Tag: ISTE

5 For Friday! Happy 4th!

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So, doing two link-ups today. 1) Big Time Blogging Challenge and 2) Five For Friday with Doodle Bugs!

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Continuing with my ISTE reflection, I thought today would be perfect for 5 people you should follow on Twitter. These are all individuals who I didn’t start following until I attended ISTE. There are so many more, but these are just a select few. Please contact me or see my Twitter page if you are interested in more individuals that I follow. Most are ADE (Apple Distinguished Educators), but they have great tips regardless what device you use!

1) Luis Perez (@_luisfperez) – I was introduced to Luis through Shannon Soger (@shannonsoger), who is a colleague of mine. Luis is an ADE, but one of his passions happens to be accessibility features for the Mac and iPad. I had the opportunity to watch him at the ADE Playground and he blew my mind away with some of the features I wasn’t even aware about. Please check out his site! He even has a book out now called Mobile Learning for All.

2) Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) – I had the honor of seeing Todd present at an ignite session at ISTE. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ignites, these are individuals who are presenting ideas and possibly even programs, but they only have 5 minutes to do so and 20 images. The fun part, is the slides for their presentation aren’t controlled by them, they are automatically timed, so the presenter can’t pause, you just have to keep up. Todd touched on a topic that is very close to my heart and that is passion. He gave his students the task of completing a project at home… well they soon came back and blew him away with the math fair they created. It is a clear image of how students really drive their own education when motivated.

3) GripCase (@Gripcase) – There are so many cases that are out on the market for your mobile devices, but Gripcase has a great message and meaning. Brian, the owner, was introduced to me by Shannon Soger (@shannonsoger) and Sue Gorman (@sjgorman). Over a great conversation at dinner, I got to hear more about their company and the reason for designing their case. Brian originally developed the idea because of his son, who had just received an iPad. So, you know it is durable! They are light, have great handles for kids/adults to grasp, and they have a great BOGO promotion to help other schools. Did I mention, they do a great job of listening to customer feedback to help design the cases based on the needs of their clients…one of those needs being for it to fit in mobile carts!

4) Courtney Pepe (@ipadqueen2012) – an ADE and educator from New Jersey, Courtney was another individual I was lucky to see at the ISTE ignite session. She is very passionate about the integration of technology with education and loves her robotics! She had a great demonstration on the use of her Google Glass with Sphero. Students need to learn how to code!

5) Kathy Schrock (@kathyschrock) – I feel ashamed to admit that I only started following her at ISTE. If you want a queen of technology, Kathy Schrock is surely that with over 38,000 individuals following her on Twitter. If you need some great tech resources, follow her and visit her website! There are too many amazing things about her to write a paragraph out here. ha ha

I hope you enjoyed my 5 for Friday. Again, there are a ton more I could add to my list. There are so many great people I am already following and new individuals I continue to seek out!

Tech Tool Thursday!

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Linking up again, with Michelle from Big Time Literacy, to work on completing the challenge for July. If you have happened to stumble across my blog, take some time to check her’s out. The challenge is very easily laid out if you are new to blogged and need some prompts to start!

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Day #3

Yesterday, I could have easily rambled about my ISTE experience, there is just so much that I want to share. However, I felt that my reflection is best done in separate posts. So, today’s theme, we will call it, “Tech Tool Thursday!” Here are some of my favorite tools that I had learned about while attending ISTE. Some even came from just observing a quick walk-by of a poster session. Feel free to explore and learn yourself!

1. Scoodle Jam – A colleague of mine tweeted this app about about a week or two before I had left for ISTE. Since it was currently free, I figured I would download it, but hadn’t had the chance to check it out. Well, for my luck, there was a BYOD workshop I was able to attend covering the aspects of this app. To state it briefly, thing of Scoodle Jam as a white board app, however it isn’t just any white board app. It comes with preloaded graphic organizers, stickers, text options and themes that your students can get creative with. This can be used with project based learning and it even has some lessons already built in with manuals for teachers! One of the best features….students can connect with each other via their device and collaborate together! I can’t mention enough, the GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS!

2. Evernote Clearly – A great little tool I learned from stopping by a Google Session. Imagine assigning your students an article or a project that requires research, only problem…the article is too difficult. Maybe it is a lower reader, an ELL student, an IEP student, or just someone that is too overwhelmed by research and doesn’t know where to look. Well, Evernote Clearly will easily take out that distraction and reveal the main context clearly! It even offers some customizing options for the display of the text. Check it out!

3. Pantomine 3D – I have been a tad obsessed with Augmented Reality this past year. Really trying to learn as much as I can about how to use it in the classroom. While being lucky enough to attend a dinner for @Gripcase with @sjgorman, @shannonSoger, all amazing handles to follow on Twitter by the way, I was introduced to the developer, David. A true amazing man. I can’t even put into words about how fascinating he truly is. Honestly, check the app out. It will blow your mind away!

There are a ton more that I could add…but I will give you three of them for Day #3! 🙂

Big Time Blogging Challenge

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Good evening everyone! I’m linking up with Big Time Literacy to join her/our district blogging challenge for July. After recently attending ISTE, still trying to process everything, I found myself constantly telling others that I wish I would take them time to be a more regular blogger. Then, I saw this challenge come through on our district email while I was in Atlanta. I knew I would be a day late starting, but had to dive in. Hopefully I can keep up!

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For my first few posts of the blogging challenge, I really want to use this time to reflect on my first experience at ISTE. I was very lucky to have the opportunity, and boy, was the experience mind boggling. I learned so many things, met such great people, and also took a lot of time to reflect on my own teaching practice and how awesome the teachers in our district are. 
Having previously attended our local ICE conference in Illinois, I thought I was pretty prepared and ontop of things. I read many blogs before heading to ISTE, writing my schedule on paper and narrowing my “must see” sessions down. Well, after day one that schedule was tossed out the window. 
So today’s topic….planning for ISTE and the advice I could give a newbe who hopes to attend in Philly next year.  Here are my top 10 tips on prepping!
1. Definitely review the sessions that will be offered at free conferences, jot them down and get an idea of what you want to see. 
2. Even though you have ideas, go into the conference with a clear slate. Accept that your plans may change and that is ok. 
3. Be prepared to meet lots of people! Have your twitter handle ready! I noticed many individuals were passing out business cards, but maybe even print a QR code that other attendees can scan with your contact info to save on paper cards. 
4. Bring clothes that are comfortable! It isn’t a dressing conference by any means. As teachers, we stand on our feet all day, but my legs/knees were killing me after the first day. 
5. Have a comfortable tech bag. I didn’t know what to expect and lugged my computer and iPad around on the first day in a shoulder bag. My shoulder was red by the end of the day and extremely sore….I didn’t open my computer once! So, bring with you to the conference only what you need for that day. 
6. Have snacks! Many days I forgot to eat because I was so excited and trying to see as much as I could. This often left me in many long lines that  would take at least 30 minutes to get a coffee and a muffin from Starbucks.
7. Do download the ISTE App or any conference app that is available. Star your favorite sessions. This makes it easier to hop to sessions you had in mind if you switch or a room is full. 
8. Plan your hotels/transport in a good location. If you aren’t close to home, get a hotel in a good central location. Some of the hotels even had shuttles, but otherwise you spend a fortune in cabs if you are on the outskirts. That can make it hard to share a cab with anyone at the evening events. However, I was introduced to Uber for the very first time! I had heard of it, but never tried it.
9.  Be prepared to be overwhelmed. Have a strategy down to collect notes. I found it easy to scan QR codes and then save them into a file each day in my QR reader. Some teachers wrote notes, others typed them on a device. So, have an organizational plan that fits you!
10. Don’t pack too much! Only bring what you need and leave room for goodies. You will definitely find yourself shopping the ISTE swag stand, local city merch for souvenirs, or the goodies that get passed out in the exhibitors hallway. My goal was not to check luggage in, and I managed, but it was a tight fit. ha ha

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