The METS Group: April Newsletter
Michigan Educational Technology Specialists
Happy April from the METS Group!
Idea Slam Recap
The first annual METS Group-sponsored Idea Slam is in the books! Check out our recap, watch the four pitches, and learn about the 2017 Idea Slam Winner, Samantha Niehaus, 4th-grade teacher at East Jackson Elementary School.
Bring a Buddy Scholarship Winners
Lori Wisniewski and Viktoria Klein, Baraga Area Schools
Our first of a three-part article series from our Bring a Buddy Scholarship Winners for the 2016-2017 school year.
Midland Public Schools Teacher, Kaycee Dammann: METS Member Guest Post!
Our featured article this month is by METS member Kaycee Dammann. Kaycee was a first-time presenter at MACUL this year and, on top of presenting, she agreed to keep a journal about her experience for us to share with you. If you've never presented before, Kaycee will surely convince you to apply for next year!
Winter VirtuRally Video Recap
Each month, the METS Group will be releasing video session(s) from our Winter VirtuRally. This month, we are featuring two videos: The keynote presentation, "STEM Thinking: Making Valuable Industry Connections" by Ebiri Nkugba & Rick Mushing,
STEM Consultants at Kent ISD, and the presentation by METS Member Casey Schaub, @schaubc4, "Creating Custom Google Apps for District Chromebooks".
Featured Book Giveaway! (Plus, our March Winner!)
The winner, Samantha Niehaus, is a 4th-grade teacher at East Jackson Elementary. Her pitch, "Building our own Maker Lab" was the first of four for the night.
Samantha is wrapping up her 4th year teaching at the elementary level. She is also a coach Girls on the Run, and this year, she has taken on the school Greenhouse! She is very close to her 7 younger siblings, enjoys watching sporting events, being outdoors, and having fun every day. She loves to try new things, laugh out loud, and visit new cities. She graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Elementary Education and will return to EMU this fall to start her Masters program in Educational Technology. Her favorite read aloud series in the classroom is the Olivia Brophie trilogy. She loves teaching science and writing and hopes that every day in her classroom is as fun and exciting as the last. She is excited to bring a maker lab to her students, and knows that "making" will be the greatest adventure her school gets to journey through!
We will be documenting the process of Sammy's Maker Lab throughout the experience and will bring it to you over the next year! We are excited to have a blueprint of success for creating a successful lab within a building for you to utilize in the future.
Thank you!
The Pitchers: Sammy Niehaus; Chessi Oetjens; Cathy Walker; and Lorri Batsie, Dayna Cantu & Anthony DeRosa
The Planners: Allison Keskimaki, Amy Dirlam, Ann Smart, Brad Wilson, Craig Steenstra, and Kerry Guiliano
Our Emcee: Melody Arabo
CrossBraining, who generously donated a GoPro for our winner
The Videographer: Chris Slat
The REMC Association of Michigan, who sponsors the METS Group and continuously allows us to make a broad impact across the state of Michigan (remc.org)
Continued Help
Chessi Oetjens: #ProjectSparkle (Pitch #2)
Cathy Walker: Technology Celebration of Learning (Pitch #3)
Lorri Batsie, Dayna Cantu & Anthony DeRosa: DK Makes It (Pitch #4)
You can find their contact information on the Idea Slam Pitch Roll Call.
Keep your eyes peeled for more information on the Bring a Buddy scholarship application for the 2017-2018 school year, coming in early August.
Baraga Schools #LearningForward at MACUL 2017
Baraga Schools sent two staff members to MACUL 2017. This was made possible with the help of a METS Bring-a-Buddy scholarship that was received. It was the first time both staff members had attended a MACUL conference. The experience was unforgettable and packed with learning experiences. Viktoria Klein (K-12 Art teacher) attended many STEAM sessions and was able to bring back useful tools for her class and other elementary classes. Lori Wisniewski (science teacher/tech coordinator) attended a mix of coordinator specific sessions and science/math sessions and was also able to bring back many resources for teachers, administrators, and herself. The conference was overwhelmingly amazing. Not only did the exhibitors have useful information to share but the topics covered in the sessions gave everyone more than enough options to easily fill up their schedule for the two (2) day conference. The speakers were motivating and refreshing. Both teachers left the conference with inspirations to practice using their new resources in their own classrooms and also a motivation to share their experiences with fellow staff members. Baraga plans to send teachers to this conference each year.
The METS Group is proud to feature our members' blogs and articles that they've written as another way to get our name (and yours) out there. This month's featured article is by METS Steering Committee member Kaycee Dammann. Kaycee is a High School Math Teacher from Midland Public Schools, formerly (at the time of MACUL) an Instructional Technology Coach at Swan Valley School District. She actively runs and plans PD with her local REMC-9 Director, Aaron Schippert, and she currently serves on the METS Steering Committee. She is from Saginaw but lives in Freeland with her husband Mark and two children, Reid and Emelia.
February 28th
A little over two weeks out… I have been crazy busy at work this week and I have 4 MACUL presentations to finalize and prep for. I’m not sure what craziness I was thinking when I submitted 4 presentations!? Last year I presented with a large group. This is my first year presenting as the lead! I am leading two this year (Coding in the Core - with Laura Trombly, and Oh Meme, Oh My! - with Bridgette Dammann) and two of the presentations I am in a supporting role (Podcast-astic led by Laura Trombly and supported by Danielle Lovelace and Jennifer Todd, and Formative Assessments that are Fun! - led by Janice Kato). I am honored to have been chosen to present on behalf of REMC! I am looking forward to seeing other presentations and need to plan for those. A successful MACUL always relies on planning. Right now I have two presentations 75% done, one not started, and the other is almost done but needs to be put in a slide show!
March 6th
I have made huge improvements since the last time I checked in. I am completely done with 2 presentations, I have one 95% done, and the other is 50% done. I also had a chance today to go through the MACUL app and look for sessions to attend and upload my picture to the speaker page. My first year I attended I was so overwhelmed and felt completely unprepared for the sheer magnitude of this conference. This will be my third year attending. This is sure to be an awesome year! There are some AMAZING sessions available this year. It looks like coding and Breakouts are going to be a huge theme, as is makerspaces. I am getting very excited! My co-presenter, Janice Kato, and I are finalizing our presentation on formative assessments.
March 15th
MACUL is this week! Not to make anything more stressful, but I accepted a new position this week and am now juggling a professional move with MACUL! I am packed, my presentations are ready. I have a few small things to finalize but I’m feeling confident. I have most of my sessions picked out, and I’m ready to go! I have revisited the app to make sure that the sessions I’m going to will benefit me in my new position, and I am confident that this will be a great conference! I have reached out to a few people that I have met at prior MACUL trips and have asked to meet with them to be able to start collecting ideas for my new position. I am very excited!
March 22nd
MACUL was awesome! I loved presenting this year. I was worried that presenting 4 times would make it hard to attend sessions and still feel the amazing MACUL high you get when attending. I loved presenting. It was a very enriching experience. My sessions were well attended and people were engaged! I also won some sweet swag from the vendors (an Amazon Tap + 1 year of Prime from MVU) and a pretty awesome charger at the MACUL Party. I had the chance to visit the Makerspace and I enjoyed interacting and watching the students engage with the different pieces. I attended a poster session ran by Tara Maynard (@tmaynard5) that gave me practical ideas to integrate technology into a math classroom. I also attended a GoPro Session that had amazing ideas for Science and STEM. If you are thinking of presenting at MACUL, I strongly encourage it! It was a blast. I met many people, and I was still able to gain knowledge from others. This was an amazing experience and I hope to be able to return next year!
Each month, the METS Group will be releasing a video from our Winter VirtuRally. This month, we are kicking off the release with TWO videos:
Keynote
"STEM Thinking: Making Valuable Industry Connections"
Ebiri Nkugba & Rick Mushing
STEM Consultants at Kent ISD
Session
"Creating Custom Google Apps for District Chromebooks"
METS Member Casey Schaub
@schaubc4
Watch both archived videos below!
Session Resources:
Creating Custom Google Apps for District Chromebooks
The link to the YouTube Playlist can be found here. Don't forget to subscribe to the METS Group on YouTube!
The METS Group is sponsored by the REMC Association of Michigan