#ECOOsupportseries

The ECOO Support Series is back … for you!

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ECOO has had quite a year, and we have tried to support Ontario educators as best we can in response to the evolving educational environments in which we all find ourselves.

We’re back this fall, not only with our virtual conference, vBIT21 Bring IT, Together! (November 5 & 6th), but also with another set of learning sessions under the #ECOOsupportseries umbrella!

The ECOO Support Series – Fall 2021 has events that were chosen to personalize your teaching situation, to help you find ways to balance life — and to incorporate a few good old door prizes as well. As we have become fond of saying, what would an ECOO event be without door prizes? We have amazing partners and sponsors!

The first session in the Fall Series is incredibly cool for Arts teachers and classroom teachers that teach their own music curriculum. Check out what “Your Voice is Power” is all about on October 27 @7:00pm and you’ll be impressed.

Other sessions currently announced include a 4-session offering from the team at TVO, and a Photography/Wellness session through Cobblestone Collective. Additional sessions will be added to the roster in the coming days.

If you are not yet a member of ECOO, we can’t say enough about the value of our $25.00 membership. We are an organization of educators supporting educators, using technology to further student learning, engagement and success. Over the past 14 months, we have hosted over 250 learning sessions aimed at digital pedagogy, coding, STEAM, SEL, culturally responsive pedagogy, wellness and self-care. All of these sessions have been recorded and are available to ECOO members on-demand, and all members can register for sessions in our Support Series for free as a benefit of their membership.

Find everything you need on the ecoo.org website, and hopefully you will join us for another season of learning and community.

Mary Walker Hope
ECOO Events Chair

Relax during the Spring Break!

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Spring break is about to arrive! Households all across the province are breathing a sigh of relief! Educators and students alike will be enjoying a much needed respite from school, and will enjoy the opportunity to have some much needed social/family time.

When we heard that the break had been moved into April, we adjusted our spring support series to include three events for the coming week that nicely fit into that social/relaxation/family time.

On Tuesday, April 13th, we will be hosting an afternoon tea. On Wednesday, April 14th, we will be hosting an afternoon wine tasting. On Thursday, April 15th, we will be hosting an afternoon #Family Art/Making event with UK artist/maker Darryl Wakelam.

All of these activities are free as a benefit of an 2021 ECOO membership. Register for one, two, or all three! (If you are not yet an member for 2021, you can join/renew your membership for the nominal fee of $25, and immediately gain access to all ECOO member benefits, including free registration for all Support series events.)

If you have kids or grandkids, please consider registering for the Thursday #Family event and having them join the call to participate with you!

We wish everyone the very best during this long-awaited and undisputedly-deserved spring break. All educators understand the role that the spring break plays in the larger flow of the school year, for educators and students alike!

Your ECOO board continues to explore opportunities to support the membership and Ontario educators. Keep an eye peeled on the ECOO website and upcoming ECOO Updates for additional developments!

Door Prizes Galore!

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The ECOO Support Series – Spring 2021 has the support of a wonderful collection of partners, educators, and sponsors! In addition to the collection of sessions supporting Wellness, Making, Early Years, français, and Family provided by our partner and educator colleagues, a number of organizations have stepped forward to provide participants with some wonderful door prizes!

Among the prizes to be won are:

5 licenses of the SMART Learning Suite Online, courtesy of SMARTtech
2 Artshine in a box lesson kits, courtesy of Artshine
a K’Nex Maker Kit, courtesy of Wintergreen
a K’Nex Education Kit, courtesy of Wintergreen
a BlueBot robot, courtesy of Louise Kook & Galt
a $100 gift card, courtesy of Louise Kook & Galt
“Strive for Happiness in Education,” book by author and presenter Rob Dunlop
1 year teacher access to “Spark Reading” digital classroom, courtesy of Pearson
“Taking Shape: Activities to Develop Geometric and Spatial Thinking, courtesy of Pearson
An “Elevated Tasting Experience,” courtesy of Sandbanks Winery

On behalf the participants in the ECOO Support Series – Spring 2021, we express our thanks to these organizations and individuals for supporting ECOO and our ECOO membership.

If you’ve not yet registered for any sessions, now’s the time! Sessions run from March 23 through to May 12th and are free to ECOO members. (Not yet a member? ECOO membership is a nominal $25 for the 2021 calendar year. Join ECOO!)

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

ECOO Support Series Fall TechTime4EDU both

Et ACTION! Fall Support Series is flippin’ awesome!

Mary Walker Hope Blog, ECOO News, Online Learning, Support Series #ECOOsupportseries, coding, ECOO Support Series Fall 2020, Flipgrid, front, TechTime4EDU

Last week, I wrote a blog post about the first partner we have for the ECOO Fall Support Series, Logics Academy. Starting on Tuesday, November 17, they will be working with participants to help them gain an understanding of Coding through StoryTelling or Game Design. I ended that post by saying, but wait, there’s more. Well. Not really those words but you’ll see why I’m saying it now.

During the summer, four very passionate educators joined the ECOOcamp Ontario committee and blew me away with their enthusiasm, skill and desire to help others navigate what online/blended/whatever back to school would look like. Michelle Fenn, Max Thomson, Megan Park and Deanna Palmer make up the incredible team of @TechTime4EDU. They started by offering PD by the Pool to KPRDSB educators during the summer and now are continuing to support the KPR community with a PD in Pyjamas series. Insert virtual hug here.

When Logics mentioned that they would like to introduce Flipgrid as a presentation tool at the end of their 4 week series of workshops, I could not think of a better support to offer those educators (and everyone one else!) than a session about Flipgrid with TechTime4EDU and the best part is that the workshop is being offered in french and in english. Did I mention how incredibly talented these women are?

Flipping over Flipgrid
On Flip sur Flipgrid

Full session description can be found the Fall Support Series page under the events tab:

Register at the Fall Support Series page. Once you are registered, you will be directed to a form to choose these workshops and select from any of the other sessions offered. They’re all part of your package but you choose what you would like to attend.

Remember, ECOOcamp Ontario participants have a free registration to the Support Series but they must check their email for the link to sign up for sessions!

Everyone else gets to register for $15.00 and then have access to the over 20 webinars and events that will take place between November 17 and December 9.

Come play, learn and connect. We all need a little play time right now.

Great Learning … plus some Door Prizes!

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Sessions in our online Fall Support Series are set to get underway in a little less than a week, and as the starting dates approach, it’s time for us to let everyone know of some of the door prizes that will be available to lucky participants!

We were so pleased to have the support of many generous sponsors during our August ECOOcamp Ontario online conference, with at least one door prize for each of the over 115 sessions that were offered during the 3-day event. (A little bird tells me there were, in fact, over 200 prize winners all told.)

CanCodetoLearn was one of our most generous sponsors at ECOOcamp Ontario and they are hitting the ball out of the park again! They are donating a LAPTOP and a CHROMEBOOK for two lucky participants in our Fall series — all you have to do to be eligible to win is to sign up for a Fall Support Series session!

Participants in the sessions offered by Logics Academy will have an opportunity to win robots — a Dash and an MBot will be available as door prizes for the Grades 1-4 Coding through Storytelling series and the Grades 5-8 Coding through Game Design series. Note that each of those four-session series begins this coming week, with registration closing on Monday and Tuesday respectively — if you’ve not yet registered, The Time is Now!

If you registered to participate in ECOOcamp Ontario this summer, your summer registration allows you to join into the Fall Support Series at no cost. Check your inbox for details on how to select your sessions and get your name into the running for the door prizes.

If you weren’t with us in August, you can register for the Fall Support Series at the reduced price of $15 — allowing you to attend all of the sessions over November – December event, as well as gaining access to the 100+ session recordings and 80+ slide decks/resources from ECOOcamp Ontario. That’s a pretty decent bargain!

Full details of all sessions (along with the Registration button for New Participants) are listed on the Fall Support Series page. We look forward to reconnecting with you in the coming weeks and hope to add some additional support to your efforts during the push through to the winter break. Stay the course!

Summary of ECOO Board Meeting – November 9th, 2020

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Your ECOO Board of Directors met on Monday, November 9th for the regular ECOO business meeting. The meeting commenced with the reading of the ECOO’s Human Rights Statement.

Highlights from the November 9th meeting include include:

Nominations Committee Report: The Board received the report from Lisa Noble, Chair of the Nominations Committee, 2020. The Call for Nominations for the ECOO Board went live on September 16th, and closed November 7th. Nominations were received for all vacant positions, including President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, two 2-year Director-At-Large positions, and one Year 2 of 2 Director-at-Large (one year backfill) position. No vacancies received multiple nominations, and therefore nominees will be acclaimed and announced by Lisa at the 2020 Annual General Meeting on December 16th, 2020.

ECOOcampON 2020 and Fall Support Series: Mary Walker Hope, ECOOcampON Chair, provided a final report on the summer’s virtual conference, and gave an update on the recently announced Support Series – Fall 2020. Registered participants from ECOOcampON can attend the new events in November-December at no cost. New registrants can join the Support Series at a reduced fee of $15 and will also receive access to the 100+ recordings and 80+ slide decks/resources from the August ECOOcampON virtual conference. Plans are underway for a follow-on Winter Support Series for January and February.

BIT/OASBO Conference Update: David Carruthers, Conference Chair, provided an update on the work undertaken over the term of the 2019-20 Board. The conference Admin team negotiated a new Memorandum of Understanding with OASBO-ICT which was approved in principle by both parties. The Admin team then developed and approved the budget for the Bring IT, Together! #BIT20 event, but the arrival of the COVID pandemic then led to the subsequent cancellation of the face-to-face event. Additional discussions took place through the intervening months with regards to the potential timing for a return to a face-to-face event. Given the current ongoing disruptions to normal School Board operations within this school year, no plans will be made to undertake an in-person event under the current conditions.

Outreach: The ECOO Board discussed a number of recent contacts with other organizations. News has arrived from TVOntario about the pending decommissioning of their Teach Ontario platform this December. We will work with TVO over the next couple of weeks to transfer ECOO resources from their site and incorporate them into the ECOO web presence.

Membership, Sponsorships, and Partnerships: Plans continue to evolve surrounding expansion of the membership, sponsorship, and partnership initiatives. The Board will meet again in November to sort out a number of interrelated developments in this area. Members should watch for an email later this month related to membership and member features.

Revision to ECOO Bylaw: Draft revisions to the corporate bylaw were reviewed. The Board hopes to consolidate a number of final changes so that a Notice of Motion can be provided to the membership in early December and then the revised Bylaw can be confirmed by the membership at the AGM.

Board Transition Procedures; The Board is reviewing a number of documents to streamline the transition process between the outgoing 2019-20 Board and the incoming 2020-21 Board in December.

Fiscal Year Review, Financial Update, Budget: The Board received the Review Engagement for the fiscal year 2019-20, along with Financial Statements. A number of questions were raised which will be pursued with the accounting firm. The Board has taken a number of necessary steps this year in light of decreased attendance at the BIT conferences in 2018 and 2019, and the anticipated effects of the continuing pandemic on the near future. The Board will bring the approved budget to the membership at the AGM.

Annual General Meeting 2020: The draft agenda for the 2020 AGM was reviewed. ECOO members are reminded that the annual general members’ meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 16th at 8:00 pm. Details will be forwarded to members via email closer to the event.

Today’s Support Series’ post is brought to you by the letter ‘E’.

Mary Walker Hope ECOO News, Support Series @thehackergals, #ECOOsupportseries, #genderequity, ECOO Support Series, Equity, front

Education. Equity. Enlightenment. Energy. Eloquence.

When I first met Kumiko and Lucy, the two dynamos behind the Canadian registered charity, Hackergal, I was equally impressed by their knowledge of coding and their absolute determination to create an equitable space to increase diversity in technology.

When we were setting up the Panel for the opening night of ECOOcampON, Kumiko asked if, instead of placing herself on the panel, if it would be all right to have a student voice talking about happiness and resilience. Of course, that sparked the idea of having a completely student-led panel instead and now that is coming to fruition.

The student ambassadors from Hackergal were the perfect fit for this session. They have embodied equity, enlightenment and energy and their humbleness will likely astound you as they speak about their experiences in the computer science world and how educators in their lives either turned them towards or away from the path they are on now. The Ambassadors will candidly share what has opened doors for them through their coding journeys – literally and figuratively.

This Panel Discussion will be interactive, with time for audience questions, so participants can better understand their pivotal role in creating safe and supportive spaces for girls to learn computer science. This is an opportunity to be inspired by a student-led discussion about how technology shapes the world we live in and the importance of the tech sector truly representing the people who are living in it.

Join us on November 26 for this Student-Led Panel: Reimagining Computer Science – Gender Equity

Register on the Fall Support Series page. Once you are registered, you will be directed to a form to choose this event and select from any of the other sessions offered. They’re all part of your package.

Come learn and connect. You’ll even be given a chance to play … but more of that closer to the day.

Get your Minecraft Code ‘n’ Learn on!

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Following on the November 21 Fall Support Series Learning Math with Minecraft: Education Edition session with Fair Chance Learning, members of the GamingEDUs will be hosting a number of Monday evening Code ‘n’ Learn Drop-In events where you can gather in game in Minecraft to connect and enjoy some play and learning time with your fellow participants.

Monday, November 23, 7-9 pm
Monday, November 30th, 7-9 pm
Monday, December 7th, 7-9 pm

The GamingEDUS very much believe that gaming and play is at the centre of learning, and so these evenings will start with some open-ended exploration and fun, before moving to a specific project focussing on coding during the second hour.

You can easily register for the drop-in sessions as a participant in the ECOO Support Series.

Details are provided on the Support Series – Fall 2020 page.

A Brave New World in our Fall Support Series

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In my mind, Fair Chance Learning has always been equated with fun events at the yearly Bring IT, Together conferences in Niagara Falls. When we heard that they wanted to be involved in the Fall Support Series, all I could think was that axe throwing and computer screens may not be the best fit this year.

What they are contributing instead makes up for not getting together in person and throwing axes.

Blaise Patterson at FCL is the mastermind behind a new Financial Literacy World in Minecraft EDU with in-game coding lessons and resources aimed specifically at supporting Ontario educators with the implementation of the new math curriculum. Blaise will be guiding participants in an exploration of that world after introducing them to Minecraft itself in the session: Learning Math with Minecraft: Education Edition.

What I love about every session in this Support Series is the passion and support that is being offered. Not to spoil anything but imagine a Mindful Knight world, space exploration and earning income to buy a car in FCL’s Digital Literacy world. These are all things you will be doing in this 3 hour session! You’ll also earn your accreditation of “Minecraft Certified Teacher”, badge and all!

If you’ve never explored Minecraft before, this is your moment. Come play, learn and connect. Imagine the engagement of your students as they learn as they play too! Fair Chance Learning will be there for you after the webinar and ECOO has your back as well, but like yesterday’s post, there’ll be more about that tomorrow.

Full session description can be found on the Fall Support Series page under the events tab:

Register at the Fall Support Series page. Once you are registered, you will be directed to a form to choose this workshop and select from any of the other sessions offered. They’re all part of your package!

Let’s play!

The Fall Support Series is Launched …

Mary Walker Hope ECOO News, Support Series @LOGICSAcademy, #ECOOsupportseries, coding, ECOO Support Series, Fall 2020, front

… and our first partner up to bat will be Logics Academy, kicking things off on November 17!

This Support Series embodies the importance of collaboration and networking. When we were planning ECOOcamp Ontario in the summer, Ramy and Keith from Logics approached us with an idea that sparked a bigger conversation. They wanted to offer multi-part workshops that delved deeper into a concept or tool so that educators were able to work their way through with support and resources and come out the other end understanding the concept and being able to implement it in their classrooms with confidence. We loved the idea and wanted to offer opportunities like that to our members and colleagues.

That conversation led to the two series of workshops on Coding that Logics is going to facilitate during the Fall Support Series.

Grade 1-4: The Fundamentals of Coding through StoryTelling
Grade 5-8: The Fundamentals of Coding through Game Design

Full session descriptions can be found on the Fall Support Series page under the events tab:

As Ramy expounded so passionately in our planning sessions:

“Come learn to code with us. No prior knowledge is required. We’ll provide all the training and support along the way. All you need is a device that has the Chrome browser.”

Can’t say it any better than that! It’s your turn to come play and learn!

Once you are registered, you will be directed to a form to choose these workshops and any of the other sessions listed on the Events page. They’re all part of your package … but more of that tomorrow!

ECOO Support Series Fall TechTime4EDU francais

On Flip sur Flipgrid (en français)

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Découvrez les bases de cette plate-forme interactive que les étudiants peuvent utiliser pour documenter leur apprentissage à l’aide d’enregistrements vidéos. Apprenez à fournir de la rétroaction aux élèves par vidéo ou par écrit. Cette plate-forme n’est pas seulement excitante et engageante pour les étudiants, c’est un gain de temps énorme et une merveille organisationnelle pour les enseignants! Cet atelier met également en évidence les mises à jour superbes de Flipgrid! Des nouvelles polices aux options d’édition vidéo, c’est une NOUVELLE expérience Flipgrid. The following content is available to ECOO members. Please sign in.

ECOO Support Series Fall TechTime4EDU english

Flipping over Flipgrid

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Learn about the basics of this interactive video response platform for students to use to document their learning. Learn how to provide feedback to students on their responses. This platform is not only exciting and engaging for students, it is also a huge time saver and organizational marvel for virtual teachers! This workshop also highlights the exciting updates from Flipgrid! From new fonts, to video editing options, this is a NEW Flipgrid experience. The following content is available to ECOO members. Please sign in.

Student-Led Panel: Reimagining Computer Science – Gender Equity

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario @thehackergals, #ECOOsupportseries, ECOO Support Series, Equity, Fall 2020, Hackergals, ssFall2020

“Insert all pronouns here.” Come join a student-led panel discussion on gender equity in technology! Student voice is the foundation of making change for a better future. In this panel, students take the mic to candidly chat about the under-representation of girls in computer science courses and how to foster a sense of belonging and confidence in any classroom. Student panelists will unpack what gender equity means to them, their own experiences, and share practical strategies to inspire (and sustain!) a passion for computer science and technology in your teaching practice. The following content is available to ECOO members. Please sign in.

Minecraft Code ‘n’ Learn Drop-In

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario @GamingEDUs, #ECOOsupportseries, ECOO Support Series, Fall 2020, GamingEDUs.org, Minecraft, ssFall2020

Would you like to have a supportive place to poke around in Minecraft?
Are you looking for a safe place to lay down some creative blocks?
Do you want to get up to speed in how you can use Minecraft to support learning?

The GamingEDUs invite you to drop in on Monday evenings to explore Minecraft in our welcoming environment. Play to Learn how you can use the immersive Minecraft platform to engage your learners. Although our time together can take direction from your specific needs, the rough outline for each two hour session will first feature an hour of scaffolded Minecraft exploration, followed by an hour to undertake a weekly Minecraft coding project using MakeCode. You are welcome to come for one hour, both hours, or drop in as suits your schedule! The following content is available to ECOO members. Please sign in.

Grades 1-4: The Fundamentals of Coding Through Storytelling

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario @LOGICSAcademy, #ECOOsupportseries, ECOO Support Series, Fall 2020, Logics Academy, ssFall2020

Logics Academy has developed a series of sessions that will allow participants in the ECOO Fall Support Series to create their own stories in many unique ways by completing coding challenges and puzzles as they build their coding skills. Participants will learn how to use Dash’s Neighbourhood as it provides a playful 3D environment to create and explore while building coding literacy in a block-based coding platform. In between sessions, participants will have the opportunity to integrate what they’ve learned at the end of each session into their classrooms with their own students. Finally, participants may present their stories through a Virtual Showcase by sharing pre-recorded videos on Flipgrid.

The following content is available to ECOO members. Please sign in.