Post #ISTE13

What an amazing, exciting, and overwhelming conference. ISTE was everything that I had hoped for!  So many great stories, experiences, resources, and ideas were shared that I will be able to write several blogs posts about everything that I learned.

But I'm to impatient, so I have put together my top 10 list of #iste13

 
10. When at the airport to come home, I checked my school email and found that one of my coworkers had started creating flipped videos with a green screen. Not only was he making them but he offered to help any coworkers who were interested in the process.


9. All of the free resources and swag that I got from the Vendors in the exhibit hall. Several pieces will become prizes for our inservice sessions! (Get excited SJA teachers!)

8. The session Amplifying Social Media with students. The presenters had so many great ideas for school wide twitter activity and backchanneling that I have several ideas for implicating into my own classroom.

7. All of the new Web 2.0 tools that I learned. These are great tools to help students achieve the learning they desire and quite frankly the learning that they are capable of achieving.

6. Twitter! Oh my goodness there was such much on twitter that it will take me a while to sort through the archives to see all of the amazing resources, pedagogy, and quotes that were shared the past several days. So many people to follow and learn from!  Over 400,00 tweets using the #iste13 hashtag.

5. The over all theme that technology is a tool or a car to help students learn. You have to have authentic learning and projects that relate to the students lives otherwise the technology doesn't matter because they aren't going to be learning.

4. Unrelated to ISTE, but I have family in the nearby San Antonio Area that I haven't seen in over 5 years that drove 2.5 hours just to have dinner with me and catch up. It was a fantastic away from technology and connectivity for a few hours and have that face to face interaction.

3. ISTE NETS*C session on the standards for Technology Coaches. I am a technology coach for SJA and these standards and the resources that they provided will truly help me professionally and teachers in the years to come.

2. Adam Bellow's closing keynote. Real, honest, inspiring and such an awesome way to close a fantastic conference. I am already looking forward to re-watching his keynote and sharing it with my staff at inservice in August.

1. Learning. I strive to be a lifelong learner and always want to learn. The fact that I got to go and learn new information for 4 days was amazing and something that will benefit me for years to come.

Pre - ISTE Blog

I can't believe that this is really happening. After years of researching and drooling over the ISTE conference, I am on a plane going to San Antonio for the ISTE conference. I couldn't be more excited ( ok, quite frankly, overwhelmed!). I have read blog after blog for tips and tricks of what to do and what not to do, that I think I am ready. But are you ever really ready for a educational technology conference with 18,000 people?

I have a few goals that I hope to accomplish while attending ISTE 2013.

1. SCHOOL: St. James Academy loves iMovie, honestly, what's not to love? You can create, act, and edit video for a great finished product. But as we all know, too much of a good thing is not good. We use them all of the time, and they are becoming the norm instead of the exception. Find a comparable program or project type to access the same higher levels thinking skills but in a different way.
2. SCHOOL: This is my third year as a technology coach at SJA and I haven't accomplished many of the goals that I set for myself three years ago. Find or learn about a tool or resource that I can take back to help me show my coworkers what I can help them with in their classrooms.
3. SCHOOL: A couple of years ago, I attended a smaller technology conference called MACE and learned about a classroom blog. I thought that it was a great thing for student who are absent, especially in mathematics but I have never tried it or really knew how to get started or how to implement. Find examples of high school classrooms and learn about how to get started and do's and not do's.
4. PERSONAL: Be a sponge! With this being my first ISTE conference, I really have no idea of how much I am going to learn. I know that it is going to be a lot of info. Find 2 things that I can try/use within my own classes in the upcoming school year. (I know that I will find way more than 2!)

Another goal is to keep this blog current throughout the conference and even after! The best resources to an educator are the tips and tricks learned by other educators in the field. I want to make a contribution (no matter how small) to a field that I love am and am passionate about!

If this is your first time going to ISTE (and even if it's not) what are you most looking forward to?