How much can technology certification really impact your classroom, your career, and the lives of your students? Join us at CERTIFIED 2021 to find out. CERTIFIED is the only education conference dedicated exclusively to exploring the full promise of certification in the classroom—by providing administrators, teachers, and industry experts with an engaging, energized forum for professional development, sharing their ideas, and experiences. Don’t miss this opportunity to listen, learn, and collaborate with a community of educators who share your passion for using certification to improve education and change lives.
See what sessions will be available at this year’s event, for learning and fun.
Breakout Sessions
CERTIFIED 2021 has more breakout options than any past event. Breakout sessions give you a chance to collaborate and learn from administrators, teachers, and industry experts on ways to make certification a more effective educational tool.
The Power of GMetrix in Microsoft Office Certification Outcomes and Achievement for Lower-Performing Students
Want to help students be successful on certification exams? In this session Business Education and Career Technology Teacher Melissa Cooper will teach you how to use GMetrix to track students’ progress to determine test readiness. With GMetrix, you can create custom tests for assessments, exams, objective reinforcement, and remediation. If you want to learn more about using GMetrix and certification success to engage exceptional student education (ESE) and low-performing students, this session will show how to modify a curriculum to provide opportunities for success and growth and how to use immediate feedback with GMetrix to motivate students.
Move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online
Are you considering a switch to QuickBooks Online (QBO) from QuickBooks Desktop? In this session Associate Professor of Instruction Jennifer Johnson will teach you the pros and cons of the versions, how QBO software is accessed, what it looks like, how files are managed and how you can successfully use QBO in your classroom.
Certiport MOS and ACA Student Competitions
Student competitions bring technology certifications to life for your students, provide them with a positive platform to showcase their skills and give them a unique opportunity to earn valuable rewards and recognition. In this session, Brian Nielson, Certiport Competitions Manager, will outline everything you need to know about the annual Certiport Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) and ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ (ACA) student competitions. You’ll learn who can participate, how you can encourage your students to get involved, what they’ll experience, and how you can help them make the most of these fun and educational events.
A Day in the Hybrid Classroom — Ensuring Certification Is Still a Priority for Students and Schools
Motivation and flexibility within a hybrid classroom are keys for success. This session will provide a hands-on, outside-the-box approach to successfully building relationships with students and parents to motivate them to certify in hybrid environments. In this interactive session with Computer Education Teacher Nichole Ross, you’ll learn how to ensure all students are continuing to get a quality education, whether online or in person. We’ll also discuss the benefits of adding additional certifications to a curriculum to receive funding and points, while encouraging teachers to not give up during challenging times. Additionally, this session includes insights from interviews with students about what helps them most with motivation and learning, especially those affected by a quick transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preparing Students for the Career Pathway of Their Choice Through Certification Exams
In this session participants will learn how Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) offer a wide variety of certification exams for students to get a head start in whatever career pathway they choose. Business and IT Program Manger Stephanie Holt will discuss how FCPS students can successfully take certifications such as Adobe, AutoCAD, MTA, MOS and/or QuickBooks based on the CTE course they are enrolled in. Additionally, this session will help participants develop an understanding of how exams and exam alignments are determined and funded.
The Potter’s Hands: Molding the 21st Century Employee
Educators take what resources they are given each year and turn them into unique, functional, and priceless experiences for students. Join President Elect of the Kentucky Business Education Association Jennifer Stubblefield in this session, where we will think of those resources as clay and the educators as potters. Potters mold their clay, form it, decorate it, shine it, process it, and protect it. In fact, if the clay is near the potter, the potter feels compelled to continuously dedicate time and energy to the clay. Hands that have the privilege of working with clay are special hands. They are trained, strong and professional.
Are you a potter? Bring your potter's hands to this session and be ready to be reminded of the power that lies in your hands and the urgent need for you to stay in the field. Warning: Participants in this session may get messy, experience high emotions, and leave with a pep in their step.
Full STEAM Ahead: Certifying Underprivileged Youth for Career & College Success
This session will explore the foundations of the Brooklyn STEAM Center as a secondary education institution that routinely recruits, supports, and celebrates underprivileged (racial, socioeconomic, or nontraditional underprivileged) youth in New York City with CTE Director Damiano Mastrandrea. We will focus on how you can use certification, with a concentration on Certiport-offered assessments, to drive student success, including direct employment and continued postsecondary study options. We’ll also discuss strategies that include the frameworks for student success, building a new curriculum based on what we find.
Compass Roadmap: The Future of Certiport Exam Delivery including Exams from Home
In this breakout session you will learn about the latest developments and updates for Compass, Certiport’s state-of-the-art exam delivery technology. This breakout session will cover what Compass is and how you can use it to deliver Certiport exams securely and easily to your classroom, or to students who are located remotely. This session will address local, on-premise delivery, as well as browser-based delivery options, also known as Exams from Home. The session will present a roadmap of the future of Compass to help you take advantage of the many features and benefits Compass.
How to Get Your Students Engaged and Excited About Certification
What are the superpowers the superheroes in your classroom don’t even know they have? In this session with IT Instructor Abner Soto-Henry, we’ll look at the process the Latin American Youth Center Career Academy (LAYCCA) uses to engage students from diverse backgrounds in the IT certification pathway to prepare them for college and/or their professional lives. LAYCCA uses a unique process to prepare students with industry training while helping to award industry-recognized certifications. This interactive session will leave you with ideas on how to engage students in the learning process, helping them recognize the superpowers within them that will drive their success.
“Selling” the Practical Use of MOS Certification Skills
Do your students know why MOS certification skills are important? In this session we’ll simulate a certification test with assignments that teach students how to use tools in the MOS programs. Educator Wayne Briggs will walk you through how to “sell” MOS so students can see the value and practical use of the programs throughout their lives, so they’ll put forth the effort to learn these valuable skills.
Engaging Students With Remote Learning — Getting Results Through Relationships
Want to boost your online classroom attendance and student engagement? In this session Dr. Chitpasong Vazquez will discuss how student engagement is affected by relationships. Online learning is the new way of learning, and this session will provide you with ways to incorporate creative tactics in your hybrid teaching to engage your students. You will also learn best practices to engage students through building relationships and how to help your students more actively participate in the online classroom.
What’s New at Certiport?
A lot can happen in a year! This session will review the latest plans for Certiport products, services, and programs including exciting details around our recently announced IT Specialist Certification. The breakout will focus on what these changes mean for you and your school’s certification programs. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to explore the latest Certiport news and updates — and look at future certification product trends.
Capture What Your Students Understand Using Screencastify
It’s often difficult to see what your students know just by reading what they write on a piece of paper or type on a computer screen, especially with remote learning. In this session with Digital Media Teacher Tina Johnson, you’ll learn the basics of Screencastify, an easy-to-use screen recording software you can use to assess a student's knowledge of a concept. You will leave this session knowing how to implement Screencastify software into your classroom to really “capture” what your students know.
Leveraging Learning Products for Certification Success
In this session, you’ll learn how educators can use Certiport’s various learning products to solve the challenges that inhibit students' success in certification. Business Education Coordinator Melanie Haynes will provide you with practical ways to design classroom instruction while using the learning products that can set students up for success in their certification pursuits. Additionally, we’ll discuss how to integrate these learning products into course plans with tips and resources from real classroom practice.
Survivors’ Guide to “Virtually” All Things Certification
COVID-19 has forced us to move many of our classroom instruction and certification online. In this session you will learn tips and tricks to overcome the challenges this move may present. Join Curriculum Facilitator Serge Treyger to find out how Broward Schools’ Career, Technical, Adult and Community Education conquered the academic challenges of eLearning and industry certifications in the era of COVID-19.
Power of Adult Education — Fighting Ageism Through Education
By educating adults we open doors for adult students as well as for their children, families, and communities. In this session we’ll discuss how adult education can empower and revitalize communities. Additionally, Instructor and Career Counselor Regina Brack will discuss what Plainfield Public Library’s adult education program is doing to shape the adult-oriented programs of New Jersey.
Implementing a Certification Program in Your Classroom
Learn how to incorporate a certification program into your classroom from our highly experienced Statewide Deployment Team. We will discuss blending certification objectives into your class standards, effective pacing, and course sequence, managing technology requirements, and marketing your program to increase enrollment and develop internships. The Statewide Team has worked with teachers, administrators, IT Staff, and DOE Staff in over 22 states to effectively incorporate certification programs into more than 3,000 K12 and Higher Education classrooms. Join them during this interactive discussion to learn best practices from their experiences and a Q&A session from educators that own and develop the most successful certification programs in the country.
A Day in the Classroom — A Full Approach on Certification Teaching Methods
The year 2020 has reiterated the fact that technology education and skills are no longer optional but necessary for success in school and beyond. Join STEM Computer Essentials and Computer Science Teacher Devina Khan to discover different strategies and teaching styles for the classroom to successfully engage your students, as well as several methods of providing academic rigor that will enable every student to reach a higher level of learning. We’ll also discuss how classroom dynamics create an environment where each student is expected to learn at high levels and is supported so they can learn and retain what they are learning. This session will provide examples of daily lesson plans, student trackers, formative assessments and infographics that are geared toward achieving the competencies required to pass MOS certifications.
You Want Me to Learn Excel?
Why is Excel important for students? What does it offer them in their current role as students as well as in future careers? Some days, Microsoft Excel feels like the last thing students are interested in learning, but it is increasingly important for them to learn. In this session you will hear inspiring, frustrating, and heartwarming stories from Teacher Mary Carroll’s experience in the pursuit to certify business students in Microsoft Excel.
At the Boiling Point: The Communication Skills Kettle
Employers are frustrated when it comes to the lack of communication and soft skills in their job candidate pools. It's a professional crisis that has reached the boiling point. In this session you will learn what you can do and what resources are available to you as an educator to send students into the workforce with these essential skills to make them stand out as job applicants. This is a hands-on, interactive session with President Elect of the Kentucky Business Education Association Jennifer Stubblefield where you’ll be immersed in a classroom setting to learn about communication skills for business certification.
Engaging All Students With Remote Learning
With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way schools operate, remote learning is a new way of life for teachers and students. With challenges of limited space, limited technology and limited visibility, this new approach to teaching can be difficult for keeping all students engaged and learning. In this session Teacher Susan Morris explores specific techniques and resources that can help teachers keep students engaged, even when they’re without direct instruction. You’ll learn how to use different techniques and resources to meet the needs of all your students — including the growing list of accommodations and modifications for IEPs and 504 plans — without sacrificing the content.
Learning Products at Certiport
Certiport partners with some of the best publishers in the industry to bring you curriculum and practice tests that will help you prepare your students for certification and for their future employment. During this session, we will take a look at these learning products. We will provide a general landscape and dive deeper into new features and offerings. Participants will leave this session with fresh perspectives on available options that will surely enhance your students’ learning experiences.
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Developing project management skills will serve students throughout their lives. The PMI Project Management Ready certification is a way for students to immerse themselves in the project management industry and connect with this passionate community of professionals. In this session CTE Teacher Carol York discusses the PMI Project Management Ready certification and how it introduces students to project management fundamentals and core concepts, traditional plan-based methodologies, agile frameworks, and business analyst frameworks. The PMI Project Management Ready is aligned with the Certiport Learn, Practice, Certify model. Course materials, practice tests and the certification exam will be offered through Certiport.
Almost Everything You Need to Get a 100% Pass Rate for Adobe Photoshop
It is possible to get 100% of your students to pass their Adobe Photoshop tests with the help of GMetrix! In this workshop you’ll learn the methods Teacher Jillian Robinson has developed and honed for nine years, leading to a 100% pass rate for Adobe Photoshop tests for the past five years.
Coding in Minecraft — An Engaging Computer Science Credential Program with Supporting Curriculum
Are you struggling to engage learners with a fun and immersive computer science curriculum? Do you want to validate your learners’ skills in coding? Minecraft, the bestselling video game of all time, is the perfect way to engage and excite young learners. In this session with Trainer and Mentor Peter Doherty, you will learn how to use Minecraft: Education Edition for an engaging computer science credential program with supporting curriculum. The pathway comprises four courses that develop coding skills in MakeCode, JavaScript and, new for 2020, Python. The courses are standards aligned (CSTA and a Florida Digital Tool Certificate) and easy to teach no matter your coding or computer science experience. Upon completion, students can progress to industry-recognized certifications like Microsoft Technology Associate.
BootUp Your Enrollment: Improve Community Outreach, Generate Departmental Income and Increase Enrollment Organically
BootUp Camps provide high-quality, high-demand workplace skills training to help students obtain industry-recognized certifications and further opportunities, particularly for underserved populations, in high-wage careers. Through community partners, BootUp Camps also seamlessly connect students with resources for academic and career navigation, childcare, and family assistance, and financial support. In this session you will learn how you can use BootUp to get exceptional results with outreach, departmental income and enrollment with Program Chair and Associate Professor Lynn Wilson.
Certiport Technical Session
In this session you will have the opportunity to talk with Josh Sommers, Director of Technical Support and Sales Engineer at Certiport to discuss best practices and any questions you may have regarding Compass – Certiport’s exam delivery platform. Come with questions and leave with solutions on how to make your testing day run smoother.
Engaging Students with Remote Learning
University View Academy has been a fully virtual school for almost 10 years, and they have grown in the number of certifications they have been able to offer students each year. In this session Director of Technology and 6-12 Curriculum Sara Mungall will discuss how University View Academy has been effectively engaging students virtually for years. You’ll also learn their approach for getting students credentialed for success in their careers and beyond.
Preparing Students for Certiport Exams from Home
In this session Business Education Instructor Stacey Ryan will share tips and tricks to prepare students for their at-home certification test and to reduce student test anxiety. You and your students have learned several learning strategies with virtual learning, and some of these strategies may carry over when you get back to in-person learning. To make this transition successful, you need to carefully plan and communicate with students and parents.
Interactive Social Sessions
This year we’re trying something new! Join us for a chance to get together, without worrying about masks or social distancing.
Virtual Escape Room
Join us in this ‘80s-themed escape room where players are teleported into the world of an '80s workout video to solve the disappearance of the video’s main star.
Virtual Trivia
Join us for a virtual “bar trivia” night, where your knowledge will be put to the test.
Beginners’ Hatha Yoga
Experience a meditative practice through the physical body. This class is excellent for beginners who enjoy gentle exercise. Your yoga instructor will guide you through a series of postures that work the spine in every plane of motion and stretch your larger muscle groups. This class will teach you functional alignment and healthy breathing techniques you can take with you off the mat. If you like to move at a slower pace and clear your mind, this class is a great fit for you.
Vinyasa Yoga: All Levels Flow
Vinyasa is the yoga style that is most widely practiced in studios across the U.S. and abroad. It is an active, movement-based class that unites the breath with physical poses to cultivate a meditative state of mind. Your yoga instructor will guide you through a series of postures that improve balance, strength, flexibility, and overall mobility. Modified posture variations will be offered to accommodate all bodies, including how to use props or household prop substitutes. Your yoga instructor will offer wisdom from yoga philosophy to inspire your journey, and you’ll conclude with total stillness and relaxation. This class is perfect for people who like to be active.
Ready for CERTIFIED 2021? Register .