Professional Presentations by Gary L. Ackerman


In recent years, I have been a frequent presenter at education conferences around New England. My goal for making these presentations is to promote student-centered and technology-rich practices by discussing both successful practice and guiding theory. Coincidently, I have come to a much better understanding of my own theory and practice while preparing and presenting these sessions. >> This page is no longer updated! << A complete list of presentations, including those since spring 2007 is here.
Leading in the Wired World	March 2007-- 26th Annual NELMS Conference, Providence, Rhode Island The successful use of technology in the modern middle school depends on effective leadership. In this session experienced school and technology leaders will share ideas and strategies for addressing advacacy, professional development, planning and fund raising for technology. Web-based presentation
Using Technology to Promote Unified Arts	Novemeber 2006-- 18th Unifed Arts Conference, Sturbridge, Massachusetts Modern technology tools provide middle school leaders, technology leaders, techers, and students with the capacity to promote unifed arts progrmas in ways previously unavailable. This presntation suggests ten of these tools have proven effective to inform, celebrate, and collaborate. Web-based presentation
Technology: What Do You Do If You Don't Have Enough?	March 2006-- 25th NELMS Annual Conference, Providence, Rhode Island This presentation focuses on strategies for acquiring technology in "resource-challenged" schools. I presented in collaboration with two colleagues from the NELMS Technology Committee. A handout supporting my presentation of a theoretical framework for understanding need is linked below. Handout (rtf file-- will open in any word processor)
Technology in the Modern Middle Level Classroom	October 2005-- Tri-State Conference, Keene, New Hampshire This presentation focuses on several methods through which the world wide web can serve as an information source and communication tool in the modern middle level classroom. Specific examples will come from methods of addressing goals outlined in Turning Points 2000 through technology-rich approaches. Presentation (web-based PowerPoint)
Technology-Rich Science Show & Tell	March 2005-- 24th NELMS Annual Conference, Providence, Rhode Island This presentation will feature a number of technologies that can be used in the middle school science classroom. The technologies to be demonstrated include video microscopes, data probes for handheld computers, and robotics. Presentation (web-based PowerPoint)
Intranets: A Tool for Modern Middle Schools	November 2004-- 16th Annual NELMS Unified Arts Conference, Sturbridge, Massachusetts This presentation will introduce the idea of web pages that are available only "in-house" as a tool for both teaching and learning in middle schools. The approach will be practical and participants will be taken through the steps of planning and creating an Intranet during the interactive presentation. Handout (PDF) Presentation (web-based PowerPoint)
Creating a (Technology-Rich) Collecting Culture	March 2004-- 23rd Annual NELMS Conference, Providence, Rhode Island Modern middle schools are places of engaged learning, which creates many artifacts. The presenter reviews how technology can enhance the process of collecting the artifacts of that engaged learning. Handout (PDF) Presentation (web-based PowerPoint)
Keeping It Middle School When Your School Isn't	June 2003-- Vermont Middle Grades Institute, Johnson, Vermont The goal of this interactive presentation at the 2003 edition of the Vermont Middle Grades Collaborative Middle Grades Institute was to encourage and advise individuals and groups seeking to implement middle level practice in schools not dedicated to middle school education. Presentation
Preparing Powerful Portfolios	March 2003-- 22rd Annual NELMS Conference, Providence, Rhode Island This presentation focused on transforming portfolios from mere collections of work into meaningful representations of student learning. Among the themes were: organizing portfolios, selecting artifacts, encouraging reflections, and using technology. This session was for those beginning to use portfolios as well as those seeking to improve current practice. Handout Presentation
Components of a Manual for Practitioners	March 2002-- 21st Annual NELMS Conference, Providence, Rhode Island The focus of this presentation was the Rutland Region Education Alliance's Manual for Practitioners, a document that proposes four Capstone Components (Personal Performance Projects, Personal Development Collections, Community-Service Learning, and Work-Based Learning) as models for creating student-centered learning environments. Examples from Vermont middle schools were shared. Handout Presentation
Electronic Portfolios in the Unified Arts Curriculum	December 2001-- NELMS Unified Arts Conference, Sturbridge, Massachusetts This presentation focused on the use of electronic portfolios to put educational theory into practice in unified arts curricula. The primary example was a middle school in which students create an electronic portfolio as part of the unified arts experience. Connections between theory, practice and unified arts were stressed. Handout Presentation
Capstone Initiative	October 2000-- Vermont Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development- Vermont, Burlington, Vermont This presentation was an introduction to the four Capstone Components, as well as the features of the Capstone Summer Institutes. Two members of the Capstone Leadership Team and one Summer Institute Faculty member comprised the team that made this presentation.
Gathering Meaningful Data in Middle Schools	March 2000-- 19th Annual NELMS Conference, Providence, Rhode Island This presentation focused on using qualitative research methods to gather data in middle schools. All aspects of data gathering from posing meaningful questions to designing protocols and analyzing data were reviewed. A video tape of this session can be obtained from NELMS at this page.
Using Qualitative Research Methods to Enhance Our Teaching	May 1998-- New England Educational Research Organization, Portland, ME The four M.Ed. students featured in this symposium took a reading and writing in the content area course for secondary school preservice and inservice teachers. Even though this was not a research course, they spent a major portion of the course learning how to conduct in-depth interviews focused on reading experiences of participants and practicing these qualitative research techniques by interviewing each other and then interviewing a high school student. In both cases they created profiles of their participant directly from the taped transcriptions. These profiles became one of the primary texts in the course. As the abstract above indicates, I was one of four students who joined our professor to present our work with qualitative research methods at this conference. We enjoyed the opportunity to join Dr. Irving Seidman's group as well. He is thee person who literally "wrote the book" on the methods we employed during our work.