iEngage Berwyn- The Beginning

Have you ever envisioned something so big, that involved teachers, students, admins, maintenance, custodians, a photographer, a videographer, tech support, parents, and an audience of 400+ people?

Gymnasium at the District Office was
transformed for site visitors

After attending iPadpalooza in Austin, TX where +Carl Hooker lead a team at Eanes Independent School District last summer to put on their 3rd Annual Conference, I began to think... Why can't we host our first EdTech Conference in Berwyn South District 100? An "idea" became a somewhat organized plan while attending Michele Tissiere's Cognitive Coaching PD on June 23-24, 2014 in Berwyn. This 2-day training was one of the best workshops I've attended in my 10 yr educational career (& I didn't even open my device)! When Michele asked for a volunteer to participate in a planning conversation, I immediately raised my hand.

Now here I am sitting in front of 40+ colleagues explaining my "plan" for hosting a conference. I was extremely nervous (knowing I was going to need help & buy in from the people sitting in front of me). But, by the end of the conversation I was feeling confident with a plan to get started. The first thing I needed was a team and a date. On July 8th I reached out to all the attendees + D100 admins and invited them to join a committee to host our first conference. I named the group the iLead Team and asked them to fill out a Google Form if they were interested as well as to share some of their strengths and ideas they had for the conference.

Wordle generated to collect the adjectives that describe the iLead team when asked, "What are your strengths?"

As the responses came in, our leadership team began to form and we set a date for our first meeting. I've shared a basic timeline below, but if you're interested in hosting your own conference here are my biggest takeaways...

iSWAT Student Volunteers 

1. Share your vision for your conference- What will it look like? Who is your target audience? What are your goals? 
2. Put all efforts into your leadership team, listen to them for ideas and feedback, but make decisions when necessary.
3. Create places for team collaboration (ie Google + Community) and set all meetings dates right off the bat!
4. Assign committee leaders & meet with them outside the whole team meetings. (Our leaders meet from 2-3, then the rest of the team joined from 3:15-5 on the same day.)
5. Create incentives and get your staff interested in the conference, without them you don't have a conference! (i.e. At a fall Institute Day, whichever school had the most staff register received a Bagel & Coffee breakfast.)
6. Publicize your event on social media, talk about it at other conferences you attend, get presenters, attendees, VIP's & vendors tweeting about the event!
7. Include STUDENTS- this is WHY we are in education!
8. Make sure all committee members get to experience the conference too! Sign up to present, attend a session, & network.

   

   My partner in crime +Lindsey Bryant
   who had the biggest impact
   on making iEngage Berwyn POSSIBLE

9. If you are the host, create a slide deck ready to input timelines, wifi passwords, presenter introductions, raffle winners & prizes, etc.
10. Create a checklist for what to do AFTER the conference (including take a vacation day)! ; )

iEngage Berwyn exceeded my expectations. I have never been so proud of School District 100! An event like this truly needed everyone working together, each of us with our own strengths. We hosted 486 people from 6 states in 2 days, and because of the incredible twitter feed we helped influence students across the world!


Basic Timeline

• July 17, 2014 iLead Kicked Off Meeting, Conference Dates revealed, expectations shared, Name (iEngage Berwyn) & Hashtag (#iengagebwyn) decided
• July 23, 2014 Website URL Secured, Google +  Community, Shared Calendar & Trello Board Created for iLead team collaboration
• August 7, 2014 Keynote Speakers Announced, collaboration for sharing conference vision to district on Institute Day(s)
• September 4, 2014 Introduce website and committees formed
• October 2, 2014 DAQRI joined iLead meeting, live Google Hangout was recored on The Two Guys Show #39
• November 20, 2014 Proposals due for Break out & Poster Sessions
• December 4, 2014 Proposals reviewed, committees collaborate on "day of" outline & schedule 
• January 15, 2015 Logos and t-shirt design finalized, volunteer schedule started, sponsorship push
• February 12, 2015 -Shirts delivered to iLead team to be recognized as well as promote iEngage at Institute Day, public registration opens using Sched & Eventbrite as platform
• March 12, 2015 Special Events (APPmazing Race, Dream Big with myON, and Adult Social Event) planning, Leadership Panel secured Dr. Rich Voltz to monitor, site visit leaders chosen for 8 buildings
• April 2, 2015 & April 30, 2015 Set Up finalized, final registration push, signage printed, food ordered, check in with all presenters & volunteers
• May 8th, 2015 Site Visit Day arrived, all hands on deck!
• May 9th, 2015 Conference Day arrived, all hands on deck!

#iengagebwyn Tweets

Schools Closed, Educators Connect

For my fellow Chicagoland friends, you have felt the frustration with the Snow & Cold days we've had this winter...

Apple Academy February 2013 Graduates

Berwyn South School District 100 hosts site visits every few weeks, and we had an exciting visit planned for Noblesville School District in Indiana today. I was particularly excited for this visit, because my fellow Apple Academy graduate +Andrew Swickheimer and I recently reconnected via Twitter to talk about our upcoming conferences we are planning, iEngage-Berwyn and iPadpalooza Indiana. Andy was hoping to bring his amazing 5th grade iPad pilot team out to some Apple Distinguished Schools/Programs in IL. So, they packed their bags and took the 4 hour trip to the Chicago Suburbs. They visited Gurnee School District 56 and Aptakisic School District yesterday; then they ventured closer to Berwyn and got a hotel room so they were close for their Berwyn visit today. At 6:00 last night I received the dreaded text... "School is closed tomorrow due to the extreme temperatures."

Nooooo.... I wanted to yell, we have a site visit! Hiawatha Elementary and Heritage Middle School were ready to host visitors and our IN group was already HERE! We thought quickly on our feet, and tried to get a small Berwyn group to join the Nobelsville team for at least an hour discussion since they drove all this way. Several texts and a few phone calls later, Superintendent Dr. Stan Fields, Instructional Coach +Jordan Garrett, Principal +Marilyn McManus and 4th grade teacher +Christina Betz committed to meeting, even though school was closed.

Before we could get through the introductions, we realized we were ALL on Twitter... Seconds later a Today's Meet was started to share our Twitter handles and other links we talked about during the discussions. (What like-minded educators!) We focused the conversations around the 5 categories of an Apple Distinguished Program- Visionary Leadership, Innovative Teaching and Learning, Compelling Evidence of Success, Ongoing Professional Learning, and Flexible Learning Environment. Teachers and coaches from both districts scurried down notes and kept asking, "Wait, what app was that? Oh, we're doing that too. My students are Appsmashing... we use Blendspace to help differentiate our classroom learning outcomes..."

An hour later, we wrapped up the discussion... everyone stood up and started chatting even more! What conferences are you going to next? What did you learn on your other site visits? How are you integrating instructional coaches? It was "district to district love at first site." (Ha, it's still February!)

Instructional Coaches from Nobelsville, IN and
Berwyn South, IL sharing ideas

The point that I'm trying to make is that no matter where we are located, or what our demographics look like (Nobelsville & Berwyn South couldn't be more different on paper), we are all in this teaching and learning world together. We are all trying to integrate the technology into our curriculums, differentiate our teaching, meet the needs of our students, engage our school communities, offer time for professional learning, mold our teaching to match the standards, etc. Let's do this together, let's connect, let's share. Whether you crawl out of your home on a -30 day, attend a conference, or connect with your PLN virtually, continue to learn from each other because your students, OUR students everywhere deserve it.
 

Nobelsville, IN & Berwyn South, IL teachers, coaches, and
admins connect on one of the coldest days this year

1:1 5 Best Practices

Please enjoy my Apple Education Recognition Program Showcase reflection using the 5 Best Practices to sum up the 2 day event. 

Teaching and learning has truly been redefined in South Berwyn School District 100. After participating in the Apple Education Recognition Program Showcase, I was exhausted, but beaming with pride.

On March 6, 2014 I received an invitation from Apple asking South Berwyn to be a part of the 2-day event. (We are a recognized *Apple Distinguished Program 2012-2015.) Day 1 was for a district representative to share their story at Apple Inc. downtown Chicago.  On Day 2, schools/programs were asked to host a site visit in the morning and one in the afternoon. The majority of educators and administrators in attendance were those just starting a 1:1 initiative in their schools. 

Day 1 at Apple Inc. Panelists: Amy Warke from Flossmoor 161, Shannon Soger from South Berwyn 100, Carolyn Skibba from Burley Elementary, and Susan Sullivan from Sacred Heart School.

Visionary Leadership 
Within 2 hours of reaching out to our District Administrators, Principal +Mary Havis and Principal +Marilyn McManus responded that their buildings would be "happy to host" the site visitors.  iCoaches +Ramona Towner and +Todd Bittorf took the lead on helping the buildings prepare for the site visit. Assistant Principal Joe Collins and teachers Claire Martin, Kristin Kennedy, Alex Von Ebers and Amanda Zanchelli welcomed site visitors from Decatur #61, Freemont #79, Gurnee #56 and Single Path Technologies with a presentation. They collaborated using Google Presentation, spoke about Irving's demographics, their journey, and what the 5 best practices look like at their building. (Thank you +Michelle Thorne for the idea!)

Apple Education Recognition Presentation at Irving 

Further Pershing Principal Marilyn McManus, teachers Chrissy Lukasiewicz, Beth Zeller, and Social Worker Marty Stachura created the welcome presentation at Pershing for visitors from Palos Heights #128, Orland #135, Apple Inc., Hawthorn #73, and Wilmette #39.

Apple Distinguished Program Presentation at Pershing 

Innovative Teaching and Learning
Throughout the Irving and Pershing site visits we saw students working in independent centers while the teacher was giving guided instruction to a small group. Classrooms were completely differentiated; the teacher was a facilitator in the classroom. Students were using SMART Notebook for listening and recording vocabulary, Photo Booth for story telling "pre-write", Kid Blog for reading reflections and summaries, augmentative sites like IXL, Xtra Math, and Mathletics for skill and drill, QR codes for immediate feedback, Aurasma to show American Revolution iMovies, and student created CCSS Google Sites to name a few.
In South Berwyn, we are focused on teaching "above the line," and moving lessons up the SAMR ladder. It's important to note that it's not just about the tool students were using, it is about the learning objective. (Thanks +R.J. Gravel & TPACK!) The 3rd grade students were simply creating a Google Site, the objective was to teach next year's 3rd grade class about a specific CCSS. They had to include examples, explanations, etc.

                                    

Ongoing Professional Development
When I walked into Annie Cantafio's (@3c_pershing) 3rd grade classroom, she explained that her students were having "Passion Period." Passion Period is Annie's version of Passion Time because they don't have a full hour to commit to the projects. Annie learned about Passion Times from 2nd grade teacher Jonathan Palles (@JonathanPalles) who did an Ignite Session on Passion Time at our January iLearn Institute Day. Passion Period gives her students choice, choice in what they are learning and in what they are creating for an end piece.

Compelling Evidence of Success

To reflect on Compelling Evidence, I'm going to share a few quotes from the site visit evaluation. 

"I loved to see the students engaged and working independently on different tasks that was differentiated for the students learning!" -2nd grade teacher

"Students were highly engaged in their learning. Teachers were facilitators of learning." -Principal  

"Classroom visits were great. Kids knew expectations and were fully engaged." -Instructional Technology Coach

"The kids and teachers were amazing! Great job everyone!" -Superintendent 

Flexible Learning Environment
I had the pleasure of meeting Instructional Technology Coach +Christine Edwards from Decatur on 9/27/13 at our first site first this school year. We immediately connected on Twitter (@techiechrissie) and have been utilizing our PLN to learn from each other. The fabulous +Molly Miller (also Decatur Instructional Coach) and 6 others drove 3.5 hours to visit South Berwyn for a second time. They wanted more of their teachers to be able to attend the site visit without actually driving, so they brought along @Panganibot, the school's robot. The robot (being controlled from Chrissy in Decatur) traveled to 3 classrooms at Irving, spoke to students, and brought the site visit experience  to those who couldn't make the trip (or get a sub!).

@Panganibot reading the Dry Erase board in 5M at Irving!

Final Thoughts on 5 Best Practices

If you are in the middle of a 1:1 implementation, study the 5 best practices. What are your strengths? Where do you need improvement? The most important area (in my opinion) is Visionary Leadership. Without the vision from administrative staff, it will be extremely hard to "master" the remaining 4 best practices. What is your vision? South Berwyn has a vision of ranking in the top 25% of schools in IL, differentiation and extended learning will help us get there quicker. 

*To be recognized as an Apple Distinguished Program or School you need to demonstrate success in 5 best practices including Visionary Leadership, Innovative Teaching and Leaning, Ongoing Professional Development, Compelling Evidence of Success, and Flexible Learning Environment. The school or district submits a multi-touch iBook as an application. Apple shared with the crowd that successful 1:1 environments all had the above common themes. You can find our iBook in iTunes.