country sharing her message of inspiration, recovery, and school safety education and advocacy.

Matt Dunleavy, the Executive Director of the Vinod Chachra IMPACT Lab (www.radford.edu/impact) at Radford University in Virginia. The IMPACT team is spearheading the competency-based education efforts at Radford University in the areas of education, cybersecurity and geospatial intelligence by delivering online, self-paced, competency-based education (CBE) in high-demand workforce areas throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and several neighboring states. IMPACT is built upon Radford University's established and award-winning programs. It employs research-based practices from cognitive science, analytics, simulation-based learning and gamification in every aspect of its training to ensure it is challenging, highly effective and engaging.

Sean Burke is President of the School Safety Advocacy Council and is considered a school safety and law enforcement expert by the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was a founding member of the U.S Department of Justice School Safety Technical Working Group, and U.S Department of Homeland Security. He also served as a grant review specialist for the United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the area of law enforcement and school safety.

David Raymond serves as Director of the Virginia Cyber Range, a state-funded organization that provides courseware and infrastructure for hands-on cybersecurity education to thousands of students and faculty in Virginia high schools and colleges. David is also Deputy Director of Virginia Tech’s IT Security Office and Lab and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech where he teaches graduate courses in computer networking and cybersecurity. David is a retired Army officer and is co-author of the book On Cyber: Toward an Operational Art for Cyber Conflict.

Thanks to the members of VSTE's Corporate Council for their ongoing support: