“Bold Educators Activate Change.” What a tagline for #ISTE19 Conference, held in Philadelphia this year from June 23-26! I look forward to this event every year, it’s my outlet to feed my teaching soul, empower my learning mind, and ignite my bursting heart for the year ahead.The city of Philadelphia. I cannot imagine a more complementary destination than this year’s location for the purpose of the conference- the city of “Brotherly Love”, the city of American Independence, the city of unique culinary adventures…
I’m a kindergarten teacher from the lovely country of Jordan. Our school’s name is Arab Model Schools. The school’s mission is to consider achieving our nation’s aims of unity, freedom, social solidarity and obtaining acquaintance of other nations in order to absorb the advantages of such cultures that suit our society. So, our job is not only to take care of the students’ academics but also to build their characters and give them a moral compass.
Level Up Village is a way of connecting across oceans, across continents, across languages and, most importantly, across hearts. Once learning about this program, it became clear that we, as a school, wanted to become a part of it! Inquiry, engineering design, collaboration, communication, and empathy are all core components of our school and this program brought them to the forefront and tested our students in new and interesting ways.
For the past five years, I’ve looked for ways to enrich my experience as a Math teacher at Dr. Pillai Global Academy (DPGA) in Mumbai, India. DPGA prides itself on being a “maximum opportunity” learning environment school, designed to impart education that empowers children to pursue a globally challenging career. The focus is on activity-oriented teaching and beyond-the-classroom methods. That’s why Level Up Village was perfect for us.
Relationships and shared personal connections are a huge part of making learning fun, real and something that we remember long after a school year has ended. They are also great for developing empathy, broadening the mind to the experiences of others and cultivating a global mindset. The challenge for schools developing in countries like China is: How can we help students cultivate this global mindset and experience when nearly all of their classmates are from the same country and culture? Bringing teachers from around the world can go long way, but there’s something extra special about kids being able to connect with other kids and share with someone from a far-away land on their own level.
A pioneering provider of Global STEAM (STEM + arts) enrichment courses, Level Up Village (LUV) , was selected as one of the winners for the EdTech Digest Awards Program in the 21st Century Skills category. The program recognizes people in and around education for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology.
This is the fifth year for one of the largest learning events in recent history: The Hour of Code. This global event takes place every year during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 4-10) and over 100 million students have tried it! The idea is that during this week, as many students as possible will have a chance to do at least one hour of code. Here are some suggestions for rmaking the most of this epic event in your classroom, not just this week, but also for the rest of the school year.
Earlier this year, Level Up Village was one of ten young companies selected into the SETDA’s Emerging Partner program for 2017. Being a member of this cohort offers many benefits for new K12 EdTech providers including unique opportunities to be seen and heard by state and national EdTech leaders. Without this affiliation, it would take many months and much effort to have this audience. In addition, the learning opportunities have proven invaluable. For instance, we recently participated in the 2017 SETDA Leadership Summit. This year, the theme of the Summit was Leveraging Technology to Personalize Student Learning, but the conference also provided key insights into several other trends in K12 education.
…When I talk with colleagues who are planning to attend ISTE for the first time, I give the following five tips to manage one of the most amazing roller-coaster rides that they will experience, both professionally and personally:
Virtual reality is a powerful learning tool that affords students the opportunity to not just see or hear, but also interact in a virtual environment, and by doing so, arrive at a greater understanding. Now, due to its greater affordability and available content, VR has the potential to amplify learning by enhancing curriculums and providing context in a way that is both accessible and experiential, particularly in the STEM classroom.
