2024VSTE Annual Conference

This session designed specifically for new instructional technology resource teachers and coaches who are new to instructional coaching. This session provides an overview to the skills and strategies needed to excel in this position. Participants will explore effective ways to build relationships with teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders in order to promote meaningful integration of technology in instruction. The session will also delve into best practices for conducting technology-focused professional development workshops and facilitating one-on-one coaching sessions. Throughout the session, new ITRTs will gain practical tips and tricks for managing their time, resources, and projects to ensure their success as instructional coaches in their respective educational settings.

We will dive into ten actionable strategies for implementing the science of reading in your secondary classroom. These strategies are designed to align with the Virginia Literacy Act, ensuring that your students develop strong reading skills. In addition to these strategies, we will look at how tools like Book Creator can be used to create universally designed literacy instruction.

Anchoring your classroom in innovation is crucial to enhance teaching and learning. Join us for an interactive session, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Chatbot," where we pit three leading AI chatbots?ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini?against each other to determine the best chatbot for various educational tasks. As Instructional Facilitators of Technology, we will navigate a series of practical prompts, such as creating leveled reading texts, composing professional emails, generating engaging newsletter articles, crafting lesson plans, designing interactive activities, creating assessments, and providing student feedback, to these chatbots to evaluate their performance. Attendees will witness firsthand how each chatbot anchors itself to these prompts, gaining insights into which AI tool is most suitable for different types of educational tasks, ultimately empowering educators with the knowledge to integrate AI effectively into their teaching practices and innovate their classrooms.; Anchoring your classroom in innovation is crucial to enhance teaching and learning. Join us for an interactive session, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Chatbot," where we pit three leading AI chatbots?ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini?against each other to determine the best chatbot for various educational tasks. As Instructional Facilitators of Technology, we will navigate a series of practical prompts, such as creating leveled reading texts, composing professional emails, generating engaging newsletter articles, crafting lesson plans, designing interactive activities, creating assessments, and providing student feedback, to these chatbots to evaluate their performance. Attendees will witness firsthand how each chatbot anchors itself to these prompts, gaining insights into which AI tool is most suitable for different types of educational tasks, ultimately empowering educators with the knowledge to integrate AI effectively into their teaching practices and innovate their classrooms.

Want to attend an exciting session with audience participation throughout? Then you’ve found it! Come and learn through five exciting rounds of head-to-head fun that pit two tools against one another. Accessibility, engagement, student voice/choice, and more will be focal points. You won’t want to miss this fun and fast learning experience!

Taught by a former journalism teacher, this session will empower you to questioning techniques that will help you to connect to teachers and administrators, and connect the dots between problems and solutions. We?ll look at questions that start discussions and open the door to new coaching opportunities, questions that A.C.E. problems, and questions that help the whole child grow, and so much more. You?ll leave confident in your ability to talk to anyone at any time and put yourself in a position to be able to help them.

Ready to level up your classroom? Join two tech-savvy educators as they share their passion for gamification! Discover how to transform your teaching with creative app smashes, awesome websites, and unconventional ideas that will leave your students begging for more. We?ll kick things off by showing you how to blend different apps to create unique and engaging learning experiences. Imagine combining a student?s original writing with a program that allows them to draw using their words or Quizizz as a collaborative problem-solving relay race. Next, we?ll spotlight some fantastic websites and tools that can supercharge your gamification efforts. But that?s not all! We?ll also dive into some outside-the-box strategies that go beyond apps and websites, sharing resources that will help you become the ultimate Game Master! Whether you?re a gamification newbie or a seasoned pro, you?ll walk away with practical tips, fresh inspiration, and a toolkit of ideas to make your classroom more dynamic and engaging. Get ready to game on and watch your students thrive!

Join us for a professional development session that equips educators with the tools to teach machine learning in conjunction with the 2024 Virginia State Computer Science Standards. Learn how to make Machine Learning concepts accessible with a LCPS curriculum guide to engage students through practical resources, effective teaching strategies, and ready-to-use classroom activities. Walk away from this session with an understanding of Machine Learning and inspire the next generation of data scientists and innovators. Transform your teaching practice and empower your students to thrive in a data-driven world.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion on the transformative role of artificial intelligence in education. This session will explore how various school districts in Virginia have successfully integrated AI into their systems, enhancing learning experiences and operational efficiencies. Our panel of experts will share insights on the challenges faced, the innovative solutions developed, and the strategic roadmaps guiding their future AI initiatives. Attendees will gain valuable knowledge on best practices, potential pitfalls, and the exciting possibilities that AI brings to the educational landscape. Whether you?re an educator, administrator, or tech enthusiast, this session will provide a comprehensive overview of AI?s impact on education and what lies ahead.

Do you like having some time added back into your day? Would you like to have high quality materials ready for your students with little to no work on your side? Then this session is for you! Throughout the session, templates will be shared for a variety of Google apps, Canva, Adobe Express, AI Prompts, and whole lesson plans that can be applied to and used in any subject area. Further resources and websites will be shared to continue the learning well after the session ends.

Unlock the potential of Canvas Studio. Learn how to diversify student learning and engagement using this powerful resource. Anchor student success with Canvas Studio. Join our innovative Studio session.

In this session, you will gain all the tools necessary to forge a successful partnership with your new STEM/Tech Buddies teacher using Canvas Commons resources. This relationship offers students an excellent opportunity to explore the world of Tech/STEM, allowing them to share their talents while utilizing the five C's to enhance and acquire new skills.

Demystify digital accessibility in a session inspired by the classic board game Clue. Using ?Keep C.A.L.M. and Choose Accessible Learning Materials? as a resource foundation, participants will use accessibility clues to unravel the secrets of UDL, moving through various "rooms" while gaining insights on how to implement accessibility and UDL principles to support diverse learners.

In today?s educational landscape, ensuring accessibility is not just a requirement but a fundamental aspect of creating inclusive learning environments. This session will focus on the principles and practices of designing accessible course content using your LMS, with a special emphasis on leveraging HTML code for advanced customization. Don?t be intimidated by HTML - you will learn the basics you need to know! Participants will learn through hands-on experiences to create beautiful and organized pages. Join in to sail towards innovation and accessibility, ensuring every student can navigate their educational journey successfully.; In today?s educational landscape, ensuring accessibility is not just a requirement but a fundamental aspect of creating inclusive learning environments. This session will focus on the principles and practices of designing accessible course content using your LMS, with a special emphasis on leveraging HTML code for advanced customization. Don?t be intimidated by HTML - you will learn the basics you need to know! Participants will learn through hands-on experiences to create beautiful and organized pages. Join in to sail towards innovation and accessibility, ensuring every student can navigate their educational journey successfully.; In today?s educational landscape, ensuring accessibility is not just a requirement but a fundamental aspect of creating inclusive learning environments. This session will focus on the principles and practices of designing accessible course content using your LMS, with a special emphasis on leveraging HTML code for advanced customization. Don?t be intimidated by HTML - you will learn the basics you need to know! Participants will learn through hands-on experiences to create beautiful and organized pages. Join in to sail towards innovation and accessibility, ensuring every student can navigate their educational journey successfully.; In today?s educational landscape, ensuring accessibility is not just a requirement but a fundamental aspect of creating inclusive learning environments. This session will focus on the principles and practices of designing accessible course content using your LMS, with a special emphasis on leveraging HTML code for advanced customization. Don?t be intimidated by HTML - you will learn the basics you need to know! Participants will learn through hands-on experiences to create beautiful and organized pages. Join in to sail towards innovation and accessibility, ensuring every student can navigate their educational journey successfully.

This workshop offers an innovative approach to music composition using Apple iPads. Participants will learn how to capture everyday sounds and transform them into unique musical compositions through the powerful features of GarageBand. This hands-on session aims to demonstrate the creative potential of found sound projects and challenge attendees to consider how they might integrate this engaging activity into their own courses. By the end of the workshop, participants will not only have created their own mini-compositions but also gained insights into enhancing student engagement through technology-driven music education strategies. Join us to explore the intersection of technology, creativity, and pedagogy, and leave with practical ideas for inspiring your students.; As we seek novel methods for students to reflect on learning experiences, this session encourages participants to consider the podcast as a creative method for reflection. We have learned the value of reflection, but students are sometimes resistant to providing meaningful responses to our prompts. By encouraging creative methods for the reflection activity, students are more keen to participate and provide in-depth reflections on learning. A brief unit covering the fundamentals of podcasting allows the student to create a podcast format including their own unique intro/outro music, bumpers, and underscore - opportunities to personalize their artifact. Furthermore, the facilitator is able to collect and retain these audio reflections in a portfolio that provides evidence of continued growth and reflection. Adaptable to any content area, this presentation will provide materials and activities to move from ideation to action.