November Learning: Expanding the Boundaries of Learning

Marco Torres

About Marco Torres
Teacher, Creative Director, Media Coach, Sylmar, CA

Marco is a social studies teacher, media coach, and education technology director at San Fernando High School. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work helping students empower themselves through the mastery of multimedia. He serves as one of Apple’s Distinguished Educators and is an advisory board member of The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Pre-conference Session

Turning Classrooms into Learning Studios: Lights, Camera, Learn!

Marco Antonio Torres is an internationally recognized teacher and filmmaker who uses the movie making process to make his classroom projects explode with empowerment and enthusiasm. Working alongside the exceptionally talented Alas Media Team, this phenomenal workshop offers an amazing 1 to 4 ratio of presenters to participants. You simply can’t miss it!

This tw0-day event will be a practical, hands-on session where teachers will learn not only valuable and practical tips on how to make a great movie, but also how to plan and manage such projects. Teachers will find out how to market this program to their communities and also learn how to share the projects with the world! See how movies have a place in your content area classroom/ new studio. Lights, Camera, LEARN!

(Equipment and software will be provided during the workshop. If you do have your own digital video camera, we highly recommend you bring it.)

Main Session Workshop

Music Production for Anyone Interested. Really!

One of the least discussed, but mega powerful facets of multimedia is the power of music production. Now, more than ever, we can produce music for projects or simply produce music to share. The tools have made themselves much more democratic, easier to use and accessible to us mere mortals with no music knowledge. This workshop will help you with tips and resources on how adding music to your classroom may be the special incentive for some (if not all) of your students! We will look at software and hardware (from free to pay) that will become a must in your classrooms.

Don’t Just Write About It, Produce Documentaries In Your Class

Adding value to learning and marketing what we do/think/produce are key ingredients to our learning spaces today and tomorrow. Many of our schools are, however, still using traditional means of producing research papers and reports – text-based final products. Using the power of visual storytelling can intrinsically motivate all involved (including teachers) to explore new and exciting ways to create learning, and more importantly, showcase it to the world. Documentaries are an important form of media that allow/empower content area teachers new avenues of adding value to their learning goals. This is a quick workshop that will explore strategies on how to best create an environment where these projects can be produced and shared.

How to Plan Cool and Practical Multimedia Projects

This is a practical and fun workshop focused on basic planning strategies for teachers and students alike. Because there are so many tools floating around in the class, along with a variety of needed roles, potentially disorganized environments may occur! We can help. We will explore tips and tricks on how to best plan daily, weekly and semester-long projects. Moreover, we will also discuss ways to connect and collaborate with other schools.