PDcast SVUSD: Recent Episodes
Kevin Fairchild
Your professional development podcast by and for Saddleback Valley Unified School District educators.
In the final episode for the stranger-than-strange 2019-20 school year, Team ToSA shares how to close out your Seesaw classes and your Google Classrooms to prepare for next year, and gives some advice for the summer.
Elizabeth and Jen talk with three teachers from Virtual Academy: Lisa Meyers, Angela Dean, and Carla Nellis. These three share their best strategies for building instructor presence and community in online classes, how to provide structure with flexibility for students, how to keep students engaged, and how to manage their own workflows.
The usual suspects talk about the pros and cons of virtual conference sessions, how to find online PD that meets your needs, what podcasts you should listen to, and other topics around professional learning at a distance.
Lisa Turlo and Robert Sherlock join us to discuss the district's grading policy for secondary students this term. We also talk about some strategies teachers can use to help engage and motivate students during the COVID 19 shutdown.
Listen as five elementary teachers describe their distance learning successes, challenges, and hints for other teachers. Teachers Peggy Aungst, Raniah Crail, Erin Hansen, Kelley Miller, and Catherine Scanlon join Jen and Kathleen on our elementary teachers panel.
We talk with four secondary teachers about their experiences so far with distance learning. Michelle Mock (MVHS), Ryan Mock (THHS), Michelle Stafford (La Paz), and Emily Tombleson (THHS) share what has gone well so far, how they have organized online learning for their students, and how they have provided both the structure and the flexibility that students (and teachers) need during this time.
We talk with Once and Future ToSA Amanda Taylor to get her perspective on distance learning both as an educational consultant and teacher, and also as a parent. Our wide-ranging discussion covers topics such as technology inequity among schools, organizational practices for teachers and students in distance learning, how she is helping her own children with the work they are getting, and many other great insights.
... that is the question. We review some of the recently updated features of Meet and Zoom, share some strategies for using either one of them well with students and with adults, and discuss the burning question: Is it rude to turn off your camera in a video meeting?
We revisit previous episodes that may be helpful for teachers in this time of distance learning. Listen for highlights about Discovery Education, BrainPop, making videos with Explain Everything, and creating and finding Hyperdocs.
Glenn Giokaris is the principal of Saddleback's Virtual Academy. In this episode, we ask him about what advice he has for teachers who have had distance learning thrust upon them and how they can help their students succeed remotely.
As SVUSD begins to implement distance learning, we talk about some of the pressing issues teachers are coming up against now: email, Classroom, YouTube, SeeSaw, and Zoom. It's our longest episode (so far)!
Join us for a round-robin of 7 of our favorite Eduprotocols: The Fast and the Curious, 8 pArts, BookaKucha, Emoji Power Paragraph, CyberSandwich, Frayer Model, and Math Reps.
The Terrific ToSA Trio discusses one of their favorite online tools, Seesaw Learning Journal. Listen to learn how to get started, how Seesaw can help you provide options for students, and why it's not just for elementary classes.
The team discusses how teachers can create strong passwords, avoid phishing and scam emails, and protect themselves from shoulder-surfing or other security problems in the classroom.
Elizabeth interviews Kara Johnson, Special Education teacher at Trabuco Hills High School, about her groundbreaking Unified Sports (and Arts, and Robotics) programs. These programs allow students with special needs to participate on an equal footing with all other students, and have won Kara and THHS multiple awards.
Grace Cruickshank, assistant principal at Melinda Heights Elementary, joins us to talk about strategies for using station rotation in secondary ELA classrooms.
Deanice Trytten, sixth-grade teacher at Lomarena Elementary, describes how she converted her traditional math class to a flipped, self-paced model that allows students to take ownership of their learning and makes math success available to all students.
Elizabeth and Kevin discuss online tools from their own teaching experience. Learn about PhET, SAS Writing Reviser, CK-12, Writing Mentor, Desmos, Chart Studio, and Turnitin.
Think younger kids can't do logins or Chromebooks or Google Docs? Think again! The team shares some ideas and resources for bringing educational technology to students in Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade.
BUILD stands for Blended Universal Intentional Lesson Design, and it is our professional development program for elementary teachers in 2019-20. Rather that focusing on individual educational technology tools or strategies, BUILD supports teachers as instructional designers. Join us to hear how it was developed and how it is working so far.
We discuss teaching through inquiry, inspired by the books of Trevor MacKenzie: Dive Into Inquiry and Inquiry Mindset.
BrainPop is more than just movies, and all SVUSD elementary schools have a license for it starting this year. Learn how to have students Discover, Play, and Create using the tools and resources within this content repository.
As a teacher, what do you need to know about copyright law and the fair use provision? Lisbeth Welch-Stamos, SVUSD ToSA for secondary ELA, joins us to help explain the complexities of copyright and fair use in the classroom, how teachers can model appropriate behavior for students, and where can teachers find rights-free resources that can be used legally?
In this episode we are joined by Lisa Paisley, District Coordinator for Elementary STEM, and Lindsey Gatfield, Elementary Math Teacher on Special Assignment, to talk about Standards-Based Grading for elementary teachers.
If you want to better manage the files and folders you have in your Google Drive, we're here to help! We'll talk about Priority Desktop and Workspaces, advanced searching, why you don't need to delete files, and why Google hides their best functions behind tiny triangles and three-dot icons.
Holly Sheridan, English teacher at El Toro High School, talks with us about her student podcasting projects.
SAMR (Substitution/Augmentation/Modification/Redefinition) is a model for describing integration of educational technology within instructional tasks. The four levels help teachers think about how they are using the available technology. We give a description of the levels and some examples.
Mandy Kelly, SVUSD teacher and California Teacher of the Year, talks to us about using augmented and virtual reality in the classroom, kindness challenges for 6th-graders, and how it feels to get the recognition of her colleagues.
What is Universal Design for Learning and how can it help me in my classroom? Learn about UDL from four "enthusiasts".
Helen Oloriz of Olivewood Elementary tells us about Discovery Education (it's not just for videos anymore) and her Master's program in Educational Technology.
Computer Science Education Week is December 9-15, and as part of that, code.org promotes "Hour of Code". Learn about why you should teach coding in any subject area or any grade level, and find out where you can get ready-to-use resources no matter your own skill level.
Jerady Pearson from Trabuco Hills High School talks about the Hero's Journey, recreating the Odyssey with Ozobots, and Ready Player One.
Hyperdocs, created and popularized by Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis, are carefully constructed, high-quality, digital lessons. Our own SVUSD Hyperdoc Girls share how this simple idea has revolutionized lesson delivery and how teachers can get started using Hyperdocs.
Kyle Wilke (@kylejwilke) is a teacher at Santiago STEAM Magnet school. In this interview, he tells us why students should learn coding, how he got involved with the Raspberry Pi education community, and what kinds of worms are eating his trash.
Kim Voge (@kvoge71) is a teacher in Placentia-Yorba Linda who kindly volunteered to share EduProtocols at the September Lesson Builder Summit. In this interview, she shares some of her successes and difficulties in using these activity frames.
Why should educators use Twitter? What are some tips for getting started? What are the benefits of having a professional learning network (PLN)? Find out here!
go.svusd.org/edtech
twitter.com/svusdedtech
Digital Citizenship is just one piece of the puzzle. Hear how our district is re-imagining and revising our Digital Culture program for grades 3, 4, and 5.
go.svusd.org/edtech
What's new (or new to you) in Google Classroom for the new school year? We'll share some tips and tricks for getting your new classes started and for what's coming in the future for Classroom.
The first Lesson Builder Summit of the school year is coming up on September 28. Here we talk about what we love about these professional development days.
Professional development in bite-sized chunks, by and for SVUSD educators! Coming in September 2019!