Mattea Garcia
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A collection of resources and reflections from my work.

#InnEdCO17 Day 3 &4

6/14/2017

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The last two days were filled with so much learning I was able to attend several incredible sessions that pushed my thinking and provided me with a ton of great resources. I'm excited to be able to share them with other teachers this school year.
First, I attended a session about redesigning classroom spaces. Their presentation gave some great ideas for re-purposing furniture to create a more welcoming and effective classroom space. It reminded me a lot of an article I read about Caves, Campfires and Watering Holes by Ann W. Davis and Kim Kappler-Hewitt. You can find their presentation, which includes video classroom tours, here.
Next, I attended a session by Noah Geisel focused on Chrome Extensions for literacy. As a math teacher, it was cool to check out the Chrome extensions Hypothesis, Diigo and Stackup and learn about how they can be useful to support learning in English classrooms. Each extension has slightly different functionality. Hypothesis and Diigo allow students to annotate articles and engage in conversations with their peers and the world. Stackup provides students with a online reading log that shows their time spent reading on different topics and the reading levels of the articles they have read online. It was fun to play with each of them and think about how they can be used in the classroom.
I also presented Ignite talk called "Why Educators Should Share". This was a reprised version of a previous Ignite talk I did during 2015, where I stressed the importance of teacher blogging and social media sharing. You can watch it below. I have also included the slides, which include the script in the notes.
After lunch, I attended Kevin Crogan's session, focused on planning learner progressions. His model helps teachers differentiate different levels of understanding and provide them with the vocabulary to guide learners in designing their own learning progression. You can find his presentationhere. Below is an example of his incredibly helpful planning document filled out.

You know you're obsessed with #Buffy when you make a mock lesson plan for #slaying at #InnEdCO17 @Mrs_Geology @bufferingcast #IamInnEdCO pic.twitter.com/BM5GQy3Bus

— Mattea Garcia (@MatteaGarcia) June 14, 2017
I then attended a session by Galen Mitchell, focused on Universal Design. She did an incredible job illustrating the difference between differentiation and Universal Design and how we can approach creating lessons differently. Focusing on student choice and flexible lessons, Universal Design is a refreshing lens on providing students with lessons that support their learning as individuals. You can find her presentation here. Below is an excellent tweet that shows the comparison between differentiation and Universal Design. 

This explanation of differentiation vs. UDL resonated with me. It's almost problem-based vs. solution-based. TY @philosopheredu #innedco17 pic.twitter.com/8jx9Ad2Kav

— Alyssa Davidson (@Mrs_Geology) June 14, 2017
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Last, but not least I was able to attend a session on Online Tools for Math Discourse by Elena Jones. She did an amazing job modeling the tools presented by letting participants experience them as students. I was particularly impressed with the functionality of Formative and Desmos. Both of these tools are free! and I believe them to be game changers when it comes to math education and tech. Formative allows students to annotate their answers with their own handwriting, which I believe to be important for math. Desmos comes with a variety of prepared activities teachers can use that allow students to interact with graphs, inequalities and other mathematical representations. It was incredible to see the new tools that have been created since I left the classroom. It felt so good to return to my roots in teaching math and I am so excited to bring these tools to other math teachers. You can find the presentation here.
As always, it has been an incredible experience attending InnEd CO. This is by far my favorite conference and I feel so lucky to have a place where I am surrounded by incredible educators from across the country. I always walk away with new tools to bring to the classroom and much needed inspiration. Thank you to everyone who made this week so special! Can't wait to see you all again next year! Please feel free to share your thoughts and reflections in the comments below.
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#InnEdCO17 Day 2

6/13/2017

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Day 2 at #InnEdCO17 was an incredible day of connections and storytelling. I started the morning with Sean Wybrant (Colorado Teacher of the Year) and his session on crafting heroes. As the Colorado teacher of the year, he decided to use the role to serve as a voice for the teachers of Colorado. In his session, he told the story of his student's journey to creating an interactive, periodic table using a variety of augmented reality hardware. For me, the most impactful part of his presentation was the emphasis on sharing your story, especially before it feels like a polished product. Like the many iterations of the Iron Man suit, it is important to understand that there will be constant iterations of your story. The most important thing is to start sharing your story in the first place. Too often, negative headlines take over the educational narrative. In order to overcome this, educators across the country need to share the positive stories they have as often as they occur. We need to not led perfection become the enemy of good enough and reclaim the education headlines through our intentional storytelling.

Teachers, students, and superheroes need share their stories and many iterations of their work, not just shiny finished products. #InnEdCO17 pic.twitter.com/eY5wO46mEl

— Alyssa Davidson (@Mrs_Geology) June 13, 2017
Next, I attended the inspirational Keynote of Rusul Alrubail. While I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many equity-focused keynotes over the past year (see previous blog posts), I feel lucky to have made such a personal connection to Rusul. She shared an inspiring message focused on elevating student voice, kindness, empathy and the importance of representation and authenticity as an educator. Below is a collection of my favorite tweets from Rusul's keynote.
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Ben's image for the vision of personalized learning.
​I was also able to attend a session on personalized learning by Ben Wilkoff. His session provided insight into the vision for meaningful, relevant, personalized learning for all learners in Aurora Public Schools. This includes a connected learning, with a device that they feel confident using, in a learning space that meets their needs, making things that matter to them. This same learner is connected to a community of other learners and has ownership over their work and data that they can then share with others. These skills can then be recognized via microcredentials, allowing the learner to move their own boxes and engage meet their personal learning goals. I found myself reflecting on how these characteristics are also conducive to a creative and innovative work environment.  You can find Ben's presentation here to click into examples of these concepts.
​Last, but not least, I engaged in a conversation with Mustefa, an innovative strategist, around design thinking and the importance of understanding context to solve a problem. Very often companies come up with complicated procedures for engaging in design work, when a straightforward and simple thinking process can help us solve our problems. Once we can identify our context, we can then consider the challenges that come up and the corresponding opportunities and risks for each challenge. From there, we can take action in the ways that best support reaching our intended goal. Mustefa emphasized how it is not necessary to engage in a complex set of structures to really tackle our problems, including those involving systems of inequity. Once we have a solid understanding of the context, anything is possible.
How has your week been at InnEd CO? What great equity-focused Keynotes have you heard?
​Please share in the comments below!
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#InnEdCO17 Day 1

6/12/2017

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This week, I am lucky enough to attend InnEdCO for another year. I am always so excited to see so many familiar faces and add new people to my network of incredible educators. Below are some highlights from Day 1.
First, I have been able to spend the day with so many incredible people - both old friends and new friends. As a part of a challenge, I took selfies with all six members of the DPS Edtech team (one of my favorite groups of people). They are a truly incredible group and I have felt so fortunate to know over my career. It is incredible to think that I got started with presenting on educational technology with them back in 2013, the fall after I started my master's degree.
I also had the chance to hear Ken Shelton present an opening keynote on the importance of student voice in our schools. He talked about equipping students with the tools they need to amplify their voice to share with the world. There is great power and responsibility in sharing our stories and he did a wonderful job illustrating this idea with relevant stories and touching student narratives. You can watch videos of some of his talks on his website.
I was also able to attend a session on #techquity from Kevin Riebau. This session touched on finding the intersection of Essential Skills and Culturally Relevant Education to create better instruction to prepare students for success. I greatly appreciated the combination of a formative check-for-understanding and application time built-in to the session. This made sure they could pace with the audience understanding and provide an opportunity for the new learning to stick. You can check out the presentationhere.
I was also able to present my work on #theGoogleGames in a snapshot session. I had a lot of fun sharing this project with others, and hope that it inspires other to experiment with gamification for their professional development. You can find more information in my presentation slides or in my previous blog post.
What are your highlights from Day 1 at #InnEdCO17? Please share them in the comments below!
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    Mattea Garcia is a human-centered problem-solver dedicated to improving learning and technology experiences. This blog is dedicated to reflections on leadership, educational technology, instructional coaching, educational equity, and more.

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  • Home
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