Learning in The LOFT: A Teacher's Reflection posted on behalf of Bridget Rigg-Anderson  The Loft is truly inspires teachers and students to be curious, innovative and reflective learners. BreakoutEDU - In September I attended the BreakoutEDU PD offered by the creators of BreakoutEDU. During that PD, in collaboration with Keith Ferrell, the G3 Tech Coach, we wrote our own Breakout focused on paragraph...

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Break Out This was a most fascinating session as I experienced what it was like to experience the DSLO’s firsthand! We had to communicate our ideas and listen to those of others. Additionally, we had to collaborate and build on each others ideas in order to unlock keys. Critical thinking was important as we had to use use clues to get us to...

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CODING Our Professional Learning program moves this week to 'CODING' because we believe that every student while at school should have the opportunity to be exposed to it, and to learn it. It's one of the reasons initiatives such as Hour of Code have proven so popular.  This session we're offering is labelled 'Workshop'. It's hands on previewing of the types of activities...

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SCREENCASTING This session will introduce you and guide you through a range of techniques for capturing great video content from both Macbook and iPad screens that you in turn can share with your students, parents, other audiences. Its not as hard or time consuming perhaps as has been the case in years gone by.  Bring your Macbook (...and if relevant your iPad too)....

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Data Talking In most surveys we put out to teachers, 'data' and 'spreadsheets' are regular request items. So for the next 2 weeks we are doing just that!  Welcome to Part 1: a 30-40 skills session, and what we've selected is based on research we have conducted from the many spreadsheets that teachers at Singapore American School have shared with us. Isolating key skills...

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  MINECRAFT This week in The LOFT, we turn our attention to Minecraft. Much has been said and written about Minecraft since bursting onto the education landscape several years ago, but with the impending release of MinecraftEDU by [our 'friends' at] Microsoft, as well as an uptake in interest in Minecraft by our teachers at SAS: we thought the time was nigh... The...

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Welcome to BreakoutEDU...this week's Professional Learning in The LOFT.  'Breakout EDU creates ultra-engaging learning games for people of all ages. Games (Breakouts) teach teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and troubleshooting by presenting participants with challenges that ignite their natural drive to problem-solve.' (Source: http://www.breakoutedu.com/how-it-works/).  During the recent 'Singapore Summit featuring GAFE' the SAS Technology team participated in the BreakoutEDU pre-conference session. We had a blast,...

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This week's Professional Learning session focuses on conversations in our PLCs are advancing to detailed discussions about standards and frameworks, and how our students are demonstrating their learning.  Given the role of PLCs is to define: what we want students to know;  how we'll know when they achieve it;  what we'll do if they don't; and,  how we'll advance those that already have.... ....it...

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Autocrat: The Return of the Moustache This is the fourth (and final for a while) session in The LOFT that focusses on productivity. It's the beginning of the year and there are tasks to do right? Well...here we are and again proud to present another 9 sessions for teachers at Singapore American School.  Session Goal:  Introduce Autocrat, orRetrain users in how to use...

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The following is a 15 minute 'Ignite' presentation given by James and Ben at the conclusion of the 2016 Singapore #gafesummit ...

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The Teacher Toolkit - Teacher Dashboard, PowerSchool and Casper Focus This session is another 'start-of-year' protocol inspired offering to get the year off to a flyer. These 3 tools have been selected primarily because we see their (effective) use quite unevenly distributed. So we want to provide a chance to take a look at what's right there for us.  This session is not...

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Google Photos Three Ways: PD Session We ran a Professional Development in The LOFT back in April. The session, we discovered, was a little overcooked. Many teachers had difficulty using the resources we had spent many hours preparing...however, we've used this feedback to come back with something simpler and better! The idea of this session is to assist teachers to publish photos as...

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Dr MAPTest or how I learned to stop worrying and love The Test This session is designed to (a) get you setup, verified and comfortable with the MAP testing procedures for grade 3-5. ​This year, we will (officially) be conducting all tech support/assistance via (b) Google Hangouts. This in place of calling 6911 (IT) or waiting for help to physically come down the corridor...

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Importing Parent Contacts in not many Steps Step 1 Access your Grade Level Folder which has inside a '.csv' file inside. The folder is called 1617 #BOY #Gmail contacts and you'll find it in Shared with Me on Google Drive. Download your file to your Mac's hard drive (right-select).  Step 2 In Gmail, change to the Contacts section: Step 3 More > Import Step 4 Select your...

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Google Tips and Tricks for Admin! And other amazing information they should know This 1 hour session is presented 'by request' and the following slidedeck represents some of the issues we see coming down the road at us when we arrive in the room! These slides will be updated after the session and we hope it serves as a useful resource for our...

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#schoolstarts Tech Survival for new Faculty to get you started. Welcome to the start of the 1617 year! This is a post that stands in support of a session we are presenting to all new Elementary Faculty. It's therefore a survival guide for those new to Singapore American School. SAS teachers can also access our Technology Orientation document, the content of which we...

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This week in The Loft we will be running a session on game based learning in a situation where your students do not have any devices. We’re hoping that this will help you provide some engaging activities for your class towards the end of the year after iPads and MacBooks have been collected. The activities include some useful websites that provide options for...

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Let's have some FUN! Join us the week of April 25th for an engaging session on game-based learning. With the school year coming to a close soon, keeping students engaged can be quite a challenge. By incorporating game-based learning tools into instruction, students have fun WHILE they're being assessed. The learning never ends.  Let's have some FUN! Join us the week of April...

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We are well accustomed to embedding video, or consuming video content across websites and social media. But what about video and other interactive content embedding in video? This is Touchcast. Video that's immersive and interactive. And classes at Singapore American School are starting to embrace the concept which we will show you in this session. Plus: it's pretty easy to jump in and make something...

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BREAKING NEWS!!!!...... You may have heard that The Loft was getting a makeover. This week, we invite you to come see what our Creation Stations are all about. Our Creation Stations give students the opportunity to be "Coders", "Builders", "Artists", "Engineers", and "Filmmakers" - creating anything that their minds can come up with. Each of the Creation Stations offers a unique way to...

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With Picasa Web Albums being laid to rest this May, we figured there's no better time to learn about it's replacement, Google Photos than now. The SAS ES Ed Tech Team is ready to help you transition from Picasa to Google Photos during our LOFT PD sessions the week of April 4th - April 8th.  During these sessions, we'll be focused on the...

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Google spreadsheets are often met with an amount of scepticism from teachers as the assumption is spreadsheets are complex and difficult.  The SAS ES Ed Tech Team is hoping to demystify Google Spreadsheets during our LOFT PD sessions the week of March 28th - April 1st.  These sessions are all about learning: Practical classroom uses for Google spreadsheets How to make your data visible...

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