Superintendent’s Conference Day, October 12, 2010

“21st Century Skills” were the focus of attention as the Marcellus Central School District held its fall Superintendent’s Conference Day on October 12, 2010. The conference day agenda began in the Groeling Auditorium as Jessica Docteur/Grade 7-12 Curriculum Coordinator and Janet O’Mara/Driver Middle School Assistant Principal presented an introductory full staff workshop on 21st Century Skills. The presentation focused on the use of instructional technology to enhance classroom instruction. O’Mara put it best as she stated, “If your plate appears to be full already, then it may as well be full with something good. The message: Use technology to enhance what is on your teaching/learning plate.” The introductory 21st Century Skills presentation provided the audience with hands-on, and often entertaining applications of a variety of instructional technologies. The highlight of the presentation was a “real-time” SKYPE conference with O’Mara’s brother, Michael O’Mara, direct from Singapore, China. Michael O’Mara spoke to the audience about technological advances over the past 20 years and the positive collaborative impact of advances such as SKYPE on the classroom and on life. Following the introductory presentation, Marcellus faculty and staff had the opportunity to participate in a variety of small group workshops that focused on such topics as Blackboard, Presentation Tools, Cool Tools on the Web, SMARTboard, and the District’s Technology Benchmarks. All of the mini-workshops were conducted by Marcellus Central School District faculty/administrators. Faculty/administrators who presented at the workshop included:
Cindy Bird – Technology Benchmarks
Elena Drescher – Cool Tools
Janet Kringer – SMARTboard
Suzanne Alexander – SMARTboard
Jeanine Snyder – SMARTboard
Ryann Riefler – Cool Tools
Ellen Schneider – SMARTboard
Meghan Nolan – SMARTboard
Hanna Naczi –Technology Benchmarks
Janet O’Mara – Technology Benchmarks
Linda Armstrong – SMARTboard
Steve Nabinger – Cool Tools
Heidi Szalach – SMARTboard
Audrey Misiano – SMARTboard
Jessica Docteur – Presentation Tools
Rob Leo – SMARTboard