Winter Support Series

Some SERIOUS Swag out there!

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OK. I just had to do a post on the door prizes that are being given away as we speak and be sure that you know about them!!

The ECOO Winter Support Series is a set of workshops and panel discussions about issues and topics that are relevant to Ontario educators right now. Coding and UNplugged coding (no computers needed), wellness, online learning, girls in STEAM, Design Based Learning with some sessions even in french only for our francophone educators make up the series.

That’s great to start with BUT we also have partnered with amazing sponsors and they have SO much to give away!

CanCodeToLearn is donating a Laptop AND a Chromebook at the end of the Series. Every session you can attend live gets you another ballot to win but just registering for the Series gets you entered as well! SEE. You should know this!

SMART Technologies are giving away 5 SMART Learning Suites that step up engagement for online and face to face learning! 5 of those!

Ditch That Textbook has given us two online courses for two lucky Series winners to be done whenever you choose.

Logics Academy are running two 4 weeks miniseries. The first is for K-4 educators and one lucky person from all those participants will win a Dash robot. Oh but there’s more! EVERY participant also gets free access into Dash’s Neighbourhood, a virtual space for students to code and learn with Dash! The second miniseries is learning about Scratch and again, one lucky winner will have a mBot robot sent to their home as a prize!

Can it get better. Oh yes. That’s only half!

Fair Chance Learning is running two separate workshops on SDG using a virtual or real Micro.bit! Say hello to two Coding Change Kits for two lucky winners!

A new sponsor to partner with ECOO is Louise Kool & Galt and if you want to spend some time learning how to code WITHOUT computers for your young ones, the session to be at is Melissa and Leslie’s on Unplugged Coding. LKG is donating a BlueBot robot for each of their sessions AND already, a lucky winner has taken home a newly created accessibility curriculum called “Debug’d” that their sister company, Bridges-Canada, has been working on. VERY exciting!

Then we can’t finish this blog without talking about all the PHENOMENAL EDUauthors who have come on board to support you!

For Early Years, Daphne McMenemy is donating her ‘Discover Gracie’ book set. Shari Eskenas and Ana Quintero Villafraz are donating “A Day in Code”. Jennifer Casa-Todd and Leigh Cassell have their new book “Aubrey Bright in Stories that Connect Us” to give away too. All such rich resources and possibly yours for the price of an ECOO membership. 🙂

CodeBreakers have donated three professional development books as well. ‘Discomfort By Design” by Chad LeDune, “Daily STEM’ by Chris Woods and “Unlocking Unlimited Potential” by Dr. Brandon Beck.

The Esports Education Playbook by Chris Aviles, Steve Isaacs, Christine Lion-Bailey and Jesse Lubinsky has already been given out at the “Game ON! Girls Who Game” Panel Discussion but once you’re an ECOO member, here’s the bonus. You can now check out all the recordings of the sessions that have already taken place anytime on demand!

We know that so many of you are just not ready to take part in any extra PD right now and totally appreciate this. We just wanted you to know what is out there and maybe cheer up your day with a robot or book or laptop in the morning mail!

If you have the time, sign up.

An intelligent grasshopper once said; “You can’t win it if you’re not in it” and we didn’t want you to miss the great things that are in this. 🙂

Mary Walker Hope

ECOO Events Chair

ECOO-Support-Series_Winter2021-Melanie&Tina

Creating Interactive Choice Boards

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How do we provide learning experiences that appeal to a variety of learners and connect multiple subject areas when students are learning from home? How do we offer students and families options in how they engage in and demonstrate learning? Interactive choice boards/grids might be a place to start! During this session, Ontario educators Tina Zita and Melanie Mulcaster, will show us why and how they are using common digital presentation tools to design creative and engaging places for students to begin their learning. Suitable for any area: themes, inquiry, content topics, curated activities.

Session Slides and Session Recording

The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

[WD_Button id=10017] If you don’t have your 2021 membership yet, join us!

ECOO Support Series Winter Blog Announcement

Should Auld Acquaintance…. Be Renewed!

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The ECOO Support Series is back and set up to provide tools to help Ontario educators navigate this world in which we now have to reach and teach our students.

The new Math Curriculum with the integration of Coding was our main focus for the Fall Support Series and will still be a major component of the Winter Support Series but January and February have traditionally been the months where educators prepare their students for oral communication and storytelling. With this in mind, our first workshop starts on January 12th with a focus on BookCreator with a splash of Chatterpix and PuppetEDU as online tools. On Feb. 22, these same apps will also be featured in a french workshop along with Adobe Spark Video.

Logics Academy is once more offering a four week series of workshops starting on January 12th that will help you with the fundamentals of coding through Storytelling for Gr. 1-4 and Game Design for Gr. 5-8 with free access to Dash’s Virtual Playground for a year! It’s a marvelous way to set your students up with a long term integrated coding and storytelling project.

All this just in the first week. 🙂

We’ll be highlighting more of the Series but for now, take a look at the site, become a member of ECOO and then register for free for any session you want.

We know you come for the PD and the community but we couldn’t resist getting more great sponsors again. Watch our social media but just between you and me, there may just be a laptop, Chromebook, Climate Change Kit, Dash robot, mBot, SMART Learning Suites, Day in Code book, a book set from Daphne McMenemy and CodeBreakerEDU, some online courses from Ditch That Textbook and a few more surprises coming your way.

Here’s to a New Year where we hear and find ways to support each other and get through this pandemic however we can. Reach out always. Listen to your body. Come play, learn and connect.

ECOO Support Series Committee