August 7, 2017 at 3:54 p.m.
Teachers and administrators prepare for new school year at annual Hodag Tech Fest
Teachers and administrators prepare for new school year at annual Hodag Tech Fest
By Kayla Thomason-
There were 115 teachers and administrators in attendance, far surpassing the previous year's total of 80, organizers said.
The first day covered engagement and getting to know the students. The second day was focused on representation and how teachers present information to their students. The third day focused on action and expression -how the students show what they know.
All of the sessions were taught by teachers who also designed the material.
Heidi Catlin, instructional technology coordinator, thought this year's Tech Fest was very successful.
"They're excited to learn," she said. "I've heard a lot of comments, 'I can't wait to use this in my classroom,' 'I've so many ideas I don't know where to start,' but they seem to be really excited," she said. "They're having a lot of fun, I give them a lot of credit. It's summer (and they are focused on continuing education)."
Sessions covered YouTube, a break out session (similar to an Escape Room), and more.
In the break-out session, participants were given a scenario involving a box with four locks. They had to work as a team, think critically and find clues to break into the box within a one-hour time limit. They had two hint cards they could use.
Break-out rooms can be used for nearly every subject in school, organizers said.
"Everybody had so many different ideas, it really took the whole team to help converse and problem solve out loud and there was a good comment that someone made, 'There really was no stupid idea, everything was tried,'" said Martha Knudtson, principal of Pelican Elementary School.
Knudtson added that the hint cards were helpful in keeping the group on track.
Mara Krueger, spanish teacher at RHS, loved the break-out session.
"It's just amazing how much the students can collaborate, work together to solve a problem, engaging in this learning process of trying so many avenues to work as a team," she said. "So communication is important, problem solving is another and those are ways to engage the students in the classroom."
She is excited to try the game in her classroom, and said it helps to bond the students and teachers.
Knudtson was pleased with everyone's enthusiasm for the material and can't wait to see it implemented in classrooms this fall.
"The focus of this Tech Fest was UDL - Universal Design for Learning - and so we all are learning so much about that, lots of ideas to take away, bring back to the classroom. New technology was introduced, actual devices," she said.
She said she hopes the teachers take away the UDL components and share them with others throughout the year.
As an administrator, she liked seeing other ways to support teachers, offer suggestions for sites and games to go to, and is eager to use this information to engage the students.
"Engagement is huge, we ask our students to do a lot and every day is rigorous and in order to move them forward we need to have that engagement piece and there's lots of different ways we can do that," Knudtson said.
She also enjoyed the Twitter session and communicating with the stakeholders in the community.
Krueger was impressed by the new ways available to test the students and collect data.
"Everything has been so useful in one way or the other, there's no session that you're not going to be learning something or doing something," she said.
She was also excited to work with the technology and thinks it is critical for students.
"I think the component of the technology, many people criticize the amount of technology the kids are using these days but we are being trained to use the tool efficiently so the students can learn or develop a skill they are going to need in the real world," Krueger said.
Jenny Borchardt, special ed teacher at Crescent Elementary, said she learned a lot.
"So far so good, it's been three days of a lot of learning of technology," she said, adding that she will probably implement iPad apps in her class.
She enjoyed a lot of classes, but thought the Twitter session was beneficial.
"I think the Rhinelander school district kind of has an edge on other districts that I've worked with, they seem to have a lot of technology in place," she said. "It's exciting."
Catlin always tells the staff to start with one thing they have learned from the past few days and add more to their own classes later in the year so they don't get overwhelmed.
"I think that our educators are passionate about what they're doing, they're passionate about learning more, they're passionate about learning for their students and taking it back into their classroom," she said.
Many of the sessions were recorded on a piece of technology new to the school - a Swivel.
"It's basically a tool that allows us to record our instruction and we have a variety of different ways we are going to use it," Catlin said, adding that the Tech Fest sessions will be uploaded so people who couldn't make it to the event can watch them.
The Swivels will also be used in the classroom so teachers can see how they teach and if there is anything they want to tweak.
Part of the funding came from a Wisconsin Technology Initiative grant, which allowed them to open it to other districts.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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