In my position as a technology leader I regularly lead presentations on best practices using technology to enhance learning. The presentations below are ones that I gave outside of my regular role in my district to different groups of educators at conferences and regional meetings.
All presentations either have a slide deck or video attached. I subscribe to the “less is more” strategy when preparing a visual aid for presentations, so some of the slide decks have minimal information included. I try to provide content to the audience so that they have an idea of the subject matter but they are not so distracted by a large amount of writing on the screen.
New Teacher Orientation (August 2021)
New Teachers have so much information thrown at them before school starts, so it is important to not overload them. However, there is a lot of basic information that is needed in order to help them get off on the right foot using their district provided technology tools.
Strategic Excellence (TASA Mid-Winter January 2021)
Co-Presenter with Millsap ISD Superintendent Deann Lee and Millsap ISD Assistant Superintendent Edie Martin
The COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world of education, forcing schools and school districts to make immediate changes to how they provided instruction to their students. The Millsap ISD team had just updated the district Strategic Plan less than a month prior to the school shut down, and ensured that all plans moving forward would not only help solve the issues that COVID provided, but also keep the district moving forward with its goals.
The Millsap ISD Leadership Team was proud to present their experiences during the 2021 virtual TASA Mid-Winter Conference to other school district leaders.
Beginner’s Guide to Using a Canvas Course Template (North Texas Canvas Users Group, ESC 11 – April 2020)
This presentation was made a little over a month after schools shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic. A face to face session had to be quickly moved to a remote session. As everyone was learning the best ways to host digital conferences at the time there were regularly technical difficulties that arose, just like during my presentation. As a result, I recorded the video below to help Administrators and Instructional Coaches find ways to help their Teachers to utilize Canvas as a learning management system.
We create a template for our Canvas courses that allows all classes to have a similar layout and appearance. This way students always know where to go to find assignments, announcements, discussions, and more. This also helps parents who can have access to Canvas and know how to navigate their child’s courses. Our entire community has responded very positively to the use of these templates in our digital and face to face instructional models.
Using Canvas to Help Stay Organized and Increase Classroom Usage (North Texas Canvas Users Group, ESC 11 – September 2019)
We use Canvas, our Learning Management System, for everything in our district. We find that using it for more than just instructional delivery helps teachers and staff not only stay more organized, but it also allows them to have a better perspective of what students see in their Canvas courses. Teachers are “students” in the Staff Canvas Course where they turn in their lesson plans as assignments and access critical information that comes from campus and district leadership. This helps them have a better understanding of how Canvas can be used in multiple ways.
This presentation was given during a meeting of the North Texas Canvas Users Group (#NTXCUG). This group meets quarterly to share tips and tricks about how to use Canvas in the classroom. It is a fantastic group of like-minded educators who support each other in their efforts to provide teachers and students with the best tools possible.
Preparing Teachers to Be 1:1 Ready (TCEA Feb 2020 & TCEA SysAdmin October 2020)
As a teacher I had the luxury of my classroom being a computer lab, so my experience in a “1:1 environment” encompasses my entire instructional career. Every since I left the classroom I have been helping teachers adjust to every student having a device, and helping them find new ways to increase engagement and learning using the tools that are provided to students in schools today.
This presentation at the TCEA Conference in February of 2020 was designed to help District and Campus Administrators as well as Instructional Coaches find ways to help teachers take the next step with the technology in their classrooms. Little did we know that the ideas we discussed would be so crucial to the educational world a little over one month later when the COVID-19 pandemic shut school buildings across the state.
I Once Was Lost, but Then I Found Google Keep (TIA Conference – July 2018)
On my second ever day in the classroom I underestimated the time that my lesson planned for the day would take, and we were left with 20 minutes at the end of class where I didn’t have a plan. Since then I have tried to focus on finding ways to help keep myself organized and prepared for whatever could be thrown at me. I have found over the years that Google Keep has become a crucial tool that helps me succeed in my organizational goals, so I created this presentation to share with other teachers at a North Texas Technology Conference.
Session Description: Have you ever seen a 24″ monitor covered in sticky notes with “to-do’s” written all over them? I used to look at one every day. Google Keep allowed me a place to take those notes with me everywhere I go, as well as give me a platform for organization, reflection, collaboration, and creativity.
Millsap Minute (Weekly Updates from the Technology Department)
In an effort to not only improve communication district-wide, but also to provide some transparency from the Technology Department, I created a weekly video called the “Millsap Minute”. These updates covered topics such as using new digital tools, changing passwords, or even discussing why the internet crashed one day. These were a great tool to keep everyone informed of what was going on around the district.
Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic weekly videos (and sometimes daily videos) had to come from our Superintendent updating everyone on the ever-changing situation. I did not want to compete with this, so the Millsap Minute stopped and has not come back. I am hoping to revive it again soon.
Password Change Notification/Explanation
Google Backup and Sync
The first thing any technology person will tell you is that technology WILL fail on you at some point. That is why I remind teachers and students over and over again (sometimes to the point of extreme annoyance) to utilize Google Drive and any other cloud accounts to protect their documents.
Internet Outage Cause
Sometimes this communication is a great way for all to learn from something that happened in the district that caused an issue for everyone. We had an issue that knocked out our entire network that was avoidable, so I felt it was important to share it with everyone.