Campfire: Igniting Education with Blended Learning

In this last episode of Campfire, Erin and Jeff say goodbye to the Campfire brand and hello to the new name of the podcast. To continue learning with us, subscribe to The Digital Backpack wherever your subscribe to podcasts. For some great subscription options visit http://anchor.fm/digitalbackpack

In this episode, we chat with our colleague Emily Sicilia about engagement in the classroom. We explore how to define engagement in the classroom and chat about Hoopla, an app Emily shares that has changed our reading lives! Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is used under an open Attribution License. Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY...

In this episode, Jeff and Erin chat about the concept of “power with vs power over” (a conversation that stemmed from a recent book study of Jim Knight’s High-Impact Instruction), have a great interview with the always amazing Val Capel, and ask listeners to share about their student-teaching experiences! Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is used under an open Attribution License. Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License....

In this episode, Jeff shares some audio from a recent teacher professional development session on ... you guessed it podcasts! Then, Jeff and Erin chat about facilitating learning with teacher and how they utilize their classroom teacher experience to shape professional learning experiences. Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is used under an open Attribution License. Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls...

In this episode a podcast about … podcasts! Jeff and Erin discuss a cool tool for recording podcasts and how teachers might think about using podcasts in the classroom. Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is used under an open Attribution License. Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License. Fire_embers_large_campfire.aif by...

In this episode, Jeff and Erin share about Flipgrid and how they ‘dig’ using it with students and teachers alike. They also engage in the great chicken/egg debate of educational technology: what comes first, the technology tool or the learning? Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is used under an open Attribution License. Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution...

After a summer hiatus (or a summer full of professional learning opportunities with teachers), we’re back! In this episode, we have the opportunity to chat with Sharon Murchie, a high school English teacher with Bath Community Schools. She provides a look into her classroom and how she helps to empower her students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. We also flip the table and ask you to answer this episode’s #campfireQ! Attribution: Up From Here - Scratch Cut by AsIsBeats is...

In this episode we chat with our guest, and friend, Dan Spencer. Dan is a high school science teacher turned tech integration specialist turned high school science teacher. He brought some great insight, not only from his classroom, but to education in general! We also chatted about a few MACUL takeaways and our latest tech fave: Loom. Attribution: Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a...

In this episode we got into some deep conversations with Rachelle Wynkoop surrounding literacy, explored a new tool for us that linked up with the tips Rachelle gave us and talked about finding the balance between digital and paper reading. Oh and trivia … there was trivia. Attribution: Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License....

In this episode we chat with Erin Mastin, a 3rd grade teacher in Boyne City, Michigan. She shares with us her growth mindset approach to her classroom and how she is working on shifting her classroom toward a competency-based learning environment. Erin tells how her students set their own goals, track data, and use STEM activities to keep learning! We also chat with each other about how much we love the Google Suite of products and even pull in our local competency-based education expert...

In this episode, we chat about our favorite tool this week: Quizizz, a gamified quiz site; spend some time conversing with one of our favorite ed techs, Ben Rimes — hear about what he’s up to — and even convince him to play a round of Mad Libs with us; and respond to our first official #campfireQ question from Twitter. Attribution: Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0...

In this episode, we’ll chat with elementary school teacher, Sandy Freeland about how she uses technology intentionally in her classroom to ‘break down’ her classroom walls. We also dive into the tool, Actively Learn, a site that allows you to support students while they read informational text, and chat more about blended learning. Attribution: Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a...

In this episode of Campfire, we’ll chat about a cool new tech tool (Wizer), gather around a metaphoric campfire to hear the stories from Ben Pineda’s 8th grade social studies classroom, and discuss blended learning and why we love it and think it’s so powerful for classrooms. Attribution: Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License....

It might be a little chilly to gather around a campfire this time of year, but we’d love for you to grab your coffee and get cozy while you listen to our FIRST Campfire Podcast. We want to bring you a different style of education podcast that serves educators, administrators, tech coaches and ANYONE who has an interest in education! Something Elated by Broke For Free is licensed under a Attribution 3.0 United States License. Tawny Owls 2.wav by Benboncan is licensed under a Attribution 3.0...

Justin Bruno is a Research Associate for the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, a division of Michigan Virtual University. Justin is a colleague and, for the past year, a fellow podcast host. The Virtual Viewpoints podcast features interviews with K-12 online and blended professionals. Conversation centers around how the power of applicable research enhances the quality of teaching and learning. Justin talks with practitioners, policy makers, administrators and researchers from...

Ashlie O’Connor is an Instructional Technology and Data Coach for the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District and Alcona Community Schools itself. I met Ashlie this past summer at the Boyne Tech Conference. We both presented sessions in the same room. I really enjoyed her fast-pace presentation style and the practicality she brought to demonstrating EdTech tools. Since that time we’ve had a handful of deep educational conversations. My mind gets a good stretch with each one....

Erin Luckhardt is an 8th-grade social studies teacher at Boyne City Middle School. She’s one of the organizers of the Boyne Tech Conference which has been held the last two years in late June after school ends. If you haven’t been up before, there are a lot of great sessions led by teachers sharing their best practices. In our conversation, we talked about the components that help support effective technology PD, how to sustain learning beyond the initial PD session and applying...

Andrea Zellner is a Technology Integration Specialist at Oakland Schools, working exclusively with the Pontiac School District. She is also a Ph.D student in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program at Michigan State University, a Red Cedar Writing Project disciple, a former high school English and biology teacher and a self-proclaimed “shenanigans instigator.” Andrea told me about the Tech Cafe, a drop in professional development center they’ve recently established in...

Rachelle Wynkoop is the Supervisor of Secondary Curriculum and Professional Development at the Port Huron Area School District. She is an active member of the #michED community and a regular presenter at education conferences throughout the state. Rachelle’s also a remarkable champion for the benefits of blended learning as a companion to great teaching.

Cresta Wright is the Instructional Technology Coordinator at Pennfield Public Schools in Battle Creek. Her career in education started in Pennfield as a classroom teacher where she was dabbling in blending learning before the phrase had much buzz. Between her Pennfield tenures she was a Technology Integration Specialist at Union City Community Schools. Cresta and I talked about shifting from a consulting to coaching mentality while working with teachers, how growing up in an agricultural...