>> All right. So, all of you online
have been typing your comments in
and all of you here live
are going to be brave and take a risk.
So we have our panel here. Thank you guys so much.
I also have brought,
you haven't heard him yet but I promise you will,
the fabulous Toney Jackson here,
who is a 4th grade teacher from New Jersey.
We'll hear him at the very end of the show.
But I wanted to give us
a few moments to ask some questions,
and I have a question before we cast it over to you.
and my first question, Doug,
I loved that T-Rex quote.
>> Yeah.
>> I hear teachers all the time really
want to do a problem-based or project-based environment,
but by the time that kids get to them,
they've been spoon-fed, their
whole, like, student career.
So they show up in a classroom like yours, and yours,
and they don't know what to do.
They sit there not even beginning to-
so how do you teach them to hunt and not to be fed?
>> So I think in the early stages of
any project assigned, just time to buy into
that project and like, experiments and explorers - whatever
the technology is, and they start to
feel more comfortable with that one,
just really challenge them on
their proposals of the ideas they have.
If they just pick some random topic,
they're not really going to invest and buy into it.
So, if you help them really
find something they're passionate about,
the moment you've done that,
you just get out of the way, because they're
going to lead their own learning at that point.
>> That is awesome. Great, great tips.
Okay. Do we have any brave souls out there?
I see Mark.
I think you have something from online, and then,
I think I see Ann walking up right behind you.
So, Mr. Sparvell, what do we have coming in from online?
>> Thank you, and thanks everyone
online for your questions.
This one's particularly directed at Heather
and Raffaella. Lucky you.
This one came through a lot of times.
It's about when students are
engaged in collaborative tasks like Minecraft,
how do you assess the knowledge and
the skills of the individual within that group?
>> So, that's something as teachers that we've really
had to work on and plan together.
So, we actually have deliberate tasks
that are individual tasks,
and then, we have deliberate tasks that are group tasks.
So, we don't give the same mark for
all of our students, because
they're building different things.
For us, what's the most important really
is their research and their critical thinking.
The build is how they bring those ideas to life
and it's how they communicate
those ideas with the invited guests.
So, we were really conscious of making sure that
one student isn't impacted by another student's build,
and that's something we're clear
on right at the beginning.
>> We give them rules of the road and let them
engage in making the rules in Minecraft
as a way to get them to buy in.
Like, how would you feel if somebody,
for example, broke your house?
You wouldn't like that. So, you
wouldn't do that to somebody.
And honestly, because they buy in,
we don't have many issues with that.
>> That's awesome. Fantastic. Great.
That's another question I hear all the time.
All right. Ann, you have a question.
>> I do. This question is for Silvia.
>> Okay.
>> Silvia, what advice can you share with school leaders
around building a school-wide vision for
becoming a Microsoft Showcase School?
>> I think the first thing is
that the principal has to buy the idea,
and we have to get them
to be willing to learn with all the teachers.
I think we have to be with
the teachers to grow as a team,
not a principal and a group -
as a whole, I think.
It's the major difference, I think, for sure.
>> That's amazing and I totally agree with that.
My last district, which Ann was in,
we go in and out of 26 buildings,
and it truly is that teacher
who's learning with the teachers,
that's sitting next to them as they're learning
a new tool that makes
all the difference in the world, for sure.
So, great question.
Thanks. I see Michelle.
>> I'm so impressed with everything all of you are doing,
and I know, Doug, I've talked with you a little
bit about artificial intelligence.
Can you speak a little bit to that to
the audience and some of
the things that you're helping prepare
your students for in
the future with artificial intelligence?
>> Yes, that is the question of the century right there.
So, we've seen some examples of
chatbots and some examples of AI of the usage of AI
and so the other side of that in
the computer science world is
sort of how does AI happen in
the background. And so I think
artificial intelligence is not something
that might show up a little bit as
a trend or some something like that in the future. It is here now.
It is not going away.
It's vital that a) the world understand what that is. Okay.
We bring into our classrooms.
I think we're struggling with that right now.
We're trying to be innovative in computer science and
even we're asking the questions
what actually is computer science,
how can it be done in a lower school,
middle school, upper school,
even at the college level as
far as what can be done in the background,
what can be done for students using it, because
if we don't understand this as a community,
it's going to be part of our lives
whether we understand it or not.
So what options do we really have?
We have to embrace that and dive into that one.
So it's a great question and I'm not sure I know the answer.
>> I'm going to ask Silvia to pipe
in a little bit here too, because
what age were your students that created that chatbot?
>> 12 to 13 years old.
>> 12 to 13 year olds built
a chatbot that would answer questions about bullying.
That's AI in real life for 12 and 13 year olds.
That's amazing.
>> That's true.
>> Yeah, thank you. Great question.
Yes, Kim. Good thing I know all their names.
By the way all of you online,
our audience is filled with local teachers,
who are in schools doing real things,
all MIE Experts all doing incredible things.
So that's kind of why I know their names.
Kim, go ahead.
>> I was struck by this morning every single one of
you spoke about the idea of being a risk taker.
How do you overcome that with teachers?
Silvia, how do you overcome
that barrier for people who are not natural risk-takers?
>> I think we have to open the space for them,
because failure is part of the process for sure.
We learn a lot when we fail and teachers must
understand and incorporate these ideas, because
teachers don't allow themselves to fail.
Right. That's the point. They have to change. Change.
>> Change.
>> Yeah.
I think all of you work with teachers and
know teachers that are scared of failure.
So let me do a little quick whip,
lightning whip around - teacher's technique here.
Let's hear each of you share one thing
that...if you have helped another teacher in
your school embrace failure,
what's been a tip for helping
those teachers embrace failure and take a risk. Toney?
>> Modeling it and being completely
unafraid to admit and talk about my own.
Ant that will usually open them up to see that I am not
trying to get them to do something that I haven't done.
It's something that we all do,
and it's just when your students see
that you're not afraid,
then they can take that on themselves.
Sometimes with your colleagues, it's the same thing.
So when we do it, then they can pass it on.
>> Awesome.
>> Yeah. I will agree with Toney.
The risk taking in and out of yourself,
the modeling of it is key.
If somebody asks me how I do something in my classroom,
I will not be shy to say,
I ask the kids how to do it.
I use them because they have a wealth
of knowledge and I am okay with that.
>> Yeah. That's good.
>> I think it's the honesty about that we're not perfect.
It's about growth mindset.
If we want our students to have growth mindset,
we have to have it too as teachers.
I think it's having the conversation with each
other and saying, "It didn't work.
What do you think I could do better the next time?"
It's the sharing of the ideas
that I just find really supportive.
When I fail and I have people to talk to and say,
"What should I think about for the next time?"
>> Yeah. That's why collaboration
is so important at this time.
>> Doug, anything from you?
>> Yeah. I think as a department chair,
I make sure that the members of my department, including
myself, know that and I directly tell them,
"Please innovate and please explore things and be
ready that they're not all going to work perfectly.
You're not going to be the expert in the room.
There's going to be kids who know more than you at
times every now and then.
That is completely okay.
Don't make the same mistake twice,
but just build on it and grow."
>> I found, too, like metacognating
my own failures to my students,
was really helpful helping them
hear me think through my mistakes.
How I rethought, how I got- brushed myself off,
got back up, tried it again.
And I think doing that with a colleague
is really important as well.
Great question.
Mark, we have something else from our mail I believe.
>> We have one for Toney.
You've got quite a fan base here.
They're clamoring to ask you a question.
So here we go. This one's particularly about Flipgrid.
The question is, how and
why do you use that with your fourth graders?
>> I use it all the time.
What I found is that reflection is crucial,
especially in terms of what we're discussing right now.
It's just as crucial for the kids because
sometimes they don't have an opportunity,
or they're not given an opportunity during
a school day to really
think about what they just learned,
or how they learned it,
or where the struggle was.
So giving them an opportunity to say,
"I'm going take my time,"
or, "I want you to take your time when you need it,
and then reflect on that.
You can share it with each other,
you can share it with me,
we can share it with other classrooms."
There's so many ways that they
can see that other people out
there are looking and thinking
about what they're trying to do.
I think that has been extremely
helpful across all disciplines.
>> Okay, great. Thank you.
>> Awesome. Yeah. So those who
have not tried out Flipgrid,
we have a course on that too.
So, super easy. You guys have all tried it, right?
>> How many of you tried it, like going,
"I don't even know how this works
but let's just go for it."?
That's all you got to do. All right.
You guys, thank you so much for
sharing your thoughts with the audience.
We have some amazing things coming up.
So Anthony is back here with us, to share what is coming.
>> I'm excited. But thank you all.
It's been amazing to hear and I'm inspired by the change
that you're driving in your schools.
I want to challenge all of you to apply that change,
figure out how you're going to
drive energy in your classrooms to
shift the mindset of
students and bring some of these practices to work.
Also share what you're doing with this going forward.
We've got a great global community of educators.
You've heard from many of them,
and I love the fact that many of you are joining us
online with active questions
and participating with each other.
Thank you very much for joining.
We have some amazing folks around
the world joining us from places
like the Philippines and Nepal,
across the United States, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Canada, UK, Poland, Italy, the Philippines.
Amazing, amazing.
Thank you very much for joining us.
It's great to have you with
us and as part of this community.
Now, in that global reflection,
one of the things that I'm super excited about
coming up on November 13th and the 14th,
is the Skype-a-Thon event that's coming up this year.
It's always a highlight of my calendar.
Are you guys participating?
>> Yes.
>> You got a lot of folks in the audience.
Use the comments now to make connections with
other educators in classrooms
that you want to join you on Skype.
The Skype-a-Thon is an amazing opportunity
for us to connect, to share,
to deepen understanding and connection
between students from classrooms all around the world.
This year, we have a special treat that
for every 400 virtual miles traveled,
we'll be supporting WE Villages around the world.
This is a great opportunity to not
only have a great experience with Skype-a-Thon,
but to bring purpose to the journey with
your students and bring
service learning into your classrooms.
So I'm excited about that.
The theme this year is also going to be connected
to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
which I know inspire students to take
action and actually bring their talents to real need.
One of the things that we need to do is actually
improve inclusivity and accessibility in our classrooms.
With that, I'm super proud of
the work that Microsoft has done,
to sign the Made By
Dyslexia commitment pledge just recently in this month.
Now, this is a commitment to provide
the 700 million people around the world with dyslexia,
access to training and
tools to help them realize their potential.
You can learn more about this in
the latest episode of What's New in EDU,
to find out some more information about
that pledge and how you can get access to the resources.
Now, I also know many of you are
looking forward and Doug talked about
Computer Science Education Week on
December 3rd through the 9th.
This is a great opportunity to get access to
real world work that you can
deliver in your classrooms and computer science.
Microsoft has great resources to help
support you delivering an amazing week for your students,
regardless of what age or what subject you teach.
One of the examples is
the new Microsoft Minecraft Hour
of Code tutorial: Voyage Aquatic.
This is going to be a great opportunity to
leverage the new aquatic pack in Minecraft,
to deepen your students experience there.
We also have a great series, Meet the Creators.
I know your students will not want to miss this.
Via Skype in the classroom, you have
access to the Meteor your Creator series.
You can learn more about the resources and
the tutorial on the Microsoft Educator Community.
We'll have the new Hour of Code Badge for 2018,
on the community starting on November 1st.
Now, if you haven't joined the community,
what are you waiting for?
This is the opportunity for all of
this awesomeness that you have seen today.
Every day you can make connections,
get access to resources,
to help you make a difference,
help you continue to be a changemaker that you are.