How can a day that begins with a medley of songs from Little Shop of Horrors get any better? The uplifting performance by by neuro-inclusive theater company EPIC Players NYC was a perfectly fitting opening to a thoroughly joyous day. Hundreds of forward-thinking, passionate, enthusiastic educators met at #NYCSchoolsTechSummit to share resources, best practices and innovative ideas. This year the theme was Inclusion and many workshops were on the theme of creating content to provide access to all students.
Victor Calise , Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities spoke about the work and investment that is being put into NYC Schools to make them truly accessible for all. There is a long, long way still to go but the intention, will and at least some of the money is there. Work is being done. The NYC Schools Chancellor, Richard Carranza then spoke about equity in our schools, innovative teaching and his love of project-based learning.
Keynote speaker Jason Green also spoke of project and play-based learning and the needed skill of generativity. This is the very necessary skill of becoming a professional learner. Teachers need to model this behavior of lifelong learning, foster curiosity in students and slowly shift the entire culture of education toward a love of collaboration and learning.
I didn’t get to any sessions other than the ones I was presenting. I heard great things about so many that I will go back and check out. I want to thank my attendees for their participation and asking such great questions. I hope the tools, practices and accommodations I shared will be helpful to them in their classrooms. Yubis Lopez was a fabulous co presenter as always.
A major highlight of my day was receiving a #NYCSchoolsTech Award for Excellence in School Technology. The people I have seen accept this award in previous years are so inspirational, accomplished and driven, that it is a true honor to be named among them. It was an absolute pleasure to meet the Master of Ceremonies Dr Sal Contes Jr too. Huge congratulations to all the other 2019 awardees.
We later adjourned to Jake’s Saloon where some of the best connections were made and real plans and ideas were discussed. The staff were exceptionally accommodating to such a large bunch of excited, enthusiastic and exhausted educators. It was such a wonderful event in all. Even though I still have another week or so of summer school to go before my vacation, I am reinvigorated. I am excited to start implementing some new practices in the upcoming school year.
If you teach a teacher... 