Saturday, October 6, 2012

Presentation Topics

Assessing individuals for group project is one of my proposed topics
I have written some proposals for upcoming conferences and webinars. These are the two topics I would like to develop for presentations:
Individual Assessment within Group Challenge and Multimedia Projects

This presentation will explore a variety of methods for evaluating individual students as they work in groups on challenges, problem-solving or other authentic groups activities.  The presentation will consider that a good teacher may be eager to examine prescribed objectives, soft skills, or even unanticipated outcomes.

Evaluation methods such as shared documentation, rubrics, slide presentations, prompts, and podcasts will be discussed by a teacher who has conducted several engaging challenge projects (large and small) with high school students.

The methods presented have specific application to group project learning and broader application to the evaluation of multimedia projects such as slides, video products and audio reflections.  It is hoped that attendees will have lots of questions and suggestions.



What We Have Learned about Professional Development for the iPad
This school year Mercy High School transitioned from 1:1 HP laptops to  the new Apple iPad.  Quickly realizing that no cookie-cutter professional development programs would prepare its staff for a challenging year, Mercy customized its professional development.

The first step was determining how the iPad would fit into the workflow of various curriculum areas.  Additionally, a high priority was given to differentiating PD across a broad spectrum of staff tech mastery and interest. Achieving "buy in" to the new program was considered critical.

Mercy ran workshops, drop-in labs and even a "boot camp".  All these activities will be described in this presentation(warts and all).  Mercy had to adjust and refine its efforts "on the fly" as the staff became better acquainted with apps and the iPad itself.

How does a school provide meaningful PD when its staff possesses widely varied levels of skill and motivation?  Find out how Mercy is doing it in this session.


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