Presenters
Head of Educator Innovation at Flipgrid
Jornea Armant, Head of Educator Innovation at Microsoft Flip is a learner, servant to others, and educator for 20 years and lives by these three words... Love...Grow...Inspire. Her passion as an educator is rooted in the advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a learner for life and is always seeking ways to connect, learn, and grow with fellow educators around the world – connect with her at @savvy_educator
Nicholas Ferroni is a high school teacher and nationally recognized social activist who educates, mentors and inspires students to reach their goals while driving a national dialogue about education reform.
Ferroni has become renowned for employing innovative and unique approaches to teaching his students. His social experiment on the importance of gender equality in politics went viral, garnering the attention of news outlets and television programs nationwide. The View's Whoopi Goldberg called “The best social experiment ever."
Educator Community Manager
Lauren Flemming is the Educator Community Manager at Empatico where she works intimately with the educators to ensure that they feel seen, heard, and connected to their peers in the Empatico Educator Community. Previously, Lauren has fostered community in a diverse range of educational spaces, from non-profits to K-12 educational institutions to institutions of higher education. She is passionate about cross-cultural experiences and lives by the philosophy that, in a world that often seems so big, empathetic community building helps make the world feel a little smaller.
Hannah Harris is the Community Manager at Kahoot!, where she supports, nurtures, and celebrates the school-based application of the Kahoot! platform. Hannah’s experienced both sides of the EdTech community, working as both a classroom teacher and marketing professional. Recently, Hannah collaborates with educators across Kahoot!, managing the global Ambassador program and partners with teachers, professors, and administrators to bring accessible and interactive learning into classrooms across the world. Hannah has kept a pulse on both the trends and woes of education, and works to stay active in the teacher community by hosting virtual conference events, and professional development workshops.
Coordinator of New Teacher Support
Dan is the Coordinator of New Teacher Support for Stafford County Public Schools in Virginia. Dan began his professional teaching career in Stafford County, Virginia at Kate Waller Barrett Elementary School in 2012 teaching third and fifth grade. Dan attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania earning his Bachelor’s in Elementary Education K-6 and his Master’s in Educational Leadership K-12 from George Mason University. Dan has received numerous awards and accolades, notably being named the 2018 Stafford County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, Washington Post Teacher of the Year and the 2019 Virginia Region III Teacher of the Year.
Session description
As teacher burnout soars, educators are searching for ways to connect with their colleagues to gain support, inspiration and guidance. This panel will explore how edtech is stepping up and heeding the call — creating space for educators to build support networks and create the communities they need to thrive.
Purpose & objective
The purpose of this panel discussion is to explore the role that community building amongst educators can play to combat educator burnout. This panel will discuss challenges that teachers face today and the value in community building to inspire. Audience members will learn how EdTech platforms play a role in community building and collaboration. Through the use of an online community building platform, they will also participate in a community building activity and see its value in real time.
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Outline
Introduction to the topic of building community and brief background on the importance of community in retaining teachers (10 minutes)
Panelists share their experience in building community, share an experience where being a part of a community really supported them or the educators they work with in some way (7 minutes)
Audience members share with their neighbors how they have found and/or built community (7 minutes)
Using an online community tool, have audience members share with the larger audience how they have found and/or built community and demonstrate community building in real time (20 minutes)
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Supporting research
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/168176/1/Madigan_Kim_in_press_.pdf
https://www.proquest.com/openview/12ab65eb2916929e1659bef732eb7dfa/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X20314426
https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1386793/v1/a84b34cf-81bc-42b9-a429-7578bad4b0ae.pdf?c=1646239414
https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1136&context=epse_diss
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/teachers-mental-health-has-suffered-in-the-pandemic-heres-how-districts-can-help/2021/05
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