Presentations

⭐Post Pandemic:

Most presentations that I delivered in my district were delivered on the platform Canvas; inaccessible outside of my school district.

More than a (micro:) bit of fun: Good time with sensors and data NCTIES, March 7, 2025

  • Have you used a Micro:bit? Challenge yourself in this hands-on session. Program Micro:bit sensors to collect sound, light, and temperature data, then analyze the results in Micro:bit generated charts and graphs. Examine pre-collected data to predict environmental conditions and interpret pre-written code. Leave prepared to challenge your students to think critically using advanced features of this affordable tool.

Empowering Moves for Building a Makerspace Culture NCTIES, March 6, 2025

  • In this fast-paced, hands-on session, you’ll explore ways to integrate maker tools into the classroom while empowering school leadership teams (like MTACs, media specialists, and tech committees) to make the magic happen school-wide. Expect interactive activities, real-world success stories, and a treasure trove of resources you can take back and use immediately. Whether you’re a maker newbie or a seasoned innovator, you’ll leave with a toolkit of ideas and the confidence to spark a movement in your school.

AI for Teaching and Productivity: Fuquay-Varina HS EL Department, Fuquay-Varina MS Fall 2025

  • Boost Your Productivity with AI: Tools for Educators… Explore how AI tools can simplify daily tasks like lesson design, resource generation, and professional communication. This session is all about helping educators save time and stay organized while focusing on their students.

Canvas Crew Launch WCPSS Canvas Crews, Fall and Winter 2022/2023

  • Develop skills that will assist in creating high-quality and accessible modules, content pages, assignments, and assessments, acquire strategies that will assist in identifying staff needs and lead professional learning, and expand their Professional Learning Network in order to strengthen Canvas implementation

Blended Learning With Canvas

  • Do you wish there was more time for instruction? Are you looking for ways students can be active participants in their learning? Do you want your students to have a blend of digital and paper/pencil experiences? In this face to face session, participants will learn how to strategically integrate synchronous, asynchronous, online, and offline instructional activities to personalize instruction for in-person learning.

Canvas for Littles

  • Join us for an engaging session dedicated to helping teachers create Canvas courses tailored for young learners, particularly those in grades K-2. This workshop will be invaluable for educators at all levels who aim to make their courses more accessible for students with diverse needs. In this session, we will explore strategies for designing intuitive course layouts that simplify navigation and minimize text-heavy content. You will learn how to create assignments that are more manageable for young learners, incorporating features that enhance interactivity and engagement. By the end of this session, you will be equipped with the knowledge to design a user-friendly Canvas course that supports the developmental needs of young learners, fostering a positive and effective online learning environment.

Fun and Functional Features of Canvas

  • If you are someone who is unsure about using canvas or want to peek inside past the basics and experience some of the more fun and interactive attributes of Canvas, this interactive workshop will engage you in the LMS. You will enroll in our course as a student but are invited to work inside one of your own courses to experiment further with your DLCs while we are together. This is not a “How-To” course. It is a “Look What It Can Do” experience.

Doodle Your Way to Better Retention

  • A different kind of thinking happens with pen in hand. Studies have proven that images are much more effective than words when it comes to memory retention, comprehension, and motivation. Students are more likely to stay engaged in a lesson and to absorb and retain information from reading, listening or viewing when they are doodling or sketchnoting. Explore how to teach sketchnoting to your students and see how it can be used as a simple strategy to bring engagement to your learning environment.

Making Across the Curriculum: 4C Resources

  • The best lesson designs begin with knowing what your teaching goals and curriculum targets are first. In Making Across the curriculum, participants will get to choose a curriculum goal from their grade band and learn how students can use maker supplies and tools including robots to demonstrate proficiency in that standard. Digital task cards will be used during this session and can be copied for use with your own classrooms.

Discovery Education Tour

  • Get reacquainted with the newest dashboard layout and some of the more loved opportunities DE provides including interactive activities, instructional strategies, channel collections, collaborative boards, virtual field trips, extensive filtering options and more.

Micro:bits: Introduction to (2023-2024)

Playlists, Choice Boards, Pathways: Individualized Blended Learning (April 2024)

Micro:bit 2.0: Time To Soar With Tiny Tech Building Engineers, April 2024 (workshop)

  • Discover the power of Micro:bit 2.0 in this interactive, hands-on session designed for K-5 educators. Explore pre-programmed activities, engage in fun coding challenges, and uncover creative ways to integrate Micro:bits into your classroom. From step counters to rock-paper-scissors tournaments, experience how these tiny tech tools can enhance STEM learning and student engagement. Walk away with ready-to-use lessons and the confidence to bring coding to life for your students!

So Your New Student Is Here: Chat GPT NCTIES, March 8, 2024

  • It’s time to rethink how we design student tasks so that we can continue to understand what they are learning alongside what isn’t going away; Chat GPT. Learn to more regularly utilize multi-modal assignments. How can students grow in their learning and show what they know with the help of Chat GPT? This session will help you rethink your formative and summative assessments in a world where Chat GPT is becoming a collaborative classmate. It’s here to stay. Let’s make friends!

Tiny Tech, Big Engagement: Micro:bit 2.0 NCTIES, March 7, 2024

  • Unlock the Potential of Micro:bit 2.0: Ignite Classroom Engagement with Innovative Curriculum Coding. Delve into the world of Micro:bit 2.0 and witness how this small but mighty technology can revolutionize your teaching methods and elevate your students’ learning journey through imaginative coding experiences. With the power of a computer in the palm of your hand, you’ll be equipped to seamlessly empower your students on their path to coding mastery. Join us in this transformative session and discover how to make learning engaging, interactive, and fun!

Future Ready Learners NCTIES, March 7, 2024

  • Collaboratively explore classroom strategies and spaces aimed at producing future-ready graduates. We’ll integrate digital resources with real-world problem-solving through Project-Based Learning that includes entrepreneurial projects, digital portfolios, and critical thinking challenges. We will share experiences designing learning environments where students thrive. Leave with plans to equip your students with essential soft skills, tech fluency, and adaptability for the evolving world.

⭐Pre-Pandemic

Sketchnoting: Engaging Students Through Visual Notetaking

Sketchnoting: Engaging Students Through Visual Notetaking

Wonder Workshop International STEAM Summit

Building an Engaging Learning Community Through Station Rotations

Student Engagement with Station Rotations

  • For one hour only….brought to you by your WCPSS Digital Learning Coordinators….a Lunch & Learn live session about Student Engagement Through Station Rotations! Station Rotations are not just for ES.  Learn about their benefits & which norms and routines can help make these learning rotations successful. Walk away with management ideas, a plethora of lesson samples & templates for your immediate implementation. Accessible to WCPSS staff. DLC virtual Lunch & Learn, January 13, 2021. Student Engagement with Station Rotations

DRAWing Students in with Interactive Posters and More

  • There are so many ways to use Google Draw. Teachers can create interactive lessons and templates for students and in turn, students can use Google Draw to express their learning.  See how Google Draw can be used for teaching and learning in any class environment. DLC  virtual Lunch & Learn, December 16, 2020. DRAWing Students in with Interactive Posters and More

Maker Meet Up

Collaborative Activities and Protocols for Blended Learning: Plugged and Unplugged

  • Our learning and teaching environments are atypically varied and fluctuating, yet our goals to meet students where they are, to meet their needs and keeping them engaged have not changed. But how do we accomplish this in a virtual or hybrid environment? Explore what synchronous and asynchronous collaboration can look like beyond Google Meet. DLC virtual Lunch & Learn, October 28, 2020, Bryan Road ES staff, November 3, 2020, Middle Creek ES December 2, 2020. Collaborative Activities and Protocols for Blended Learning: Plugged and Unplugged

Ride the #WakeletWave To Tame the Teaching Tsunami

  • Wakelet can be used to support diverse audience needs. Through their partnership with Microsoft, Immersive Reader is available for all text in a collection. In addition, Flipgrid videos can be recorded directly into a collection opening up avenues of communication for all ages and types of learners, no matter their writing skills.  NCTIES2020, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, March 6, 2020.  Ride the Wakelet Wave

Flip the Switch to Power Up: Achieve with Flipgrid

  • Contribute to the Flipgrid community by moving through the tasks necessary to leave the session having submitted an application for level 1 certification (or higher levels, meeting participants where they are).  NCTIES2020, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, March 6, 2020.  Flip the Switch to Power Up

Mindset for Maker: Access for ALL Students

  •  Learn about the challenges we have faced, how we introduce the concept of integrating 4Cs into classroom instruction, and our easy approach for staff members who are ready to implement maker with their students!  NCTIES2020, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh, NC, March 5, 2020.  Mindset for Maker: Access for ALL Students

Teaching the 4Cs

  • The strategic plan asks teachers to incorporate the 4Cs into their daily instruction. Quickly into the process we soon realize that our students don’t understand how to collaborate or communicate. Participants learn how to explicitly teach students how to collaborate, communicate, think critically and be creative! Collaborate? How?
    • Winter Convergence McKimmon Center, Raleigh, NC. January 14, 2020;
    • Staff Professional Learning at Vandora Springs ES January 15, 16 2020;

Invention Literacy; Makey Makey

  • Invention Literacy with Makey Makey is a fun, hands-on learning experience where participants learn how to teach Invention Literacy, Making, and Design Thinking using the award winning Makey Makey invention kit. Invention Literacy with Makey Makey
    • Wake County Public School System, January 8, 2020;
    • NCTIES 2022, 2023

Discovery Education: What You May Not Know

  • Educators are once again embracing Discovery Education as a resource that is changing with the times in response to educator needs and future-ready demands. Come find your way through the amazing new interface and discover how DE can enhance your teaching with engagement and assessment activities, channel subscriptions, resources for college access, career awareness, social-emotional learning, professional development, collaborative opportunities, global involvement and more! Wake STEM Early College High School, December 19, 2019; Discovery Education: What You May Not Know

Google Explore Tool

  • Whole staff experiences the possibilities of the Google Explore tool for enhancing and simplifying research, presentations, and data in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets. This session involved guided explore and time to try! Wake STEM Early College High School, December 19, 2019; Google Explore Tool

Google Keep

  • Introducing high school staff and admin how Google Keep can be useful for personal as well as professional needs and how it can be applied to classroom curriculum. Wake STEM Early College High School, November 18, 2019; Google Keep

Keeping It Confidential

  • Informing School Leadership Teams how to use One Drive for storing or sharing confidential information. Middle Creek HS, November 14. 2019; Keeping It Confidential

Make Forward: Introduction to Making Across the Curriculum

Mindset for Makers: Access for All Students

  • 5th Annual Maker Ed Convening, Pittsburgh, PA, Maker Mentors from Wake County Public School System in North Carolina share how they are scaling maker education in a large suburban public school district in ways that are deeply rooted in curriculum standards. October 12. 2019; Mindset for Maker: Access for All Students

Digital Portfolios in Math

  • School District Wide Professional Learning, Exposing teachers to apps and best practices that can be showcased and reflected on for student portfolios, Wake County Public School System, September 30, 2019, October 9, 2019, February 18, 2020; Digital Portfolios in Math

Intro to Tinkercad

  • Series: Introducing Tinkercad and 3D printing to teachers: sandboxing, curating resources and creating lessons, Smith Magnet Elementary School, September 20, 27, October 4 2019; Tinkercad for Starters

Google Draw for Beginning Teachers and Mentors

  • BTs and Mentors learn Google Draw: Where it is found, how to use it and how to apply it, Buckhorn Creek Elementary School, September 18, 2019; Google Draw for BTs

Minecraft Education Edition: Refresher

Makerspaces for Future Teachers

  • The makerspace leadership team presented about makerspaces to future teachers.  Goals following this session included that participants would understand:
    • The importance of maker and building maker mindset
    • How space affects maker
    • Why coding is part of maker
    • How the grant can support the exploration of maker

    During the session participants got to explore maker materials and ask questions. May 13, 2019: #Wakemakes: Supporting making in WCPSS for Future Teachers

Makerspaces for Principals

  • Principal Book Study maker experience, Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students, and Parents Love, by Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis, Hack 6- Center the School Around Children, May 9, 2019: Makerspaces in Your School

Flipgrid

Hyperdocs: What’s the Hype

NCWise Owl: Middle School

Flipgrid

  • Middle School Staff Professional Learning Opportunities, East Garner Magnet Middle School, March 13 & April 2, 2019; Flipgrid for East Garner

Getting to Know Google

  • Elementary School Staff Professional Learning Opportunity, Holly Ridge Elementary School, March 29, 2019; Getting to Know Google

#WakeMakes: Supporting Making in WCPSS

Google Draw

K2 Can

  • Present Google work samples to K-2 staff for ideas of what students can do once in their Google Drive, Holly Ridge ES, March 21, 2019; K2 Can 

Kinders CAN Video

Washington GT Magnet ES, Raleigh, North Carolina

Flipgrid

  • BT Mentor Meeting, Buckhorn Creek Elementary School, Match 20. 2019; Flipgrid REMIXed

NCWiseOwl

Flipgrid

  • NCTIES 2019, Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh NC, March 8, 2019; Flipgrid 101

Flipgrid

  • High School Staff Professional Learning Opportunities, February 28, 2019: Flipgrid 101

Makerspace

  • School-based Instructional Technology Facilitator and Digital Learning Coordinator Meeting, February 20, 2019: Why Makerspaces?

Makerspaces for Principals

  • Principal Book Study maker experience, Hacking Leadership: 10 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Learning That Teachers, Students, and Parents Love, by Joe Sanfelippo and Tony Sinanis, Hack 6- Center the School Around Children, February 14, 2019: Makerspaces in Your School

Makerspace

Google Certification

  • MTAC Google for Education Certification Bootcamp, Timber Drive Elementary School, Jan 24, 2019: Training Website

Flipgrid

  • Convergence REMIX Track 4, Timber Drive Elementary School, January 22 & 23, 2019: Flipgrid 101 & 102

Google Updates

  • Convergence REMIX Track 4, Timber Drive Elementary School, January 22 & 23, 2019:
  • Google Updates: Nothing Stays the Same
  • Google Updates: Nothing Stays the Same WEBSITE

Hummingbird Robotics

Flipgrid

Google Updates

  • Fall Convergence Media Tech, McKimmon Center, November 30, 2018:
  • Google Updates: Nothing Stays the Same
  • Google Updates: Nothing Stays the Same WEBSITE

Websites

Google Sites

Flipgrid

  • Convergence REMIX, Green Hope HS, August 14 & 16, 2018: Flipgrid 101
  • Convergence REMIX, Fuquay-Varina HS, August 15, 2018: Flipgrid 101
  • Convergence REMIX, South garner HS, August 17, 2018: Flipgrid 101
  • Convergence REMIX, Track 2, September 2, 2018: Flipgrid 101
  • Convergence REMIX, Track 1, September 26 & 27, 2018: Flipgrid 101

Google Tools

Minecraft

Coding

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