The TCEA 2019 Convention & Exposition has ended and was a rousing success. Our attendees loved San Antonio and the learning was amazing. I know that they will be changing student lives over the next few months as they implement the new strategies, resources, and tools that they learned.
But those of you who weren’t able to attend convention don’t have to miss out. In this blog, I’ll share some of the best ideas that I and the TCEA professional development team saw last week. So you, too, can join in the learning! All you have to do to access the resources is access this website (even if you didn’t attend convention) and do a search for the topic, strand, or presenter you are interested in under sessions. Each presenter was asked to upload their handout to the app (although some have not) and you have full access to all of them.
You can access additional resources by searching for the #tcea hashtag on Twitter. Attendees were great about sharing there, too!
It’s All About Blended
I think the most discussed topic at convention was blended learning. Blended Learning Universe defines it as:
…blended learning is any formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.
Critical to the definition is “online learning, with some element of student control.” In all blended-learning programs, students do some of their learning via the internet. This does not mean using any digital tool, such as an online graphing calculator or Google Docs. Online learning means a bigger instructional shift from a face-to-face teacher to web-based content and instruction.
I found the “Adventures in Blended Learning” session had some great insights into the philosophy behind the movement (and some fabulous resources, too). “Blended Learning for ELL Brilliance” shed some light on using the strategy with special populations. I also learned a lot from “Blended Learning for Brilliance.” Be sure to check out all of those handouts. And Brandey Addison shared these two resources:
Google Still Reigns
Any session that had the word “Google” in its title was packed, as you might expect. A search for “Google” in the app will give you tons of sessions and handouts to pour over. In addition, here are some other Google bits that really popped.
- Use the Fillable Slide add-on for Google Slides to create a Form within a Slide. It adds a live, fillable form onto a Slide and, when completed, it stores the data in a Google Sheet. This can be useful for collecting data or doing a quick formative assessment in the classroom.
- “Gamifying Instruction with Google” offers a clear, step-by-step process for adding game elements to any subject area or grade level, in addition to some powerful, classroom-tested lesson ideas.
- Learn how to create stop motion animation using Google Slides as well as Google’s Stop Motion Animator application with this handout.
- And for some really out-of-the-box thinking, check out “Run Your Classroom Like Google.”
Laughter Unites Us All
Featured presenter Gerry Brooks (#gerrybrooksprin) had some very inspiring (and funny) things to say to attendees. “You cannot change the personalities of people you work with, but you can change you” was one idea that really resonated with the listeners. Another was:
“You need one confidant at school. You can tell them everything. Talking to a second is gossiping, talking to a third is being a bully because you are wanting many others to agree with you and be upset with that person too.”
You can catch other words of wisdom from this elementary school principal on his YouTube channel.
I’ll be sharing even more great ideas from TCEA 2019 tomorrow, so be sure to look out for additional resources and tools!