ISTE 2018 Resources and Reflections

I've been back from ISTE for a week now and *almost* had enough time to reflect on the experience.

 It was a very busy few days, but it is still one of my favorites! Chicago was fun. It wasn't my favorite conference set up, but the non-conference food/fun was top notch.

We started with the pre-conference Seesaw Connect event. The opening Ignite Sessions were great and we made some great connections. Cara and I added several ideas from the opening session to our annual plane ride home list of ideas. (More on that later!)

If I present a session, my school will let me attend the conference. Knowing the ISTE conference acceptance rates I decided to submit multiple proposals. As luck would have it, all my proposals were accepted. It made for a hectic few days!

(Photo credit to @madbenjenmar)

Cara posted the link to resources from our AR + Green Screen = App Smashing Success session on her new blog. Be sure to check it out!

She also made this video for our session. It gives an overview of two of my favorite STEAM projects and collaborations.

I finished off Monday afternoon at the Tynker booth and then at the Google Teacher Lounge.

Here is the Tynker and Google Classroom: A Perfect Match! presentation I did with Daniel Rezac. Google had someone sketchnote each of the session in the Google Teacher Lounge. Post conference Google for Edu has been sharing a few of the sketchnotes on Facebook and Twitter each day. I cannot wait to see the sketch from my session!

Debbie and I presented Special Project Enrichment Courses: Giving Elementary Students a Choice in Learning on Tuesday. The resources are available here. After that poster I ran into Leslie Fisher in the bathroom. I overheard her talking about the next session she was presenting. I was disappointed that I didn't make it to any of her sessions this year due to my schedule, but I sent Debbie. Wouldn't you know it, she shared a good music resource for the session I recommended to our music teacher. 🎶

I had only 30 minutes between poster sessions. I was exhausted after 4+ hours on my feet, but I met some wonderful people. STEAM in Action is always one of my favorites to present.

I have to say one of my highlights was getting to see Nicole Rubin present during the Young Educators Ignite Session. This is just the first few seconds of her Ignite. I was in charge of recording and got a notification on my iPad that covered the time stamp at the top. I panicked and thought it was not recording when in fact it was recording. Oops! So for now the video is in two parts. Sorry Nicole!

I spent most of my time presenting and did not make it to many sessions, but I still have a list of takeaways. Last year Cara and I planned all the LEGO SPEC courses that we then presented this year. Here are our second annual ISTE reflections.

Links mentioned: 

Googsmacked  * Flipgrid * Merge Cube * Ozobot Certified Educator * LEGO Master Teacher * Certified BrainPOP Educator Program * Embed Code in Book Creator

Links mentioned:

TAG - Seesaw Ignite by Sophia Garcia Smith

Links mentioned:

Wonder Projects - Seesaw Ignite from Michelle Flicek

Everyday Excellence - Seesaw Ignite from Andy Leiser 

We also wrote out two pages of plans for our next big project ideas, but those aren't ready to share yet. Hopefully those will be blog posts of their own in the next year.

Another of my favorite parts of ISTE is meeting people and making connections. This year I got to meet some of my favorites IRL.

I've become a big fan of the #ShukesandGiff podcast.  I was the one that took this picture for them at their poster. I may have geeked out about about meeting them. I'm still disappointed I missed their Ignite sessions, but I think the idea behind their poster session may be a good fit for my school. We've been talking about documenting/sharing what we do using Google sites and their district has done a great job of doing just that.

I've long admired the projects that Tricia Fuglestad has shared on Twitter. I was thrilled when I got to talk to her at our AR + Green Screen poster. She even posted about one of my projects in her Ten Takeaways from #ISTE18 blog post. I have already tried out her idea for drawing with Keynote for iPad. I also have plans this summer to try out the DoInk Animation app. My 8-year-old has seen me playing with both of these tools and is begging to have a turn.

It was a busy few days, but I loved it. I've made new connections and am already making plans for next year!

ISTE 2018

It is just after midnight and I should be in bed, but I'm at ISTE! I just finished putting the final touches on the poster I am presenting with Cara tomorrow. No matter how early we start we always seem to find ourselves making last minute additions and tweaks the night before. I love working with her.

I actually have FIVE presentations scheduled in the next two days. This is what happens when you put in extra proposals to be sure that you will be selected to attend the conference. I'm excited to get to share my ideas with like minded educators.

If you are at ISTE, be sure to stop by and say hi! If not, I will be posting links to resources as soon as the conference is over and I can catch my breath!

ISTE 2017

I am so excited to be back at ISTE this year! Last time I was at ISTE I was 8 month pregnant. I'm excited to have a little more energy and many more friends with me with time!

Today I am presenting a 15 minute mini session at the Tynker Booth.  They asked the Tynker  Blue Ribbon Educators to sign up to do this so I figured I could talk about using "Using Tynker and PBS LearningMedia to go Beyond Hour of Code."

They've created this Tweetcard for the conference.

I'm honored to be included in such a group! If you are at ISTE you can sign up here for any of the session: bit.ly/2t4Fg1g

I'm also presenting a poster with the very talented Cara Pavek on Tuesday. We were up late last night preparing our poster.

 We present our poster on using green screen with augmented reality on Tuesday from 4-6.  We will be working again tonight to get the finishing touches just right, but we are still having a great time!

Summer Days

The school year ended and I went right into summer camp. I've taught drama at the enrichment camp at my school for about 7 years now. I've always done half days, but this summer I was able to pick up mornings teaching STEAM as well. It is laid back and fun, but working 8-5 each day at 6 months pregnant is hard. The extra money will allow me to extend my maternity leave in the fall though, so it is more than worth it!

My oldest starts kindergarten in the fall. She is at camp with me this summer and loving every minute of it! I actually stayed home today because her younger brother was sick. I finally had time to look at the presenter details for ISTE. I had no idea the poster area would be so large! I've done both these presentations at other conferences, but now that school is out I need work on updating and final touches. I'm really looking forward to the conference!

I also have wrap up posts planned for this week. I have neglected my blog in all the craziness of this school year, but there were several projects that I really want to share.

I hope your summer is going well!

Wrapping up 2014

I'm sitting on the couch watching my Arkansas Razorbacks in the Texas Bowl. It is the first time this since school let out that I've pulled out my laptop and done anything at all work related. Even then, it is mostly fun and not "work." I have stopped by my classroom a few times, but only to feed the fish and water our seedlings. Newspaper pots, anyone?

My husband and I splurged a few days before Christmas. We hired "The Maids" to come in and deep clean the house. It had to be one of my very best ideas ever. After that, I declared this to be the Christmas of no mess and no stress. Amazingly enough, it actually worked. I'm considering making 2015 the year of no stress and no mess. We'll see how it goes!

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you saw my big news.

I'm still in shock! I submitted two proposals for ISTE 2015. My goal was to try for a poster session so that I could just attend the conference. My husband said that I was selling myself short. To humor him, I submitted a modified version of the session I did at the NCTM regional conference. On the day that resulted were announced, I had my Tweetdeck open and waiting for word that the notifications had been sent out. I was so sure that I was going to get a rejections that I didn't add to the "still waiting to hear" posts. I logged in to my account at 8pm to see that both proposals were accepted. I was left flabbergasted!

Before then, of course is FETC. I had an amazing time last year. If you are going to FETC, so sure to check out this post. I first learned about the PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator program at a session at FETC. If you are a teacher that is passionate about using technology in the classroom, I would highly recommend looking into this program.

Happy New Year! My the rest of your break have no mess and no stress!