By Dale PLOTZKI
This past weekend saw an incredible learning event take place on our campus; the first ever Apps Events’ Latin America Google Summit! This awesome professional development event brought teachers, administrators and parents together under one roof and focused on using tools in the Google for Education Suite to make learning engaging, effective, faster and better. Oh, and we had a ton of fun along the way!
The event opened with a wonderful message from our own Dr. Jacobson about never forgetting the mission of using technology in education; the learning impact on the child and ultimately, to make the world a better place. Keynote speaker Anita Moose then discussed practical ways that schools can build a culture of innovation and wonder amongst their teachers. From there, we broke out into the workshops scattered through the commons where we examined the modern tools of learning and all things Google! Highlights included Carla Puppo’s session on building a Makerspace, Stacie Willey’s ‘The Game of Life – Googlefied’ (ask a 6th grader…) and event organizer Dan Taylor’s ‘Building Young Entrepreneurs in Schools’ workshop. All around the commons you could hear engaging conversations about learning, gasps of amazement and a lot of laughter!
You would have never known that people had given up a weekend to come into work. The air was light and the vibe was upbeat as these teachers dug into the content and tools being discussed. Opportunities for teacher growth like this are special because they remind teachers what it like to be an excited, engaged learner! And that is perhaps the biggest take away of all from what was an incredible weekend.
See all of the good times by searching #GooglePD on Twitter!
