reform symposium – iLearn Technology

The Very Best Use of a Weekend: #RSCON4

October 10, 2013October 10, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2393 views

I am SO excited for this weekend. It is the Reform Symposium Conference!!! Seriously, I feel a little bit giddy. Like a child on Christmas morning. As an adult, RSCON is one of the things that can bring back the same feelings of anticipation and eagerness. So much learning is about to happen this weekend! Best of all, it is INSPIRED learning. What could be better than surrounding yourself with a weekend packed full of inspiration, learning, hope, edu-friends and encouragement? Nothing, that’s what.

In case you’ve been out of the loop in the world of social media lately, this is BIG! You will not want to miss this FREE worldwide virtual conference. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, what you are wearing, how disastrous (or epic) your week was, because RSCON4 is available to everyone. Please look at the schedule (conveniently made available in your preferred timezone) and plan to join us for as much of the conference as you can. I’m overjoyed that I get to be a part of this incredible conference again. Although I’ve been the very WORST organizer, I’m truly so honored to be a part of something so important.

I’ll be presenting on Sunday with @michellek107 and @nancybabbitt, we will share a little bit of the “secret” sauce that makes Anastasis so awesome. Drop in and join the conversation. Better yet: drop in to several sessions and join the conversation! Looking forward to learning with all of you!

Host an RSCON4 Meetup Party- Introduce Colleagues to Your PLN!

October 1, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2874 views

If you have never attended an online conference, you should definitely take the opportunity to try one out on October 11-13 for the Reform Symposium Conference. The line up of keynote speakers, presenters, and panel discussions is FANTASTIC. It is like traveling around the world for inspiration from the comfort of your living room. I really can’t say enough about how excited I am for this awesome weekend of learning! Please join us for as much as you can, you will not be disappointed! Plus, what could be better than learning with a bunch of friends from your living room? You don’t even have to worry about what attire you should wear (I’ll be in PJs for sure!).

Be sure to join @michellek, @nancybabbitt and me for our session Connections Through Inquiry on Sunday! We’ll be talking up strategies that we use at Anastasis Academy as teachers and learners. Check out the online schedule in your timezone and plan to join us!

If you are an online conference regular who is constantly working to get other teachers at your school to attend (with no luck), why not consider hosting a Reform Symposium Conference meetup party? If they won’t engage in online community on their own, bring the community to them! This would be a great way to help those who are less tech savvy get involved in some professional development in a way that feels ‘safe.’ Choose a location with good wifi (this could be a room at school, your living room, a local coffee shop), load up on fun snacks, invite some friends and learn together! I have done this in the past with great success! It is all kinds of fun and adds a level of safety for first timers. Use this event as an opportunity to introduce your offline colleagues to your online PLN (personal learning network). I find that people are more likely to engage online for learning when they feel like they have a connection to others going in. When they start a great conversation during a session, help them continue it by signing up for Twitter.

If you want to get really fancy, share my Twitter posters as a party gift. Help those who haven’t signed up to sign up and connect to those they met during the conference. Following the conference, send others at your school a “Learning Moment of the Day” along with a link to the community (member) that shared it with you.

Sometimes all it takes to connect people is a new approach to the invitation delivery. 🙂

We are still looking for volunteers to help with the conference!

Volunteer to Moderate Sessions for the Reform Symposium E-Conference (RSCON4)

RSCON would not be so inspiring without a highly devoted group of volunteer moderators to keep the conference running with as few hiccups as possible. Moderators play one of the most important roles by jumping into various sessions and helping presenters and participants have a great experience. Additionally, volunteers get to meet our inspiring presenters and introduce them to the audience. To become part of this super amazing team, sign up at http://www.futureofeducation.com/group/2013-rscon-volunteers and use the booking calendar to schedule volunteer time, http://rsconvolunteers.youcanbook.me

Also, attend one of our Blackboard Collaborate training sessions so you are familiar with the platform, http://bit.ly/rscon4trainingpg

Thank you for helping us inspire educators worldwide!

If you have questions about volunteering for the conference, one of our volunteer organizers would be happy to help! Tweet your questions to one of the awesome organizers listed below!
Peggy George (@Pgeorge), Marcia Lima (@Bamarcia), Chiew Pang (@AClilToClimb), Jo Hart (@JoHart), Phil Hart (@PhilHart)

Free worldwide conference: Reform Symposium (#RSCON)

September 23, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2633 views

In conjunction with Connected Educator Month, I’m excited to share with you all the 4th (!!!) annual Reform Symposium Conference (RSCON). In case you aren’t familiar with this OUTSTANDING conference, it is a FREE online three-day event that brings together educators, students and innovators from all over the world. Mark your calendar right now for October 11th to 13th (2013).

Full disclosure: I’m one of the organizers for the Reform Symposium Conference. You might call me the very worst organizer. 🙂 I have been seriously falling down on the job this time around! I seem to have overly lofty goals for my weeks. It looks manageable on the calendar and then kids, parents, school must-solve-problems crowd in.

The Reform Symposium Conference is so dear to me and such a big part of my story in starting my own school. The conference started the year before I left the classroom and has stretched into me starting my own school. As a result of this conference, I grew in ways I couldn’t imagine. I made strong connections in my personal learning network and connected with educators around the world. What better way to celebrate Connected Educator Month?!

The Reform Symposium Conference is a global community initiative to transform teaching and learning. This is a highly inclusive and engaging online event that will encourage you toward transformative approaches toward teaching and learning. To attend this year’s conference and keep up with the latest conference news and updates, please join this network.

Exciting news for this year’s conference:

Sugata Mitra is the opening plenary you guys!! Sugata is the 2013 TED prize winner and instigator of the Hole-in-the-Wall experiment. You will not want to miss it!
Internationally renowned electric violinist Steve Bingham will conduct a live performance.
There will be 10+ international keynotes.
4 Panel discussions that feature distinguished experts in education.
More than 100 presentations by educators around the world (something for everyone to learn and grow in their practice!)

If you would like to help out with this awesome event, you can volunteer here.

I’m honored to have been a part of this incredible conference since year 1. I hope that you will join us for an incredible weekend of connection, learning, laughing, inspiration and growth! Sign up now!

27 days of professional development: Day 2 Multimedia and Interactivity in Mathematics

August 9, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments6141 views

To keep the Reform Symposium learning and inspiration going I decided to do a 27 days of professional development series. Day 1 was my Keynote about how a blog post and a Twitter conversation started a school. Today is Multimedia and Interactivity in Mathematics by David Wees.

In this session, David examined the role of multimedia and interactivity in mathematics education. I love the way that David looked at how photography can make such an impact (particularly for visual learners) in the math classroom. Capturing math in the world around us can help students view math differently. Toward the end of the session I asked David if he had created a Flickr group for math photos…working on twisting his arm to start that one for all of us. 🙂

This was a fantastic session!! During the session, David mentioned Math Pickle. Math Pickle is such a great math website that I’m going to do a second review post just for it.

To view David’s session, click the link to the right: Multimedia and Interactivity in Mathematics*

*This link is to an Elluminate recording, it will ask to download the session to your computer and requires a Java plugin to run. Well worth the effort to open it because you get to see everything (chat included) as it happened live!

Keynote: how a blog post and a Twitter conversation started a school #RSCON3

August 5, 2011Kelly Tenkely5 Comments3385 views

Last week at this time I was getting ready for my Reform Symposium Keynote. It was fun to share with everyone but what I really enjoyed about the weekend was learning from everyone else! The Reform Symposium recordings are now live! To keep that learning going I’m going to do a 27 days of professional development series.

For the next 27 days in addition to sharing a tech tool, I’m also going to share one of the Reform Symposium sessions. Last weekend was such an incredible time of learning and sharing that I want to keep the momentum going. It is also a GREAT excuse for me to attend all of the sessions I missed out on during the conference.

If you missed my keynote last week about how a blog post and a Twitter conversation started a school, you can view it here. This is a link to the Elluminate session (a Java download).

Below are the slides I used in my Keynote. For those who asked, I made the slides using Apple’s Keynote. I just drew a timeline, inserted some pictures, text and voila- timeline!

Reform Symposium kickoff, prizes, iPad giveaway-what could be better? #RSCON3

July 28, 2011July 28, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2344 views

The countdown is over, tomorrow is the kick off to the Reform Symposium virtual conference!! The virtual part of that name means that everyone is invited to attend, no matter where you are in the world, what time it is, or what you are wearing. So, no excuses.

I’m doing one of the Keynotes tomorrow and I hope that some of you will stop by and cheer me on. I love presenting in Elluminate and I also hate it.

Love: I can wear my jammies, I can be cuddled up with my pups, I can interact with people from all over the world, no travelling.

Hate: I can’t actually SEE anyone so it is hard to tell if I am boring people to tears. You can let me know I’m not by chatting and emoticoning during my Keynote.

As if the incredible line up of presenters and Keynotes wasn’t enough, we have prizes. Check out this prize page for the lineup. Even better? There is a Grand Prize. It is GRAND. How would you like to win yourself an iPad 2 including a bunch of fabulous edu apps (including an app from yours truly)? You would? I thought so. 🙂

I’m not quite finished with the great news…even if you don’t win that outstanding prize, you can be a part of creating an iPhone and iPad app by filling out a survey (this also happens to be the way you register for the prize). The Reform Symposium is a worldwide community of educators who believe in the mission of authentic 21st century learning, and the exchange of ideas and resources. By filling out a 5 minute survey with your thoughts of teaching creativity, innovation, collaboration, empathy, citizenship, digital literacies and student assessment, we aim to publish your thoughts within a FREE Reform Symposium iPhone and iPad app and accompanying mini-site late August/early September. This survey will be available at the start of the Symposium and closes at the end of the last session on the 3rd day. (So please don’t start looking for the survey to fill out just yet.)

The fun starts tomorrow, join us for any or all of the days.

The app donated by me was actually an app that my brilliant husband @jtenkely created. A digital version of pick up sticks…I’m only a little addicted. You can check it out in the app store here. There is also a Classic version of Pickin’ Stix without all the fancy stick choices.

#RSCON3 How a blog post and Twitter conversation started a school

July 22, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2026 views

Today is Friday! The day elicits joy in and of itself but this Friday is a particularly exciting Friday because it means that we are exactly one week away from the Reform Symposium virtual conference!! I’m excited for the learning and sharing in store for all of us next week. If you aren’t familiar with the Reform Symposium check out my last post HERE or search the #RSCON3 hashtag on Twitter for all the latest buzz.

In the past I have only done the behind the scenes work as an organizer of the conference. This year we had a last-minute shift in our Keynote presentations leaving one slot open. I was honored when @ShellTerrell suggested that I take the spot and talk about the school I am starting. I’m excited to share the journey with all of you and better get my tush in gear if I have any hope of being ready for that. 🙂

I hope you will join me for my Keynote next Friday, July, 29 at 4:00pm MST (if you want to translate that into a different timezone you can choose that here.) I’m looking forward to sharing Anastasis Academy with my PLN who played such a LARGE part in making it what it is.

I’m only a small part of this 3 day FREE conference, take a look at the presenter page and you will quickly understand why I was so honored to be asked to be a part of that group-greatness!

See you there!

One more thing- if you are interested in lending a helping hand during the conference, we are still in need of some moderators! You can learn more about what is involved in moderating here.

Reform Sympoisum: Who wants to help moderate?? #RSCON3

July 11, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments2469 views

Perhaps you will recall a few weeks ago when I wrote about the Reform Symposium virtual conference? This is the FREE conference that will be held July 29-July 31st that you all are invited to! Ringing a bell? Good, because now I need to ask for a little help 🙂

The Reform Sympoisum is a labor of love, put on by people who care about education and professional development just like you! We need moderators to help with each session. The job of a moderator is to help the presenter field questions, introduce the presenter and press “record” so that we can make sure we capture each session for our iTunes feed. It is easy to do and you can do it in your jammies from home! If you are available the last weekend of July, we hope you will consider helping us out! We need moderators from EVERY timezone so that we can cover everyone. If you can help, check out the Moderator Planning Sheet (a Google Spreadsheet) and sign up for the time you are available. Please be sure to enter your full name, a twitter handle and an email address in the space provided. We need multiple moderators for each session so feel free to volunteer for a session that has already been volunteered for.

We will send out more information, directions, and training opportunities (easy) for those willing to moderate.

Feel free to spread the word about this request 🙂 Thank you in advance to all who will help to make this weekend successful!

Save the Date: Reform Symposium Conference #RSCon3

June 23, 2011Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4240 views

I’m pouting a little bit today. You see, this is the time of year when Twitter springs to life with plans for the ISTE conference. I won’t be there this year because I’m a little busy what with starting a school and all. I’ll be stalking those of you who are going to be at ISTE and living vicariously through you. I am bummed to be missing out on the ISTE fun but I am looking forward to connecting and learning with everyone at the Reform Symposium virtual conference.

If you aren’t familiar with the Reform Symposium, it is time you get familiar with it. Honestly, what could be better than 3 days of professional development with all of your edu best buddies from around the world in your jammies? That’s right, not much. RSCon3 will be held from Friday July 29th to Sunday July 31st. We are on our way to being the biggest global online conference in education. With more than 65 presenters and 12 keynotes and thousands of conversations, it is sure to be a fantastic weekend! This conference is organized by educators (yours truly included) for educators. Best of all, the conference is completely and totally FREE!! You really can’t beat that! So, go ahead and pull up that calendar right now and save the date so you don’t forget. Want to tell another educator how much you appreciate them? Go ahead and invite them to the conference as well. They will be thrilled that they have such a kind and thoughtful friend that thought to include them. 🙂

If you are an administrator, please send the Reform Symposium flyer to your staff. Did I mention this is FREE professional development?!

If you happen to think of it in the next month, take a minute to check out the organizer page and THANK those people profusely; pulling off a conference like this takes a lot of organization and planning. I am honored to be working with such inspiring people!

Reform Symposium: Free professional development you can get in your jammies!

January 6, 2011January 6, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments1979 views

This Saturday (January 8, 2011) is the Reform Symposium Virtual conference. We have an incredible lineup of speakers, presentations, and conversations. It just doesn’t get much better than a conference you can attend in your jammies! Don’t forget to spread the word to all of your friends (use #rscon11 hash tag on Twitter). You don’t have to take my word for it, take a look at the full program embedded below!

Open publication – Free publishing – More program