By Jasmine Hsu
More than 600 teachers from Carmel and across the nation gathered July 11 at Clay Middle School for an annual conference on using technology in the classroom.
The fifth annual C4 Conference, which stands for connect, collect, collaborate and create, is one of 19 Summer of eLearning conferences held across the state. The keynote speaker was Holly Clark, a Google-Certified Innovator known for her book, “The Google Infused Classroom.”
“The conference is an exciting and invigorating event that gave teachers time to collaborate with colleagues, grow their (professional learning network) and be inspired to bring new ideas into their classrooms,” said Anne Arroyo, Carmel Clay Schools director of curriculum, instruction and assessment and event coordinator.
This year’s event featured 89 presenters and more than 100 sessions for attendees to choose from, including a new Innovation Zone, where teachers participated in educational technology-themed activities.
“Last year, we focused on virtual and augmented reality. This year, we will be focusing on computer science/STEM,” Arroyo said. “Teachers had opportunities to make binary bracelets, engage in an iterative design challenge with paper planes, code themselves through an off-line floor maze, code finch robots and participate in a lines of code challenge.”
John Love, a media specialist at Carmel High School, attended for the first time was a presenter.
“I think that there is so much to learn from not only our students that are going to benefit from this, but also from the teachers and presenters,” Love said. “My hope is that I can incorporate what I saw into lessons that I might teach or design.”
Another teacher who is eager to implement technology in the classroom is CHS Chinese language teacher Tungfen Lee.
“I wanted to find some inspiration and ideas for next school year. This is my fourth year coming, and every year I learn something new from the teachers,” Lee said. “I don’t expect to digest everything I learned but want to think about one or two interesting things to incorporate into my teaching plan for the coming school years.”
