Make Learning Fun With Community Events: Create Your Practical Guide

Change display time — Currently: Central Daylight Time (CDT) (Event time)
Location: La Nouvelle Ballroom, Table 12
Experience live:

Participate and share : Poster

Jenni Hoffman
Dr. Gina Finnerty
Find out how to introduce learning initiatives and connect with your community through educational events, expos and festivals. The format, challenges and triumphs of successful educational events will be shared as attendees use collaborative documents and resources to develop and plan an event for their school community.

Audience:	Coaches, Curriculum/district specialists, Teachers
Skill level:	Beginner
Attendee devices:	Devices useful
Attendee device specification:	Smartphone: Android, iOS, Windows Laptop: Mac, PC, Chromebook Tablet: Android, iOS, Windows
Participant accounts, software and other materials:	Google Account / access to Google Apps QR reader
Topic:	Communication & collaboration
Grade level:	PK-12
Subject area:	Career and technical education, STEM/STEAM
ISTE Standards:	For Coaches: Change Agent Create a shared vision and culture for using technology to learn and accelerate transformation through the coaching process. For Education Leaders: Systems Designer Establish partnerships that support the strategic vision, achieve learning priorities and improve operations. For Educators: Leader Shape, advance and accelerate a shared vision for empowered learning with technology by engaging with education stakeholders.

Related exhibitors:

MakerBot 3D Printers

, Anatomage, Inc.

, VariQuest Visual Learning Tools

, Screencastify

, PowerSchool Group LLC

Proposal summary

Purpose & objective

Garnering support for new initiatives can be challenging by itself. In a time marked by COVID fatigue and a longing for "normal", mustering the energy and excitement for educational strategies and system implementations is a challenge. School community events, expos and festivals celebrating effort, sparking a spirit of competition and highlighting success encourage collaboration and partnership with community resources.

By reaching out to small businesses, industry partners, alumni and foundations to participate in and create events, expos and festivals, school communities can share a vision for sustainable learner success. School culture develops to support the whole learner, with education expanding beyond classroom walls, connecting to life outside the school building and looping back through program and project support. Big events that open the school house doors to a wide audience of educational stakeholders lead to widespread student success.

Oley Valley Elementary School's STEMfest began as a 40 minute class exploration of STEM learning activities in the school's lobby after standardized tests and has grown into an articulated K-20 STEM pathway through partnerships developed and celebrated throughout the learning community.

Attendees to this presentation will leave with practical tips and a customizable guide to creating their own events to share their vision, develop partnerships and cultivate a local ecosystem for education.

Outline

10 mins - Introduction of Oley Valley School District's path from STEMfest to articulated Career Pathways driven by community partnerships.

20 mins - guided exploration of the planning documents, samples and strategies for creating a school community expo, event or festival.

25 mins - reflection, brainstorming, and collaboration using the planning documents to develop an event framework

5 mins - wrap-up and network to expand PLC and potentially connect events

Supporting research

National Research Council (NRC). 2009. Learning science in informal environments. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

https://www.psaydn.org/2019-stem-ambassadors/

https://www.informalscience.org/research/what-does-informal-stem-education-research-tell-us

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Presenters

Jenni Hoffman, Oley Valley School District

Jenn Hoffman is an emerging leader in K-12 education leveraging her enthusiasm for inquiry learning to create opportunities to develop, employ and integrate digital skills in the context of the classrooms. Jenn is a PA STEM Ambassador, Google Applied Digital Skills Ambassador, and international learning lab developer. Jenn has been described as a strategic, learner-focused educator with 10+ years program and curriculum development experience teaching students and supporting classrooms through educational technology implementations with data-driven decision-making models. She is a forward-thinking professional capable of translating network and IT department operations to meet classroom needs.

Dr. Gina Finnerty, Oley Valley School District