Why not hold a TeachMeet in your area?

Submitted by Fiona Beal

I can hear you asking, “A TeachMeet? What is that?” I asked the same question before attending the Partners in Learning Institute in July 2011. Baldev Singh, one of our presenters, who is a founder of imagineeducation.org in the UK introduced the idea to us. He said this informal type of professional development is starting to supercede other forms of professional development in the UK.  If there is one way to enhance the spread of technology integration in the classroom, this is it!  We soon discovered that TeachMeets are also popular in the USA (where they are often called EdCamps) and all over Europe. Oooh, I’d love to introduce this idea in South Africa!



Baldev Singh from www.imagineeducation.com



So what is a TeachMeet?

In a nutshell, teachers choose a successful lesson they have done in technology integration, and depending on the time limits set by the TeachMeet organizers (can be 2 minutes, 3 minutes or 7 minutes), they use a data projector and computer and share their lesson. TeachMeets can be held anywhere and at any time.

Before leaving for the PIL Institute week we were asked to watch this YouTube video on TeachMeets by Brainpop.

http://youtu.be/53KUW79lhrg

Some of the ‘rules’

*The teachers listening take notes, photos, videos, they tweet or just listen.
*Presentations need to be short and sharp
*Can use technology to present i.e.  PowerPoint, video, photos etc.
*It is fine to hold up a poster or even sing a song. *You need to plan before the time


Some of our teachmeets at the PIL Institute week

We loved the TeachMeet session where we presented to the USA Innovative Teacher finalists. If I can find any of the presentations on video I'll post them here. One that I did find on YouTube was from Dan Roberts from the UK. He cleverly got us singing a Songsmith song together using wireless microphones scattered around the room.

http://youtu.be/u4EIVDZAH0U

What happens if there are too many people wanting to share something?

The organiser uses some kind of random selector so that you never know who is next. If you are not selected this time, there will be another time…the next TeachMeet.  I found this random name generator on the internet:

http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine

The organiser could alternatively draw names from a box, or use an Excel spread sheet random selector.

TeachMeets from our PIL group on other occasions

Here are some more examples of TeachMeets given by two of our PIL Institute group members on other occasions back in the UK.

Jan Web, a teacher from the UK,  organises TeachMeets. Here is a video from YouTube where she is presenting a TeachMeet on using Microsoft's free tool called Mouse Mischief.

http://youtu.be/3xCzQe8pTCU

In fact Dan Roberts from the UK  presented a TeachMeet at the Bett Show this year.

http://youtu.be/Jq8IuB5ijAU

Other examples of TeachMeets found on YouTube

Here are a few more TeachMeet videos from YouTube illustrating the essence of a TeachMeet. You’ll notice that these are slightly longer – 7 minutes.

Kerry Turner on a Schools' History Project teachmeet

http://youtu.be/N_Di1PB02X0

Julian Wood on 'What is a PLN?' (‘We' is better than ‘me’)

http://youtu.be/VMisdq38P_M

What happens if the teacher talking goes on too long?

The organiser has some way of telling them time is up. They stop immediately, hard as it is. A stopwatch is essential for an organiser.

How long does a TeachMeet session last?

In the UK apparently they are very common in pubs from 5 – 7pm.  The length of time depends on who is organizing but often it is a two hour session.

What are the benefits?

It seems like there are so many benefits in our social media age.
*Teachers meet teachers from other schools.
*Teachers share their great ideas and learn from others.
*After the TeachMeet you mingle and ask questions from people who shared something you liked.
*They are great fun.
*Teachers love building on ideas, and in the wave of technology integration that is happening they will be encouraged to integrate technology with the curriculum which benefits our digitally-minded learners.

As Baldev Singh told us, every teacher is a source of knowledge and its our simple ideas which can transform another teacher’s classroom. It’s the power of collective wisdom.

Can you show us a preparation template?

Here is the one created by Baldev Singh:

TeachMeet template

View more presentations from fionabeal

Please comment here about TeachMeets if you have attended one.  If you live in South Africa and introduce one, please let me know how it went.  If you happen live in Cape Town and introduce one, please invite me!  If you want me to help you organise one in Cape Town please contact me! (schoolnetsablog@gmail.com)

Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute #7: Reflections

Any teacher interested in integrating technology with the curriculum would jump at a chance to visit Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond to attend their Partners in Learning Institute, wouldn’t they? Well I consider myself in that category and from 24th – 31st July I had the privilege of such a visit! This PIL Institute is a new part of Microsoft's vision for teachers, and you could be one of the next attendees! Microsoft is planning many more of these training events…

Who attended this training?
Microsoft’s educational wing known as Partners in Learning shortlisted 50 innovative teachers from 31 countries to attend the inaugural training in Redmond. Three South African teachers were selected - Cheryl Douglas, Ngaka Ralekoala and myself.

Where did we stay?

We lodged at the incredibly luxurious Hyatt-Bellevue Hotel in an area between Seattle and Redmond known as Bellevue. The hotel had magnificent views from the rooms. The conference staff organised a very busy week right down to the last detail late at night – but I must say that every second was well worth it.

A room with a view at the Hyatt-Bellevue in Bellevue

What was the purpose of the PIL Institute? 

The purpose of the Microsoft Partners in learning Institute is to grow innovative teaching and learning practices around the world through a cadre of teacher trainers who will take what they have learned to their communities to coach and train other educators.

Baldev Singh from www.imagineeducation.net

What did we do each day?

During the day we had training, workshops, discussions, field trips, work sessions and some learning excursions around which we created a project. I also enjoyed the TeachMeet  where we got the chance to give two minute presentations on something successful we have done in technology integration. I would LOVE to introduce this TeachMeet idea in South Africa. It would really enhance technology integration, I think. We also learned at length about 21^st century skills and how to create and assess activities using 21^st century skills. (We have homework to do on this due for the 15^th August). It was marvelous to get to talk to teachers from all the different countries and find out how education happens in their country. Another treat was to be able to view the 102 USA finalist entries for the Microsoft Innovative competition. I always love to see what teachers come up with.

One of the USA PIL Innovative Teacher entries

Here is a slideshow of some of the USA PIL Innovative teacher entries:

Here is a summary of the USA projects:
http://bit.ly/qfUTvX

The winners of the USA IEF have now been announced:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2011/aug11/08-01IEF11PR.mspx

One of the highlights was to visit the Microsoft Home of the Future at Their Headquarters in Redmond.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/mshome/VideoGallery.aspx

Who were our presenters?

The Institute was run under the Directorship of Maureen Cain. Our presenters were of the highest quality and everyone benefitted from their professional input as well as from the warm friendship and enthusiasm of the fifty teacher participants. One of the conference presenters was a Technology Integration specialist, Sonja Delafosse, from the Lake Washington school district. Now that is a job I would enjoy – helping teachers integrate technology into their lessons, because then both the students and the teachers benefit. What do you think?  Their classes seem to have netbooks at their disposal.  Sonja explained how technology integration in schools is very important to the parents of that area, since Seattle houses Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon.com, and Google also has offices there. In fact while we were participating in our Partners in Learning Institute, Google was holding one of its Google certified teacher courses at the same time.  

Did we do a lot of sight seeing? 

The 50 of us were transported everywhere by luxury coach.  Seattle is a great city. It is very green with beautiful trees and fresh clean air. Some call it the Emerald City. We didn’t have time for much sight-seeing in our busy schedule, but as mentioned, Microsoft cleverly arranged learning excursions in groups, with each group visiting a tourist site, and creating and completing a project about it. We stored these in our Partners in Learning Network shared folder, and shared them with one another. 

Our group visited the Seattle Underground

With so many great Microsoft tools tools at our disposal everyone felt as though they had been everywhere...

The Seattle Underground via a photosynth made by Wichai...
http://bit.ly/rntjow 

The Space Needle via a photosynth made by their group...
http://bit.ly/pkSuZD

The Pike Place Market via a video made by Jugoslava...
http://bit.ly/ogWCcU

Seattle using a flashcard application made by Birgy...
http://flashcards.educationlabs.com/#/Play/?deckid=4721

The Seattle Art Museum via photosynth made by their group...
http://bit.ly/nvcofi 

A video to sum it all up made by Bram...

Honestly I can’t believe Microsoft’s commitment to teachers – it is awesome! The company is playing such an active role in education. We saw previews of how Partners in Learning wants to facilitate change through educators. They are launching a completely new Partners in Learning Network in November, which we saw a preview of, and I think this will facilitate a powerful network of teachers world-wide. I loved this sign at Microsoft. After eventually working out that it stood for ‘Pedestrian crossing’, for me it still seemed to say… ‘Xing into pedagogical change’.  I have come back with a renewed vision for professional development. Thank you to Microsoft. 

THE END

Microsoft Partners in Learning Institute #6: Great videos about 21st century teaching and learning

In one of our pre-assignments before attending PIL Institute in Redmond, we were asked to discuss our views on 21st century teaching and learning, and also add artefacts, and place all of this in our teacher learning community. Many of the attendees added video links as their artefacts, so I have listed them here for quick access. These videos capture what, I believe, best describes teaching and learning in the 21st Century. These videos focus on the skills that students need or what teachers see as vital skills for both teachers and learners. I could tell from these pre-assignments that we were going to focus quite heavily on 21st century skills.

1. A vision of K-12 today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=player_embedded


2. A vision of 21st century teachers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4g5M06YyVw&feature=player_embedded


3. What teachers make by Taylor Mali
http://youtu.be/RxsOVK4syxU


4. Three steps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPQlu5Vxm28&feature=related


5. Learning to change, changing to learnhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk&feature=player_embedded


Can you recommend any others?