Jennifer Leban is a 2020 IL State Teacher of the Year Finalist and 2019-20 Teach Plus Illinois Teaching Policy Fellow. A National Board Certified Teacher, Jennifer teaches creative technology and visual arts classes at Sandburg Middle School in Elmhurst, IL. In 2018, Jennifer was accepted into the LAX18 Google Certified Innovator cohort. Her Innovator project, called Reset EDU, is a YouTube channel that strives to motivate, empower, and inspire teachers to embrace new ideas for learning and teaching.
Jennifer has presented throughout the United States at education events and conferences such as ISTE, AMLE, and CPS Googlepalooza. Jen also works with friEdTechnology as a Learning Guide for professional development services, and is an education ambassador for WeVideo, Flipgrid, Wakelet, and Classroom Q. Jennifer earned her BA in Arts Education with honors from Elmhurst College and completed her MA in Educational Leadership through St. Xavier University.
Most recently, Jen has illustrated her first children’s book, titled Coding to Kindness by Valerie Sousa, published through EduMatch books, to be released this Fall.
You can find Jen at @MrsLeban and @ResetEDU on Twitter and on ResetEDU.org
Check out the sessions she will be presenting at GaETC Connect!
Video Production for Teachers
Does teaching remotely using video give you anxiety? Do you feel like it’s too complicated? Do you hate seeing yourself on video, or do you just struggle with your production quality? This session is split into two parts: the first half is for beginners just getting their feet wet. We’ll talk about how to create a basic screencast using Screencastify and how you can use a screencast video in your instruction to help support student learning. In the second half, we’ll LEVEL UP our video game using WeVideo to add edits and fun features to enhance our visual messages and make our teaching not only more fun, but effective for student learning! Time at the end will be reserved for Q&A regarding using video for instruction.
YouTube Teacher Channels
Have you thought about creating your own YouTube channel, but don’t know where to start? In this session, we will go over the basics of starting a YouTube channel, which is a great way to house all of your video resources during blended learning. I’ll share resources for creating channel elements, like banners, channel art, thumbnails, and end screens (and how to get that all set up!). We’ll also talk about how YouTube algorithms work, views, comments, likes, and subscribers, and why your students will automatically assume you’re a big shot YouTuber making big bucks once they see your channel. Spoiler alert: it’s not true!
Google Classroom for Blended Learning
Organization and ease of use are essential factors in making remote and/or blended learning work. Let Google Classroom help you with both! This session is geared towards those new or new-ish to Google Classroom. I’ll go over the basic structure of Classroom, and give options on how to organize your class(es) using the platform. From there, I’ll show you some of my favorite ways to utilize the tool and share what has worked (and not worked) for me personally with students. We’ll end the session with some fun ways to customize your classes, and allow for some Q&A at the end.
Google Keep is Underrated
Have you tried Google Keep? Google Keep (a GSuite core service) is an incredible tool for organizing your workflows and increasing efficiency – especially when you learn about these super rad tricks to really customize and make it work for you and your students! Learn all the secrets and leave feeling like an education productivity wizard – Google Keep will quickly become your new favorite GSuite app!