UTAH EDUCATION NETWORK

Professional Development Newsletter April 3rd-7th

Welcome to Utah Education Network's Professional Development Weekly Newsletter!

We are now into April and the Professional Development team at UEN is so excited about Summer 2023's courses. If you didn't know UEN offers online, 6-week courses throughout the summer on a variety of topics. Course registration opened on April 1st, but there are some spaces left. Utah educators who take courses through UEN can get USBE re-licensure credit or SUU credit. Use this link to sign up for our Summer 2023 courses.

In this week's newsletter you will find:

The newest videos from UEN including PDTV, eMedia, and Utah's Online School Library
New course spotlight on Tech Tools for School Counselors
Upcoming Professional Development opportunities from UEN, Utah State Board of Education, Utah Rural Schools Association, Show Up for Teachers, the Utah Teacher Fellows, ISTE, and the Smithsonian Institute
Resource Spotlight: Google Educator Group Utah

As always, feel free to share this newsletter with your fellow educators and they can sign up by clicking on the Follow Button to the right.

UEN Videos - On Demand Professional Development

Utah's Online School Library Quick Tips Reels

Get your students researching and citing like pros with Scrible's Works Cited Tool!

Check out #Scrible in #UOSL here: onlinelibrary.uen.org

PDTV: UCET23

In this episode of UEN’s PDTV, host Katie Blunt takes you to the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology (UCET) conference in Provo, Utah, where she meets with some of the winners of the UCET Innovative Teaching Award and explores how professional organizations like UCET are supporting educators in their journey toward better teaching practices.

eMedia Updates: How to Join an eMedia Hub

In this eMedia Update, you'll learn how to join an eMedia hub and discover a world of resources in your curriculum area. With access to videos, lesson plans, and collaborative groups, you can feel supported in your teaching and connect with other educators and specialists in your field.

Explore the available eMedia hubs here: https://emedia.uen.org/hubs/

Subscribe to UEN on Youtube

UEN Course Spotlight

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UEN's Professional Development team has a lot of new, exciting courses for 2023. One course is our new self-paced course for school counselors, Tech Tools for School Counselors. In this course, participants will learn foundational technology tools to inform, educate, engage, and build relationships with students. This course will guide participants through introductions to Canvas, Google Classroom, Google Tools, and many more educational technology tools adapted for school counselors. The focus of this course is to provide foundational tools with best practices that will help provide more robust and engaging content within comprehensive school counseling programs and increase equitable student outcomes through technology.

This course can be completed at any pace, at any time throughout the year. Remember that all UEN courses are free and open to any educator in Utah.

Utah Nearpod Challenge

It’s time for the April/May Nearpod Badge Challenge! Each month, Nearpod users in Utah can earn a digital badge to show off their Nearpod skills.

April/May 2023: Nearpod Creator

To earn this month’s digital badge, create your own Nearpod lesson and launch it with 3+ students during the month of April or May.

Create your own Nearpod lesson:

Start fresh within the Nearpod platform.
Import a Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation.
Use the Google Slides add-on.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email UEN Nearpod Product Manager Jami Gardner at jgardner@uen.org.

UEN Professional Development In Your School

The UEN Professional Development Team is excited to come out to your school and work with your teachers on a variety of topics ranging from podcasting to Minecraft, digital literacy to a variety of technology tools (Adobe, Nearpod, Google, Canvas, Canva, Utah's Online Library, and eMedia) and more. Your school can request FREE professional development using this link.

Check out some of the recent professional development requests across Utah below:

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UEN in Box Elder County School District

UEN recently joined Box Elder School District's professional development day. UEN Product Manager Rob Bentley and Sr. Technical Trainer Matt Winters were on site to share presentations on Adobe and Google with over 100 teachers throughout the day.

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UEN at #UTedchat on Twitter

#UTedchat, a Twitter edchat sponsored by UCET, is hosted each week on Wednesday evenings at 8 PM. This past week Sr. Technical Trainer Kayla Towner joined a chat with the Utah Teacher Fellows about the importance of leadership in schools. Check out the chat each week at 8 PM MT on Twitter.

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UEN at Utah Coalition for Educational Technology 23

UCET23 was a great event for Utah educators and UEN was there to help support the conference. UCET President and UEN Sr. Technical Trainer Matt Winters was so excited during setup with former UCET President and UEN Product Manager Dani Sloan! The entire UEN Professional Development Team were at the conference sharing their best practices on everything from short videos to AR/VR to robotics.

Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities

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UEN Leading Schools - June 20th-23rd

The Utah Education Network is excited to announce Leading Schools Summit, a multi-day summit designed to provide principals with the inspiration, support and professional learning opportunities they need to lead student-centered PCBL learning initiatives in their schools. Link for more information.

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UETN Tech Summit - June 11th-12th

Join more than 300 participants representing about 122 organizations from K12, Higher Ed, Healthcare and IT Exhibitors. Link for more information.

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Utah Rural Schools Association Conference - July 12th-14th

The conference provides hands-on and break-out sessions that will focus on insights and interventions with strategies to provide professional learning to improve student outcomes. There will be sessions focused on strengthening mental and behavioral health supports, student supports, grading practices, literacy best practices, strengthening the guaranteed curriculum at each school, and developing a culture of investment. Link for more information.

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Utah State Board of Education Meaningful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities Conference

Meaningful inclusion requires intentional collaboration across the education system. School administrators, general and special education teachers, instructional coaches, related services providers, educator preparation program staff, and student teachers are encouraged to attend.

June 7-8 | Mountain America Exposition Center | Sandy
June 15-16 | Utah Valley Convention Center | Provo
June 20-21 | Richfield High School | Richfield
June 26-27 | Davis Conference Center | Layton
June 29-30 | Southern Utah University | Cedar City

Register for free at this link!

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Show Up for Teachers - July 19th

Join 1500 attendees from around the state including educators from 37 districts and hundreds of educator advocates for a conference spotlighting the best in Utah education. Link for more information.

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Utah Teacher Fellows Applications - Due April 15th

The Utah Teacher Fellows program has been carefully designed to develop the competencies of great educators, providing them with tools to engage their colleagues and generate solutions to education challenges. To date, Hope Street Group Utah Teacher Fellows have met with state and federal decision-makers, attended regional and national convenings, and been featured in multiple publications. See how teacher fellows view the program in the short video here. Link for more information.

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ISTELive 2023 - June 25th-28th

Join Utah educators at ISTELive in Philadelphia! ISTELive has hundreds of sessions from thousands of educators across the country and around the world. Link for more information.

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Smithsonian National Education Summit

Mark your calendars for the 2023 Smithsonian National Education Summit: "Together We Thrive," taking place from July 18-20, 2023. This year's Summit offers in-person workshops at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., as well as online-specific sessions, so you can choose the format that best suits your needs.

The conference is online and free for all educators.

Resource Spotlight: Google Educator Group Utah

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Google Educator Groups are free, local groups to help support educators integrate technology into their classrooms. Utah has its own Google Educator Group called GEGUtah. As part of their work to support Utah educators, they produce a few great tools and supports each month:

Daily Resource Share: All members of GEGUtah are part of a Google Group and through that group, GEGUtah leadership shares one technology tool, resource, or event happening in Utah. From updates to Google, national resources on Google tools, and local events, GEGUtah shares resources every day to support you and your learners.
A monthly meetup on Youtube to share a Googley lesson plan and ideas for your classroom. In these meetups, usually, later in the month, GEGUtah leadership shares resources and lesson plans from their classrooms.
Sponsored meetups and sessions at UCET and URSA. GEGUtah has sponsored special sessions and rooms at local conferences including a 'secret' session at UCET23 with Eric Curts.

Check out some of their resources below and consider joining GEGUtah to help support technology use in your classroom.