ISTE11 Day Three Recap

Okay ISTE world.  I'm a very tired girl tonight.  I spent most of the day in the Exhibitors Hall.  But I promise I will blog out my notes soon... if anyone cares.

But this evening we had a blast with Young Educator Network colleagues.  Thanks for throwing a great party.

Then we moved onto the Edtech Karaoke tonight.  Another great time.  Loved singing along (quietly under the Pub's noisy din) from the comfort of the great table that Dawn found us.

Okay off to hang out with the girls for the night.  Hope everyone is enjoying their evening.

ISTE11 Day One Recap

Well today officially began the ISTE2011 conference.  Guess it was the sense of excitement.  We woke earlier than expected.  Got dressed faster than expected.  Had a lovely walk to the conference center (when you know where you are going it is amazing how much faster you get there...)

So we had time to organize our thoughts and schedules before things got under way.  The official kickoff began with an interesting accapella group, Broad Street Line.  An inspiring video was played, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqDigEggJkw.

Several ISTE awards were presented and distinguished educators were honored.  NYDEN friends were among those honored.  Adam Bellow received the Outstanding Young Educator Network Award.  Both Adam and Peggy Sheehy addressed the assembled educators.  Peggy suggested perhaps the unconventional has now become the conventional (love that) and that perhaps education needs an overhaul from within the system.  During one of the slides that flashed we recognized the NYDENLC's own Lisa Parisi and Christine Southard.

Amazingly the Kickoff was archived so we can revisit it and review later.  You can view the video on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moUDZfpK_Go posted by Istevideos.

I learned about some new resources to explore when I return.  These include Alice.org, Jason Project (remember this from the past but need to revisit), Storify.com, and Istelearning.org, and an application called Doodle.  I can't wait to experiment.



Recently, back at school, I received some hits on my Where's George? Project (http://wheresgeorge.com).  I can't wait to share this information next year with our students and continue plotting our monetary adventures.  Think I may need to put a few into circulation here in Philadelphia and see what happens over the summer.  Naturally, while touring the Liberty Bell I had to ask to have this photograph taken for use in September with our students.

We spent the afternoon connecting, reflecting, and exploring in Philadelphia.  After much deliberation on a location for dinner we located an adorable French Cheese-shop/restaurant.  Loved this place!  What a perfect ending to a great day! ;)

Goodnight, everyone! Rest up for Day Two of #ISTE11...

ISTE Arrival

So after taking several scenic tours to arrive here, we are at the ISTE conference.  The hotel where we are staying is lovely.  Thank goodness for technology.  A few mouse clicks and here we are in a great hotel sight-unseen that caters to business types that need extended stays in the city.  You enter the elevator in the lobby and the pink lighting hits you with a reminiscent glow of Sex in the City.

Gathered this evening for good conversation and an enjoyable meal with colleagues at the Hard Rock Cafe.  One of the great things about ISTE is the ability to socialize as well as network and learn.

We have our Google calendars all synced.  We have our Google Docs already to go for note-taking and sharing. Phone is charging.  ISTE mobile app installed.  Weeded through all the vendor promotions and invitations.  Ready for tomorrow...

Not the Pink Bunny Today

A colleague confided in me yesterday, "I feel like I am back in college cramming.  So much to get done and no time to do it." I have always been a multi-tasker.  But lately, even I have been staggered by the amount of balls I have been keeping in the air.  Video editing, data analysis, report card assistance, summer preparation, inventories, supply orders, and more.  I am sure many of you can relate.  It seems an epidemic these days:

• Humans just don't come equipped with enough hands.  
• The clock doesn't come equipped with enough hours.
• The calendar doesn't come equipped with enough days.

As I glance at my calendar, I can't believe we are almost ready to head to ISTE2011.  My mailbox certainly knows it is time to prepare for ISTE.  All the invitations, flyers, coupons, visit our booth procrastination and more.  I've setup a Google doc to keep track of all the things that seem interesting.  I've setup a Google calendar to cross reference all the possible invitations and commitments I would like to keep. I am energized by all the Twitter, Facebook, Blog, and Email correspondence that people are sending regarding this phase of anticipation. 

But today, I am able to blog because although I usually am the little pink bunny that goes, and goes.  Today, I am done.  I'm a firm believer in avoiding TMI so I will just succinctly say... I ate the wrong thing somewhere along the way and am on a sick day today.  The little pink bunny can no longer run on battery today.  She needs to be plugged into the A/C outlet to recharge a little. 

Surely, tomorrow I will be back at it.  Reading the ISTE community pages (http://www.iste2011.org/), sorting through the emails and mailers, connecting with my PLN, and preparing for the upcoming summer fun.  But today...not feeling like that little pink bunny.

Celebration of Teaching and Learning

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend The Celebration of Teaching and Learning in New York City today.  Thank you Discovery and WNET!  The day started off slowly for me.  Frustrations mounted (found out it is a perigee moon out there).  Cell phone never charged last night.  2 brand new pens, straight of the box wouldn’t write. Any wonder I shop at the dollar stores.  Pay full price… doesn’t work… Pay only a dollar… love them!  Tried to take photographs from the event.  Bad lighting for my camera.  Everything came out all shaky. Attended a session that addressed interactivity but presented static black text on a white background research.  Teach what you preach and preach what you teach!

But the day finally picked up speed for me after lunch.  I attended a great session on using visual news articles for education.  Made some great connections on the exhibitor’s floor.  Skype possibilities opened up.  Great tools to bring back to my colleagues.  Then a wonderful panel discussion hosted by a moderator who seemed to make strategic pointed comments that support teachers and challenged the current frictions we experience in the media.

Despite some earlier frustrations the day was a wonderful experience for me.

Here are just some of the tools I walked away with adding to my personal teacher trainer kit:

Today’s Wonderful Resources:

• Arkive – Archive of conservation for endangered species (videos, photos, and factual information) Copyright cleared for use in educational projects. (Free)

http://www.arkive.org

• Thinkfinity Community – Take thinkfinity resources and pair them with a forum that can be created (for free) to discuss Thinkfinity Lessons and application. We can set up our own group for teachers in our districts

http://community.thinkfinity.org

This is a sample of a group created for New York (http://community.thinkfinity.org/groups/new-york-thinkfinity-community) But similar forums can be setup for other groups using the free hosted corner on the Thinkfinity Portal.

• The.News – Online news articles, videos, and transcripts from MacNeil / Lehrer Productions hosted in the cloud. Created for Middle and High School. But as discussed definite application in 5^th grade. (Free)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/

• Cloud computing – Edit the MacNeil video clips in a secure mashup with moderation in the tool You.Edit (Free) http://pbs.realitydigital.net/remixer.aspx

• Sesame Street Online – Besides pbskids.org there is alsohttp://www.sesamestreet.org/. Online games, videos, and tools for early learners. They are interested in suggestions from teachers (Free) (teachers@sesame.org)

• Larry Bell’s 12 Powerful Words – Interesting PD concept. Larry Bell identified 12 powerful words that appear in standardized testing questions. If we implement these now in class instruction students will be better prepared for future standardized test reading. http://www.sbcusd.k12.ca.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=11574

• Brainpop For Educators – Join with other teachers using Brainpop resources to collaborate and share ideas. Lesson plans, graphic organizers, quizzes, and more. (Free) Each teacher can sign up for their own account.http://www.brainpop.com/educators/blog/

I hope they will be issuing archives later of some of these sessions.  Today was just fabulous.  Very tired.  Very inspired.  Very excited for tomorrow (The Celebration of Teaching and Learning Day 2) and tomorrow (our near future in education).

http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/neene

On August 24, 2010 an exciting day was provided to New York area educators. Back-To-School Day of Discovery at Cablevision's Headquarters in Bethpage, NY was a partnership between Discovery Education, Cablevision Power to Learn, The Science Channel HD, and MSG Varsity. Steve Dembo was the keynote. Several of the NY DEN Leadership Council were on hand and/or presented.

During the day's festivities, I presented two sessions Fly with Your Students – Discovery Education and Google Earth. You may be interested in the following resources created for the event:

• Presentation PDF
• Google Earth Directions
• Links

It was such a pleasure to connect the dots with so many interested educators. Considering this event was held in the summer I am impressed with the turn out. As always a learned a great deal from listening to Steve Dembo (@teach42). I had listened to him present on the same topic before but every time you walk away with something new. I love that no two Dembo presentations are exactly the same. I strive to be a snowflake educator. It will be one of my goals this year. To as the actress Mo'Nique said last night "be a work of art" not a "piece of work". I hope to help the staff that I work with to use Google Earth to engage learners more this year.

I am grateful for my interactions with the DEN. Thank you for helping me to grow my PLN. I look forward to all the new tools I have to bring to my work in a few weeks.

Special thank you to the kind participant who took some photos of me presenting. Usually the members of the New York DEN Leadership Council take turns photographing each other during presentations for the archive. Unfortunately those NYDENLC members present were all involved in activities today.

Unconference Format

Just attended a really cool event planned at #DENLC10.  It was termed an "unconference".  Instead of top down... here this is today's agenda the participants tossed out ideas.  Individual passions uncovered today's mutual passions and discussions.  It was an incredible experience to be a part of.  Last night people threw out ideas.  Someone's comment sparked my own thought "How can I better utilize inexpensive MP3 players in the classroom?".  I decided to stand up and be counted and offer the suggestion to the group.  There were a few nods and so it was.  Then today we broke up into several sessions and discussed our topics.  I enjoyed all three topics that I was a part of today.  But I am so impressed by the communal knowledge that came for from today's exercise.  We created a google doc http://tinyurl.com/NYDENLC10MP3 where we all collected information regarding the use of mp3 players in the classroom.  The amount of resources and ideas that were brought about I am just so impressed by.  Thank you to all those who participated in RL and virtually!