TeacherWorkshopReflections

MilkenWorkshop An Introduction - Please find enclosed a copy of the workshop reflections for our workshop on February 21, 2012. Thank you to everyone who participated in this exercise as we work to share out and reflect on the work we do.

Cheryl Cohen Damon Scoville David Kates Diane LaFleur Doug Sackett Esty Gross Gail Srolo Gary Shapiro Ingrid Guth Jane St. Clair Jenny Kopelio Jerry Martin John Perkins Lidia Turner Limor Giladi-Bendor Lisa Steenport Megan McEwen

Melody Mansfield Melodie Roden Monica Daranyi Nancy Sackett Narc Narcisse Nick Holton Noah Kaufman Sean Herestein Shawn Fields-Meyer Stephanie Monteleone Steve Bloom Summer Bloom Tarince Tyler Thomas Moran

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Cheryl Cohen Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

A bit unclear on the start time - thought it was 8. Appreciated the extra time when I got to school to check in and find my way to my session at 8:30

My most significant idea to share.....Learned some cool uses for Garage Band - now I can teach this to the students as another form of presentation in class. Everything else in the Apple session was information I already knew.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Damon Scoville Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I finally got to do my portfolio. I saw a couple examples and then was off to do it my way, which was nice. I filled out only information about myself that I was comfortable with being out on the web, and had no compunctions about not filling in a field that I didn’t want to fill in. Doing this portfolio allowed me a little time to reflect on what was important about my teaching and duties here at Milken. It also had me thinking about what I could put into my resume/CV. Finally, I thought about how I assess learning and how I assess my teaching. That last one is harder to put into words and harder to show on a web page. It will take further thought.

My most significant idea to share.....

I didn’t really share many ideas. I kind of just went with the flow, taking ideas from others and integrating them into my portfolio in my own way. I guess my biggest thought for someone else doing this is to make it reflect how you want to appear to others in your professional environment.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by David Kates Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

My most significant idea to share.....

Tarince Tyler and I were given a tour of the Brentwood School Library by its director, Karen Phillips. Like Milken’s Library, Brentwood is challenged by noisy students. Although, Brentwood’s Library has more space (study carrels) for quiet study. Also, Brentwood--like Milken--has lost space to other campus departments. One of the Library’s group study rooms is a classroom. And two former Library offices are now occupied by educational technology faculty, including Scott Perloff!

Here are some great ideas from Brentwood: 1. The library has shelves at the entrance for food and drinks. They restrict food in the library.

2. Brentwood has a strong Student Library Advisory Committee (SLACers) group, which organizes book displays by seniors, an all-night reading/movie night in the library, and suggests improvements to the library. This is a great way to get students involved.

3. Brentwood integrates reference books in the general collection to increase their circulation.

4. Brentwood’s librarian brings a cart of books to middle school literature classes. Students sign out books and put the cards in an envelope on the cart. The librarian switches out the books every 4-6 weeks.

5. Brentwood has a large variety of magazines on such topics as video games, sports (snow and skate boarding), and GLBT. The budget is about $3,000 for professional and student magazines.

6. Brentwood’s director was frustrated by the lack of newspaper use. They subscribe to the Los Angeles Times and New York Times.

7. For book club, students pick a genre/theme, the librarian brings about five books, and students pick one title.

8. Most importantly: Brentwood provides breakfast and lunch to all faculty and staff for no charge.

This gives them incentive to stay on campus for meals to work with students. Brentwood has many faculty and student group meetings during lunch.

Milken Workshop Tuesday, February 21, 2012 What I learned, saw, thought....... a visit to Harvard Westlake High School.

by Diane LaFleur

Such a day it was...I was able to visit the Visual Arts Department at Harvard Westlake HS. Harvard Westlake is a well established private High School located on Coldwater Canyon, just above Ventura Blvd.

The morning started out with a greeting by the Head of the Visual Arts, Ms. Cheri Gaulke. She was gracious and friendly. The arrangement was to have a full tour of the Art Department, including observations of classes.

We started out in the beautiful Art Gallery where seniors were in the process of having their photos taken. On the walls were student work, representing one of the many art classes.

Next, we visited an advanced senior painting and drawing class. My observation was that the class was small and the space organized. They were working on both painting and drawing.

One of the students was completing a painting on illustration board for her AP Studio Art portfolio.

Head of the department showing me the AP Studio art class.

This is a students work area in AP studio art. He is studying his hands and incorporating ideas from Art History, using the work of M.C.Escher for inspiration.

A student working on a sketch for his art piece that is inspired by Auguste Rodin, “The Thinker�.

AP Studio students work, self portrait influenced by Lucian Freud.

Another AP Studio students work, self portrait.

Third level painting class.

After visiting the studios where drawing and painting classes met, we moved on to the sculpture and ceramics area.

Ceramics studio with wheels and individual storage area students.

Students learning glazing techniques.

Examples from glassmaking class.

Outdoor work area for welding.

Clay head.

Display area outside of ceramics studio.

Video Art studio with Head of the department.

Art History lecture room.

Photo lab. (I took a picture of the darkroom, but it didn’t turn out due to lack of light) This student is hand tinting a photo that he shot and developed.

I then toured the campus. This is some of the artwork that is on display.

Perspective drawing.

Second level drawing inspired by work in the science lab.

Metamorphosis drawing.

Deconstructed form, drawing, one class.

I was able to observe seven classes: Painting and drawing, AP studio art, Art History, ceramics, sculpture, video art, and photography. Teachers and students were introduced to me and there was time for a short discussion of students work. The class size varied from ten to fifteen maximum. Classes meet three times per week. Two of these are 45 minutes and one is an hour and a half in length. Harvard Westlake’s High School has grades 10-12. The 9th graders are still at the Middle School level. There is cross curriculum demonstrated in the department. An example: AP studio art students must take a combined History Studio Art class as a prerequisite. This class has two teachers, one from each department, Visual Art and History.

My most significant idea to share..... The school is developing a new Department which will be totally ‘cross curriculum’ based. The Art Department will be an integral part of this new Department. It sounds very exciting to me.

Much thanks to those of you who gave us this opportunity to explore other educational sites. It was a certainly a fascinating and inspiring day.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Doug Sackett Tuesday, February 22, 2012 I visited Marymount High School, near UCLA. It is an Apple Exemplary School and has had a 1-1 Apple laptop program, 9th-12th grade, for 6 years. At Marymount, I visited a classroom that had an iPad with Airplay and an Apple TV that connected wirelessly to a projector. In a nuthsell, this allowed the teacher to use the iPad wirelessly to deliver a Keynote, the Internet and streaming videos to the projector, walking around the room, without being cabled, using her iPad. The technology worked beautifully. This summer, this mirroring of the iPad function will be available on Mac laptops, with the new Mountain Lion operating system. In addition, students with iPads (or laptops, after Mountain Lion comes out) could project their screens using airplay. This could be a significant development for classroom technology. I believe we will be testing Apple TV and Airplay with our model AV set up we will be placing in a classroom very soon.

My most significant idea to share.....

My other major take: following discussions with Marymount's technology director, Patrick Lynch, I believe I should consider focussing a great deal of my Ed Tech support on 9th and 10th grade teachers (this will probably be at least 1/2 of the HS teachers). John felt it critical that teachers starting or new to 1-1 classrooms could use this support to meet the needs of our MS students, most of whom are coming from 1-1 classrooms.

Doug

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Esty Gross Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I attended the workshop “Me and My Laptop” with Jon and Nick. The discussion about the article “Is Google Making US Stupid?” was interesting. Among many things, we discussed the idea that we are in the midst of a new era which is not going to go away and that will change they way we think or may not... Technology innovations will be more frequent and will change rapidly. As a school we may find ourselves lagging behind the rapid changes of the “outside” world as changes in education take time. We investigate options, discuss them, negotiate, and then make a decision which may not be at all relevant for the near future or even for that moment in time. Educators need to be quick on their feet to adjust to the new technologies. This changes the profile of the 21st teacher and our roles as educators in the classroom.

The second part was dedicated to google apps, such as Evernote, Dropbox, etc which I found to be redundant for me, Not sure what I expected to get from this session to begin with.

My most significant idea to share.....

Again: This changes the profile of the 21st teacher and our roles as educators in the classroom.

We need to continue to explore and discuss the role of educators vis a vis technology. What do we do with existing teachers who have no way to adapt to the speed of tech innovations...? The task of hiring new teachers becomes more challenging, at least in the Hebrew dept...

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Gail Srolo Tuesday, February 22, 2012 I spent the morning doing the financial reports for the basketball games we hosted last week. After that, I went to Windward School and met with Steve Smith the Athletic Director. I watched the end of his girls' basketball practice which was awesome. His team is ranked #2 in the country!

We talked about many topics relevant to Milken athletics: My most significant idea to share.....

Software- he uses a software called Whipple Hill. He loves itthe information can be disseminated to factilities (can not double book) transportation, calenders, websites etc... The Viewpoint AD uses this software too.

Philosophy- academics come first but athletes need to learn to balance their commitments and if they do participate on a team then they have to be able to attend practice and games and balance their school work.

Although the word on the street is that they "recruit" their athletes I am not sure about that. They have a winning program and a complete campus that in itself helps bring in well rounded quality athletes and performers. Steve feels that

joing the Gold Coast Conference 10 years ago helped them begin their ascent to high level athletics. The name recognition of competing against Campbell Hall, Brentwood and Crossroads raised the bar for them. He feels it was a great move for Milken to join the Gold Coast Conference.

No cheerleaders- they feel it doesn't meet the mission of their school. They will start a yell squad and dance team.

Physical Education Program- athletes can earn their PE credit through their participation on Windard sports teams. Outside activities do not satisfy the PE requirement. The PE classes are small at Windward and they are looking to enhance their offerings and curriculum.

Grades- students falling below average in academics can not play sports until they show evidence of consistent improvement Coaches- some long time walk ons, and faculty coaches. The coaching stipend rate is about the same as ours.

The Athletic Directors at Windward, Brentwood, Campbell Hall, Viewpoint, Crossroads, Harvard-Westlake, Buckley all earn over $100,000 per year.

Facilities School sells itself- They have state of the art science labs with separate classrooms for instruction. All science teachers have Phds. Free standing gym, dedicated dance studio, dedicated music room, recording room, library- communal study area, quiet study area, fire place for reading, outdoor balconey for reading, check out room for laptops and materials, baseball field, softball field, batting cages, and soccer field. The own

the property in the back of the school and are beginning a capital campaign for another gym.

It was an enlightening visit.

Best, Gail

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Gary Shapiro Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I enjoyed learning more about technological and online resources, with Jon C. and Nick H., that could enrich our classroom experiences. The day was relaxed, but also had good, useful content--a great combination.

My most significant idea to share.....

From the article we read (“Is Google Making Us Stupid�) and the subsequent conversation which ensued, I believe that we as a school community have more work to do in terms of deciding how both to use and to limit the use of technology in our classrooms. Are we doing enough to respond to the challenges generated by the Internet Age? Are we helping students to resist what is negative about technology?

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Ingrid Guth I observed two history classes at Campbell Hall--tenth-grade at level World History and ninth-grade at level World History. The lessons in both classes focused on the textbook, a section of which the students had read the night before (and for which they were held accountable). The tenth-grade teacher made good use of quotes on his powerpoint; the ninth-grade teacher moved quickly from activity to activity using proven ninth-grade techniques (“you need three colored pencils, three facts, and three bodies of water”). The teaching was solid and the curriculum unencumbered, although the students did not appear particularly curious.

I seem to expect more engagement from students than do many teachers I observe, and I admire those teachers’ ability to chirp on as the intensity of student involvement swells and ebbs. The afterschool carpool/traffic situation on Laurel Canyon was far worse than anything here, even with the construction.

MilkenWorkshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Jane St. Clair The Apple Lab introduced us to a number of teaching options through in-class laptop and iPad features, including Photo Booth, Keynote and Garage Band. We learned how to manage/merge and catalogue existing photos through archiving, how to selectively share class folders of images and editing and design features in iPhoto to support presentations. The workshop culminated in putting together a podcast in teams of two and three. The podcast linked visuals in jpegs with voice narration, foley sounds and music as a template for assignments that students would be able to put together for any discipline: history, language, writing, you name it. I was really impressed.

Our Apple facilitator has brought this to her public school district in San Diego: elementary schools where students aren't blessed with the wealth you see here on the west side. And they love it and have taken off running with these skills.

The potential for communicating through a shared, collaborative experience is huge.

Thanks for the opportunity.

See you soon, Jane

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Jenny Kopelio Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

The Apple rep. showed us how the tricks for a keynote presentation, cool things for a language class.

My most significant idea to share.....

Organizing photos, albums, sharing them with students. Teach students how to make good use of the MAC features to prepare a good presentation.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by J. Martin Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...I believe I made some meaningful progress on the faculty portfolio expectation. The work was clearly delineated and the students assisting were helpful and goodnatured, even in the face of adult incompetence. RF was as always patient and reassuring.

There was also a general good spirit in the room making working in an unfamiliar realm less stressful.

The afternoon program with Jon Cassie had a good balance between the theoretical and the practical. There are still a number of processing sequences I need to learn, but I got pretty much all I could accommodate in a day.

My most significant idea to share.....

As to professional growth days, I would challenge, in part, the concept that portfolios for teachers lead inevitably to professional growth, or more pointedly these processes appear to do little to break us out of our institutional bubble. Essentially I would suggest that focused visiting of other institutions would provide greater utility of the school and for the faculty. We really need to mitigate our provincial ideas of our virtues...and our ills...as a school.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by John Perkins Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

Freshman Parent/Student/Advisor Meetings

My most significant idea to share.....

Not what I did, but what I saw a colleague do.

She made a document for each students that summarized each DPU that the student received.

From here, she was able to identify areas of strengths, common themes in the student’s work, teacher recommendations, etc... much easier than I was able to be rereading all my advisees’ DPUs.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Lidia Turner Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was... fabulous! I prepared a lesson plan with two elementary school teachers from Stephen S. Wise. We worked together and each teacher contributed with her unique prospective to create a dierentiated lesson.

My most significant idea to share is how important it is to work on a team of teachers that work on the same field. The outcome is an enriched and complex product that reflects all points of view and backgrounds.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Limor Giladi Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...it was a good day and very productive for me.

In the session with Jon and Nick. The article we read was very very interesting and we were discussing many of the ideas, “Problems”. We shared what we felt about it and if really Google is “stoping” from thinking. What does is do to our kids, to us. I liked the article very much. I thought that here at Milken we can see some of it (in my opinion ). Our great newspaper is no longer out there in the hands of the students.., they don’t sit together and read it , they do say-”did u read it? did u see what I wrote today”?.... now that is on line... it is not the same. I know for my self.. that I don’t get the chance to read it as much as I did before. it is not the same fun, exciting moments for me...

My most significant idea to share.....I think that we need to balance the “on-line” idea in classes as well. I think we need to make sure it is fun, productive and not disruptive to the class. For me, in my classes, I limit the use of the computer and we do in on the “big screen” most of the time. this way I have them all with me engaging in a better way.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Lisa Steenport Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

Since I am always so busy planning sporting events, inputing data five different times for all of the programs we use, and communicating with parents, it was nice to sit down and have the time to actually work on my portfolio. I realize, as with many things, that being a perfectionist at technology requires time and learning the tricks as we did at the workshop will make things easier for the next time I do it. I enjoy learning and actually having the time to work on it was actually the most rewarding part of the day. I also liked the format where we would learn a little and then actually do it. I learn best by “doing” so just listening was not going to work best for me. “Lids down” was something I did not like to hear as I would have preferred to have gone through the steps as they were being addressed.

My most significant idea to share..... use of the picture program “Thumbs Up”. It is a great tool.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Megan McEwen Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I went on a school visit to Viewpoint High School. We observed classes, spoke with the faculty, and had lunch with the very impressive Assistant Head of School (a familiar face, Katrina Fuller).

My most significant idea to share.....

The faculty there was very excited about WikiSpaces as an easy way to communicate with students technologically. They also begin their science curriculum with Biology, in order to make it easier on the more math-challenged 9th graders. They were very happy with the progression from Biology to Chemistry to Physics.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Melody Mansfield Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I received a wonderful goody package of sustenance and tech devices to help speed me into Portfolio creations. Thanks to Roger and to the student helpers, I learned a lot about creating and saving my Portfolio site (although I am still fighting with the size of the photos and how that aects the final portfolio site.)

The most enjoyable part was seeing how the photos could enhance the text and make an inviting presentation.

My most significant idea to share.....

Give yourself plenty of time to work on portfolio, and then feel free to experiment with formats and information included.

MilkenWorkshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Melodie Roden I attended Jon Cassie's morning session and Roger Fuller's afternoon session.

In my morning session, my most significant idea to share is that with proper balance, technology can be integrated into our curriculum. We started the session with an interesting discussion about how technology can alter the way we read and perhaps we can all benefit from going on a "technology diet". We are surrounded by so much new technology and it inevitably will find its way into our classrooms. We have to be picky and find what tech tools can really enhance our classes. Less is more and it is important to emphasize quality over quantity.

In my afternoon session, I helped other teachers start or work with their portfolios. I worked mostly with Marta and taught her how to navigate through the portfolio system. I also updated my portfolio and added new pictures. The portfolios are a work in progress and therefore will never truly by "done". It is important to have fun with the portfolios and show off a bit of our personalities in the process.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

Monica Daranyi It was a great day!

My most significant idea to share.....

It was wonderful to be able to share in a small group our ideas/concerns regarding our laptops, oneto-one learning and the challenges of learning with all the new technology available to us. I appreciated that were asked prior to the workshop what our needs were regarding our laptops.

Then, during the beginning of the workshop, we read some insightful articles which began a thoughtful discussion.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Nancy Sackett Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I visited the science dept. at Viewpoint School in Calabasas with Sonny, Megan, Narc, and Patrick.

My most significant idea to share.....

They just built a new science wing. The science facilities are very nice. They built a chemical storage cabinet with ventilation built into the top of the cabinet. Their classrooms have separate lab and lecture areas so lab setups can be done more easily. Also this design facilitates ongoing projects. I spoke with the AP chemistry teacher about changes that will be happening in the AP curriculum. We also discussed our lab programs - very helpful.

MilkenWorkshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Narc Narcisse Visiting Viewpoint was interesting. The campus was visually pleasing which is nice, but the most important thing that I liked was the fact that they have more "contact" time with students. Science teachers see their kids 4 times in a 6 day span, and they have a 90min double block in there. We see our kids 5 times in a 10 day span, and no double blocks, so those numbers add up as the year goes by...

More contact time is what I am used to from my Brentwood days, so that is for sure a nice thing to have.

The classrooms were also more spacious, but that is because they have more room to build compared to here.

So that is what impressed me the most.

Thanks, Enjoy the rest a the day Narc

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Nick Holton Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I co-ran the “my laptop and me” workshops with Jon Cassie. The workshop did provide a productive dicussion about the world we live in (1:1) and brought out some interesting ideas. However, this discussion took away from practical problem solving of teacher’s issues with their laptops.

My most significant idea to share.....

Ultimately I think we did a poor job of gathering ideas as to what teachers would need and want from this session and it turned into more of a discussion session that a helpful one. I think many teachers are still struggling with some basic actions on their laptops both from a mac hardware standpoint and a software standpoint. I think more time should be devoted to that, and we should describe, in detail, what will be covered so that people can properly sign up.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

9th Grade Advisor/Parent/Advisee Meetings aka “The Conversation”

by Noah Kaufman Tuesday, February 22, 2012 I thought the schedule ran rather smoothly. Despite some issues with the freeway off ramp closure most of my attendees showed up on time. They were receptive to my notes and I can safely assume that they walked out of the meeting feeling like I have a firm grasp on what their kids do very well, some things they need to work on, and that Milken sincerely cares about each and every student’s welfare and success. Dialog was encouraged, and successful.

My prep work over the weekend really made all the difference. I printed out all of my Advisees’ DPU’s before leaving work on Friday and proceeded to highlight key strengths and weaknesses (one color for each). Then on a simple one sheet I summarized recurring themes in terms of strengths and areas of improvement. I also compared my notes to the most recent report card, and mentioned signs of improvement or lack there of. This is how I started the meeting. I mentioned that although the purpose of the talk was to discuss broad plans and general welfare of the student, it was seldom a case where we can all get together, therefore it would be a good time to talk about how the student is doing now. Parents were very receptive to this approach, as some were very eager to talk about their child’s current struggles, and ways to seek improvement.

Then we moved on to the purple “aspirations and future plans” worksheet 9th graders filled out at the beginning of class requests. I had the student take a copy and explain to his/her parents and myself what they were thinking when they wrote each answer. I framed their responses in the context of their current class requests and also possible clubs/activities/programs that might appeal to them, using the Activities/Clubs sheet Francine included in our packet. Lastly I gave them a copy of the departmental contact sheet closed the conversation with some words of encouragement to the student.

My recommendation would be to allow time for adequate prep work and a rough formulation of a road map for the meeting itself. Taking into consideration the small size of my advisory, it might not be realistic for larger Advisories to do the amount of prep work that I did. Although I’m very well acquainted with my advisees and their academics, the extra review paid off in spades.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Sean Herstein, Middle School Jewish Studies Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

I was in the Apple-led session. It was not a valuable use of time. We were shown various programs (iPhoto, Photobooth Keynote, & Garage Band) and were given the time to use them. The information was not presented in an interesting or interactive manner.

My most significant idea to share.....

I have not used Garage Band before and I am planning on asking some of the students in my MS Betzalel class to create a video of their Jewish song parodies using this program.

Milken Workshop February 22, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......by Shawn Fields-Meyer Four of us from the Jewish Studies department went for a site visit to Shalhevet High School. We had the opportunity to meet with Rabbi Noam Weissman, the head of curriculum development for their Jewish Studies. He described their 4-year scope and sequence. In response to our questions, Rabbi Weissman explained that the school has recently changed most of their JS curriculum and their JS faculty. In addition, we observed two classes and a celebration of learning with the seniors. I learned that many of their struggles are the mirror image of ours: I walked away thinking not so much of our differences, but of our many similarities: we are all living in the tension between ancient texts and modern lives; we're all calculating the academic balance between teaching text skills vs focusing more on content; and we all contemplate the ever-present struggle of getting Jewish teenagers to pray and embrace their spiritual lives. These are huge issues -- all of them -- and the stuff of meaningful, compelling discussions for all good educators. I hope we will have many opportunities to come together as colleagues to share our insights and inspire one another.

My most significant idea to share.....there were no computers visible on desks, and no cell phones in

the hands of students. I felt that this added a quality to the school -- it really felt like a school.

People were looking at each other, not at screens.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Stephanie Monteleone Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

Lunch was the best part of the day...and of course learning how to do my portfolio from my colleagues, Melissa Morlok and Max Alexander.

My most significant idea to share.....

Why do we bring in consultants to waste time teaching us things that we already know how to do or at least we could figure out on our own?

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Steve Bloom Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...

During the course of a normal school day it is diďŹƒcult to find the time to focus on portfolio development. When I was able to find the time to focus on portfolios, I did not always have the expertise to get the job done. This workshop day gave me an opportunity to spend the time necessary to earnestly begin the process. In addition, the students were extremely helpful because they provided the skills necessary to demonstrate the technology skills involved in developing a portfolio.

My most significant idea to share.....

I think that the key for me is to develop the skills necessary to develop portfolios without constant help.

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Summer Bloom Tuesday, February 22, 2012 Oiy..... Such a day it was...The morning session was filled with working on Portfolios. I thought this was a very beneficial session. We learned great tools on putting together our portfolios. However, I will I chosen to stay in the workshop for the full day because I think there was additional “tricks” I didn’t get to learn. In our afternoon session we discussed and analyzed a Blog discussing how our society has changed the way in which we share and learn information. We discussed the pros and cons of this new concept. The room was then opened up for us to tell Jon and Nick our goals for the session. Jon helped class members how to understand their Macs a little more. I was searching for help on Proprofs, a program some of the science department members use for testing. Unfortunately neither of them were familiar with it. I then decided to inquire about Schoology. I didn’t have an account but spent some time sitting with Nick exploring how he utilizes it. It sounds like an option worth looking into, but I use my website and my classes for much of this.

My most significant idea to share.....I would love more time learning tricks for the portfolio! I would also love a head start on learning how to teach our students to do their portfolios!

MilkenWorkshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Tarince Tyler

There are a few ideas I came away from Brentwood School with...

-Make additional space for chairs and desks by placing the reference books in the stacks with the non-fiction.

-Every other month, allowing any high school student to pick their favorite book or books and displaying them.

-Once a year, holding a library sleepover, where students who sign up can read select chapters to the group, and then watch the adaptation of the film.

-Forming a student library committee to discuss how to get students involved in the library.

-Set up a small shelf near the entrance of our library to hold drinks and snacks.

-Tarince

Milken Workshop February 21, 2012

What I learned, saw, did, thought.......

by Thomas Moran Tuesday, February 22, 2012 My most significant idea to share.....

It is possible through iPhoto to share your entire photo library or particular albums with the folks on your network. This is handy for sharing large or multiple PDF files with an entire class. Unlike shared music anyone on your network can download your image files. To accomplish this task open iPhoto - > click on iPhoto in the top menu -> click on Preferences -> Sharing -> Adjust the settings to share what you like (X,Y,Z albums) -> add a password if you want more control.

It is not advisable to share your entire library since most of us have family and personal pictures on our computers as well.