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.!

Now, I'm a real "techie"!

I can't believe the conference is almost over! It's been such a great experience, even though it was somewhat overwhelming at first! Not only have I learned how to incorporate various types of technology (such as Moodle :) into my instruction, but I've also enjoyed getting to talk to and share ideas with several teachers from our Diocese. I've had a lot of fun exploring San Antonio, too! I wish I were staying longer!

P.S. Thanks, Jenn, for creating the title of my post!

ISTE Classroom Observation Tool

I just went to a session on the new ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT). This is a free tool for educators to measure key indicators of tech integration and more. I think this might be helpul to share with principals.

Check it out at: http://icot.craftyspace.com/

Poster Sessions

I spent some time this morning exploring the poster sessions and student showcase. I really enjoyed these and think it is so helpful to talk to the students and teachers who are sharing projects they have done in their classroom. I will post all the ideas that I found to our wiki.
Here are some samples.

Monday @NECC

My first day was full and exhausting. There was so much to take in it was almost overwhelming. I loved it! I started with a class about eMINTS. It's a site I've used for resources before but really didn't know a lot about it. I walked in early and became a student who got to actually do a lesson designed and conducted by a 4th Grade teacher. We had to design an M&M dispenser for space. It was a lot of fun and used a variety of activities. You will definitely want to check out this resource.
My next class was about being a web site detective. It gave great tips and resources to teach students (and adults) about validating a website. I think kids will definitely like the idea of the detective theme. It makes it seem like a game.
Next, I went off to "Put the FUN Back in DysFUNction". Chris O'Neal gave ideas and tips on getting the support you need from different people in our jobs. He suggested doing a Time Assessment with teachers and I thought it might be a good way to start the year of teacher trainings.
Finally, I went to a session on Google Apps. I got some really good info on using Google Gadgets and Google Apps.
We had dinner at Mi Tierra - a Mexican restaurant that was excellent. I especially enjoyed getting to know Michelle, Patty, Karen, Eddie, and Jenn. The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston really has some super teachers. I always enjoy meeting new teachers and getting to know them. I'm just really glad we survived the trolley ride back to the hotel. The driver seemed to be practicing for the Nascar of buses.

Great Day

I had a great day. I went to a session by Tammy Worcester who has published a set of books published by Visions on quick and easy computer activities. Her presentation and books are awesome. I also learned a lot about digital storytelling and how to use Photo Story 3 (a free download) with a microphone to complete the process. You can then put the stories on your classroom website . Google pages is a good program for creating classroom webpages. Next, I went to History Snapshots: Using Digital Phtography in the Classroom. This was a model session. The "students" used a timeline on the Civil Rights Movement to take pictures of each other acting out the events. Then, they inserted them into PowerPoint slides. The handouts for this lesson are at fordhamretc.pbwiki.com. In the next session, I learned about "Tell a story with 5 photos for educators" at Flickr and how to use Voice Thread. I also enjoyed the poster sessions. Michelle Johnson had a lot of neat activities which can be found at http://www.bgreen.kyschools.us/. Another interesting site that I learned about was yoyogames.com where students can create their own online games. Then, I enjoyed an evening of listening to Eddie Anderson's jokes and chatting with Jen, Michelle, Karen, and Wendie.

The phrase of the day is "session full"

So far today I have had three sessions that I have traveled to say "session full" on the door. I thought I was fast but I guess I am not fast enough :) I think there are over 18,000 educators here so that gives everyone a picture of the magnitude of this conference and how fast you have to run to get into sessions! Anything with the words-podcasting, blogging, or Google seem to fill up in minutes. Nevertheless, I did make it to other sessions and have gotten some really great information. I am okay with being shut out the sessions because this conference is great for posting almost everything on-line. I just have to make sure that I make notes to follow-up on those sessions. The other great thing is that there are so many choices- you can always find another one!

I was able to attend a session on Linux thin client servers. I was just interested in getting an overview of this topic. Most of it was way over my head and I realized I need to research the basics of the whole system. We do have a school that is implementing thin clients into their school so I was hoping to get some information to help them. The main idea that I picked up from the presenter is that you really need an expert in Linux to make it work and you need to start identifying teachers that you want to become your "home grown" experts.

More posts to come....

We made it!

Most of us have arrived ( a few more are on the way) in San Antonio. Many of us spent some time exploring San Antonio today and familiaring ourselves with the conference center which is immense. We went over and registered for the conference so we have all the materials and are ready to finalize plans for the Monday sessions.

We also got to to explore the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The Alamo was very interesting and really right in the middle of the city. I took lots of pictures and will post them as soon as I can.

A group of six of us ate at a great Italian resturant on the Riverwalk called Paesanos-delicious and very fun to catch up with everyone!

We are all excited about many sessions that are on the schedule for tomorrow!

Getting ready to go to San Antonio!

The National Educational Computer Conference is only a week away! I am very excited that we are able to have so many teachers attending this year. If you have not already, make sure to check out the conference website. http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/ I plan to spend some time this week picking out some sessions I hope to attend. The conference is so big that I want to make sure that I am really prepared.

I think we have 15 teachers from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston attending! We will be able to gather so much new information and great ideas. I am really hoping this blog will help us record the experience and share it with all of the teachers in the Diocese.

Good luck in preparing and packing for the conference! See you in San Antonio!!!