3 Month Generative AI Cohort (Virtual)
Take a deep dive with us as we spend three months learning and implementing Generative AI in our classrooms. Schools and districts can sign up with a minium 10 participants. To learn more click here.

Unleashing the Power of ChatGPT
As the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education continues to grow, it is crucial for educators to be equipped with the necessary skills to effectively use AI tools such as ChatGPT. This training will focus on exploring the various applications of ChatGPT in the classroom.

Equity and AI
Equity and AI is an interactive 90-minute virtual training session aimed at enhancing participants’ understanding of fairness, transparency, and non-discrimination in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). This condensed, yet comprehensive, webinar-style program explores the intersection of societal dynamics and AI, stressing the importance of equitable outcomes for diverse demographic groups. Participants will delve into potential biases that can permeate AI systems, from data gathering stages to algorithmic decision-making, and will be equipped with strategies to spot, mitigate, and prevent these biases. This digital classroom experience seamlessly weaves technical proficiency with social responsibility, empowering attendees to ethically harness AI technology, fostering a digitally inclusive future for all.

Creating Skill-Based Assessments in the Era of ChatGPT
A specialized training program tailored for 6-12 educators, designed to empower them with the knowledge and skills to leverage the capabilities of AI, specifically ChatGPT, in crafting skill-based assessments. The training provides educators with a solid understanding of how AI can enhance the assessment process, focusing on the creation of engaging, adaptive, and effective evaluations that accurately measure a student’s skill level. Teachers will learn how to integrate ChatGPT into their curriculum to facilitate personalized learning, offering instant feedback and promoting student engagement. The program emphasizes a balanced approach, ensuring that technology enhances, rather than replaces, the human element of teaching, thereby creating a more dynamic and enriched educational experience.

The Intersection of SEL and Technology in our Students Lives
If we are talking about SEL and focusing on SEL in schools then we must also focus on the impact technology is having on our students. This session will dive deep into why and how we engage our students in SEL and Tech related discussions in our classroom.

The Changing Nature of Communication
Being a leader in the 21st Century means going beyond e-mail and newsletters into the new digital world of communicating with parents and students. Understanding that society today wants information in short and more frequent bursts is the first step in utilizing tools that allow you to communicate using the new web. This presentation demonstrates and discusses the different ways schools and school leaders can harness the power of the Internet to communicate with their school communities.

Moving from Consumers to Producers of Knowledge
Content is free, production of knowledge is at an all-time high. How do schools take advantage of the productive power of the web? How can schools engage students in meaningful projects that focus on creativity and apply the content students are learning? This session will be a discussion on how to move schools, classrooms, and students from consumers to producers of knowledge.

Digital Citizenship: Moving from Private to Public
Technology is part of our everyday lives and it is for our students as well. It is time we stop treating digital citizenship as 30-minute lessons and instead help prepare students for the workspaces of the future. Come be part of a conversation of how we help students move from private to public in safe and meaningful ways that prepare them for their future.

Looking for Learning in the Digital Classroom (ADMIN)
Just because the laptops are open does that mean learning is occurring? We need to move beyond doing old activities in new ways to doing whole new activities that lead to deeper more meaningful learning. This session will help administrators learn what to look for in the digital classroom. Using new theories and new standards, administrators will walk away with a greater understanding of how digital tools change the learning landscape and allow for authentic learning experiences.

Supporting Your Parent Community Through the Digital Shift
A session on ways to support the parent community through the shift. Come learn and share the ways you are engaging your parent community in understanding this new digital world. This will be a conversation based session full of resources and ideas of how to engage parents in the conversation about technology.

Teaching a Media First Generation
We must understand that this generation of students is media first text second. They have grown up in a media-rich world. How do we use this idea to capture their attention, allow them to think deeply about subjects and engage them in the text-based world that seems foreign to many of them? We dive deep into the world of media to understand students learning habits today.

Moving from Sorting to Searching 
(Article Link)
There was a time not too long ago when we taught students how to sort and organize their files. How to create folders inside of folders and basically do what we do in the physical world to our digital life. Then came the Internet and its endless websites. We tried to organize them but at last there were too many. So we turned to something different … we stopped trying to organize the web and we started searching it. Search is the skill of our era, a life skill that once mastered opens up all sorts of opportunities. Do we teach search in your classrooms and schools? This session will focus on the skills and strategies of search. Participants will walk away with K-12 lesson plans, ideas and classroom routines they can start using tomorrow in their classroom to teach students the skill needed most in today’s connected world. The skill of search.

My Wikipedia is Better than Your Textbook 
That’s right, I said it. It’s time we start to learn how we can trust Wikipedia. It’s the only encyclopedia this generation has known and it is trustworthy if you know how to use us. This session will help you understand how to use Wikipedia and more importantly, teach your students how to use it appropriately as well.

Google Workspace in the Classroom 
This session will focus on using Google Workspace in the classroom with students 3rd – 12th grade. This free educational service encompasses a powerful set of tools that are revolutionizing education. Combining these tools with other free Google products like Google Maps and Google Earth only enhances the learning for students.
We will go hands-on with real lessons being used in classrooms right now as we discuss how Google Workspace changes the learning environment. From science notebooks to collaborative notes and classroom newspapers we’ll get our hands dirty with what these powerful tools have to offer. Participants will need a Google Account.
(Jeff is a Google Certified Partner)

Using Video with Your Students
This session will focus on different ways teachers can use video with their students. From videoing “Math Talk” to having students create videos about their science experiments. A video is a compelling way to engage students, parents and yourself in creating and learning in a new medium.

Using Animated GIFs as Assessment for Learning 
Ah … the Gif. We’ll start off by having a heated debate on how you pronounce this file format. But once we settle that, we’ll geek out on how to take this 20-year-old technology and use it in the classroom. The Gif is making a comeback and students love making them … so let’s use them for learning!

Using Google My Maps to Tell Stories, Gather Research and Learn Mapping Skills
Everyone knows Google Maps, but have you heard of My Maps? Come ready to geek out and learn all the ways your students can create maps not just use maps. When’s the last time you touched a paper map? Then why do we still have students coloring them! Digital maps are the future … let’s prepare them for their future, not our past.

Creating Presentations that Work (WORKSHOP)
Do you give presentations to your staff or students? Or maybe you require your students to give presentations during class. Creating good presentations that make people want to listen and pay attention does not happen by mistake. There is a science to it. Lectures aren’t dead, just look at TED Talks as a great example of lectures still having a place in our teaching and learning. If you want to up your own presentation game or are tired of sitting through mundane student presentations then come spend some time learning the science behind a good presentation and how you can apply it to your own practice.

A 30-minute Lesson That Will Change the Way you Think About Learning
Come be a student for 30 minutes as we demonstrate the power technology has to change teaching and learning in our classrooms. Please have your devices charged and ready to go for the beginning of class (tardies will not be excused!) (Grades 6-12)

A one or two-hour parent session on understanding the digital lives of studnets today. This presentation can be tailored to be given to just parents or to parent/child audiences.

Here is a recent 3 part series I did for a school district parent nights. Each session was 90 minutes long. 

Raising Digital Children

We live in a world that is connected and each generation is more connected than the generation before it. Not just to each other, or to their neighborhood, but to the world at large. We will decode the generation we are raising today in order to support them in being the young adults of tomorrow.

Decoding Social Media and Kids

It use to be we rode our bikes to hangout, then we hung out via pagers and phones. Today kids hangout in video games and social networks. Learn how the social lives of children today are similar and different from those of yesteryear and what caregivers need to know and understand in raising a digital generation. 

The Intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education

As parents we too need to explore the many ways that AI is changing the landscape of learning and teaching. Jeff Utecht is a renowned expert in the field of educational technology and is sure to provide valuable insights and perspectives on this fascinating topic. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about the latest developments in AI and its impact on education. Join us for an engaging and informative evening and discover how AI is shaping the future of learning!