Tag Archive for: professional development

726 – Summer Tech Talks – Rob Davidson

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Welcome to the good ole summertime on WELSTech! Our “Summer Tech Talks” interview series will feature technology from around the synod and across the world. This week we start in St. Louis, MO, home of Concordia Technology Solutions. The back half of the show includes Sallie sharing teacher professional development resources and Martin divulging his new favorite AI chatbot.

The discussion & interview

Concordia Technology Solutions – Joining Martin and Sallie is Manager of Sales and Marketing for Concordia Technology Solutions (CTS), Rob Davidson. Rob shares the latest news about CTS products including Church 360°, Christian Worship Service Builder, and Shepherd’s Staff.

Picks of the week

Community feedback & events

Next time

Summer Tech Talks continue with a (virtual) trip to Thailand to learn more about technology at Asia Lutheran Seminary.

Get involved

564 – Eat That Frog Finale

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This week the WELSTech discussion happens from the same location as Martin and Sallie talk tech-in-ministry from WELS headquarters, the Center for Mission and Ministry. Tune in for the last installment of the Eat That Frog! book discussion as well as tech for starry nights.

The discussion:

That’s all, folks – We’ve arrived at summer’s end and also the end of the WELSTech book discussion of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy. Martin and Sallie discuss Chapter 21 – Single Handle every Task – and recap their favorite takeaways from the book.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Tune in to the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary live stream archive of opening service for the 2018-19 school year.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 565 – WELSTech returns to regular programming as Martin and Sallie discuss their bullet journals plus bring you lots more WELSTech goodness! Release date: Wednesday, September 4.

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563 – Wisdom and Folly

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WELSTech is back with our summer book discussion of Eat That Frog! plus a couple of “ultimate guides” to organize your Chrome bookmarks and your Apple iCloud storage. The WELS Google Schools Community has also been active with talk about bring your own device, classroom current events resources, and explaining MAP test results.

The discussion:

Creating time and urgency – The WELSTech summer book discussion – Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy – has reached chapters 19 and 20. Eating frogs, or getting difficult tasks done, involves opposing forces at times – scheduling time for tasks AND discipling yourself to keep the appointments, as well as getting important work done quickly AND well.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Enjoy a musical treat from the MLC College Choir, Uncloudy Day, to celebrate the beginning of a new school year at Martin Luther College.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 564 – Summer is officially over as WELSTech wraps up our summer book discussion with chapter 21 of Eat That Frog! Release date: Wednesday, August 29.

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562 – Salami & Swiss

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This week’s WELSTech discussion is best consumed on a full stomach! We cover methods for slicing and dicing tasks to divide large tasks into manageable pieces. Sallie shares a new Bible app that gets smart about your photos and Koiné has a new worship media web site.

The discussion:

Hungry for productivity – As the title of WELSTech’s summer book choice (Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy) suggests, there are some tasty topics to be explored. This week we talk about focusing attention (chapter 17) and slicing and dicing tasks (chapter 18), and there is food involved!

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

We’ve added the YouVersion Bible Lens mobile app overview to the WELSTech Product Demos playlist on YouTube.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 563 – Learn the secrets of creating large chunks of time during next week’s discussion of chapters 19 & 20 of Eat That Frog! Release date: Tuesday, August 21.

Get involved:

561 – Terrible Master, Wonderful Servant

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WELSTech is back with the continued discussion of Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog! This week the discussion focus is on technology, one of our favorite topics. We’ll also hear how Martin’s knowledge of photography landed him a major league gig and equips him to take great photos with his camera phone.

The discussion:

The wait is over – The summer book discussion of Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog! has arrived at chapters 15 & 16, where technology takes center stage! Martin and Sallie share their thoughts on technology as a terrible master and a wonderful servant.

Plus, Theodore Kufahl responds to last week’s discussion of optimism with some thoughts on how a bit of pessimism might spur innovation. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? You decide.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Apple Photos Overview is the newest addition to the WELSTech Instruction playlist on YouTube.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 562 – The book discussion continues with Chapters 17 & 18 of Eat That Frog! We’ll be focusing our attention and slicing and dicing tasks! Release date: Wednesday, August 15.

Get involved:

560 – Yank Away

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Join the WELSTech conversation as we continue our journey through Brian Tracy’s Eat that Frog!, a book about eliminating procrastination and tackling the challenges we face on a daily basis. Martin has a new camera in his bag, and we hear from a WELSTech-er who took our discussion topic to the next level by offering a community outreach event. Plus, Sallie solves an age-old question about USB drives!

The discussion:

Positive motivation – Chapters 13 & 14 of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy are the subject of this week’s WELSTech discussion. Adopting an optimist mindset can enhance productivity as you see every “frog” as an opportunity for learning and identify lessons learned in every setback.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Experience the excitement of the recent WELS International Youth Rally with this recap video.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 561 – We’ve arrived at the chapters we’ve been waiting for in Eat That Frog! Chapters 15 & 16 are all about technology as servant not master. Release date: Wednesday, August 8.

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559 – Upgrading…Yourself

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WELSTech is back, this week with a look at ways to improve yourself and eliminate roadblocks that slow down your progress toward goals, straight from the pen of author Brian Tracy in Eat that Frog! The community mailbag overflows with WELSTech goodness, and Martin is “in sync” in a variety of ways.

The discussion:

Improve the process – The WELSTech summer book review of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy passes the half-way point as Martin and Sallie discuss chapters 11 & 12. Topics include investing in enhancing key skills and removing “choke points” that get in the way of progress.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Watch My 3 favorite Chrome extensions for Trello for a demo of Sallie’s picks of the week.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 560- Self-motivation takes center stage in the discussion of Eat That Frog! chapters 13 & 14. Release date: Wednesday, August 1.

Get involved:

533 – Skills Sharpening Survey

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Skills Sharpening January continues on WELSTech! We were excited to see great participation in a survey of faculty and staffs from around the country sharing what they are doing for professional development. Tune in to see how you or your organization compares.

The discussion:

The survey says – We asked WELSTech-ers to share their church and school professional development experience and learned a lot in the process!

WELS now:

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

5 Google Tools You Should bE Using on Your Church Website

Community feedback:

Allan Bundt from Good Shepherd Church and School in Wisconsin Rapids is looking for advice on Chromebook management because their school is not accredited and, therefore, doesn’t qualify for Gsuite for Education.

Featured video:

Get creative with Kahoot by using this technique – What is a Blind Kahoot!? – a new addition on the WELSTech Instructional playlist.

 Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 534 – Jason Schmidt shares his perspective on formal skill sharpening – certificates, advanced degrees, etc. Release date: Wednesday, January 24.

Get involved:

516 – A Sad Day for Monkey Lovers

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WELSTech wraps up our September focus on meetings with tips for great meetings at school. We also share resources to get you out of your seat, learn to teach robotics, make OneNote turn backflips, and color the Reformation. Oh yeah, there’s a monkey frown involved as well.

The interview and discussion:

Welcome Prof. Rachel – It’s EDU week on WELSTech and Martin and Sallie welcome back Martin Luther College’s new Director of Academic Computing and Online Learning, Prof. Rachel Feld. Rachel continues to serve as one of WELSTech’s semi-regular classroom technology correspondents, and this week we pick her brain regarding all things related to school meetings – from faculty meetings to PTO meetings with parent-teacher conferences in the middle.

News in tech:

WELS now:

Take a stand against sitting with ShopWELS

Picks of the week:

  • Welcome to your first day of Classroom from the Google Training Center
  • Learn Robotics Online
  • OneNote Web Clipper

Ministry resources:

OneNote for Meeting Management

Community feedback:

Featured video:

From our friends at PTO Today, learn How To Do a PTO Duct Tape Fundraiser, new on the WELSTech Product Demo Playlist.

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 517 – We kick off our October focus on all things VIDEO! Release date: Wednesday, October 4.

Get involved:

Computer Science Fundamentals For Grades K-5

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In today’s education space, it’s hard to have a discussion without the acronym STEM or STEAM being injected. And whichever side of the debate you fall on – including Arts in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics grouping, or not – all would agree that an emphasis on teaching students the basics of programming across all grade levels is moving toward broad adoption by schools. Challenges to adoption are introduced, particularly at lower elementary levels, where teachers already span multiple disciplines and may not have confidence to teach areas with heavy technical emphasis.

Code.org recently released a new K-5 Computer Science curriculum to help with this need. The Computer Science Fundamentals Courses A-F includes interactive graphical lessons in the Blocky coding environment, an offshoot of MIT’s popular Scratch environment. Lessons start with pre-readers manipulating arrow icons to build a set of commands which moves a popular Angry Bird character to pounce on the enemy Pig character. In the process, kids are improving critical thinking skills and learning coding concepts such as algorithms (a fancy word for instructions), sequencing, conditionals, and functions.

But the curriculum is not all about online lessons. There are a long list of “unplugged” activities for teaching these same concepts. From planting a seed to binary bracelets to songwriting, the unplugged activities are geared to get students out of their seats and using coding skills in concrete ways. The entire curriculum, included detailed lesson plans for the unplugged activities, is available in this 350 page PDF document.

Code.org doesn’t stop there, however. The most exciting piece of the puzzle for teachers is the excellent professional development resources available for those who want to learn to teach computer science with this curriculum. They offer free one day workshops for K-5 teachers which …

‘provide an intro to computer science, pedagogy, overview of the online curriculum, teacher dashboard, and strategies for teaching “unplugged” classroom activities’

If you cannot make it to a workshop, they offer the same concepts in an online self-paced course. Teachers not only learn the basics of Computer Science, but they also get to test drive the online programming modules that the students will experience. And, if your enquiring mind is wondering, yes, there are Angry Birds for teachers too!!

What better way to STEAM into the new school year than with the free resources from Code.org.

Code Studio: Kid tested, teacher approved

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