Waffle Bytes

My very first blog post ever was about 10 years ago (May 20, 2010).  It was titled  Textbooks: the Curriculum Security Blanket . I've been thinking about this post the last 24 hours as I prepare to help educators in local districts across 3 counties in my state rethink how they teach. This is such a high-anxiety time - our routines have been disrupted, our health (or our loved one's health) is at risk, daily life is DIFFERENT. We don't know how long this "disruption" is going to last, and we don't know how we will come out changed on the other side. On top of all that,  educators are now having to contemplate how to be "teachers" with our students at home.  And we are falling back to our "security blankets" for in the classroom.  We are trying to bring the comfortable into this new situation, and it concerns me for our success. Why?  I'm talking to educators that want to know what tool to use, and what content to get - they are fo...

There are several upcoming professional learning opportunities that are low-cost/free for educators from #REMC12E districts! #CISD Inspire Workshop: Online and Blended Learning Join us as we explore what opportunities exist for school districts, questions you should be asking during implementation, and legislative impacts concerning pupil accounting/FTE.  Jill Slaught from the Pupil Accounting team will be joining us with her expertise.    This workshop will be   8:30-noon on June 1, 2017 at Calhoun ISD; for more information refer to this flyer . #REMC12E Breakout EDU Workshop We are holding a BreakoutEDU Workshop - experience a Breakout game, then develop one of your own! The first 18 to sign up will leave with their own Breakout EDU kit - complete with box, set of locks, hint cards and more, a $125 value! When : 8:30-2:30, June 20, 2017 Where : Calhoun ISD Cost : $25 (includes lunch) Limited to the first 18 people from #REMC12E - a Breakout EDU...

REMC 12W, 12E, 11, and 15 are partnering together to offer Developing with Technology for Learning   part one of the 21Things4Teachers course.  Please share with the staff in your building/district that may be interested! FLYER: 21Things4Teachers Course Flyer When :  Oct. 10th through Nov. 18th Style : Blended with Face-to-face on Oct. 13 th from 4:30-7:00 Cost : $25 for educators in REMC 11, 12E, 12W, and 15  (this would schools served by the ESA/ISD's in Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Hillsdale, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lewis Cass, St. Joseph, Van Buren counties) $125 for educators outside this area -Cost includes a light dinner -30 SCECHs Available   Registration : http://goo.gl/forms/Q1jAuvZu6b

REMC 12E Sponsored Professional Development Opportunities January - June 2016 The following is the current list of REMC 12E sponsored professional development opportunities.  What does it mean to be REMC 12E sponsored?  The PD cost is either significantly reduced or FREE for educators that work for REMC 12E school districts (Branch & Calhoun counties).  Educators that work elsewhere may participate, but with full course registration fees. 21 Things for iPads - Online, self-paced More Information February 3 - April 28 4-50 SCECHs available, depending on completion items Blended Learning in the Classroom - Blended (mostly online) More Information January 11 - May 23 62 SCECHs available Build a Website with Google Sites - Online More Information January 11 - February 26 March 7 - April 22 May 2 - June 17 Discovering with Technology for Learning - Blended (mostly online) More Information January 13 - February 24 30 SCECHs avail...

Michigan Educators - you have another opportunity to participate in FREE professional development to learn about and implement blended learning in your classroom!  The course runs approximate 15 weeks, starting January 12 and closing the beginning of May. There is one required face-to-face session a couple weeks into the course where you will personally meet with your instructor and learning cohort.  You can expect to spend about 4-5 hours per week on the course (or 6-10 hours per each of the 8 modules).  There is an option to receive 62 SCHECHs (available for $10) if desired. Details are found on the REMC Blended Learning Project page at  http://www.remc.org/projects/ blendedlearning/ .  Registration is found at  http://www.solutionwhere.com/ remcam/cw/main.asp  . You select the face to face location that works best in your schedule. BLiC has graduated over 600 educators across the state of Michigan over the past two years. ...

Teachers have all kinds of tools in their tool belt - when these are online tools, it can become confusing and time consuming for students to get to where they need to be!  The Gather Your Tools pd opportunity is a hands-on session over two days where teachers will set up a Moodle 2.7 course as a launching pad for all their online tools, providing a one stop location for their students to go to whenever online activities are involved.  When:  December 11 (4:00 - 8:30) and December 12 (8:30 - 3:00) Where: Calhoun Area Career Center; 475 E Roosevelt Ave; Battle Creek, MI Cost: $50* *FREE for educators located in REMC 12E (Calhoun and Branch Counties) - provided as a REMC 12E service   Register here ! General Agenda:   https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ZMvrAUVx-_2QSPlP_NLhorNIkVHd0g4m0pbiLuq1PE/edit?usp=sharing Program Goal : Participants will have a course ready to use with students the next day.   Objectives : build familiarity with wha...

MiFlip 2015 3rd Annual MI Flipped Learning Conference We would like to welcome Steelcase Education as a new sponsor of the conference, along with TechSmith! When : Saturday January 10, 2015 Where :  Steelcase University Learning Center Cost : FREE This year’s theme is Blended Learning. The Keynote will be given by Mr. David Tebo Superintendent of Hamilton Community Schools.  Get a chance to talk with Flipped Classroom Published Authors: Brian Bennett, Karl Lindgren-Streicher, Dave Prindle & Delia Bush. Reservations and tickets can be made at Eventbrite . Watch the miflipteaching site and Twitter feed for more information.

You might consider this if you are a mentor teacher, online teacher, or want to educate yourself on Section 21f. Details from MVU: Exploring key trends in online and blended learning The 10 th MVU Online Learning Symposium on November 17 will explore key trends in online and blended learning and examine real-world orientation and support strategies for online learners. Keynote Speaker The keynote speaker will be John Watson, founder of Evergreen Education Group of Durango, Colorado. Watson and Evergreen help schools choose and implement the right online and blended learning strat egies that help schools meet education goals. Micourses.org Showcase Through an inaugural statewide catalog showcase, participants can network with representatives from local and intermediate school districts that collectively offer more than 2,000 online course titles in the statewide c...

Michigan Educators - you have the opportunities to participate in FREE professional development to learn about and implement blended learning in your classroom!  The course runs approximate 15 weeks, starting  August 11  and closing  November 24, 2014 . You can expect to spend about 4-5 hours per week on the course.  There is an option to receive 62 SCHECHs (available for $10) if desired  Details are found on the REMC Blended Learning Project page at  http://www.remc.org/projects/ blendedlearning/ .  Registration is found at  http://www.solutionwhere.com/ remcam/cw/main.asp  . You will select the face to face location that works best in your schedule, and  BLiC has graduated over 600 educators across the state of Michigan over the past two years. If you have any questions please feel free to email  blic@remc.org

This morning while getting around, I was watching Twitter for my usual morning food for thought.  During it I started following a twitter chat (the #coffeecue happening at #ISTE2014) about redesigning the learning environment.  The chat started about the redesigning off the physical classroom - I confess not as much interest to me, but still interesting to follow.  Then it took a turn with the following tweet - and it got me thinking, hard.  And after reflecting on it I've come to the following thoughts/beliefs - many teachers reconstruct/mirror their physical space into the online arena we talk about tearing down the walls of our classroom....and then turn around and build walls in our online environments I think we have a big misperception of an LMS - that it needs to be the be-all and end-all to where our students' learning takes place online.  And it shouldn't  Instead of thinking of an LMS as the structure, we need to think of it as the gatew...

A common issue on many Moodle courses is the plethora of items that end up on the "home" page of the course.  When a person starts building a course, they don't have much so begin with a habit of adding every item on the main page.  Over time, this becomes a monstrous beast, that takes a LONG time to load and eons to scroll through.  There are several methods that can be used to eliminate the "scroll of death" - some take more work than others.  This week I'll show one way to help students focus in on the current topic, and away from an endless stream of content. Viewing a Course by One Section  First - a caveat - you need to be putting content into topical areas for this to work.  If you have everything in the top content box...this won't help. This takes only one step.  Go into your Course Settings, and under the course format change the Course Layout to "Show one section per page:" When in non-editing mode or viewing the course as a studen...

This school year I have attended several conferences that have really emphasized the changing landscape of the classroom.  The conversations have changed from IF classrooms will change to HOW classrooms will change.  The common thread through all of these - whether it is our governor’s drive behind legislative reform in Michigan to iNACOL’s changing vision - is the focus on student-centered learning systems.   What is a student-centered learning system?  According to iNACOL it is a model that “...personalizes learning using competency-based approaches, supported by blended and online learning modalities and environments.”  Further, Teachers use technology daily to analyze and utilize real-time data to differentiate instruction, customize learning and to engage students in deeper learning.  All students are responsible for their own learning and work at their own pace by demonstrating mastery of required concepts, resulting in higher achievement and e...

Occasionally it happens...a student leaves a class, and then comes back in.  Or, even worse, the WRONG student is removed from a course.  With Moodle 2.5, did you know you have the ability to attempt a grade restore when reinstating the student into the course? When in the Enroll Users window, there is an understated area called Enrollment options: Clicking on this, reveals some additional choices available to you: With these choices, you can: opt to try to recover the user's old grades if possible (depends on your database & backup system) have them start from the current date OR the course start date If you have a course that has finite duration, you can set the enrollment duration Another awesome feature when you need it!

One of the newer features within Moodle is the availability of completion status.  As an instructor, you can turn this on (as long as it has been enabled at the server level) and then use it to help students "track" which items they have completed within your course. Advantages of this feature:  There are several advantages: If you do not use the gradebook, it gives an alternative way for students to track their progress It is flexible by activity so you can set completion "standards" such as a grade or action, or even set it so students can mark it themselves It can be used in conjunction with contingencies, so activities can be dependent on each other (students have to complete one activity to see or do another) Disadvantages of the feature:  There are a couple drawbacks to using this feature as well: While a default can be set within your course, if you set parameters for completion it has to be set on each activity It has to be enabled at the server lev...

"How do I start using Moodle?" If you are new to Moodle, it can be easy to become overwhelmed.  This is because Moodle can be used in so many ways that the new user feels lost!  Here are some quick-start suggestions for ways you can quickly begin using it: share handouts on your course so students can access them anytime (no more running to the copier to get additional copies as they can print it out themselves!) - File Resource post links to online resources (no more running around helping students when they type in the URLs incorrectly) - Website Resource create a weekly poll of one question that can test for general knowledge or gather data -  Choice Activity have a student Q&A forum where students can answer each others' questions - Forum Activity By starting out implementing just one aspect of Moodle, you can gain the familiarity and confidence you need while beginning to move your students into a blended environment. ...