Were you able to meet the challenges presented to you and your students caused by the Coronavirus? Or were you left wishing you had more tricks and felt more confident about utilizing online tools, or wanted to add more options to make your virtual lessons more engaging?
This summer’s KAIRS K-12 Teachers Conference will focus on staying connected to each other. Together, we will focus us on becoming better virtual educators and learn about some helpful technology tools.
We must all balance our screen-time. How do we do that and condense a 6.5+ hour curriculum packed day into an hour daily, or even an hour weekly? While we are constantly trying to make each minute count and whittle our pedagogy with quality over quantity, what are the main skills you want your students to master and apply successfully in their future academic journey? Monica, Jessica, and Leslie are three presenters you won’t want to miss! We are excited for you to learn from their expertise!
Plan to attend the 9th Annual Teachers Conference July 15 and 16. This year's conference will be held virtually via Zoom! The two-day event will feature outstanding speakers and you will have the opportunity to learn new skills and improve your communication as you strive to motivate, grow, and stay connected!
CONNECTED...To Our Students,
To Our Future, To Each Other
KAIRS K-12 Teachers Conference
July 15-16
Conference Schedule: 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Location: Wherever you are via Zoom!
Speaker Schedule:
WEDNESDAY:
Keynote - 9:00-10:30 a.m. - Dr. Monica Burns, Wed., July 15th. “Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom."
Working Lunch with Michelle Bolin, KAIRS Summer Conference Director - 12:10-12:45
Afternoon Session - 1:00-2:00 p.m. - Dr. Monica Burns Wed., July 15. "Diving Deeper into Tasks Before Apps: A Closer Look at Interactive Tools."
THURSDAY:
Morning Session - 10:40-11:40 a.m. - Jessica Herring Watson, Thurs., July 16. "Learning for All: Cultivating UDL Practices in the Classroom."
Working Lunch with Michelle Bolin, KAIRS Summer Conference Director - 12:10-12:45
Afternoon Session - 1:00-2:00 p.m. - Leslie Fisher, Thurs., July 16. "Gadgets With a Touch of Remote Learning."
Featured Speaker
Dr. Monica Burns
Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of classTechTips.com
Curriculum and EdTech
Wed., July 15 : Keynote 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.
“Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom."
When we place tasks before apps we value the importance of identifying goals for students and elevating traditional experiences with digital tools. The purposeful design of tech-rich learning experiences can enhance classroom collaboration and honor curiosity in the context of creation experiences for students. Dr. Monica Burns will introduce strategies for examining technology integration to empower students as creators and collaborators. With thoughtful planning and purposeful connection to learning objectives, students can become creators in your classroom as they explore content in any subject area.
Wed., July 15: Afternoon Session 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
"Diving Deeper into Tasks Before Apps: A Closer Look at Interactive Tools."
What can blended learning look like in your school? With a clear plan for instruction, educators at all levels can implement blended learning in any subject area. Join Dr. Monica Burns, author of Tasks Before Apps, as she shares blended learning basics and helps you explore how to curate resources, set routines, create tasks, and introduce tech-rich experiences to students. This session includes a closer look at interactive tools for student consumers, collaborators and creators!
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Dr. Monica Burns is a Curriculum and EdTech Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of ClassTechTips.com. As a classroom teacher, Monica was part of her school’s leadership team and used digital tools to create an engaging, differentiated learning experience to meet the unique needs of her students. Monica started ClassTechTips.com in 2012 to help make EdTech easier for fellow educators.
Since starting ClassTechTips.com, Monica has presented to teachers, administrators and tech-enthusiasts at numerous national and international conferences including SXSWedu, ISTE, FETC and EduTECH. Monica is the author of Tasks Before Apps: Designing Rigorous Learning in a Tech-Rich Classroom (ASCD), #FormativeTech: Meaningful, Sustainable, and Scalable Formative Assessment with Technology (Corwin), co-author of 40 Ways to Inject Creativity into Your Classroom with Adobe Spark (Elevate Books), and several other publications.
Monica visits schools across the country to work with PreK-20 teachers to make technology integration exciting and accessible. In addition to being named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2013, Monica is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Hunter College, and completed a Doctorate in Global Education Leadership at Lamar University in 2016.
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LUNCH - Lunch both days will be a working lunch!
12:00-12:45- Let’s Break it Down and Collaborate!
It is a working lunch! Grab a snack and return for a discussion lead by Michelle Bolin, KAIRS Summer Conference Director, regarding Monica’s and Jessica’s morning sessions. What was interesting for you and how do you think you can implement what you have been presented? What questions do you have? Concerns? What are you excited about trying in your classroom?
Additional Speakers
Jessica Herring Watson,
Clinical Instructor in the College of Education at the University of Central Arkansas
Wed., July 15: Morning Session 10:40 to 11:40 a.m.
“Cultivating a Balanced Digital Diet.”
In today’s world, we are constantly inundated with information and media. It can all be very overwhelming! As educators, it’s important that we embrace our role as teachers of digital citizenship skills, providing our students with the skill sets necessary to consume, create, and share responsibly in an increasingly digital world. Together, we’ll take a look at just how much our students are consuming and creating in a typical day, explore strategies for helping students cultivate a balanced digital diet, and consider how we can model balanced technology use and digital citizenship skills for learners of all ages.
Thurs., July 16: Morning Session 10:40 to 11:40 a.m.
"Learning for All: Cultivating UDL Practices in the Classroom."
In this interactive session, participants will explore the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and discover tools and strategies that can be implemented to better support all learners in the classroom. The session will begin with an overview of the UDL guidelines and checkpoints and an explanation of why UDL practices are a necessary part of teaching today’s learners. Participants will then have the opportunity to explore the guidelines and engage with one another in hands-on, collaborative activities. Participants will leave the session with a variety of tools and strategies that they can put into practice in their own classrooms that will benefit all learners.
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Jessica Herring Watson is a Clinical Instructor in the College of Education at the University of Central Arkansas, working with both graduate and undergraduate education students. She is a former middle school and high school English teacher, an Apple Distinguished Educator, ISTE Certified Educator, and Google Certified Educator. Jessica is fortunate to work with K-20 teachers and students in a variety of settings as a teacher and trainer. She has earned a Masters in Teacher Leadership and Instructional Facilitation and is currently a doctoral student studying Instructional Design and Technology. She was named Teacher of the Year for Benton Middle School in 2014, and in 2016, was an ISTE Technology in Action Award recipient for her work with coding in the literature classroom. As an ISTE, NCTE, AMLE, ILA, and SXSWedu presenter, Jessica's primary focus is on creating meaningful relationships between technology-enabled learning and engaging pedagogy.
Leslie Fisher
Director of Fisher Technologies Inc, or lesliefisher.com
Thurs., July 16 Morning Session 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
"Tools You Can Use Tomorrow with a Hat Tip to Remote Learning."
Within days the ways educators presented their content to their students as well as the tools and solutions they used changed. So many new things were discovered along the way and in the process, some of our favorite solutions adapted with new features to help educators in both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
This session will look at some of the most engaging and easy to use tools for your classroom. You might discover some new features in your favorite solutions and learn about some solutions that might be entirely new to you. This session is fast paced with the goal of showing you tons of solutions to hopefully guarantee you walk away with an item or two (hopefully more) that can be used in your classroom right away.
Thurs., July 16 Afternoon Session 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
"Gadgets With a Touch of Remote Learning."
Sitting in your closet, kitchen or some other place you never thought you would need to use professionally? Maybe you lucked out and have an actual office for your full-time or part-time online life. Either way, if you like gadgets that can possibly upgrade your remote life or simply like gadgets this session is for you. We will look at hardware, software and tchotchkes that can help you be more online effective. Video, lighting, device stands, mobile and desktop utilities as well as miscellaneous items will be discussed. Just like my regular gadget session, hide your wallet. This might be a little costly but oh so hopefully helpful.
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Leslie Fisher's interest in technology began while studying music at the University of Southern California. She quickly realized the value of utilizing computers for music mixing and recording. She grabbed her 300 baud modem, jumped on the Internet (before anyone really called it the internet) and started looking for music resources. She soon realized she was spending more time discovering technology than playing music so she changed her major and tried to figure out what geeky thing she could do for the rest of her life.
After graduating from USC with a Business and Marketing degree in 1989 and a quick stint as a Trainer, Leslie joined Apple Computer in 1992. When the Internet took off in 1994, Leslie was one of the first Apple employees assigned to study Internet growth and implementation.
In 1997, Leslie was roadkill on Apple's road to recovery and part of their massive lay off. Leslie planned to spend most of her huge severance package golfing and waiting a few months to look for a job. The day after her layoff, her phone began to ring with Apple customers requesting consulting, training and presentation services. Before she could say fore, Fisher Technologies Inc. was created to help educators with their technology implementations and decisions.
Fisher Technologies Inc. is now a worldwide company (meaning one employee named Leslie gets to travel the world teaching) specializing in presenting emerging and practical technology solutions to educators all over the world.
Download the K-12 Summer Teachers Conference Info and Registration Flier
Register Today! Registration Is Free!
Conference Attendees Can Receive One Graduate Credit from Friends University
To enroll for the Friend's University credit hour, head to this website www.friends.edu/
Conference Questions?
Dr. Jamie Finkeldei, KAIRS Vice President/Treasurer
Associate Superintendent, Catholic Diocese of Wichita
316-269-3950
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or Amy Pavlacka, KAIRS Communications Director
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