TLD 2012 Rescheduled Due to Snow

Our annual Teacher Librarian Day, which was originally scheduled for February 4th, was postponed due to a monster snowstorm courtesy of Mother Nature. Fourteen inches of snow fell on the Denver Metro area the night before the conference, which led to Auraria Campus closing the following morning. Not a team to abandon all hope, we at TPS Metro State quickly decided to reschedule our flagship event.

Morning of TLD 2012!

We feared the worst: TCAP testing resulting in a small crowd, and TLD taking place on a Thursday, but after a quick poll of registrants showed interest, we proceeded to reschedule the conference for Thursday, March 8. We now had an extra month to put all the pieces back together for the conference!

Despite all of our concerns about educators being able to attend,  registrations for the reschedule came flooding in the day we sent out the invitation. With less than an month to register we had an amazing 116 registrations! We were simply blown away by the interest the reschedule garnered. We knew we had loyal attendees, but this was amazing to see, and made all of our extra hard work worth it.

Based on last year’s positive feedback we once again adopted the TED-style conference format. This year, we also did things a bit differently based on requests for longer periods for reflection in-between sessions, a more diverse profile of speakers, and the novel approach of showcasing specific features of the Library of Congress website distilled to a brief 60 seconds.

Bonkrude's shadow as energetic as she was.

This year’s theme was “Primary Passion.” We asked our speakers to give talks revolving around things they are passionate about, with an emphasis on how those passions relate to primary sources and education. We had a amazingly diverse set of presentations:

• a poetry slam by Theo Wilson, focusing on the power of language.
• historical Chautauqua characters re-enacting Nikola Tesla, Molly Brown, and Amelia Earheart, all dressed in  authentic, period clothing that truly brought history to life
• a presentation by Sally Bonkrude, who enticed the audience to move and sing along with in her lecture, which focused on music as a powerful way of getting students involved in classroom learning and memorization.
• 2011 Colorado Teacher of the Year, Michelle Pearson, used the metaphor of Angry Birds to describe how teachers can change their pedagogical philosophy to more effectively match their students’ interest in games.

The conference turned out to be our most successful one yet.  Here’s a few quotes from the participants:

“This conference has helped me awaken to the idea that as an educator we have to both a teacher and a learner.”

“It encourages you to pay more attention then if you were at conference where you bring your own computer where you would be off task and multitasking. So I really love the format, and that it’s quick, succinct, and engages you at the same time.”

Another participant loved Stevan Kalmon’s presentation:

“I found it interesting when Stevan was talking about knowledge not necessarily being bricks, and laying a foundation, because that’s how I’ve always described it, and instead, looking at it as an energy field where there’s always movement. I like that theory and I want to look more into it.”

When asked which presenter was most inspiring, one participant said,

“Theo Wilson and his slam poetry. What an impact with his words, and he talked about using words, and how those have a lifelong impact. And that’s one of my passions: I believe students should be reading speeches and script from history, to understand what was happening at the time. It really hit home. It was really appropriate.”

Backstage Tweetin'

Participants also got in on the act as they were asked to use a Twitter backchannel to comment and share what they were experiencing at TLD 2012. We were  excited to see the participants’ instant feedback, and  that some were even shooting video on their phones and sharing it with their social networks. Keith Patterson with TPS Metro State worked backstage getting the presenters ready to go on. He said “The presenters were really excited about the instant feedback Twitter was giving them. I showed them the Twitter feed as they were coming off-stage, and they were surprised how quickly it validated that their presentations were engaging the participants, and the connections that were being made.”

We’d like to once again thank all of our presenters for making the conference a huge success, and of course, all the participants who not only signed up for the original event, but took the time out of their busy Thursday to make it to the reschedule. It’s nice to know that after 7 of these things we have built and maintained a loyal list of attendees. See you in 2013!

Please be sure to visit our main website to view all the presentations!

Below is a gallery of images from the event. Click on the picture to open.

Mission Control Center just offstage.

Teacher Librarian Day 2012: Primary Passion is a post from:

Workshop Underway!

On April 10th and 12th, some 150 educators of gifted and talented throughout Colorado convened on the Zalman Center in Colorado Springs to discover the power of primary sources. For TPS-Colorado, this workshop marked a first for both attendance level, and also our first workshop offered exclusively to educators of gifted and talented; April 10th for elementary personelle with a focus on Westward Expansion, and April 12th for secondary focusing on the Industrial Revolution.

PS Activity in Progress

After some expected early technical hurdles, district teams of 3 to 6 were actively introduced to primary sources with a very successful “sticky note” analysis activity (adapted from the Harvard article Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana) facilitated by master teacher and American Memory Fellow Mary Johnson.  After every group had time to analyze a primary source and post questions using sticky notes, the products were affixed around the room for other groups to review.

Here are just a few examples of the wonderful work to come out of this activity:

Working with Maps for GT

After some very active participation in the morning, Mary Johnson and TPS director Peggy O’Neill-Jones teamed up to give attendees an overview of what’s available in the Library of Congress digital collections at www.loc.gov. With this understanding, along with a few model activities, participants were able to begin creating their own learning activities and envisioning how to make this work in their own schools and districts.

As a result of this two-day workshop, TPS-Colorado and GT coordinators in Southern Colorado plan to work with select participants to create sustainable learning communities that will further explore the use of primary sources in the gifted and talented landscape.

For a more detailed look at how the two days unfolded and to access all of the associated workshop resources, feel free to check out the workshop wiki.

A special thanks to Gifted Education Regional Consultant, Elaine Derbenwick and all of the staff at Harrison School District for their efforts in making this workshop such a success.  As a result of this two-day event, TPS was introduced to over 50 schools across Colorado in areas such as:

Pikes Peak and Southeast Region GT Workshops is a post from:

Too much planning went into this event to let it go, so we reached out to our presenters, and nearly all of them were available for the new date! Sorry to those unable to make this rescheduled date, but we hope this also brings some renewed anticipation for some. The venue has changed, we will now be in the Tivoli Turnhalle on the Auraria Campus, but we still have some very special guests attending that you won’t want to miss! Register now to reserve your seat for the rescheduled TLD on March 8, 2012! Many original speakers still confirmed, including:

• Colorado State Historian – Bill Convery
• Author & Public Speaker – Jeff Vankooten – Jeff’s Website
• Special Collections Librarian at the Denver Public Library – Wendel Cox
• The Primary Source Librarian – Mary Johnson – Mary’s Blog 
• Teen Tech Guru – Dave Moyer – Dave’s Website 
• Director of the Council on 21st Century Learning – Stevan Kalmon

TLD 2012: Primary Passion Rescheduled is a post from:

There were a few things that made this particular workshop great. One was the use of a tool called TodaysMeet. This tool allows for a backchannel communication between the workshop presenters and participants.  Matt Karlsen, grantee and organizer of the workshop, used the tool as a way for the participants to add their comments and thoughts, as well as pertinent web links and other sources to a stream of constantly updating messages.  This was used as an additional method of conversation outside of the main presentations.

Here’s an example of one of these side conversations:

• I find that my students Love looking at and analyzing pictures. Luke at 17:16 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• Why do you think that is, Luke? What do you think makes that happen? Matt at 17:17 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• Students that are afraid or do not like to read, realize that they can take part in analyzing a picture. Luke at 17:18 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• I believe that we still need to challenge them to read and interact with difficult texts though. Luke at 17:19 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• I wonder if reading and interacting with images will lead students to start reading and interacting with (interrogating) text. Matt at 17:20 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• Have you observed that, Luke? Matt at 17:21 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web
• Definitely. A compelling picture can spark interest which leads to an increased desire to read a text. Luke at 17:23 PM, 12 Jan 2012 via web

Participants were also given opportune moments to add their own voices to the  presentations, and the messages were projected during breaks, in order that everyone could see what others were talking about.

Dr. Cynthia Stout, TPS consulting instructor and presenter at the workshop, had some reservations when she heard the backchannel would be implemented. She believed it would be a distraction to the material being presented, but it turned out to be an effective addition to the workshop. Cynthia believed that it could be used to aid teachers in their classrooms.

An example of this would be to give a shy student, afraid to speak up in class, the ability to submit their answers or thoughts via this backchannel tool. It could also allow for comments and suggestions not specifically on topic to be asked and answered separately from the discussions. It’s something that we at TPS Western Region program have done in the past, but never in a workshop. We look forward to implementing this in our upcoming events.

The second unique thing about this workshop was the incorporation of the lesson study cycle. Using resources from the Library of Congress, the participants built annotated resource sets that they then used as lesson plans for demonstration lessons. These demonstration lessons will eventually be taught in the classroom, which fellow participants observing and critiquing each others’ lessons.

You can read more about the lesson study here and here.

Although the overall arching theme of the workshop was  Imperialism, the participants, after getting into groups, ended up selecting different topics after viewing the plethora of Library of Congress resources. “The Library of Congress takes you to all kinds of places you never knew existed,” Cynthia said. Some of these topics included the 1918 Influenza and WWII propaganda.

After having been asked what the participants gained from the workshop, they were able to share their responses using the backchannel tool:

• I learned how to navigate LOC website as well as how to further stimulate student inquiry. I also learned more about the options on the LOC
• how to filter image searches; large number of LOC preprepared collections; creating ARS.
• The 3 things I learned: To navigate the LOC site, Prezi and the Presentation and Activity link.

Finally, Matt Karlsen who put the entire workshop together had this to say about the power of including primary sources in teachers’ lesson plans:

During last Friday’s demonstration lesson, a group of high school teachers prepared a Prezi on the 1918 influenza epidemic and we gathered to observe a class interact with the sources. When the student I was watching opened the Prezi and saw a photo of a room overflowing with patients on cots, he asked his teacher where the photo came from. The teacher explained that because the influenza was a major event of the day, many photos were taken and remain available. The student looked at the teacher incredulously: You mean these photos are real? Sure, said his teacher. The student’s jaw dropped: Even the baseball game we saw yesterday?

It made clear how difficult it is to whittle away at our students’ misconceptions: Despite the fact that the student had been exposed to primary sources for months, it took until this moment for it to finally sink in that these were real artifacts allowing time travel to an unfamiliar past. I felt lucky to have witnessed the breakthrough!

Read Matt’s post about the workshop at the blog Teaching American History in SW Washington.

Washington State – Educational Service District 112 (January 12-13, 2012) is a post from:

The TPS-Colorado workshop held on January 4 for the Academy District 20 Talented and Gifted Program, “Differentiation While Using Primary Sources in the Classroom,” was a great success.

The workshop, with a focus on the topic of Westward Expansion, was presented by TPS instructor and Master Teacher Mary Johnson, and Ruthi Manning-Freeman, Assistant Director for Talented and Gifted Education. Nancy White, 21st Century Learning and Innovation Specialist, and Christine Schein, Coordinator for the Schools of Innovative Learning, assisted in the presentation.

Resources included Library of Congress presentations and primary sources relating to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Assimilation through Education. The group explored the integration of 21st century skills, dual inquiry, and reflection into the selection and analysis of primary sources.

In the dual inquiry model, educators take the role of both teacher and learner, and benefit from awareness of both as they consider how their students will think when in inquiry. This model, created by Peggy O’Neill-Jones, Cindy Stout, Linda Sargent Wood, Michelle Pearson, and Stevan Kalmon, is based on the work of Barbara Stripling’s Inquiry Model.

Holding the workshop in an elementary school library rather than in a computer lab allowed the 25 participants to spread out and relax in informal groups. The small groups became engaged in the material as they browsed the Library of Congress collections and brainstormed ways to introduce primary sources into curriculum for their talented and gifted students.

The group also discussed the potential of using QR codes in exploration of primary sources. A QR code provides a physical link to an online source of information. An example of how to use this technology would be to attach a QR code to a primary source, or use an image editing program to insert a code into a digital image of the primary source. Students can then use a smartphone or tablet with a QR code reader to scan the code, which would then take them to a wiki or web page with information about the primary source.

This workshop was a huge success, as it ended up tying nicely into future events that we will be holding. Later this year we will be conducting another workshop specifically focusing on Talented & Gifted teachers. This time it will be offered in collaboration with the Pikes Peak Southeast Regions Gifted Education Program.

Participants shared their excitement about the possibilities that primary sources and new technology offer to their talented and gifted students. An attendee left the workshop so impressed she was able to convince her principal to send 20 teachers to our upcoming Teacher Librarian Day 2012!

Academy District 20 Talented & Gifted TPS Workshop (January 4, 2012) is a post from:

You can read additional information about the service here.  And, if you’re not at work right now being blocked by a firewall, you can peruse the Youtube EDU website here.

And here’s a video talking more about it:

Google is Now Offering Youtube for Schools! is a post from:

Sixth Floor QR Code Pictures is a post from:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sixth Floor Workshop Pictures is a post from:

Sixth Floor Texas Theatre Pictures is a post from: