UCF TeachLivE's Sean and musician, Bosho make plans to go on Shark Tank!

At the Denver Share Fair, the TeachLivE Middle School and High School kids got to interact with many interesting people and meet lots of new teachers.  They also met Bosho, the musician from Bosho and Friends who has a wonderful program of songs to promote language learning.  Sean suggested that he go on the TV show, Shark Tank and they are hoping they will both be guests on the same episode.  Tres Bien!!!  Always good to make new friends!!

Cherie Behrens and Osceola Public Schools Win Award for TeachLivE

Carl Watson, PD Resource Specialist for Osceola Public Schools, Cherie Behrens of University of Central Florida, and Janice Franceschi, Director for Professional Development for Osceola Public Schools accept an award from the Florida Association for Staff Development for their innovative work with instructional coaching using TeachLivE.

Open lab

UCF has a TeachLivE open lab this Friday 9/26 from 1-5.  Students can sign up and practice higher order questioning with the avatars with  feedback from a coach.  Contact TeachLivE to find out how to sign up.

Celebrating Dean Jarley's win from the College of Business at the Teacher Palooza on Saturday.  Great blog about his success!

http://pauljarley.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/teacher-palooza/

Always great to have kids visiting the lab.

https://www.facebook.com/GSGLcharter/photos/a.594335100612297.1073741825.124116884300790/744008302311642/?type=1&theater

Great time at the Teacher Palooza watching 5 Deans try to convince our middle school avatars to attend their alma mater. We also had a visit from some furry friends.

Save the date: June 4 & 5, 2015 - TeachLivE Conference

Save the date for our third annual TeachLivE conference!  It's a fly-in/fly-out conference with one overnight, so you can fit it in your busy schedule.

Conference dates:
Thursday, June 4, 2015 - afternoon registration
Friday, June 5, 2015 - afternoon wrap-up

We love catching up with our partners. Here's a shot from our 2104 conference...

Dr. Katie Ingraham learns from partners about innovative work being done with TeachLivE. 

Teachlive Kids visit Black Spectrum Theatre Company in Queens!

Jermain Smith, director of technology at Pace University, did a wonderful job of facilitating a session using TeachLivE for the marvelous teachung arts twists, site coordinators and staff of the Black Spectrum Theatre's after school programs.  Thanks Jermain!!

EL Leveled Questions

Teacher candidates come to our TeachLivE classroom with questions at each English proficiency level.  They ask the EL avatars their leveled questions and soon learn a few things.  EL students need simple questions .  They need slower pacing of words in questions and they need visuals to help understanding.  These beginning teacher candidates learned valuable lessons for their own classrooms.

TeachLivE will be at the Orlando Maker Faire September 13th

Come say hi to the TeachLivE class!
http://www.makerfaireorlando.com/educators/

TeachLivE Conference 2015 - Save the Date!

Save the date for our third annual TeachLivE conference!  It's a fly-in/fly-out conference with one overnight, so you can fit it in your busy schedule.

Conference dates:
Thursday, June 4, 2015 - afternoon registration
Friday, June 5, 2015 - afternoon wrap-up

Did we tell you how much fun we have? Here's a shot from our 2104 conference...

Lisa Dieker has a laugh while Charlie Hughes and Cheryl Hines share a moment.

Behrens wins Award with TeachLivE for Instructional Coaching PD

The School District of Osceola County, FL

Melba Luciano, Superintendent

Press Release 

August 27, 2014 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dana Schafer, Public Information Officer - Osceola School District -- 407-870-4007 or 407-908-8811 (cell)

        

Osceola School District's Professional Development Department Recognized As Leader In The State

The Osceola School District has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Professional Learning Practices Award given by the Florida Association for Staff Development (FASD). The selection committee was very impressed with the district's Instructional Coaching Series with TeachLivE, and commended the Osceola School District's Professional Development Department for its diligent work in providing exemplary professional development to teachers and staff.  The Osceola School District will be recognized at the 2014 FASD Fall Leadership Conference Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, September 23, in St. Petersburg.  During the luncheon, a FASD award plaque will be presented to the district by the FASD Awards Committee.

The Instructional Coaching Series is a professional development experience provided in the Spring of 2014 to instructional coaches in the Osceola School District.  This unique learning opportunity focused on the four instructional coaching tenets developed by Dr. Cherie Behrens, University of Central Florida Visiting Lecturer and Consultant.  The four tenets are: Operating as a Coach; Facilitating a Culture of Learners; Supporting a Data Focus; and Promoting Student Success.  In this three-day series presented by Dr. Behrens, instructional coaches learned how to use coaching language with teachers, build relationships with teachers, create peer coaching cadres, and utilize data to problem solve in professional learning communities (PLCs). The instructional coaches were guided through a series of centers designed to ignite and build background knowledge and provide opportunities to practice.

The most impactful technology utilized during the sessions was called TLE TeachLivE™, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. TeachLivE is a classroom simulator populated with specifically-designed avatars that interact with educators. TeachLivE uses differentiated learning techniques and a formative assessment feedback model to provide each user or user groups with a different experience that changes based on the actions of the educator(s) in the simulation. During each session, TeachLivE was a center on its own where coaches could further hone their abilities coaching teachers, practicing what was learned in the sessions, utilizing "look for" documents for further coaching conversations, and more.  This was done in an unpredictable but realistic way using a mixed-reality environment. Emerging research suggest that teachers receiving professional development that utilizes TeachLivE increased in targeted teaching skills as compared to teachers who do not receive TeachLivE (Dr. Carrie Straub, 2014).

The Instructional Coaching Series will be continued during the Fall 2014 for a new cohort of instructional coaches.  The series will be provided as a train-the-trainer model where district coaches will be able to provide the training to school-level coaches.