Cohorts Collide at Googlepalooza!
This year’s Googlepalooza was buzzing with members from Cohort 1, 2 and 3! Googlepalooza is an annual technology conference offered in partnership by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Google. Majority of the sessions are offered by teachers within the Chicago Public School system. Did you know that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the nation’s largest Google Apps for Education user and the second largest in the world behind the country of Malaysia? CPS alone has 345,00 active users in the district. No wonder the third annual Googlepalooza was such a big event!
Michael Kosko, a member of Cohort 3, has presented all three years. Kosko says he looks forward to the conference every single year. He shares, “Even as a presenter, I am constantly learning from the teachers in the sessions and adjusting my practice based on the ideas they share with me.” Kosko presented three sessions: Augmented Reality Apps in the Classroom, Google Apps for Education in the Science Classroom, and Epic Adventures with Classcraft.
Laura Frcka is a member of Cohort 2. She has co-presented for two consecutive years.
Splice It Up was a session that addressed the difficult challenge of keeping students engaged, even at various academic levels.
Teaching a Blended Classroom through Google Apps was another workshop which focused on supporting blended learning with Google Apps. “I enjoyed sharing my knowledge about blending Google Apps into a classroom to spark interest in the content. In addition to presenting, I also enjoyed discussing with other MSU-Wipro UrbanSTEM fellows about the activities occurring in their classrooms,” Frcka shared. Tracy Iammartinio (Cohort 2) also presented a session titled
Don’t Stress! Put Google Classroom to the Test! It’s great to see so many #MSUrbanSTEM fellows leading professional development within the CPS district!
Also spotted at Googlepalooza were Roberto Lituma and Mahesh Alur (Cohort 1), Chrissy Chavez and Bessie Rahman, (Cohort 2) Helen Galiotos-Noguera and Sarah Tschaen (Cohort 3). #MSUrbanSTEM is everywhere!
Here are some fun tweets from the big event!
