Teaching with Ignites

Over the last few years I have being using the Ignite Talks model with my students.

Ignite Talks are

IGNITE IS A SERIES OF SPEEDY PRESENTATIONS

Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is a fast and fun presentation which lasts just 5 minutes.

Ignite events are held in cities around the world.

"Enlighten us, but make it quick.? 

Why use this format with 4th and 5th graders? Why not? We talk about preparing students for the world, so why not let them use tools of the world within the classroom...

An Ignite about Teaching with Ignites

I recently wrote about how we use the Ignite format of presentations in my school. After a few years of working with students on this particular format I felt it was time that I actually gave an Ignite talk in front of an audience that wasn't entirely my students.

I had the opportunity to give an Ignite talk at the LHRIC Tech Expo 2018 event. The closing session of the event was a 5 Minutes of Fame or Epic Fail session, which was pitched as an opportunity for participants to speak for 5 minutes about a great success or fail from their classroom or school. I decided to take the title, 5 Minutes of Fame of Epic Fail, literally and use it as an opportunity to give an Ignite about how I use the Ignite format with students. I was either going to get through it or fail epically... but I had to do it to show my students we all walk the same path.

So, here it is, my Ignite about Teaching with Ignites:

It took a lot of work, a lot of rehearsing, a lot of editing and revising; all the things I always push my students to do with their Ignite talks. And I took the big stage.

Did it go perfectly? No. I stumbled a lot and missed things I wanted to cover. Nerves. But, I'm glad I did it, and I love the fact I now have my own Ignite video to use with students as a mentor text.

Looking forward to doing another one...

4th Grade Ignite Talks

In 2018 we tried the Ignite Talks format with a single 4th grade class. This year we did it with the entire grade.


Before we dive into the awesomeness that is the 4th grade Ignites allow me to define Ignite Talks and how we use them…

Ignite Talks originated in Seattle as a new style of presenting. The format is: “5 minutes, 20 slides, auto-advancing every 15 seconds… enlighten us but make it quick.” 

We have modified that format for 4th grades;

“7 slides, 15 seconds per slide, 1:45 to tell us your story.” For the 4th grade we took the social studies unit The American Revolution and centered the Ignite Talks around that idea and area of study.

Last year the Ignites were a reflective presentation on their Colonial America unit of study. This year their Ignites are all about their study of the American Revolution. Their unit of study around the American Revolution was a 6+ weeks history experience. They researched, read novels, created period-inspired political cartoons and diary entries, and looked at the major factors, from both sides, of the start of the American Revolutionary Way. Their Ignite Talks are a summary of their experience. We gave them 7 slides and 1:45 to tell about their learning experience, in their own words. It is the ultimate reflective assignment, they had to look back at the full experience and think about the different assignments and projects and how they connected, or didn’t, with each. These Ignites are their literal final project for this unit, summing up everything they did, learned, experienced, and how they felt about it all. All in one minute and 45 seconds…

Pushing the limits of presentations with 5th graders

Toward the end of every school year the 5th graders embark on their Capstone Projects. They choose an area of interest, develop a main inquiry question and related sub-questions, seek out experts in their field of interest, conduct interviews, go on site visits, and do a ton of traditional book and web-based research.

It is an awesome undertaking and the students are immensely engaged. It is a project that they drive, based on an area of their interest. It's part traditional research project, part passion project, and an epic culminating activity.

In the past all their hard work resulted in traditional tri-fold board. Printed pictures, printed slides with questions and answers, and students waiting for people to come around ask them about their project during a parent open house...

4th Grade Colonial America Ignite Talks

This post was originally written for the @HeathcoteTech blog and first appeared at http://blogs.scarsdaleschools.org/heathcotetech/2018/05/27/4v-colonial-america-ignites/

This year we tried something different, we decided to try the Ignite format with 4th graders.
The Ignite Talks format is something we've done with 5th graders for a few years as part of the CapCon! capstone learning conference and this year we thought we'd roll it down to 4th grade.

So, what is an Ignite?

Ignite Talks originated in Seattle as a new style of presenting. The format is: “5 minutes, 20 slides, auto-advancing every 15 seconds… enlighten us but make it quick.”

We have modified that format for 4th grades; “7 slides, 15 seconds per slide, 1:45 to tell us your story.” For the first time trying this format with 4th grade we took the social studies unit Colonial America and centered the Ignite Talks around that idea and area of study.

Students wrote scripts about their experiences during the unit and tuned those scripts into a 1:45 talk about their learning. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't supposed to be. It took a lot of editing, revising, practicing, peer-feedback, and on and on, but they knocked it out of the park.

Check out all the 4V Colonial America Ignites here:



The students were amazing! Can't wait to see them rock CapCon! 2019 as 5th graders.

ACTEM 2019 Reflections

ACTEM is the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine. I had the pleasure of attending their fall conference this year and it was a blast.

Maine is doing some great things with technology, with state support and the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI)...

In 2002, Maine became the first state to provide a personal portable computer device to each 7th and 8th grade student and teacher, along with the software, wireless networks, technical support, and professional development needed to effectively use the technology for teaching and learning.  Read more about the groundbreaking MLTI program on the History page.

The program has changed somewhat over the years, but the goal remains the same:  to provide State support for access to technology-enhanced educational experiences for all students. In the 2018-19 school year, the State will be helping over 300 schools obtain educational technology and the professional learning necessary to take advantages of all that technology offers.

The conference had the usual slate of featured keynotes and breakout sessions. What I found so valuable was for the relative small size of the conference (a few hundred attendees) the quality of the presentations, and skill/knowledge of the presenters, was amazing.

Basecamp 2019

June 27th, 2019. The first day of summer vacation. But it was also #Basecamp2019 hosted by Chappaqua Schools!

It was a great way to end the school year and kick off summer; reconnecting with colleagues and friends, meeting new ones, sharing, learning... it was a great finish to the year and a perfect way to start the summer.

One of my favorite moments of the day was the Symposium Session run by Daniel Valentin and Valerie Brunow. They created a NCAA-style bracket challenge around poetry and crowning a "best poem." It was great to look at something like poetry in that way, since poetry isn't something you can easily say is best or worst, especially across different genres and the different ways to experience it (reading it, having it read to you, or watching a video of the poet read the poem as they intended).

It was a great session that got me thinking differently about poetry as well as how I might have some fun with a tech-focused bracket challenge.

In addition to watching a number of sessions, I presented a few things during the conference and this blog posts will serve as the central repository for all the things I rambled on about.

And a big thanks for Ellen Moskowitz for capturing my finest summer shirt during my Adobe Spark roundtable discussion

Adobe Spark blog posts
Poetry with Adobe Spark
Social Studies with Adobe Spark Video


Ignite the Student Presentation: Ditch the TriFold and Ignite Passion and Creativity
This is the 4th year we've done CapCon! with TED and Ignite Talks and every year is a new challenge and a new success, and it was great to share it with the folks at Basecamp mere days away from the event.

Check out all the Ignite and CapCon! blogs posts from previous years to see how we've evolved the process.

Thank you to everyone I connected with, reconnected with, came to my session, sat at the roundtable, or just said hello to. I had a great day!

And of course, big thanks to Chappaqua Schools for hosting!

CapCon! 2017 - a capstone learning conference

Every year the 5th graders of Scarsdale participate in Capstone. Capstone is the last two months of school, post-standardized testing. Students choose a topic, research it, and create a final product. It is designed to be a self-directed, passion/interest based assignment. And it ends with a tri-fold board...

For the second year in a row our school decided to turn it on it's head. We launched CapCon! last year, and this year we did it again...

We began the 2017 CapCon! season the same way we did in 2016, with a "No more tri-folds" blog post and lesson.

Here's how we did it...

ASCD 2015 - Day 1

This is my third year coming to ASCD. I love this conference. It's not just tech. It's not just curriculum. It's not just teachers. Of all the conferences I've been too I think ASCD is always the most varied in terms of session topics, featured speakers, and overall coverage of education. It's always a great few days.

Every project is a story...

Every project is a story

Lately I've been coalescing my thinking and teaching around this single notion. That every project is a story. Students are telling stories about their learning. Some are written stories; poems, reflections, personal narratives and so on. Some are media based; presentations, videos, music. Regardless of the medium and regardless of the expectations and rubric, any good project a student creates, that truly demonstrates their leaning ,is one in which they tell a story. They tell their story of their learning.

And with any story, start with the why. Why am I telling it? Why am I making the choices I'm making? Why is this the way I telling it?

Thinking about my why: I am a purveyor of geekery

I am not a computer teacher.

I am not a technology teacher.

I am not an integrator, facilitator, technician, or guru.

I am a purveyor of geekery.

Why?

I am a purveyor of geekery because I am more than any of those first items listed. I am more than a pigeonhole of knowledge or experience. I am a teacher, a techie, a learner, a nerd, a student, a person with a passion. It is that passion, for the geeky side of life, for the things that aren't limited to electronics but still wave the geek flag with pride, that makes me a purveyor of geekery.

I've been reading Simon Sinek's Start with Why and it has really opened up my thinking and my approach to what I do.

EdTechTeacher Summit 2018

It's #ettsummit time!

EdTechTeacher always puts on a great conference. This year Dr. Ayana Howard kicks off the 2-days of learning with a great keynote about STEM education and the future of robotics in education.

My colleague, Christine Boyer, and I are at the #ettsummit to share some things we've done, but more importantly to get feedback on our process as well as gather new ideas and different ways of approaching things.

It's always important to get out of our own echo chamber and see the awesome going on in the world outside out own building and district.

During the summit I am presenting on storytelling and movie making, from paper to YouTube. Christine and I are also doing a joint session on student presentations beyond tri-fold boards. Christine did a session on blogging and an Ignite about Makerspaces.

The slide decks for all of these sessions are below...

CapCon! 2018 - a capstone learning conference

Every year the 5th graders of Scarsdale participate in Capstone. Capstone is the last two months of school, post-standardized testing. Students choose a topic, research it, and create a final product. It is designed to be a self-directed, passion/interest based assignment. And it used to end with a tri-fold board... But not any more...

Once again the 5th graders were amazing and rocked the CapCon! Capstone event.   

CapCon! a capstone learning conference is our yearly 5th grade culminating activity. For years it was a traditional tri-fold museum, but we just wrapped up the 3rd year of the switch from tri-fold Capstone to CapCon! which is all about student voice and presentations; TED and Ignite style...

CapCon! 2016 - a capstone learning conference

Every year the 5th graders of Scarsdale participate in Capstone. Capstone is the last two months of school, post-standardized testing. Students choose a topic, research it, and create a final product. It is designed to be a self-directed, passion/interest based assignment. And it ends with a tri-fold board...

This year our school decided to turn it on it's head.

No more tri-folds.

We created CapCon! a capstone learning conference. The vision was to create a professional learning conference experience driven by students, their research, and their work.

We spoke a lot about Ignite talks, TED Talks, professional quality documentaries (we used 60 Minutes and Real Sports as reference points). We created flyers, posters, and all the traditional marketing material associated with conferences like ISTE, ASCD, FETC. We wanted our students to create professional-quality research projects, so we treated them as professionals. Professional learners, creators, makers, and presenters.

And the students were amazing!

Here's how we did it...