My Day at the WVIZ Ideastream Conference

Tuesday, November 17, was an exciting day.  I battled morning traffic on 77 North to get to the PBS WVIZ Ideastream Conference, and I arrived early enough for a Starbucks treat. When I checked in at the registration table, the nice lady said, "Oh!  You're Stephani.  You need to go see that gentleman at the next table."  Worried that something was wrong, I introduced myself, and he told me to follow an intern.  Next thing I knew, I was in the television studio, the same television studio where I took my students to see Tom Hanks and John Lithgow.

The studio seats about 200 people.  Soon it would be packed!

This time, I would not only be lucky enough to sit in the front row, but I also was honored to present after the keynote speaker, Dr. Susan Finelli.  My name was on the web page and in the program!

There I am!

As I waited, a nice lady fitted me with a body microphone--how surreal is that?  Then we rehearsed until we broke the computer.  I blithely posted selfies while the tech people sweated bullets trying to figure out the problem.

Rehearsing for my PBS presentation. Computer already died. I swear it isn't my fault.

A photo posted by Stephani Itibrout (@itibrout) on Nov 17, 2015 at 5:36am PST

I took a selfie with Jay Wise, History teacher at Copley Middle School and fellow 2015 PBS Digital  Innovator.  The best part is that he is my daughter's teacher, so I texted the pic to her to freak her out.

Just 2 PBS Digital Innovators hanging out. You know. No biggie. #pbs @pbslearningmedia

A photo posted by Stephani Itibrout (@itibrout) on Nov 17, 2015 at 6:02am PST

 Then Jay and I received certificates for being 2015 PBS Digital Innovators, and I got a cool mini-guitar!





Let me say that it was difficult to follow such an interesting speaker (Dr. Finelli), but I breathed deeply and dove in.  Here is the link to my presentation on Community Service in Blended Learning.

I think it went well.

Later, Shannon Conley-Kurjian and I presented a session on using YouTube tools to explain complex concepts.

I attended some great sessions from Stephanie DeMichele, PBS' NewsDepth, and Ann Radefeld, who challenged us to beat some elementary school kids in a game of Mystery Hangout.  They kicked our butts.

After lunch I listened to IdeaTalks from Morgan Kolis ("How to Start a Maker's Club in Ten Steps"), Stephanie DeMichele ("If You're Going to Fail, Make It Epic"), and Eric Curts ("The Big Blank Wall").  The speakers from all of my sessions were so dynamic and so full of information that I felt like I could go back to my school with takeaways I could use immediately.  That doesn't always happen at a conference.

Thank you so much for an amazing day, WVIZ and PBS.  Your conference has inspired me to strive to hone my craft.  I will be back.

Like what you read? Follow me on Twitter @itibrout!

True Grit Revisited

What’s the best predictor of success in a person’s life, including success in education? When it comes to predicting the latter, psychologist and former educator Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth says we need to better understand students and learning from a motivational and psychological perspective. “In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ,” Duckworth says. “But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?” Duckworth, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, studies non-IQ competencies, including self-control and grit that predict success both academically and professionally. Over the course of her research, she says one characteristic emerged as the key predictor of success – GRIT. So what exactly is grit? Find out in her TED Talk. http://to.pbs.org/1l9YkmD

It takes a lot of grit to finish a half marathon in hot weather and 80% humidity.

Want to read more about grit in the classroom?  I learned an important lesson in my Blended Learning Rhetoric and Composition class; click here to read the full post on True Grit.

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout!

PBS Honors Veterans

Military veterans are extraordinary — their bravery inspires us and their sacrifices secure our freedoms. 

The man on the far right is my Uncle Frankie.  He was sixteen or seventeen (I've hear conflicting stories) when he lied about his age and joined up during WWII.  His biggest problem (he told me) was that he was tiny, and he had to "make weight" to enlist, so he gorged himself before weighing in.  Is this true?  I dunno.  Uncle Frankie had a lot of great stories, and my grandmother ( his big sister) tended to discount most of them, but I didn't care. I loved to listen to him.  Seeing this picture, knowing that Uncle Frankie was involved in an air battle and survived, reminds me that we are so lucky to enjoy the freedoms we have.  I am grateful to all veterans.

This PBS LearningMedia collection of videos, images, and lesson plans allow you to bring their compelling stories from the battlefront into American history and world history classrooms. Students will explore the similarities and differences in veterans’ memories of World War II and Vietnam to uncover how these wars shaped American culture. Your class will also learn about everything from the experiences of men on the battlefield during D-Day, to the decision to drop the atomic bomb, to the events in Somalia in the early 1990’s that inspired the book (and movie) “Black Hawk Down.” EXPLORE: http://to.pbs.org/1MubiHH

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout!

Cherokee Language and Nature

The Cherokee believe everything in the environment, from crops and animals to creeks, mountains and even the wind – all have an intelligent spirit and play a central role in daily life. The Cherokee do not view themselves as separate from the environment. Rather, they see themselves as part of it. Their language reflects that. 

“Language is the core to any culture because it is what that culture expresses itself with and it is the dynamic mechanism through which that culture continues,” says Tom Belt, Coordinator of the Cherokee Language Revitalization Program at Western Carolina University. 

Cherokee Syllabary

In this lesson from UNC-TV, students learn about the link between Cherokee language and culture, how it was almost lost to history, and how Western Carolina researchers are working with the Eastern Band of Cherokee to study, preserve and grow the language once again. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1LYh823

Frankenstein Comes Alive

"It's alive!"
That memorable line was in Frankenstein the movie, but it wasn’t in the book. 




I prefer this version.

And many think of Frankenstein as the stiff-armed, fabricated monster, but that was actually the doctor’s name.

Boris Karloff as the monster

 In this episode of “Crash Course,” John Green introduces your class to Mary Shelley's famously frightful novel. Students will learn about the Romantic movement in English lit, of which Frankenstein is a GREAT example, and how Frankenstein might just be the very first SciFi novel. As it often does, literature comes down to just what it means to be human. John will review the plot, take the class through a couple of different critical readings of the novel, and discuss the final disposition of Percy Shelley's heart. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1RhBa7E

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout!

BRRRAAAAIIINS!

Why is it important to protect the brain? Are boy’s brains different than girl’s brains? How does your brain interact with your body? 

Zombie wants to know this : Why are brains so yummy?

Your students can explore these and other important discussion questions as they probe the power and mystery of the brain. In this video from The Human Spark, Alan Alda talks with Dr. Todd Preuss on the subject of the brain and how it functions. Preuss studies the brain with the help of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI machines, which reveal the sophisticated circuitry of the brain’s cortex. 

Students will learn how the cortex differs in individuals and how those differences could relate to how people think or act. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1j60gf5

The Eyes Have It

Humans, like most other mammals, are primarily sight oriented, which means that our eyes are our dominant sense organs. The reason we rely so heavily on vision most likely lies in our evolutionary history. Millions of years ago, the way of life of the ancestors of Homo sapiens favored those with good vision and selected against individuals who could not see as well. 

Nice eyes!

Frightened eyes

Alice Cooper eyes

What the heck???

In this lesson based on NOVA’s "Mystery of the Senses: Vision,” students explore how their eyes receive visual information from the world around them, and how our brain makes sense of it. This lesson pieces together the components of human visual perception, and includes a fun and engaging classroom activity that allows your class to view optical illusions and further investigate the human visual system. WATCH: http://to.pbs.org/1M15DXU