Emergence: Teaching in a New Era

Option 1:  Best Practices in Technology Integration for the Classroom: Promoting

   Intentionality, Discernment, and Collaborative Classroom Communities  

           Dr. Randy King, Assistant Professor of Education

When integrating technology into teaching practices in classrooms,”what” type of technology and “how” it will be integrated are generally considered. The “why” for integrating a technology is not often rationalized. This workshop will present a framework for digital stewardship based on a continuing study conducted at teacher education programs across three different institutions. Students in this study were encouraged to examine how to best glorify God with appropriate technology use in the classroom while learning strategies for technology integration. This framework centered on glorifying God includes four areas: knowledge of tools, justification of use, intentional engagement, and ethical use. The audience will be invited to engage with the presentation through interactive questions and exploring their justification of technology use through the guiding questions provided in the framework to discern whether technology integration choices are necessary and/or beneficial.  

Option 2: Building a Cyber-Secure Culture

         Prof. Aurae Bleider, Program Director, Cybersecurity & Data Analytics

During this presentation, we will examine the top cybersecurity risks facing organizations, break down recent data breaches and case examples, and finally focus on the concept of building a cyber-ready workforce, where cybersecurity is everyone's job.

We will examine how each role at all levels of an organization are part of a cyber-secure culture.

At the end of this presentation, attendees will be able to:

•   Explain the top cybersecurity risks facing organizations.
•   Understand the importance of enterprise-wide security.
•   Identify key steps that can be taken to prevent data breaches at work and to protect your own data at home.

Option 3: Emerging Technology in Education

         Dr. Debra Espinor, Professor, College of Education

         Dr. Linda Samek, Provost Emeritus, George Fox University

         Dr. Scot Headley, Dean Emeritus, George Fox University

 Advancing computing technologies and machine intelligence are bringing rapid and fundamental changes to our lives and the educational enterprise. Some view this with great anticipation, and others with great concern. In this presentation, we examine the changes in society, demographics, and technology that will continue to impact the existence and form of higher education institutions. There are a lot of conversations about what AI can do, yet there are many areas in which AI cannot replace human attributes. Many of those areas involve matters of the heart and caring. Sharing our long experience in higher education, we wonder what will be lost and gained by advancing technology. We will frame our presentation with the drivers of change and then present personal stories from an institutional, administrative, and instructional perspective.”

Option 4: Virtual Reality Lab Experience (Limited to 24 participants)

            Tennille Hostetler, Department of Biology and Natural Sciences

Experience an immersive self-discovery exploration into human anatomy using the virtual reality app 3D Organon. This unique application allows for the manipulation of bones, muscles, vessels, organs and other anatomical structures. Due to its realistic hands-on programming, our human anatomy virtual reality lab is especially helpful in preparing students for health and medical careers such as nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, and medical school. It's also a great learning opportunity for students who want to pursue biomechanical engineering and medical research to explore the functionality of anatomy. Learn about how you can schedule a visit to the virtual reality lab for your middle and high school students through the Science Outreach Program's online reservation system. 

Option 5: Elementary Literacy

         Dr. Saurra Heide, Associate Professor of Education

  In this interactive session, we will dive into the major components of a balanced literacy program. Participants will have the opportunity to examine their current practices and ponder the question, “What would you do if you had 15 minutes to transform your reading lesson?” Through this lens, we will explore and collaborate around curriculum, standards, assessment, best practices, and differentiating our instruction.

Option 6: Discipline in the Elementary Classroom

         Ms. Jessica Sprick, Executive Director, Safe and Civil Schools

To change student behavior, educators need to apply a proactive, positive, and instructional approach to classroom management. Understand how to implement a variety of practical strategies to promote responsible behavior and improve student motivation. Learn ways to support the wide range of students in your classroom and how to teach all students to behave in a responsible manner, improve behavior in transitions, reduce off-task behavior during instructional activities. This session will also provide strategies for organizing your classroom for student success, communicating and following through with clear expectations for student behavior, and motivating students to do their best.

Option 7: Tour of the George Fox Maker Hub (Limited to 20 people)

Mr. Nicholas Sullivan, MakerHub Director 

Take an extensive tour of the George Fox MakerHub facility, where students and community members regularly meet to work on projects across an array of fields, from clothing design to computer programming to woodworking to 3-D printing to circuit building. Learn about this as a resource for you and your class and consider how you might encourage students to attend MakerHub events and camps in the coming years. 

Option 1: Discipline in the Secondary Classroom

         Ms. Jessica Sprick, Executive Director, Safe and Civil Schools

Discipline in the Secondary Classroom offers both new and seasoned teachers practical tools for designing a classroom management plan that prevents problems, motivates students, and teaches students to behave responsibly. In this session, participants will identify ways to structure and organize their setting and routines to prompt responsible behavior, clearly convey expectations for how to behave responsibly in each classroom, and use powerful observational skills and tools for decision-making. Participants will also expand their toolbox for how to  prevent and calmly address misbehavior while maximizing student participation and motivation.   

 Option 2: Elementary Literacy (Repeat Session – ENDS at 12:50PM)

         Dr. Saurra Heide, Associate Professor of Education

In this interactive session, we will dive into the major components of a balanced literacy program. Participants will have the opportunity to examine their current practices and ponder the question, “What would you do if you had 15 minutes to transform your reading lesson?” Through this lens, we will explore and collaborate around curriculum, standards, assessment, best practices, and differentiating our instruction.

Option 3: Academic Language Supports for Young Learners

         Dr. Maranda Turner, Associate Professor of Education

In this interactive session, we will explore the different functions of academic language within the content areas and the language demands the standards put on learners. We will explore routines and language supports that will assist teachers in using language more effectively to support listening, speaking, reading and writing at grade level in their classrooms. 

The session for Young Learners will focus on oral language routines and the development of academic language skills for students grades three and below based on modeling and intentional opportunities to practice.

Option 4: Virtual Reality Lab Experience (Limited to 24 participants)

           Tennille Hostetler, Department of Biology and Natural Sciences

Experience an immersive self-discovery exploration into human anatomy using the virtual reality app 3D Organon. This unique application allows for the manipulation of bones, muscles, vessels, organs and other anatomical structures. Due to its realistic hands-on programming, our human anatomy virtual reality lab is especially helpful in preparing students for health and medical careers such as nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, and medical school. It's also a great learning opportunity for students who want to pursue biomechanical engineering and medical research to explore the functionality of anatomy. Learn about how you can schedule a visit to the virtual reality lab for your middle and high school students through the Science Outreach Program's online reservation system. 

 Option 5: Who’s Afraid of Chat-GPT?

           Dr. Travis Ross, Assistant Professor of History

This session will provide a practical introduction to large language models like ChatGPT. It will include a detailed, plain-language explanation of how they work, of what they generally can and cannot do. It will focus on practical strategies teachers can employ to avoid cheating, but potentially to begin incorporating these technologies responsibly and critically into the classroom and into your workflows as an educator. 

Option 6: C.S. Lewis on How Not to Read Fiction in the Classroom or Otherwise

         Dr. Jason Lepojarvi, Associate Professor of Theology and Literature

 Perhaps now more than ever, authors of fiction can become targets of critics who mistake the views expressed by their characters, plot, or atmosphere for views held by the authors themselves. When this happens, authors begin to censor themselves, fearing that the opinions expressed in their art will be equated with their own. The end result is a bland, homogenous world of fiction, lacking in both vigor of expression and diversity of perspectives. In this session, Dr. Lepojarvi will reflect on this form of literary misreading and present an argument based on Lewis’s writing, which serves as a partial solution to this pervasive literary fallacy and helps us to avoid it in the classroom as well. 

Option 7: Tour of the George Fox Maker Hub (Limited to 20 people)

Mr. Nicholas Sullivan, MakerHub Director 

Take an extensive tour of the George Fox MakerHub facility, where students and community members regularly meet to work on projects across an array of fields, from clothing design to computer programming to woodworking to 3-D printing to circuit building. Learn about this as a resource for you and your class and consider how you might encourage students to attend MakerHub events and camps in the coming years. 

Option 1: Academic Language Supports for Secondary Learners

         Dr. Maranda Turner, Associate Professor of Education

 In this interactive session, we will explore the different functions of academic language within the content areas and the language demands the standards put on learners. We will explore routines and language supports that will assist teachers in using language more effectively to support listening, speaking, reading and writing at grade level in their classrooms. 

The session for Older Learners will focus on written language routines and the development of written language skills necessary for academic achievement in grades 6. - 12. We will consider low-prep, high-impact ways to "build language skills for complex reading and writing" (Zwiers, 2014, p. xii). 

Option 2: Virtual Reality Lab Experience (Limited to 24 participants)

           Tennille Hostetler, Department of Biology and Natural Sciences

Experience an immersive self-discovery exploration into human anatomy using the virtual reality app 3D Organon. This unique application allows for the manipulation of bones, muscles, vessels, organs and other anatomical structures. Due to its realistic hands-on programming, our human anatomy virtual reality lab is especially helpful in preparing students for health and medical careers such as nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, and medical school. It's also a great learning opportunity for students who want to pursue biomechanical engineering and medical research to explore the functionality of anatomy. Learn about how you can schedule a visit to the virtual reality lab for your middle and high school students through the Science Outreach Program's online reservation system. 

Option 3: Early-Stage Interventions: Behavior Intervention Strategies for Every Teacher

         Ms. Jessica Sprick, Executive Director, Safe & Civil Schools 

 A major concern of many teachers is the one or two students who chronically misbehave despite good classroom management. This session focuses on helping teachers develop a protocol of early-stage interventions (e.g., planned discussion, correction planning, increasing positive interactions, data collection and debriefing, and goal setting) that can be used whenever a student does not respond to your general classroom management plan. Learn ways to work with the student to provide increasing layers of support depending on the student’s individual needs, increasing the student’s success and your sense of efficacy in supporting students with behavioral challenges. 

 Option 4: The Wide World of eSports; Coming to a College Near You

         Mr. Miles Dean, Head Coach, George Fox Esports Team

Esports in short is competitive gaming. Here in higher education esports we try to expand the gaming aspects of esports and cultivate an environment that brings students together. By partnering up with the CPRD we have launched summer youth camps that cater to the younger generation and teach them skills within the realm of gaming that they can bring into real life and have an impact. From complex problem solving and building in minecraft, to communication in games like rocket league and understanding what it is like to work as a team. 

Option 5: Accessing GFU’s Resources

         Ms. Metra Augustin, Director, K-12 Initiatives at George Fox

This session will focus on the K12 initiatives offered at George Fox University (i.e. dual credit, direct credit, George Fox summer camps, engineering ambassador programming, science outreach programming, how to curate a customized campus visit.) During this session, K12 educators and administrators will have the opportunity to collaborate with George Fox on future programming and events. 

Option 6: Private School Law in Oregon & Issues/Concerns for Christian Educators (Roundtable)

         Dr. Shawn Daley, Vice President of Strategy

         Ms. Joy Ellis, Partner, Foster Garvey     

 This roundtable discussion will focus on addressing issues that might appear for Christian educators operating within the existing milieu.  This will be an open forum and an opportunity to ask questions and put items in the sandbox for further research, exploration and conversation.

Option 7: Tour of the George Fox Maker Hub (Limited to 20 people)

Mr. Nicholas Sullivan, MakerHub Director 

Take an extensive tour of the Geroge Fox MakerHub facility, where students and community members regularly meet to work on projects across an array of fields, from clothing design to computer programming to woodworking to 3-D printing to circuit building. Learn about this as a resource for you and your class and consider how you might encourage students to attend MakerHub events and camps in the coming years.