“Your webinar was so ‘real,’ I thought I needed to take you back to the airport after it was over to catch your flight.” ~ District admin
If you visit my workshop page you’ll see that for over 20 years I’ve offering on-site training and keynotes to scores of clients across the country. While I continue to travel doing live workshops, presentations and keynotes, I think there’s a need for brief, inexpensive, and engaging web-based PD that can foster reflection and professional growth for administrators and faculty.
“I found you quite engaging, even though you were on the opposite side of the continent.” ~teacher
My webinars have live video / audio in both directions via WebEx. They include PowerPoint, plus frequent video clips to illustrate my point. You get a live video feed of me throughout the presentation.
“I loved the learning catalytics software and our instant feedback to your questions.” ~teacher
I’ve long held that staff development should model what you want to see in the classroom, and for that reason I wouldn’t do a workshop without using a response system. I use Learning Catalytics – a powerful “bring-your-own-device” response system that allows me to ask webinar participants a wide variety of open-ended responses beyond the usual multiple-choice, priority, and ranking. We can even gather their comments to generate a Wordle-style “word cloud.” More on how I’ve used Learning Catalytics to foster reflection, discussion and interaction.
Here’s a brief film clip from my webinar to teachers at Rothesay Netherwood School in Rothesay, New Brunswick. I was exploring what Bloom’s higher-order thinking skills actually look like from the perspective of the student. In this demonstration, teachers were asked to make an evaluation based on the famous series of “Migrant Mother” photographs by Dorothea Lange. I think it demonstrates how these webinars can be engaging and thought-provoking learning experiences. Many thanks to Tammy Earle, who coordinated the setting at Rothesay Netherwood, and supplied me with the video.
One-hour webinars are priced at $275 for up to 25 participants. (Other arrangements available upon request.) This price includes all WebEx conferencing tools and LearningCatalytics access for all participants.
~ ~ ~ Contact me about my webinars. ~ ~ ~
The client provides:
- A room to host their participants. One person should serve as the moderator (as needed).
- Computer connected to WebEx displaying via projector to large screen.
- Sound system for my voice and video content.
- Video cam and microphone so I can hear and see the participants.
- Wireless connection or networked desktops in a computer lab
- Web-enable devices – laptops, tablets, smartphones – for participants to connect to LearningCatalytics response system. (They can easily share devices as well.)
While I can tailor a webinar to meet your specific needs, my webinars topics include:
- Teaching Literacy in the Digital Era
- Supporting CCSS Thinking Skills in the Classroom
- Fostering Student Engagement in the Classroom
- Getting Started with “Flipping Your Classroom”
- Getting Started with Project-Based Learning
- Document-Based Instruction – How Your Students Can Be the Historian
- Rigor, Relevance and Reflection: Fostering Life-Long Learners
- Have a larger group? Read WebEx and LearningCatalytics Create a Virtual Keynote
Here’s what teachers and administrators are saying about my webinars:
- I think that this was a great learning experience. It really got me to think about my own practices in teaching.
- This was great! I can’t wait to try some of these in my class! I think these ideas will really excite my students!
- I thought the degree of interaction was quite good. Participants were able to talk about the issues under consideration & there was as much interaction with presenter as I have seen in ‘live’ seminars.
- This was perhaps the first time that such a large group of our faculty were afforded an opportunity to appreciate each other’s thought process in terms of promoting HOTS in the classroom. A great way to recognize “fertile ground” amongst my colleagues.
- I had no frustrations with the technology!
- It is something new to me that I have never seen before. Aside from skype which is used as a personal communication device, this webinar brings the concept of skype into the classroom atmosphere in a professional manner.
- There was a discussion after each question/video which helped a great deal. There were some questions that I answered totally different than my peers, so it was interesting to hear their thought process vs. my own.
- The different poll based questions definitely provoked thought from me. In particular, the race track and photo questions were the most compelling and thought provoking.
- Well this is now an option for me. I can bring in new learning through webinars or create my own. The effectiveness of this in the classroom would be huge!
- Visual, oral, interactive, it kept our attention.
- it fostered a collaborative/group centred methodology that was easy to follow and focused very quickly back to task (after discussion).
- An amazing advance in technology! How wonderful a concept to bring into a classroom environment as something so up-to-date and modern.
- The process was incredibly rewarding! I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn something new and very current in a very cool way!
