Click here to hear a presentation about our Genius Bar
|
|
The Brauer Staff Genius Bar is a one hour session held fortnightly that gives staff the opportunity to come together and share best practice. It also gives staff a vehicle for accessing the collective knowledge of their peers and provides a safe, collaborative environment where everyone can ask questions and get support for any area of their professional practice they wish to improve in. We target key areas each session which have been identified through staff feedback and or select a topic that supports our Pedagogical Framework.
At each session we may cover two or three different topics and aim to provide a 'Genius' (preferably another staff member) who is willing to share their knowledge.
Not all staff members are able to attend the sessions so we will also ask each member who turns up to 'Pay it forward' and share what they have learnt with someone else to ensure we are able to build capacity across the college.
At each session we may cover two or three different topics and aim to provide a 'Genius' (preferably another staff member) who is willing to share their knowledge.
Not all staff members are able to attend the sessions so we will also ask each member who turns up to 'Pay it forward' and share what they have learnt with someone else to ensure we are able to build capacity across the college.
Genius Bar - 12/2/2015 - XUNO Management System and Nearpod for beginners
Our first Genius Bar was highly successful with 11 staff attending. The focus was on the 'Ins and Outs' of XUNO (our Student Management system) with a specific focus on using the Markbook and also how to use Nearpod as a presentation, engagement and formative assessment tool. Some staff spent the time creating their own Nearpod presentation and some were busy perusing the Nearpod store where there are many really good free and paid presentation to choose from.
The staff investigating XUNO were able to create groups for their assessment and homework tasks and assign these tasks. They were also able to see where marks and feedback were generated. We will continue with XUNO sessions in the Genius Bar until everyone is feeling confident.
The staff investigating XUNO were able to create groups for their assessment and homework tasks and assign these tasks. They were also able to see where marks and feedback were generated. We will continue with XUNO sessions in the Genius Bar until everyone is feeling confident.
Genius Bar - 26/2/2015 - Using XUNO for Feedback and Nearpod for the Advanced
Today we looked more closely at the finer details of the Markbook in XUNO ensuring that parents and students are seeing what we want them to see and that our dates, times and feedback are approriate.
With the assistance of Josh Peredes - student teacher, we went through how to create your own Nearpod presentation. Josh attended the first Genius Bar and created his own presentation and used it in class this last week.
With the assistance of Josh Peredes - student teacher, we went through how to create your own Nearpod presentation. Josh attended the first Genius Bar and created his own presentation and used it in class this last week.
Genius Bar - 12/3/2015 - Critical Thinking and Google Forms
The Genius this week was Science KLA head, Erynne Ewenson. Erynne teaches the new Extended Investigation VCE Unit and has considerable experience teaching students how to be good Critical Thinkers. Although many different KLAs use many critical thinking processes it is not always explicitly taught. Erynne presented to us a number of different methods of teaching Critical Thinking in the classroom and we had a go a using one of these ourselves to think critically about a piece of information presented. Please see the attached documents provided by Erynne. We will be looking more closely at Critical Thinking and especially analysing information sources to support our research when we complete our Professional Learning day looking at the Information Fluency with Ian Jukes on June 10th this year.
At Genius Bar this week we also investigated Google Forms as a tool to generate surveys which can be used easiy by both staff and students to gather information. These are also a very useful tool for gathering Formative feedback. Google Forms are easily generated and provide data in spreedsheet or graphical form for easy analysis. The Forms can also be constructed collaboratively and shared easily via email.
At Genius Bar this week we also investigated Google Forms as a tool to generate surveys which can be used easiy by both staff and students to gather information. These are also a very useful tool for gathering Formative feedback. Google Forms are easily generated and provide data in spreedsheet or graphical form for easy analysis. The Forms can also be constructed collaboratively and shared easily via email.
|
|
Genius Bar - 6/5/2015 - Accelerus Reporting Update
Today's Genius Bar was taken by Harry Fahey who is the reporting guru. Harry held a session covering the new features of our report writing package - Accelerus. His focus was mainly on supporting staff with creating their own comment data bases along with how to better utilise and incorporate some of the new features such as being able to access previous years progression points for each student.
Genius Bar - 21/5/2015 - SMART Goals, Formative Assessment and RP
Tonight we had three different foci to support firstly our College review process and also our Classroom Management strategies. SMART Goals are a main focus of our reviews and we worked in small groups to help each other develop our own SMART goal for the fourth dimension of Professional Engagement. This goal was to be developed after reflecting on our PD Day from October 2014 where we looked our our Pedagogical Framework or by using the AITSL self-reflection tool or something similar. Secondly we looked more closely at Formative Assessment as this was a component of the SMART goals in the other three dimensions of the Review process. There were a number of readings used to inform us of different types of Formative Assessment including Online Tools. The following links can be used to access the readings.
56 Different Examples of Formative Assessment
Online Formative AssessmentResources
Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment
33 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom
The final group for tonight was taken by Mick Conlan, our RP (Restorative Practices) Coordinator. Mick worked with staff who had students with challenging behaviours in their classrooms. Their discussion centred around how RP can support staff in the classroom and some strategies they can use to assist with managing challenging behaviours. Mick can always be called upon at any time to support staff with using RP and he is a wealth of knowledge with classroom management.
56 Different Examples of Formative Assessment
Online Formative AssessmentResources
Top Tech Tools for Formative Assessment
33 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom
The final group for tonight was taken by Mick Conlan, our RP (Restorative Practices) Coordinator. Mick worked with staff who had students with challenging behaviours in their classrooms. Their discussion centred around how RP can support staff in the classroom and some strategies they can use to assist with managing challenging behaviours. Mick can always be called upon at any time to support staff with using RP and he is a wealth of knowledge with classroom management.
Genius Bar - 18/6/2015 - Estimating Study Scores and ICT in the Classroom
Tonight our focus was twofold. Firstly Hugh Richards worked closely with a group of VCE teachers to ensure they were familiar with the process and how to use data to generate and Estimated Study Score for each of their students in preparation for the VCE On Track Parent/Student/Teacher interviews.
Our second group revisited work done in previous year on how to manage ICT in the classroom with our BYOT program. We covered multiple topics such as accessing different web tools on different devices, sharing of files from different devices, use of different office programs including open source and reviewing the files available on the College Launchpad. The link to the College Launchpad can be found here.
Our second group revisited work done in previous year on how to manage ICT in the classroom with our BYOT program. We covered multiple topics such as accessing different web tools on different devices, sharing of files from different devices, use of different office programs including open source and reviewing the files available on the College Launchpad. The link to the College Launchpad can be found here.
Genius Bar - 23/7/2015 - Formative Assessment and Window 8
Due to popular demand, we revisited the Formative Assessment readings and worked to incorporate some of the different types of Formative Assessment into the lesson plans being created as a part of the Term 3 PLTs. It was a great opportunity to trial some of the online tools such a Socrative where staff were able to generate trial assessments and have other staff act as students, so we could see how the programs worked. Socrative is especially useful as you are able to share your quizzes with other teachers and you get real time feedback in many different forms, including excel spreadsheets, so you are able to make immediate changes in the classroom in response to the feedback.
Harry Fahey, our IT guru, was also on hand to assist staff who have just had a laptop upgrade and needed support with some of the new features of Window 8.
Harry Fahey, our IT guru, was also on hand to assist staff who have just had a laptop upgrade and needed support with some of the new features of Window 8.
Genius Bar - 6/8/2015 - Library VTV
With many thanks to Wendy Delaney our Library teacher, we had a very informative session on how to use the new VTV program so we are better equipped to access the many features available to us in the Library.
Genius Bar - 3/9/2015 - Using Twitter for Professional Development
Twitter is an amazing way to connect with other like minded people on the planet. It doesn't matter whether you want to know more about a hobby or interest that you have or whether to wish to connect and work with others in the same field as you. As educators, using Twitter is an excellent way of keeping up to date with the latest trends in education with everything from Flipping classrooms, curriculum design and Maker Spaces to classroom management, teaching creativity and anything else you can think of. It is easy to search for groups and individuals with similar interests and by using hashtags you are able to connect further afield and follow others with similar interests. You can 'lurk' (follow and learn from others) but ultimately it is best to contribute by sharing your ideas also so others can benefit from your experiences and contributions. There are not 'rights and wrongs' (as long as you are following accepted online protocols). Below are some links to great documents to get you started. Obviously the first port of call is to create a Twitter account. Go to Twitter.com and sign up. Good luck and happy tweeting.
|
|
|
amazing_ways_twitter_can_give_wings_to_your_professional_development.pdf | |
File Size: | 134 kb |
File Type: |
Genius Bar - 15/10/2015 - Google Forms for surveys and assessment and Chrome store for across device apps
As Brauer College is a Google school we are easily able to use all the different applications in Google Drive, sharing across the college with all staff and students. Google Forms is no exception to this as surveys and assessments can be easily constructed and shared. Google Forms can generate multiple choice, short answer, scale and grid type questions just to name a few. There are plenty of themes to customise the form to the audience and the results can be generated as a spread sheet showing the names of the participants or graphical representations making it easy to analyse the data collected.
Google forms can be accessed by going to Google Drive (make sure you are logged in to Google) and then clicking New and the Forms (you might have to click 'more' if you don't see Forms on your first page of the dropdown menu). If you need help it is always good to look for a You Tube video on how to use it.
The Chrome store is an excellent resource for KLAs to find programs that can be run across devices. There is everything from games and productivity apps to voice and video editing programs. It is definitely an untapped resource that supports a lot of classroom activities. Some excellent ones to check out are Lucidchart and Connected Mind for mind mapping, Voicenote II for voice to text, Wevideo for video editing and BrainPop for so cool presentations on a huge variety of topics with some quick formative quizzes at the end. Worth a few minutes to investigate. The Chrome store can be accessed by opening a new tab in the Google Chrome web browser and on the bottom right is a link to the Webstore.
Google forms can be accessed by going to Google Drive (make sure you are logged in to Google) and then clicking New and the Forms (you might have to click 'more' if you don't see Forms on your first page of the dropdown menu). If you need help it is always good to look for a You Tube video on how to use it.
The Chrome store is an excellent resource for KLAs to find programs that can be run across devices. There is everything from games and productivity apps to voice and video editing programs. It is definitely an untapped resource that supports a lot of classroom activities. Some excellent ones to check out are Lucidchart and Connected Mind for mind mapping, Voicenote II for voice to text, Wevideo for video editing and BrainPop for so cool presentations on a huge variety of topics with some quick formative quizzes at the end. Worth a few minutes to investigate. The Chrome store can be accessed by opening a new tab in the Google Chrome web browser and on the bottom right is a link to the Webstore.
Genius Bar - 29/10/2015 - Using Minecraft to engage students in the classroom
This session was expertly presented by our games based learning genius, Will King.
What is Minecraft you ask? • A Game that uses digital blocks to build and create new worlds •Two modes: Creative and Survival •Mining, Crafting, Building •Collaborative – Servers •Open Architecture – Able to be Modified – Mods •Coding – Learn to Mod, Computercraft •Minecraft Edu |
|