Conferences, iOS Updates, and Standardized Testing
Season 1- Episode #2
This episode we talk a lot about conferences: why we go to conferences, some tips and tricks to attending conferences, and Cassie admits to her anti-social nature regarding evening conference events (even though she admits she has learned to love them).
Best quote of the podcast regarding being willing to meet people at conferences if you are scared: “if you sound like an idiot it is ok- you will probably never see them again if you don’t want to”.
The episode spends some time talking about iOS updates, which we will spend more time demo-ing on our YouTube Channel in future weeks- follow our blog or follow us on social media to learn as those videos get released!
We wrap up this episode with talking about Standardized Testing. We were super excited to receive the correlation guide from TextHelp for Read&Write for Google Chrome compared to the Wisconsin Forward Exam! Check out our blog post regarding the correlation guides and links to other correlations for state and national standardized tests!
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or hit Play Below.
Transcript
Welcome to the disruptive teaching podcast, a podcast about upsetting the average teaching and increasing your ability to reach every student in your classroom. We will focus on high and low tech tools for your classroom, along with a variety of assistive technologies that will help you create environments that are inclusive engagement.
Hi, I'm Cassie Frost, a former special education teacher specializing in emotional and behavioral disabilities and current Assistive Technology Specialist.
Hi, I'm Carolyn Meronek, a speech language pathologist who has been working in the public school system for the past 12 years. I have worked in a variety of settings and also have a special education background.
Welcome to Episode Two of the disruptive teaching podcast. Today we're going to talk a little bit about conferences, why we go to them what they are good for and where you can look for some conferences that may pertain to your classroom or the studio. that you work with. We're spend a little bit of time talking about the updates to iOS 13, some of the new things that have come out for accessibility and where to get more information, and then wrap up with a conversation on standardized testing specific to accommodations, and some of the tools that are out there to practice combinations for tests and how those things work with IPS. Okay, let's go. So one of the things we want to talk about today is the idea of conferences. So actually, Carolyn, when we met at a conference,
Yes. Closing the Gap two years ago. I meant two years. Yeah. Scary.
Yeah. Okay. So two years ago, we met at a conference. And that's one of the great reasons for being at conferences is meeting people. So today, we want to talk a little bit about the fact that you know why we go to conferences, what are the purpose because leaving the classroom being away from your students is always a difficult thing to do. There's lots of paperwork to do and lesson plans to do things to make up when you get back.
Exactly.
So why do we go to conferences? So, for me, personally, I like going to conferences because I get to learn from people who are like the best in their field, they've taken the time to put information together and come and share it. I like people to ask questions, going in learning the things that I need help with. And then one of my biggest is, you know, learning from peers, getting to talk to people. A lot of times, you know, in the classroom and, you know, those of us as specialists, whatever we are pretty much the only people doing what we do, or the only people we talked to in a day doing what we do.
Yeah, making those connections is really important because, you know, we're working so hard and we're struggling sometimes to find solutions and when you have other people to talk to, sometimes they've already gone through those things or something similar so they can put you on the right track. So I'm That's really helpful and just for the inspirational value of like, hey, they figured this out with this kid that kid was, you know, had these issues and it was a really tough situation. I can figure it out with my kiddos I might cancel too. So, um, that definitely inspires you and gets you ready to go back and work hard to find those solutions.
One of the things that I often talk with people about is like when you go to a conference, especially the bigger conferences so in other words like Closing the Gap, or ATIA, even ISTE is there so much like when you go, there's just I mean, you download the handbook or the schedule, and there's just no possible way. So one of the first things is making sure you're not trying to do it all. Actually, I think we have a blog post about the 11 things to do at a conference. So check that out. And so making sure that like you're pacing yourself, you're taking time to actually process the information, go to some sessions that are really exciting to you. you're passionate about and then go to some that you have no clue about, right? Um, and then one of the other things to do is like, during lunch time or even skip a session, go talk to the vendors, go, go, go, go Go talk to the vendors.
Like, actually, Cassie and I spent a lot of time this past year talking to the vendors that are closing the gap. And because we took the time to talk to them, yes, you're going to listen to their typical cash spiel about whatever their product product is. But then you start actually having a conversation with these vendors. And they really have some good experiences and good insights. And they can trip all kinds of ideas in your head. And you know, when you develop these relationships with these vendors, then they are able to also better support you because they know you and your clients. They can let you know When information or products are coming out before they even hit the general public, so like there's some pretty cool stuff that can happen when you talk to vendors.
And definitely over the course of the next couple months, we're going to be spending some time talking about some of the things that we found in vendor halls, different products that we've actually purchased to play with, and how they've worked out and what types of students, some of them I don't even think I've used with students yet they were just super cool. And they're kind of in my back pocket for when that right scenario comes out. You'll also find some vendors that actually want to hear from you more because they want, they want to improve their product. They want it to work well. So the more you talk with them take the time to really get to know their product, try it out. Again, like Carolyn said, some great connections. We've gotten some great products to test and then the only thing that the vendor wanted back from us was feedback. So we get to try some really cool products and we still have them to use for their students. So You know, it really can be worth your while, absolutely, just have fun with it. Don't get too serious and stop and talk to everybody. Another thing to do is really and this took me a while, because I'm not the most social person on the face of the planet. Um, it took me a while. So I used to go to conferences, do the conference thing at the end of the conference, like hightail it back to my hotel room and lock myself and watch HGTV and I was done for the night. Um, recently, I've learned and kind of got the benefit of that after conference time. So after conferences, that's the time when there's a lot of networking going on. A lot of times, there might be like different interest groups meeting up or chat groups meeting up. Sometimes the vendors will want to do suppers or where you can get together with other people who are using the same product and talk it through more. It's really make sure that you take the time to look into some of those evening things or after different things just because sometimes they're almost more beneficial than the sessions themselves, because
Yes, you're talking to them. vendors but you're also networking with other people that work in your field and sometimes actually fairly close to you that you didn't even know. Were out there. So, yeah, we live maybe a mile away from each other, even a mile away from each other. And yeah, we didn't meet until a mutual friend introduced us at a conference. So, you know, there's all kinds of cool stuff that can happen. So put yourself out there take the time. And at the very least, if you're anti social, which I'm really not anti social, but if you're less social like me, I'm really take the time and if nothing else, think about the fact that you're at a huge conference and odds are, if you don't want to, you'll probably never see these people again. So be daring to actually, people. If you sound like an idiot, it's okay. You're probably not going to see them again if you don't want to. On the other hand, though, um, what's really beneficial is making those connections When you do find the people, yeah, because now, you know, in the world, there's not many of us in the area or you know, each district maybe as one. Now I'm lucky, I've got this network of people. So when I have an issue, which happens, that I don't know the answer to, I can put it out this network of people that I've met at conferences that I've gotten involved with, which just becomes invaluable. And we'll talk a little bit in later episodes about professional learning networks and where to find those people. Um, so what kind of conferences are out there? Where do you find them? Like, how do you find out because I mean, when I first started, I didn't know all these conferences were out there. So where do you go?
Well, I typically Google things. So I put in whatever topic I'm interested in, and then I'll put in like for us, it's the state of Wisconsin, and then see what comes up. Sometimes off of those links, you, you know, get pulled into other things or into other groups that may have annual conferences, things like that. So it's, it can really take you a long way, just by doing a little bit of searching on Google.
Definitely that and talk to people, you know, see what conferences they recommend.
Yeah. Um, sometimes at school, you know, we'll get a brochure for conference life, and it'll end up in the teachers lounge, and then just leave them out and see who's interested in any particular topic. So and that's great if your district or building actually just kind of lays those out. I know some people have said they really have a hard time getting their district to support them going where they might not leave those out. One of the things that I found really beneficial is when I put in a request to attend a conference is really being specific about why I want to go making sure that the conference directly supports my current position. I mean, if I'm working like so when I was working in the field of emotional behavioral disabilities, me signing up for a conference on reading, reading, I mean, it would be great information for me to know. But if the district is going to send somebody on reading, they're gonna probably send a reading specialist or not me. So I mean, make sure the conference kind of pertains to what you're doing. Really linkit Why do you want to learn more about this? How is it going to benefit you? More importantly, how's it going to benefit students and other staff? And that's a great point, one of the things that I often get asked to do when I go to a conference is come back and present about it exactly. So be willing, if you're going to especially be asking for one of these more expensive conferences, be prepared to come back and share whether that's at a staff meeting or just with your team or your district as a whole. You're going to get support to go to more conferences if the district can benefit on a wider basis for Exactly,
exactly.
Okay, so for those of you who use iPads or iPhones more often In the classroom, I guess I pads. One of the exciting things that happened this fall is… I love getting notifications in the middle of things. Yeah, sorry. Notifications always come in while working. When you're important to that's what happens.
Yeah, right some way.
So, Apple updated their operating system to iOS 13, which you've probably heard of people talk about, it was a big thing, a lot of changes. But from the education standpoint, one of the big updates is the change in accessibility features. So if you have an iPad, if you don't have iPads, if you're not super versed in iPads, the accessibility features and iPads are phenomenal. Like there's accessibility features and Chromebooks and PCs, laptops, windows, and we'll be talking about those a lot and creating some YouTube videos.
And I would highly suggest that you just go and Google Whatever you're looking for, if you're looking for settings for screen settings, just google this stuff. There's all kinds of videos out there. Because there's a lot of stuff that's built in, you don't need to find specialized apps or programs or anything else. There's a lot of stuff that's already built into most devices these days, right. And as we have time we'll make videos on to but there's so much stuff will never get them all doing impossible. So you know, use Google as well. Um, but we want to talk a little bit about those iOS features. So before on an iPad, you know, when you go into settings, or define those accessibility features used to have to general and then kind of look through the general menu and fine accessibility. So one of the great things that Apple's done now is actually moved those accessibility features to a tab on its own. So now when you excel at settings, accessibility is just an option right there. So pull that up, check it out. One of the things I recommend to people is honestly just going in and start turning on some of these features to see what they do. Yeah. So I mean, what's amazing about it is there's some amazing things like voice over world read things to you automatically, you don't need a different screen reader, it'll just do it. You can zoom in, you can magnify things, you can change the text size, this color, you can have things spoken out loud, you can get audio descriptions, all built right into the iPad. Um, one of my favorites that I use frequently is switch control. So I was amazed A few years ago, when I learned that you can run an entire iPad just with a switch. So you can do it with a single switch, you can do it with two switches, it'll automatically scan. It's pretty amazing.
There's a lot of stuff that they've really improved in this last update. So yeah, definitely check this stuff out.
Um, and we'll definitely be talking more about the Switch Control later and switch recipes and all those things. Because I think they're really fun and I really enjoy spending time with us. Um, those are video worthy things. These are not things that we can just talk about. Anyway, we can tell you they're cool here. That's right. I do for you. And I can tell you that like my super excitement over this was actually at closing the gap like three years ago, I actually had the opportunity to use like switch access with like a head right on a wheelchair to fly a drone, who was addressing, that's pretty cool. Like, at that point, like I'm flying a drone, I can't fly a drone with my hands. And I was like, flying with my head. There you go. That's pretty cool. That's pretty awesome. Um, and no, I won't be showing a video, because I'm not good enough at it. But, um, one of the new things that's super cool that you should definitely check out his voice control. Definitely. Um, and we will do a video on this at some point again, when we have time. But what this actually does is allows you to run features of the iPad with your voice that you might not otherwise be able to. So you definitely can ask Siri to do things for you. When I managed to do that without Siri turning on my iPad cool. Um, but you can actually turn it on and then say show numbers and it will actually put numbers around the screen on different things that you can select, and when you say the number, it'll click there for you, which allows you to hands free control your iOS device. And again, we'll show a video at some point until then Google voice control iOS 13, you'll get a chance to check it out.
What's spring coming, everyone's thinking about high stakes testing. here in Wisconsin, we had the lovely forward exam. But then, you know, the high school age students are doing various AC t tests and things like that. So we want to talk a little bit about accommodations on standardized testing. So one of the things that everybody needs to remember is that when you want to add an accommodation for a high success, that that accommodation also needs to be used on a regular basis on all testing throughout the students. We're not just during high stakes testing because when you submit for these accommodations, especially to like a CT, they need to know why you want to use this accommodation. You can't just pull it out because you think it'll make them do better on the test because that's not how it's supposed to work. It's supposed to be things that they're doing all the time already.
And I think one thing you know, as we're saying accommodations, and I think sometimes you know, we we talk about these things because we're in a special education field, they're kind of second nature to us. But you know, if you're listening and you're not a special education teacher, you know, your regular education teacher or parent, whatever listening to us. These examinations are typically things like, Screen Masking, or highlighting or reading out lags the speech is the probably one of the biggest ones because you want the students to be able to understand what the what the context is, however, obviously, that can't be used when you're actually doing a reading tests because they actually want to see how the student can read. So that's one of the big ones, then students use a lot. I've seen a lot of like the scribers speech to tech speech to text as well, you know, for students to be doing the writing that way if students maybe can't word process as well. But I also have seen what Carolyn just said, where people have tried putting in that, you know, for this test, they need to have a scribe to write for them. But nowhere else in their day, do they normally have a scribe, so it gets denied on this test. Exactly. It was really important that if you do have these accommodations, they're being used all the time. And to that effect, usually these have to be documented in the students individualized education plans, possibly a 504. Not something that you just decided to do it, just because you think that it'll help that student on that particular day.
Now, there are some tools and most of these tests and if you search online, you can usually Find the accommodation guide, because there are certain things like some of the tests do allow, like Screen Masking for everybody.
Right? So my district change our district wide assessments, we want to be ready this year. And pretty much every one of these things is built into the tests and is available to all students. So that's a pretty exciting change for testing. So we don't really need to ask for those things anymore. They're just there. So that's helpful.
Well, one thing that really we've been spending a lot of time talking about is, you know, these assessments allow, you know, maybe Screen Masking for everybody and allows highlighting for everybody. And then these specialized things for students with IEP is like the speech to text, text to speech, those types of things. And so we've been talking a lot as we go more digital. How do we prepare students to do these things on the test because we don't necessarily have them practice and highlights And Screen Masking on a daily basis know and that's something that I'm currently trying to tackle in my own district. I'm and it's a challenging thing to do because students don't want to just sit and do those tasks. So you need to try and build them into other parts of their daily functioning. So it's an important thing to do, but it can be challenging to work it into everyday functioning.
Well, I know one of the things we've done is, you know, in the past, we've had products like Don Johnston's co writer more recently, text helps Read and Write for Google programs for our students identified with IEPs and specific needs, like for speech, text, text to speech and those things. So they've had practice with them prior to the test. They use them on a daily basis as part of their accommodations. But more recently, we've also decided to go reading right district wide, so even Our students who are regular education students can utilize those tools for highlighters for screen masking. So they have a chance to interact with those prior to the test. I'm reading right just actually came out with a comparison guide that actually shows which of their tools match the Wisconsin forward test. So if you're from Wisconsin, check that out. Actually, on our website, we have that posted. It's a nice little PDF, you can just download and have any showing that Don Johnson if you go to their site, I believe they've got information and a webinar or you can do to find out some of their information. And again, search text help read and write site to for other states if you're not from Wisconsin, but definitely there are some of those tools. Definitely. And definitely check out our website we've said definitely a lot. Yes, that's awesome. We are definitely awesome today. Check out the site. Um, if you have any questions, reach out and email us. It's on the site as well. And good luck with all the state testing. Awesome.
Have a good day.
Definitely.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of the disruptive teaching podcast. We hope you found something useful to support or engage the students you work with. For more information, visit disruptive hyphen teaching calm and follow us on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And connect with us on Twitter with the hashtag disruptive
Transcribed by https://otter.ai