Kimmel Farm gains attention at 2012 ASCD National Conference

Kimmel Farm Elementary had a strong presence at the 2012 ASCD conference, held this past weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the school's Technology Facilitator I have to say thank-you ASCD for a wonderful learning experience. Steven Anderson and I presented on the ongoing project we started at Kimmel Farm when it first opened as we talked about the need for a way to teach administrators, teachers, and students alike about the ethical and responsible use of social media. We approached that through school improvement and in collaboration with our district's school attorney, Allison Tomberlin, who graciously guided us on our way and in concert with existing school district policies.

ASCD is not a conference primarily concerned with technology, but has a history (since 1943) of helping with supervision and curriculum development. It just so happens that these two are merging more and more every day as we teach digital-age learners.

Our presentation was selected to be a featured presentation and was webcast all over the world this past Monday at 8 AM. It will be archived until September on the ASCD website for members. With hundreds of sessions to choose from over four days it was a real honor to be one of a handful of sessions to be chosen for the ASCD Virtual Conference.

Follow up articles on the ASCD website and in eSchool News were released today about our session. On April 11, WSFCS District Instructional Technologist Steven Anderson blogged about the experience on Edutopia.  Kimmel Farm truly is a wonderful place to be, and the faculty here is open-minded and progressive which makes teaching digital age learners - our students - truly a challenging but engaging experience. We all learn together - and that's what social media is all about! Logo from

Kimmel Farm Highlighted at MEGA Showcase

Kimmel Farm Elementary participated in MEGA's 12th Annual Showcase for Educational Innovation in Raleigh , NC Wednesday, May 4. MEGA (Middle Educators Global Activities) was established to enable middle school educators through technology and the shared human resources of North Carolina State University, Johnston County Public Schools, and Wake County Public Schools as a pilot project. Its goal - to foster communication and collaboration between the organizations, it was supported by the College of Education and Psychology to ultimately enhance the curriculum in North Carolina middle schools.
Today, MEGA has expanded and encourages K-12 teachers to participate and has grown to over 1,000 members as announced at the showcase. The MEGA Showcase provides a place for students and their teachers to exhibit multimedia and Web projects. Some students from different schools all over North Carolina were there to show how what they do engages them in learning, and educators set up booths to showcase how technology has been integrated to enhance student learning. It is a great place to share ideas, make new friends and grow connections for future learning opportunities. Kimmel Farm Elementary was represented by AG specialist Tori Gray and second grade teacher Sarah Ellington as well as Adriennne Loffredo from CERTL (Center for Excellence in Research Teaching and Learning) our education partner who helps with the integration problem based learning methodology.

Kimmel Farm Hosts ActivCarolina Event

https://picasaweb.google.com/swalker021/ActivCarolinaConference
Approximately 200 educators from 22 school districts (North and South Carolina were invited) gave up their Saturday to attend the ActivCarolina Conference hosted by Kimmel Farm Elementary and Promethean - the company that manufactures the interactive whiteboards installed in all our classrooms.
Thanks to the planning and collaboration with Promethean's Matt Barfield and confined inside the walls of out school here are some of the "tweets" that went out gWSFCS's Department of Instructional Technology (DIT) the conference - focused on building capacities using the ActivBoard and its ancillary products was a huge success!

Educators had the opportunity to attend five sessions, each with their own theme to add to their knowledge base, skill level, and learn new tips and tricks of which they might not have been aware.

I've blogged recently on the NCTIES (North Carolina Technolohy in Education Society's) 2011 Conference Blog about how good ideas need the opportunty to "collide" and that was exactly what was happeing Saturday at Kimmel Farm. We were also proud that eight faculty members presented at the conference. In less than two years these dedicated educators were confident in their skills to share their ideas with others. Educators/Trainers from WSFCS's DIT also conducted some sessions. The event was repeatedly referenced on Twitter, which just shows the power of sharing ideas wasn't confined to the walls of kimmel farm. Here are a few of the "tweets" shared globally.