ISTELive 21 was an amazing opportunity for educators and leaders from around the globe to connect, collaborate, and learn together. This year’s conference featured dozens of timely, thought-provoking sessions and gave educators a platform to share their own successes and best practices with peers.
Attendees discovered new ways to build accessible, inclusive classrooms, drive student confidence, and empower the success of diverse learners—and now, you can too! Head over to our YouTube channel to find a free, on-demand playlist of must-see sessions from this year’s conference, including the following list of highlights.
Solutions snapshots sessions
- Listening, learning, rebooting: Reimagining student well-being: Join Barbara Holzapfel, VP of Microsoft Education, for a panel conversation with scientists and education experts, who will unpack how COVID-19 has affected the emotional and physical well-being of students and what educators can do to help support them moving forward.
- Empowering students to be future-ready: Anthony Salcito, VP of Microsoft Education, hosts a discussion with Mary Clarke, a St. Paul Catholic high school teacher in Bristol, Connecticut, on building a STEM-inspired curriculum and expanding students’ passions, skills, and interests through technology-driven lessons on computer science, artificial intelligence, and coding.
- The power of community: Hear Jornea Armant, Head of Educator Innovation at Flipgrid, share inspiring stories about educators who go beyond the classroom to support, engage, and inspire diverse communities around the world.
- Creating accessible, inclusive classrooms engaging diverse learning needs: Megan Lawrence, Accessibility Evangelist at Microsoft, and her brother—longtime educator, Damien Lawrence—share best practices to removing barriers and unlocking student potential using Microsoft accessibility tools.
Content sessions
- Go team! Your hybrid classroom made easy with Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Learning Consultants and veteran educators Mary Villaume and Dr. Heather Wenzler demonstrate how Microsoft Teams dashboards, assignments, grades, embedded apps, and Education Insights feature can create a collaborative classroom experience and track teaching and learning trends and progress.
- Supporting social and emotional learning with Microsoft tools: Zia Hassan and Shavonne Smith, both Microsoft Learning Consultants, share practical tips on how to use Microsoft tools, such as Minecraft and Flipgrid, to help augment and enhance student learning.
- Flipgrid: A party of powerhouse ideas: Microsoft Learning Consultant Kathi Kersznowski shows fun, new, and innovative ways to take advantage of the wildly popular EdTech tool.
- Sneak peek: Improve fluency with Reading Progress in Microsoft Teams for Education: Mike Tholfsen, Microsoft Education Principal Group Product Manager, and Jennifer Moreno, an elementary teacher at Fontana Unified School District, offer an exclusive, early look at the Reading Progress app in Microsoft Teams. Reading Progress is a tool that allows educators to assign reading passages to students and track their progress.
ISTELive 21 may be over, but the learning doesn’t stop there! Be sure to view the highlights from the above sessions, and more, on our ISTELive 21 YouTube video playlist.
