OETC 2019 Nuggets of Newness

OETC 2019 was an amazing experience.  I learned so much from colleagues, coworkers, and speakers during the event.  I loved reflecting and reviewing all of the nuggets of newness I mined during the conference.  There were so many amazing sessions as well as inviting vendors in the exhibit hall.  This year, I created a google doc to display all of the learning links that I wanted remember.  So, here, in no particular order, I have shared the most important information acquired during the conference.

To open links in the Google Doc, try right clicking on it and selecting, "Open in New Tab". 

A Byte about Pear Deck

Last Friday, I joined in being trained with other "inspearational" educators to become a Pear Deck Regional Coach!  I was overjoyed to be a part of the group and learn more about the "Peardagogy" from the Pear Deck trainers.  It's now official-I'm a regional coach and I'm happy to #sharethepear.  

During our training, we read articles to learn more detail about the philosophy of the company.  One of the articles I found inspirational included the details highlighted in the picture I shared here:

Source https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/are-college-lectures-unfair.html

Active learning is one of the key reasons I know using Pear Deck is valuable and can make an impact on the students with whom teachers work every day.

If you have not yet used Pear Deck, check out this sample deck I made to share.  Kids love how Pear Deck works and as a teacher, you will too!  Each time a teacher publishes a deck with the "Google Slides Add-on", a random 5 letter code will generate and allow students to join via a web enabled device.  The teacher can then use the dashboard feature to monitor student responses and give immediate feedback as students participate in the lesson.

The product allows for all students to have an active role in participating throughout the lesson.  After the lesson ends, teachers can give additional feedback to students via the "takeaways" that are published and stored in the student's google drive.  The takeaways serve as a digital note sheet that collected their answers from the lesson.  This could be used as a study guide for future assessments.

Are you excited to see this in action?  If you are interested in learning more about Pear Deck, click here.