Mark your calendars-NECC 2009

The NECC conference is in Washington, DC next summer which is great news for us. With it being so close, maybe more teachers will have the opportunity to attend and experience the excitement of this conference. Start looking into funding as soon as you get into school! I think all of us can attest to the fact that this conference is well worth the money. It is a valuable experience that will effect all of our work in the upcoming school year. Mark your calendars! Remember if you know early that you can go, you can get the hotels right next to the convention center which is very convenient. The lodging window usually opens in Oct or November.

Finally Blogging (just a little late)

Finally am able to get onto our blog....had troubles from the hotel and was too tired yesterday to even think about it.....what a great experience the conference was!!! I attended 14 different sessions which didn't leave much time to check out the exhibitors. Next time I think that I'll be more selective in what I attend.

The absolute BEST sessions were on the SMART board - presented by Bret Gensburg. Check out his web site at: www.eagleti.com He said that he will have info up by this weekend. We have e-mailed back and forth a couple of times and believe it or not, he was really sick for his presentations on Wed....image his presentations when he is well!

Will include more info as I get it all sorted....what a great week!!!!

FOOD

Okay……if you know me, you know that I love food as much as I love technology. Just like technology, I believe that food should be seamlessly integrated into everything. So, I have to put at least one post about the food we got to eat in San Antonio. All of our meals were so delicious! I think it is safe to say that we all enjoyed our dinners out! Italian, Mexican, and Texas bistro -YUMMY!

Homemade Guacamole and ChipsOn the last evening we were able to share a great meal and discuss the conference and all of the exciting ideas we were gathering. Check out the pictures of some of the food I got to eat. You might want to go get a snack before you look at these pictures- they will make you really hungry!

SWEET TEA

Tuna Steak

Podcasting-Become a "legal" podcaster in 55 min

There were many sessions about podcasting throughout the conference. Most of these were full by the time I made it there (infamous-“session full”) but I lucked out on the today…maybe because it is the last day. I went to a great quick and easy session on podcasting. It was “Become a legal podcaster in 55 minutes”. It was great because it was an easy introduction that included a great hands-on activity. The most helpful part of the session was the information on free music and other files that you can use legally. I will post all of the handouts and links on the wiki. I think a lot of this will be very helpful to everyone who wants to try podcasting!

Found: Great Smart Board Presenter

Michelle, Wendie, and Karen went to a great workshop about Smart Boards with a dynamic speaker. He was so good they said they were going back for his second session. I was intrigued and wanted to see him too, so I went to the second session. He was a fantastic presenter with so much energy. He showed many concrete examples for using the Smart Board in the classrooms as well as suggesting ways to save time (always a plus!). I really want to get him to come do some training with the target teachers or even maybe at our fall teacher’s in-service. I think we all felt he would be a great motivating speaker who could teach us so much about using the SMART board smarter.

The Exhibit Hall

The best word for the exhibit hall is-WOW! The room went on and on and was filled with as many vendors as you can imagine, I think everyone really found it to be very overwhelming at first but as you started wandering around you narrowed down the booths that you wanted to stop by and visit. I know many of the teachers got a bunch of free items-flash drives, t-shirts, pens, and more! Companies were having many promotions. For example, SMART was giving away T-shirts and if you wore it you could get a chance to win a free SMART board. This year I did not spend that much time in the exhibit hall. I know many teachers commented on the great hands-on sessions that were in the exhibits hall put on by the vendors. You could have spent an entire day just in the exhibit hall. Here is a video clip that gives you a view of the exhibit hall.

Tuesday @NECC

Today didn't seem to be as great. The first few sessions were not as interesting as I'd hoped. The highlight was the last session titled "The Price is Right" and was all about free stuff on the web. I can't wait to explore some of the tools I heard about. Be sure to check out our Wiki with all the resources we've collected.
Dinner tonight was fun. After some really good food, we took a boat ride on the River Walk and did a little shopping. It's been such a fun trip, I wish it lasted a little longer. I can't wait for NECC 2009 in Washington, D.C.!