News from TechTerra Education

ISTE 2018, opens June 24, 2018, and runs through June 27th, at the McCormick Place West Building in Chicago, IL. TechTerra Education and 16,000 attendeees (educators, technology coordinators, policy makers and more) will be there. This Conference and Expo is one of the biggest and most all-encompassing edtech conferences in the world. ISTE, the International Society for Technology, hosts this annual conference and knows how to engage the crowds with Expo Booths, Playgrounds, and Poster Sessions. TechTerra Education will have a booth on the main Expo floor and we’ll be at Playgrounds and Poster Sessions each day. Register for ISTE and join us at this extraordinary event. We’ll have tons of giveaways from our partners at every TechTerra event!

Here’s where you can find us at ISTE each day: (The official ISTE2018 mobile app should be available in June with sessions, presenters and exhibitors.)

TechTerra Education Expo Booth #890 in Expo Hall

Monday & Tuesday 9:00 am -5 pm, Wednesday 9:00 am – 2:30 pm

Visit our TechTerra Education Expo Booth #890. We’ll be staffed to answer your questions, show you the latest and greatest hands-on learning tools and curriculum, and scan your tag to enter our daily raffle. To find us click on the Expo Floor Plan and type in “890” for our TechTerra Education Booth or type in TechTerra Education.

Sunday, June 24, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Explore, Make, Create...Transforming Learning with STEM-based Innovative Environments

Global Collaboration Poster Session

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Susan Wells, Founder and CEO TechTerra Education, 2018 EdTech Leadership Award Finalist, Former School Principal

Monday, June 25, 8:00 am – 11:30 am

Makerspace, Think, Design, Create – Creativity Takes Courage

Creativity - Art and Technology Playground

Level 1 – Playground C

Sharon Cock, Director of Training TechTerra Education

Monday, June 25, 8:00 am – 11:30 am

Coding is Contagious

Creativity - Art and Technology Playground

Level 1 – Playground C

Julia Schonhar, TechTerra Education Team Member, Math Teacher Terra Vista Elementary

Round Rock, TX

Monday, June 25, 8:00 am – 11:30 am

Rock and Roll Robots

Creativity - Art and Technology Playground

Level 1 – Playground C

Christine Bell, TechTerra Education Team Member, Retired High School AP Social Studies Teacher

Monday, June 25, 2:00 pm -m 4:00 pm

Special Presentation Neuron Classroom Solution Kit

Introducing the Neuron Inventor Electronic Programmable Blocks & Curriculum

Expo Booth # 974

Susan Wells, Founder & CEO TechTerra Education

Monday, June 25, 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm

Special Presentation Root Workshop

Coding for Interactivity with Root

TechTerra Expo Booth 890

Root is a robot that moves, draws, erases, plays music, and has over 50 sensors and actuators. Students learn to code in a custom app for Root and navigate a three-level interface building from a graphical block-based code environment to Python, JavaScript or Swift. We’re excited to offer this workshop to introduce you to the new Root Robot.

Irinia Uk, Learning Design Lead Root Robotics

Tuesday, June 26, 10:30 am -12:30 pm

Coding Literacy: How Hands-on Coding is Impacting Reading and Writing

EdTech Literacy Playground

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Susan Wells, Founder and CEO TechTerra Education, 2018 EdTech Leadership Award Finalist, Former School Principal

Tuesday, June 26, 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm

Special Presentation Root Workshop

Coding for Interactivity with Root

TechTerra Expo Booth 890

Irinia Uk, Learning Design Lead Root Robotics

Tuesday, June 26th, 2:00 pm – 5:30 pm

From Competence to Comfort to Curriculum Connections

ISTE Leadership Playground - Table 1

Sharon Cock, Director of Training TechTerra Education

Tuesday, June 26, 5:30 pm -7:30 pm

Mobile Learning Network Social Event

Timothy O'Toole's Pub - Downtown Chicago

622 N Fairbanks Ct, Chicago, IL 60611

Susan Wells, Founder and CEO TechTerra Education, 2018 EdTech Leadership Award Finalist, Former School Principal

Wednesday, June 27, 8:00 am – 9:30 am

Incorporating Administrative Standards

APLN Breakfast Forum

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Sharon Cock, Director of Training TechTerra Education

Wednesday, June 27, 10 am - 11:20 am

Empowering Learners with STEM and MakerEd

Mobile Learning Network Playground - Table 5

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Christine Bell, TechTerra Education Team Member, Retired High School AP Social Studies Teacher

Wednesday, June 27, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Make, Tinker, Create, Innovate!

Mobile Learning Network Playground - Table 6

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Julia Schonhar, TechTerra Education Team Member, Math Teacher, Terra Vista Elementary

Round Rock, TX

Susan Wells, Founder and CEO TechTerra Education, 2018 EdTech Leadership Award Finalist, Former School Principal

Wednesday, June 27, 11:30 am – 12:00 pm

Empowering Learners with STEM and MakerEd, How to use Drones to Teach STEM

Mobile Learning Network Playground - Presentation Area 2

Location TBA, Check ISTE Conference Website for Location

Christine Bell, TechTerra Education Team Member, Retired High School AP Social Studies Teacher

Carl Problete, Project Manager/CAD Designer/Developer Robolink

Visit our Playground and Poster sessions for hands-on exploring with our favorite STEM and Maker tools including new learning tools for 2018.

Explore and play with the newest tools at our Expo Booth.

Don't miss-

Makeblock Neuron Inventor Classroom Kit

MatataLab Coding, Musician and Artist Sets

TTE Extracurricular STEM Program Bundles

Bluebee Pals 4.0

PowerUp for STEM

Robo Wunderkind

PowerUp

ScottieGo

Meet the founders and developers of some of the newest edtech tools in market at our TTE events-

Shai Goitein, CEO & Founder PowerUp

Pawel Czerwony, CSO BECREO Technologies

Irinia Uk, Learning Design Lead Root Robotics

Ines Noe, Co-founder & CEO Zaprendo

Carl Problete, Project Manager/CAD Designer/Developer Robolink

Anna Iarotska, Co-founder & CEO Robo Wunderkind

TechTerra Education named an EdTech 2018 Award Finalist in Two Categories

The EdTech Awards for 2018 were announced this spring. TechTerra Education was named an EdTech Award Finalist in two areas. Our company was named a Trendsetter Finalist for what we do – connecting great educators with great digital learning tools. Our CEO and Founder, Susan S. Wells, was named a Leadership Finalist. The EdTech Award Finalists were selected from thousands of entries across the globe. We are excited to excited to continue our mission of STEM Literacy for All!

Introducing Makeblock Neuron Inventor Classroom Kit powered by TechTerra Education Curriculum

What is it?

A set of six Neuron Inventor Kits and a full year of Exclusive TechTerra Education Curriculum

The Makeblock Neuron Inventor Kit is a kit with programmable electronic building blocks that includes sound, light, and sensor blocks. The magnetic backing and the magnetic pogo pins make this educational tool easy to use in the classroom. Makeblock Neuron blocks are designed to be durable and allow students to experience hands on learning.

Combined with intuitive graphical programming, Makeblock Neuron encourages all creators to turn their ideas into real, working gadgets.

The 24 online lessons provide an exciting and engaging year of learning. From engineering and design projects without coding to full PBL experiences with coding, the Neuron curriculum is an excellent fit for 4th grade through 8th grade and even into secondary classrooms. Even younger learners will enjoy the hands-on building activities.

The Makeblock Neuron Inventor Classroom Kit includes:

Makeblock Neuron Inventor Kit x6
Portable Corrugated Box x1
Curriculum Access Manual x1
Teacher’s Guide x1
24 online lessons

What does it do?

With a whole array of sensors, Neuron can be used online and offline. Coding experience is not necessary to play with the Neuron, but coding can be easily introduced by Neuron’s flow base programming. Programming can be done through the Neuron app and on desktop, with mBlock.

Where can I find it?

Coming soon to the TechTerra Education shop.

After our family’s teaching experience in Nepal, we journeyed through Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and then volunteered at a school in Thailand.

In Thailand, we visited Bangkok, Ayuttayah, and Chiang Mai, before making our way to Nongkhai in the northeast corner of Thailand. This NE peninsula is known as Isaan, and is considered an ethnic group with influences from Lao and Cambodia which border it on 3 sides. It comprises almost a third of Thailand’s population as well as the poorest segment of its population.


Biking along the Mekong	Fun with the 5th grade	Grade 5 English Class

Biking along the Mekong

Fun with the 5th grade

Grade 5 English Class

Nongkhai, a small lively city, is directly across the Mekong River from the Lao capital of Vientiane. Each day we bicycled along the iconic waterfront to volunteer at the Openmind Projects Training Center. Our duties included assisting at a learning camp for Lao youth, and teaching English to 4th and 5th graders at a local grade school. Openmind helps youth gain confidence to learn, think and express their opinions in English. Campers are assigned to search online in English on topics such as climate change, effects of technology on jobs and education, and healthy living. Openmind also brings their education camps to villages in the Burmese and Lao mountains and Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. All their services are provided free of charge.

Like Nepal, the Thai students start the school day outside with announcements, calisthenics and singing the national anthem. The entire class would stand and greet us every morning. Both countries incorporate moral principles as part of the school curriculum. In Thailand, morals and social studies are taught by a monk.


Calisthenics	Giving a wai to a staff member	A nook for doing schoolwork

Calisthenics

Giving a wai to a staff member

A nook for doing schoolwork

Respect is deeply ingrained in the culture of Thailand. Making a “wai” in which one puts their hands in a prayer position and touches it to their face is a common form of greeting. The higher the hands are placed, the more respect you are giving. Monks command the most respect with hands in prayer touching near the top of the forehead. When walking past a monk, your head must be lower than theirs, and we witnessed one student walking past a monk on her knees. Next in respect are parents, teachers and elders, with the hands at mid face, around the nose. We saw a young girl around 7 years old automatically giving a wai to her teacher before accepting a snack. After monks, parents, teachers and elders, it’s everyone else, with the hands near the chin or chest.

The Thai grade school did not have a full time English teacher so we had to come up with our own lesson plans. The 4th graders had a minimal grasp of English, while the 5th graders could speak in full sentences. Our daughter Leeia helped develop our lesson plans which included vocabulary in everyday words such as numbers, colors, animals, and place names. A pretend trip to the zoo was a pretext to weave in these words.

To make class more engaging, we had the students compete against one another to see who could first say the English word when shown a picture, or by acting out animals. Leeia helped with pronunciation and engaged one-on-one with students in 2 person dialogue scripts we created. The last day in the classroom, Dan pretended to be a bus driver, and delivered the kids to the imaginary locations they recited in English. At one point, we had a whole conga-line going! The kids enjoyed having Leeia in class.


Hokey Pokey with the 4th grade	Group meal at Openmind Training Center	Lao camper team with climate change presentation

Hokey Pokey with the 4th grade

Group meal at Openmind Training Center

Lao camper team with climate change presentation

At the Openmind volunteer center we assisted with the learning camp, teaching about climate change, and providing feedback on climate change presentations. Fielding questions from office and volunteer staff allowed them to practice debate skills and exploratory learning. According to Openmind, teaching in Thailand is primarily by rote, similar to Nepal. This leaves less opportunity for creative thinking and asking questions. Openmind tries to help their students develop these skills with the aim of building job skills. Leeia used the time at the training center to work on her own school work.

The most intriguing part of our volunteer experience was the good-bye ceremony at the end of the week. The Isaan tradition involves tying a knotted white string around the wrist of the departing person as a symbol of connection. We sat in a line with the other teachers and staff while the Lao campers walked in a procession and stopped in front of each person to tie a string around our wrists while giving words of thanks. In the end, we had 8 strings tied around our wrist, one from each youth in the program. We then switched roles and were the string and blessing givers to a staff member who was departing for a new job.

What a beautiful tradition to pause and give thanks directly to an influential person in your life, and then for that person to carry away a physical remembrance of your bond and shared time together. We were told that the strings should remain on at least 3 days. They can then be removed, or remain until they naturally fall away. While Dan and I have since "released" our strings, Leeia still has all 8 of hers, reluctant to part with her remembrance.