An Ode to Educators...

Educators are a strange group of people...

(Famous professors from Hogwarts)

They stay up late at night marking students' papers and creating lesson plans. They are constantly reading, web-surfing and attending conferences to keep up-to-date on the latest in ED trends. They sometimes get abused by students/parents of students/administrators. They never get enough time to sleep, are notoriously poorly paid and yet, they remain in their profession!!

Yep, very strange group of people indeed!

I should know... for the last 30 years I have been a part of that group and I wouldn't give it up for anything!!

Well, yes, there was one year where the new 9th grade almost drove me to insanity and made me think of leaving... but I didn't!  Oh, there was that parent whom I almost got a restraining order against, but they live in another country now!  Ah, the stories I could tell if you buy me a nice glass of wine (or a scotch!) at an Ed Conference, but the bottom line is that I keep on returning to being an educator.

Now that I am a "teacher educator" and not working in the classroom trenches everyday, here is a HUGE shout out my colleagues who still are!  You are amazing, dedicated and, yes, a little crazy!! :-)

I wanted to do something nice for you all so I went to my management at CIJE (Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education) and asked if I could set up a special Professional Development day where educators in my area could come together for networking, great workshops and - every teachers' favorite - a bagel lunch!!  So that everyone could attend, it had to be for free. To make it even more difficult, in order not to miss a school day, it had to be on a weekend and being that CIJE works with Jewish schools, it could not be held on Shabbat (Saturday).  That left only one day - SUNDAY! 

Much to my joy, they said YES! (Thanks Mr. Jason Cury - CIJE President and Dr. Jane Willoughby - VP West Coast)  My bosses did have one caveat though... the presenters at this PD day had to be experts in their field with a national or international reputation.

So I approached my good friends at the EMEK school here in LA and they agreed to provide the venue - thanks Rabbi Shifman and Michelle Andron!  I then approached my colleagues at COJDS (Consortium of Jewish Day Schools) and they agreed to help - thanks Dr. Shapiro and Rabbi Glass! A quick email to the internationally known Dr. Camille McCue and she agreed to do the introduction keynote address - thanks Camille.  Another quick email to my friends at Apple ED in LA and they agreed to do workshops and before I knew it, I had a jammed packed event all arranged!! (Thanks to all of the presenters!!)

The event will be running THIS Sunday, APRIL 30th!  I still have a few seats open, so if you want to attend you will need to register right away at:  bitl.ly/cijestem2017  and, yes, there is NO CHARGE!!

• If you wanted to hear about all the new Apple stuff for EDU, you need attend!
• If you want to learn about Ji Tap and Ji Calendar for your school (amazing products),you need attend!  
• If you want a full briefing on the CIJE Engineering and Science programs that are available for your school, you don't want to miss this! 
• If you have always want a great introduction to Blended Learning, accessing Higher Order Thinking Skills, Designed Thinking, Holistic STEM in Limudai Kodesh, Digital Citizenship (a must for everyone) and access to one of the original "shakers and movers" in Tinker Space and 3D Printing, then you need to come to this event.

Here is a link to the list of sessions and workshops.  Here is the link to register.

I hope to see you all on this Sunday, April 30th, 2017.  The fun starts with coffee and cookies at 8:30am!!

Oh yes, before I forget - go hug an Educator!  Without them, we would be nothing!!

Regards,

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist, CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

A Robot for you, and for you, and you! (apologies to Oprah!)

My son Tuvia loves coding.

He comes home, does his homework, practices his piano (well, on most days...) and then... AH! His favorite... he starts scripting in C# (said "see-sharp").  

His ultimate goal is to create games (I will let you know when his first one is available) and in order to achive that goal, he has created his own curriculum - a veritable PBL case study! As a matter of fact, he is now so confident in his coding expertise that he has started a summer programming camp!  For three weeks, he will be running a two-hour-a-day camp for students age nine through thirteen to learn beginner's C# - and the camp has filled up in less than 3 days!!

Oh, by the way, did I mention that he is 11 years old?

In many schools, the introduction to coding comes through a robotics class.  This is a great idea as it involves the coding with a real-world result - the robot carries out a task. Tuvia started this way with a Lego robotics club.  The problem always was that there were not enough robotics sets so students had to team up in groups of 3 or 4.  Great for collaborative learning, not so good for building programming and problem solving skills.  The other issue was that while Tuvia could come home and still work on his robot (I took my robotics instructor training from Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy about 9 years ago and have all sorts of Robo parts around the house) the other students could not.  This was a real problem for some of Tuvia's peers. But not any more...

Enter CoderZ (pronounced Code - erz) with an amazing, fully curricularized program!  I will let their video explain it all...

(click here to view video)

What do you think?  It looks pretty cool, right?  I know that it solves the "one-kid-per-device" problem and expands that ability for all students to fully participate in all aspects of a coding/robotics program.

Now, I know that when I see new products like this, I want to have a hands-on tour... and that is exactly what I am trying to arrange!

The folks from Coderz are trying to make it to the April 30th STEM/STEAM & 21st Century ED day.  If they can, I will have them give a full demo during the lunch break.  

Of course, this means that you need to book your ticket to the event!  There is no charge, so all you are spending is your time to come down and attend some fantastic workshops/sessions and great networking opportunities!

Here is the link to book your attendance.  The list of events is available through the link.

See you all on Sunday, April 30th!!

Yossie

Yossie Franke

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

Every Breath You Take, Every Click you Make - I'll Be Watching You! (with apologies to Sting)

I was at a family gathering recently and I caught up with an aunt that I hadn't seen for a few years.  During our visit, she told me that she was working for a major cable network/streaming service in the Taxonomy Department.  My face must have given away my puzzlement as she humorously pointed out that she didn't say taxidermy - the preserving, stuffing and mounting of dead animals -  but rather taxonomy - a way to classify words or ideas. (She must get that an awful lot!)

Now, I AM a science teacher so I do know what taxonomy means, but what I couldn't get my head around is why would a major cable network need a department to manage a scheme of classification?  Over the next 10 minutes my aunt explained her job and as well as being fascinated, I also became more than a little worried.

You see, every time you click on a website, watch a movie, select a an item from an on-line store, your action becomes part of the meta-data of the world wide web.  Yes, that's right, you are being digitally stalked whether you want to be or not!!  What my aunt does is make that huge amount of data "sortable" by creating a system that allows for cross correlation and data mining.  While her job is very impressive, what it reminds me of is a saying from Pirkei Avot (A book on ancient Jewish Ethics - translated as the Ethics of our Fathers):  "there is a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book."  Kinda of creepy don't you think?!!

After our visit, I starting thinking about how does one live in a world where everything that we do on-line is so carefully scrutinized for marketing?  Then I though of an answer... Become Informed!! We are not just citizens of the country that we hail from, but we are also digital citizens of the World Wide Web!  When I want to be informed about being a "digital citizen," I turn to the director of the Digital Citizenship project Dr. Eli Shapiro! (You may remember me mentioning Dr. Shapiro in my blog on screen time and device management for parents.)

As a Tech Specialist, I firmly believe that every teacher, parent, administrator and student needs to know how to be safe (as one can be) on-line and what pitfalls to look out for.  And that, my dear readers, is exactly what Dr. Shapiro does with the Digital Citizenship Project.  Whenever I have the pleasure to speak at a Consortium of Jewish Day Schools (COJDS) event and Dr. Shapiro is there, I make sure to attend his presentation.  I always learn something new and relevant every time I listen in!

Now, if you are going to be in the LA area on Sunday, April 30th, I urge you to attend the session that Dr. Shapiro will be giving at CIJE's STEM/STEAM & 21st Century Ed day. The title of his session is Digital Citizenship: What Every Educator Needs to Know and the information that he is presenting applies to everyone!!  If you are a Head of School, Administrator, Teacher and this is the only session you can attend (and the free lunch afterward :-)  then I implore you come to this event.  It will be a well spent one hour!

Here is the link to register for the Sunday, April 30th event.

Here is a list of all of the sessions and workshops that we will be holding.

If you are teacher, please let your colleagues know about this PD day.  If you are a principal or head of school, please try to attend yourself, but at the very least, send some of your faculty!  There is no cost and the sessions/workshops are AMAZING!

As always, I solicit your comments on my blogsite.

Regards,

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel