Vermont Fest 2024

Phoenix Books will be hosting a book sale including titles from Keynote speaker, Charles Waters and titles from the Red Clover, Golden Dome, and Green Mountain Book Awards.

Opening Remakrs and Keynote with author and poet, Charles Waters.

In this session, we will explore how artificial intelligence is transforming the educational landscape. Educators will gain access to a practical toolkit filled with AI-driven tools and resources that can enhance and streamline instruction to foster student engagement. As we navigate these new technologies, we'll also discuss the magnitude of change required—rethinking traditional teaching practices, integrating AI into everyday learning, and ensuring equity and access for all students. This session is designed to empower teachers to confidently adopt AI, transforming their classrooms for the future.

Teachers will learn how to effectively use tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Bing AI, and Magic Schools AI to enhance lesson planning, curriculum development, and classroom instruction. Discover how these tools can work for you to create differentiated lessons, generate lesson summaries that meet IEP accommodations or provide summaries for students who miss class due to illness, adjust reading assignments to appropriate Lexile levels, create newsletters for families, brainstorm project ideas of various DOK levels, and even provide feedback on simple formative assessments.

These tools can also be valuable for generating and proofreading email responses to challenging interactions. Beyond being a search engine or a tool for asking questions, AI can serve as a collaborative partner, helping teachers continually evolve their lessons to be more engaging.

By the end of the session, participants will gain valuable insights into how to make these tools work effectively in their specific educational areas. They will also have a better understanding of why these tools should not be blindly banned and how to incorporate them into lessons to demonstrate appropriate AI usage.

While most students may not have direct access to these tools at school, the reality is that they are likely using them on their personal devices and accounts. As educators, we can teach and model appropriate use of these tools to help students understand how they can be used to assist learning. For example, we can demonstrate how to ask effective questions to AI to get started on a large research project, such as "Gemini, can you provide me with a list of 10 resources to help me understand the use of electromagnetism in MRI machines?"

Coffee Break -- come to the ballroom to also check out the bookstore, get a book signed by Keynote speaker Charles Waters, and see the Maker Space exhibit and Robotics exhibit.

A real challenge, and opportunity, for educators, is to learn how to use AI thoughtfully, safely, and productively.  Hear about concerns and cautionary tales, as well as ways to address the challenges. The primary focus, however, will be on the positive ways you can use AI.  Using AI to summarize the vast AI offerings, this human will add current research, teaching strategies, and a comprehensive overview. See AI apps that will save you time, and quickly create teaching materials that supplement your current curriculum.  Other apps will demonstrate how AI can be used for brainstorming, creating first drafts and editing.  There will be an overview of amazing apps that assist children and adults with special needs.  A collection of anecdotes, research findings, and interviews will provide examples of successful uses of AI for professional productivity, instruction, and activities that will stir your imagination.  Come be amazed, inspired and informed.  Bring your spirit of adventure and sense of humor. At the end there will be a light-hearted summary and raffle prizes.

This workshop showcases how AI can be a valuable tool in jumpstarting the creative process in classrooms. Attendees will learn how to leverage AI to generate thematic and seasonally-appropriate writing prompts, create content for drama and public speaking classes, and even draft entire scripts for media arts projects. Additionally, AI can help with generating templates, forms, and lists, allowing teachers and students to concentrate on the more creative and nuanced aspects of their projects.

Join Department of Library staff to learn more about the free databases, discussion sets, interlibrary loan services, and professional development resources that the Department offers. Discover resources to support you in providing accessible reading materials to students with IEPs. Learn about the ways that the Department support Vermont youth and how you can take advantage of these free resources.

Do you have a maker space and you don't know how to organize it or get students to use it? At U-32 we've designed our maker space to be user friendly and user independent. After visiting Generator in Burlington, VT we modeled a badge system that they use to ensure that our students could access the space after receiving training. They earn badges for completed trainings and can use those tools/materials independent of supervision. It is still a work in progress, but we've seen major growth in the usage of the tools. I will share what we've done, templates for creating your own badge and accountability system and open the floor to discussion and recommendations of tools.