At the end of the school year, my son came home with a project. He
was asked to design and teach a lesson to his kindergarten class.
We spent time talking about the things he knows a lot about. My
son knows a lot more about the sun than the average kindergarten
student. I'm not talking about facts like the size or temperature. He
has to apply sunscreen 30 minutes before he goes outside, wear a hat,
and wear long sleeves daily to keep his body safe. He is very sensitive
to ultra violet rays.
Together, we worked on a book
writing project. He read the story to his class and created uv bracelet
kits to try out a few challenges with his classmates.
Here is his book, The Sun, on iTunes.
Here is his book, The Sun, in BookCreator On-Line.
During
the summer, Kirsten and I shared the process of publishing student
created books with the Book Creator App. You can view our examples and
others that we discovered while preparing for our session. You'll also
find a collaborative book that was created by our teachers during the
session. They are so talented!
This summer I had the opportunity to teach and learn at the EPISD Blended Learning Conference. Blended learning is a blend of face to face and on-line learning that allows students some control of the time and place, their learning path and pace. Essentially, if you begin small, blended learning can give a teacher more time for small group targeted instruction, allow for personalized instruction, can foster student agency, and the opportunity for students to have authentic audiences.
Catlin Tucker was the Keynote for our district Blended Learning Conference, organized by the Instructional Technology Team. We were so excited to have her, because she relates well with teachers. She is a teacher!
Catlin Tucker agreed to meet up for an on-line interview. We shared a few of the videos with teachers leading up to our conference to create a little excitement about her visit to EPISD. I've linked them below.
I've challenged myself to Sketchnote this year. Taking the time to go back to my notes and finish up a Sketchnote after a Keynote has been a great way for me to review and organize my thoughts. Here is the Sketchnote I created after listening to Catlin Tucker inspire our teachers.
I haven't published a blog post for a very long time. I don't want to make excuses, but life happened. There were so many other
commitments that began to take priority. I will not apologize for taking
care of my family first. I've climbed to the top of the mountain and
things are looking pretty great from here. It's exciting.
I've really missed blogging about the things that are happening in my technology integration world. During my time away, I've encouraged great teachers to blog and share what they are doing in the classroom. Teachers have amazing ideas and the world should know about them! I made a deal with one amazing teacher, I will blog if you will. She did!
This teacher shared a blog post with me over spring break, Blank Pages, by @TechNinjaTodd. You should read it. It's our "get back into blogging" inspiration from Todd Nesloney. I want to share what inspires me and what frustrates me. I want to keep learning and striving to improve. When things do not work out as planned, I want to be human and share the experience and what I've learned.
Recently, a teacher and Todd inspired me to return to blogging. Who inspires you to blog or want to begin a blog?
I've been wanting to learn more about coding in elementary school and introducing teachers in my area to integrate robotics in the curriculum and during the school day. I'm loving code.org and feel like I'm am only in the beginning phase of exploring and learning. My goal is to work with the Wonder Robots and turn around sessions to share with my area TCEA Community and spread awareness in my school district and surrounding districts.
Most of the time, the extra learning has to happen at home. I really don't mind when learning is this much fun and includes bonding with my children.
I've spent two short time frames over the last two weeks working with my 4 yo son. We've been using the Go and Path App. So far, I think they are great for pre-readers. It is visual and enjoyable for a child to explore.
I will document our learning here in my blog as I continue to explore and learn. Here is the first video that shares my son's trouble shooting and first challenge with Dash.
I'm enjoying a few days of learning at TCEA's Tots and Technology. Here are my take aways, from a coding beginner and the resources I collected from TCEA Tots and Technology. Getting Started
I've decided to get started with coding at home with my children. We've enjoyed the board game, Robot Turtles and several iPad Apps. Robot Turtles is a great way to get started with coding in an analog way. My children enjoy making sound effects as we play. Their favorite beginning coding app is My Robot Friend by Leapster. I like it because there is room for four profiles. This means, I get to learn without affecting their progress.
Hour of Code
I attended a 6 hour session called "Building a STEM Foundation for Elementary Students."
It was a great session for teachers that are coding beginners, like me. We spent a lot of time learning about the Hour of Code and using code.org in the classroom.
I had heard about code.org, but I was not aware of all of the lessons that were available through the training. In the workshop, I received great "unplugged" lessons that I can use when teaching students and teachers. These lessons introduced coding vocabulary and really made the concept of coding easy to understand. I was most impressed that a lot of those lessons were analog and just plain fun.
I spent time hands-on, learning how to code by playing a lot of the coding puzzles that students could solve while learning to code.
If you are getting started with coding as a teacher, you should create an account in Code.org and get started. It's also okay if you do not know much about coding. We can learn and it's okay it we learn along with or from our students. ;)
Taking it Beyond
I attended another session at #tceatots called "Robotics on the Cheap," with Jered Martinez. This session focused on inexpensive ways to code and was at a higher level. Here is the sketch note Jered created to start us off. My additions are not as fancy. :)
Jered Martinez created this to start us off, I added my notes at the bottom center.
I learned about brush bots, little robots made out of inexpensive parts that can be purchased at Radio Shack. I can't wait to gather the materials and create a fun, home, problem solving project to learn with my kids at home. I also quickly created my account in Tynker and Scratch to begin coding. The neatest thing I learned is that Scratch is open source and the code that is written there can be used to program Raspberry Pi. For example, check out 25 fun things you can do with Raspberry Pie from CNET. A participant in the session shared Code Combat as a more advanced coding program.
I think I'm ready to continue learning. After I build up my basics in code.org, playing Robot Turtles with my kids, and enjoying a few coding apps when I have time, I'll move up the coding ladder. It's exciting to think about the possibilities and what I can create if I learn to code. Imagine how much it will help our PreK-12th graders if we give them all the same opportunity. After all, they need to be prepared for today's world and coding is apart of it now.
The past two weeks, I've had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Will on Saturday Morning. I've enjoyed connecting to share my experiences and to learn more about his experiences as an Instructional Technologist.
Dr. Will asked me to be on his Show for an episode called "So You Want to Be an Instructional Technology Specialist."
I have been so excited about the free interactive books for the iPad that Collins Big Cat provides for our early readers. These are more than just books that read out loud. Students will enjoy the activities. There is even a story creator with the ability to record audio to tell your story.
I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary. I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district. I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past. I felt like I needed to create something that would apply to my early elementary teachers. I collected examples of real student work and looked at some old ways I had seen Pre-K and K teachers using technology and added a few other ideas that I didn't see happening often in classrooms.
The most important part of our presentation was talking about good quality lessons that teachers use to check for understanding and relating SAMR to what prek and kinder teachers do in the classroom.
The teachers on our team challenged me to create the presentation in
Nearpod to teach teachers about this awesome tool without directly
teaching them about the tool. It worked out really well, teachers
enjoyed interacting during our session. The slide show was our Plan B.
We used apps in our SAMR presentation that teachers would use in hands-on workshops taught by teachers on our curriculum writing team during the afternoon sessions. I made sure to share the lesson ideas as we talked about where they fit in SAMR.
What's even more awesome is, teachers decided they'd like to help me develop our own Pre-K and Kinder Padagogy Wheel similar to the one created by Allan Carrington, because we couldn't find one that would relate to early elementary. I can't wait to collaborate with teachers in our district to do this.
I've been working with a group of AMAZING pre-k through 2nd grade teachers to design technology integrated lessons that are aligned with core curriculum. Shadow Puppet EDU has been one of my favorite apps since the day I discovered it. It's an app that can be used for any content.
Here is an example of what a 4 year old can create with Shadow Puppet. This student illustrated the parts of a plant with another app and used Shadow Puppet to share what he learned.
One of the key pieces of our meetings is to really evaluate all of the apps we will be recommending. We want to answer the questions we know every teacher will ask us. It's important to do this before the pre-k and kinder teachers on our title elementary schools become part of a beautiful iPad roll out. We want them to be just as excited as we are about the learning that will take place.
"Can we turn off the web image search in Shadow Puppet?" asked a teacher in our meeting. Since we are planning on creating with Pre-K students, I don't know why I've never asked that question myself. She looked into the settings and there it was! Beautiful, the answer to all of our pre-k and kindergarten worries. A teacher can turn off the web search when students are working independently to share what they have learned. A teacher can enable the web search for guided or modeled searches as
early learners are introduced to digital citizenship and searching
on-line.
I love that the creators of Shadow Puppet EDU have thought of everything. You can undo a recording per page, re-record the whole thing, you can share easily, and even share with parents using their SeeSaw Class and SeeSaw Parent App.
How To-
1. Go to the settings app on your iPad
2. Scroll down till you find the Shadow Puppet App Icon and click on it.
3. Disable the web image search and/or the Edu image search if needed.
I've had a lot of teachers asking me to share my favorite eBookresourcesfor elementary students with them. I hope you love them as much as I do!
1. Starring You Story Books
for the iPad or Starring You Story Books on the computer- Make your students the main character of the most entertaining stories
ever! Teachers will enjoy reading these stories to their students. If
you are a teacher, you can apply for free access to Storybots learning resources! Apply now, it's a must! Triple YAY!!!!
2.wegivebooks
- You will find amazing eBooks to read with your students. Create an
account and begin to enjoy free eBooks that will work on your laptop and
computer. eBooks have an age recommendation, easy search options, and
there are titles available in Spanish. This is a free resource for everyone!
3. StoryLineOnline
- StoryLine Online is a collection of great books that are being read
aloud. The Screen Actors Guild Foundation records well-know actors
reading children's books and makes graphically dynamic videos so that
children around the world can be read to with just a click of a
Storyline Online video book image. An activity guide is available for
each book. StoryLine Online works on the computer and iPad.
4. EPIC! eReader
App or use the web version at EPIC!- Here is a great collection of eBooks that are FREE for educators.
There are a variety of books for elementary age students. Some stories include audio. You will need to create an educator account to share great books with your
students. This is also a great resource to share with parents and
families. With a promo code you can share with parents, the family will
gain free access for 2 months.
Creating Snowflakes With the links to create a snowflake, consider having students create a snowflake in the classroom and take it with them to computer lab to see if they can recreate if digitally. Why did it work, why didn't it work.
Creating a Gingerbread Man Have students create a convincing piece of writing to convince the audience not to eat him. Allow them to create a digital gingerbread man in the computer lab. Extension- take a photo of the gingerbread man with your iPad and use the ChatterPix apps to have students record the plea of the gingerbread man.
Music Use the StoryBots Tap and Sing App during the class Holiday Party. Consider using the Christmas Karaoke App to enjoy singing, reading fluency, and learn a few new vocabulary words.
I know there are more things we covered, you'll find all the links in the Symbaloo.
Parents use Google Presentation to Write Stories for their Children
A Little Background
Our district is not a Google Apps for Education district. I did have the privilege to help prepare teachers for the arrival of chomebooks. Teachers created their Google Accounts for homework and when they arrived, we dove right into Google Drive. Everyone created a shared document and we randomly selected a teacher created doc to begin collaborating on. Ideas began to fill the page. English teachers could see students writing in Google Docs and sharing it with the teacher and other students to proof read. Teachers could see themselves using the comment feature to leave comments on student work. Teachers could see themselves carrying a lot less paperwork home with them. They loved the idea of not worrying about a specific tool to open up a word processing document to edit. "It saves automatically?" "I can see it on my smart phone!" Let's just say, I had really good time. I think the teachers did too!
All About Me Story
Two days later, I arrived early to set up for an after school session with teachers. As I walked into the library, I saw many parents working on the computers. They were lead by two of Literacy coaches I had in my session a few days prior. They were beginning a project with parents to help them write a story "All About Me Story" for their child.
Parents had been invited to attend every other week to work with them. They had prepared templates for parents and loaded them onto flash drives. There was a problem, the computers in the library did not have Microsoft Office.
The Principal, that came to my session, had the solution, why don't you try Google Docs? (Goose bump moment. YES!!!) The two of them took off. Parents were creating accounts or logging into their Gmail accounts and had their first experience with Google Drive. Let's just say creating the "All About Me Story" wasn't glitchy and no one lost their work. :)
It was a proud moment. I was able to see see the results one session had. It didn't just reach students, it reached parents! Too Cool!!!
I have been enjoying app smashing for some time now. When you combine apps, educational fireworks fly in the classroom. If you haven't already, you've got to try HELLO Crayon and Chatter Pix Kids together.
I usually recommend HELLO Crayon when teachers are looking for a free drawing app in the elementary classroom. It has a few great features to make life easy when working with lower grades, there's undo and a fill can. Trust me, that saves a lot of time when illustrating. ;)
Drawing a character from a book or an example of what you have learned in class is something that can be accomplished with paper and pencil. When sharing this, I like to share Chatter Pix to allow students the opportunity to add their voice to their drawing. Chatter Pix records 30 seconds of audio and will make it appear like the picture is talking. You can also download the creation to the camera roll for FREE! This is a great way to give voice to our Pre-K students. Imagine them drawing a circle in HELLO Crayon, they turn it into something they have seen that is an example of that shape. Now they can explain how they know a whole pizza is a circle.
Check out the how-to my buddy Joe and I created and hear a few ideas for using HELLO Crayon in the classroom here.
Here is an example of something created by a 1st grader when she used Hello Crayon and Chatter Pix Kids. She explains the problem in the story Chrysanthemum from the point of view of the character, Victoria.
Check out our how-to video for Chatter Pix Kids and learn a few ideas for classroom use here.
Here's a blog post I wrote a long time ago. It's one that I kept in draft until I was ready to share, because I like to share happy things not things that bother me. Here's to my first post that I wrote while feeling angry.
Don’t mistake being positive, excited, kind and caring for being a "kiss ass."
I really need a second to vent and process something I heard.
I work with many people. I hear the advice, warnings, and gossip about people around me all the time. I chose to be an ear, I don’t really add to the conversation and I certainly don’t repeat it. I don’t like controversy. I prefer to bring people together. I like it when people accept each other for who they are and help each other out for our students.
One day, I served a school all day with a technology integrated session. I had a wonderful PLC with a few teachers that inspired me. I left feeling like technology was being integrated effectively. I felt that the students in their class were really blessed to have teachers that love teaching.
That same day I squeezed in time to meet with another teacher one on one. During that time it was expressed how happy she was now that she was no longer working with those “kiss asses.” How they came up, I don’t know, but those “kiss asses” happened to be the teachers that inspired me earlier that morning. They are happy, they are excited, they share, they give everything a try without complaining. I don’t know what happened between them, I’m not even going to ask.
I just replied by saying I’m really glad that you are happy this year and quickly moved onto the focus, the reason I was working with her. I did my job and tried to cheer, motivate, and inspire.
I began thinking about things. The same happiness the teachers expressed in the morning is the same kind of happiness I have when I’m excited to share something I have learned. I can hardly contain myself. They are kind and giving people. Oh, I could go on and on about the way these teachers give their time. I tend to want to take care of people too. It’s not because someone is important to everyone else or “popular.” I am kind to people that are important to me. If I go out of my way for you, bring you a Starbucks, meet you for lunch, or stop by to say, hi. I never have hopes of something in return. I don’t keep score or tabs. I do things because I want to and it’s a gesture that shows I care.
My vent is to say that I was offended, even though the comment wasn’t directed at me. I know people have said the same about me. Yes, I’ve been called a “Kiss Ass.” Off the top of my head, I remember hearing this after I meet with someone I care about, someone I consider my mentor. I met with someone who was there to teach and encourage me when I was a newbie. She also happened to be my principal at the time. When I hadn’t seen her at school for an extended time, I worried about her. Yes, the office staff kept us up to date on the details, but I contacted her and met her for lunch while she was recovering. I wanted to be there for her because I care about her as a person. Hearing that someone turned that into a reason to call me a “kiss ass” and assumed that I must have wanted something in return was very hurtful.
I’m really not sure how I could have peacefully stood up for those teachers without breaking the trust I had already built with the other. Really, I think it would be like standing up for myself. I didn’t stand up for myself by confronting the person who said I was a “kiss ass.” I simply ignored it and moved on with my life. I won’t let someone bully me out of being myself.
Get to know people for their heart. It’s a good way to learn what someone's intentions truly are. Judging someone without getting to know the person or the situation really isn’t the way.
Beginning Letter Sounds Work Station with AR Flashcards
AR Flashcards
Using AR Flashcards app can bring in a new spin on identifying things that begin with a letter sound. AR Flashcards are augmented reality flashcards. When you use the AR Flashcard App to view the card, something magical happens! An animal appears before your eyes.
This app also includes a “camera” button. This gives the user the ability to take a photo of the Augmented Reality animal that pops out of the flashcard. If you place items, words, or yourself with the card, you can capture a nice entertaining photo or a photo that shows understanding.
Beginning Letter Sounds Work Station
Set up a work station with a basket of items that include examples and non-examples of things that start with the letter ____. Allow students to work together to sound out the names of the items. Students should place items that begin with the given letter around the AR Flash Card. Students use the camera button in the app to take a photo of their work. Have students include a name tag in the picture to identify who completed the work. The photo will be saved to the camera roll. Consider having students help to build the work station by searching for an example and a non-example at home for homework and brining it to school. The item should fit into the palm of their hand. In the video below, Joe Meza and I share how to use AR Flashcards in a Beginning Letter Sound Work Station.
Phonogram Workstation
Set up a work station with words for students to read and recognize phonograms. Allow students to work together to read words and identify words that follow rules of the phonogram they are learning. Students should place words that include the phonogram sound with the given phonogram that is built using the AR Flash Cards. I share the example of using the -er sound of her in the video below. Students should use the camera button in the app to take a photo of their work. Have students include a name tag in the picture to identify who completed the work. The photo will be saved to the camera roll. Consider challenging students to write other examples they think about on paper and include them when they take the picture.
Torture
At the beginning of the school year, I felt like homework with my first grader was torture. It still isn’t where I’d like it to be, but it’s a work in progress. It will be a gradual change.
Homework is the same every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I believe I know what my child needs a little extra help with. I really wish I could focus her “homework” time on creating scenarios and problems for her to solve, as a way to connect what she is learning to the real world. I wish we could invest that time together to Blog more, make movies, write digital stories, or even create our own games. For now, her homework is what it is, a way to reinforce what she is learning in the classroom.
On Mondays and Tuesdays my 6yo spends about an hour and a half completing homework. She must write her spelling words (8 in English and 8 in Spanish) 3 times each, complete a math work sheet (front and back) and read a book that is sent home with her. These books usually include her spelling/vocabulary words, but are not challenging for her. The stories don’t have a plot and are not exciting. You literally have to make up what your favorite part would be by looking at the pictures. They are not stories that encourage my child to love reading.
(I’m human) After raising my voice at my child saying, “focus”, “do your homework,” “stay on task,” “I don’t want to be here all night watching you write your words,” and hearing my daughter tell me, “I HATE homework,” I knew we needed to talk with her teacher. I emailed her and scheduled time to meet with her after school. I wanted to kindly inform her about what was going on. My daughter and I were frustrated.
Asking For Change
I wondered if her teacher would allow me to modify my daughter’s homework. After all, I do work with my child at home. If she was going to spend that much time on homework, I wanted her to have the opportunity to create something.
After kindly sharing my concern, I explained that I would like the opportunity to switch things up a bit. I told her I would never ask her to provide extra materials or provide different homework. I know how hard she works and how many students she has. I told her that my passion includes technology integration and allowing students the opportunity to create things that they are proud of. I said, “I’d like to begin using technology with her to study and learn during homework time.” Her teacher said that would be okay. I promised to email evidence or send a note on the nights we modified homework.
First Change
A few weeks ago, I asked my daughter if she would like to try something different with her homework. I set my laptop down at her homework desk. We substituted handwriting her spelling words for typing her words three times each. I loved teaching her how to change the font style, font size, use the “tab” key, and print a document.
The following night, my daughter asked if she could print her homework. “Print, NOOOOOO”, I thought. I was sure she wanted to hand print her spelling words. Oh no, she had her heart set on, printing her homework on the printer. Tuesday night spelling words are completed pyramid style, as requested. That evening, she learned how to center her words to make a pyramid.
Since then, she has learned how to use the character keyboard on the MAC
to accent letters when typing her Spanish spelling words. She is doing
this independently now and wants to learn how to type without looking
at the keyboard. She wants to learn! She wants to do this homework.
Typing is still new and exciting to her.
What’s Next
My
next step is to begin brainstorming more ideas that will keep her
engaged while practicing her spelling words. I want exciting and fun
learning experience for her. Will we create a spelling game? Will we
write a song together? Will we make a spelling movie? Who knows, but
anything is more exciting than writing spelling words 3 times each.
Parent/Teacher Conference
During the actual parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s school, her teacher said that my daughter secretly handed her a note I had written when she turned in her homework typed. My daughter was scared to turn it in. She reassured us that it was fine. :) She really does have a wonderful teacher. I’m so glad I asked her if we could modify the homework.
One of my favorite apps to share is Educreations. It is app that students can use to explain their understanding, present what they have researched, or even tell a digital story. I like to pair a few apps to allow students to use their own drawings from an external drawing app to create their stories.
Step 1- Draw a character
Use a drawing app to create a character that you would like to manipulate or move in Educreations and save it to your camera roll.
In the "What's Appening" tutorial below, I used the Hello Crayon App to draw a frog character. It's easy to use and it's FREE.
Step 2- Erase the White Background
Use the Background Eraser App to erase the background your illustration and create a .PNG image file. It's very easy to use if the background is one color. With this trick, you can bring in a nice, full screen picture to use as a setting in Educreations, then use your own drawing as a "puppet."Check out the "What's Appening" tutorial on Background Eraser below.
Step 3- Create a Digital Story in Educreations
Create a digital story in Educrations by bringing in your own characters and moving them as you record. Check the "What's Appening" tutorial below. My buddy shares his genius as we bring all three apps together.
My iPad had an accident 3 weeks ago. I couldn't believe it. It was my fault, no child was involved.
After debating all of my options, I decided I wanted to replace my iPad screen myself.
What I Ordered
I ordered my replacement kit before doing my homework. I am not recommending this product, just sharing that I decided to take a chance with the Zeetron iPad 3 Digitizer Glass Screen Kit from Amazon. Prices varied, I took the time to read reviews and made my decision based on that alone. I'm sure I will discover the quality of the screen over time. I hope I made a good choice.
If I would have watched the YouTube videos I list below before ordering, I probably would have ordered from DirectFix or iRepair Fast. They have additional parts (that can be damaged during the repair) that I didn't consider ordering before this project. Both companies also have a mail-in iPad repair service.
Doing my Homework
These are the videos that I watched to teach myself how to repair my iPad. Each video has something different to offer. In my opinion, the first two, make the repair look much easier than it is, but offer good tips and share important information about what to look out for. The third video leaves nothing out. It is 1hour and 20 minutes long, because you see the entire repair of an iPad with a cracked screen and a damaged corner.
It takes time. I had to wait two weeks before I could find the time to work on my iPad without any distractions. I didn't expect the glass to break more when removing it. If I had to do it again, I would use more heat, take more time, and have a set of gloves that fit snug. I was careful around the camera, wifi antenna, home button and digitizer. I made sure not to touch the LCD screen with my fingers and used a can of air to keep it dust free. Before sealing the iPad up, I powered it on and made sure that my camera, wifi, home button, and touch screen were working properly. Upon success, I smiled. Accomplishment! Yay!
Tape was used to hold broken glass together and guitar picks to help keep the adhesive sepearated from the glass
Honestly, now that I've done it, I am going to be even more careful with my iPad. I don't want to repair an iPad screen again.
While routinely checking my twitter feed in the morning, I ran across a nice blog post, Where are All the Connected Female Educators, written by Pernille Ripp. She poses a lot of questions. It made me think, What took me so long to get connected? Why am I not more connected? I agree, we need more women out there keynoting conferences, publishing books, and contributing to an audience that is mostly female. I also wonder, if there are any men or women in my current situation. Do the majority of connected women out there have young children? How do they do it?
This is my own personal response. I am not speaking for anyone else. Being a connected educator is a struggle for me. Being a connected educator is also very important to me. I have found that twitter is one of the best places for my own professional learning to take place. I have found passionate educators, great podcasts, resources, and blogs while on twitter. I have been learning so much from other experiences. I love it!
What Took Me so Long?
I learned about being a connected educator 5 years ago. Around that time I was new to motherhood, my husband was deployed, but I still wanted to learn. I struggled with raising my baby, keeping up with school paperwork, creating innovative lessons for my 4th graders, hanging out with my real friends, sleeping, the list could really go on and on. I still created an account to begin connecting with educators on a social network called Plurk and through Facebook.
A few years later, baby number two came into the picture. At that point FB was my place to share educational resources and baby photos. I only contributed here and there, because the moment I picked them up from daycare, it was my time to catch up. I hadn't seen them all day. I missed many firsts, conversation, and I wanted to play with them.
Now, I budget the time to connect. What works for me is waking up at 4:45. It seems like the best time for me to find time to myself. I drink my coffee, read blogs, check out twitter, read a book, or write a blog post of my own. It's what works for me at this present time. Once I'm home and Mom, there are small opportunities to connect.
Most times, if I want to participate in a chat, I have to occupy my 3 and 6 yo for an hour. That usually means start a movie for them. I really do miss out on a lot of twitter chats.
I am human. Sometimes, I do stop in to interact at night (on my smartphone). I am trying to limit that a little more, because there is nothing like the dagger of hearing your 3yo say, "Mom, put your phone down and play cars with me. Do you want to play with me?" Mid tweet, I set my phone down. He'll only be 3 for a short while and I don't want to miss it.
Stepping Out
I am trying to present at more conferences. The struggle is feeling like I am burdening someone by asking for help. My husband has a very crazy work schedule it doesn't leave much time for me to be spontaneous. When he is home, he is one of my biggest supporters. I have found that my family also supports my ambition to learn and my dream to excel in my career. That doesn't change the guilt I feel when I have to leave my children behind because I want to travel to a conference.
I want to be more connected, but I also want to be a great Mom and Wife. Right now, it's educating my husband about why I'm on-line when he is home. In a relationship, I feel it's healthy to explain what a twitter chat is. Then it's knowing when to put the technology down because my family would like to interact with me too.
I Won't Give Up
I have begun challenging myself to step out and be more connected. I do dream of being a Keynote at a conference. I do dream of publishing a book one day. I do dream of creating apps that will help my educator friends. I do dream of going places. For now, most of that happens at 4:45 in the morning. That's how much I want to be connected. All in time.
This was the first EdCamp I attended outside of El Paso, TX. An EdCamp is a free, unconference. The educators in the room determine what the sessions will be and what they would like to share. If you walk into a session and the conversation doesn’t feed you, it is understood that it is not an insult to leave and find a session that is right for you. YAY! You get to be in charge of what you want to learn.
The Meeting Room
Each participant received a blue and a yellow post it note. You could write down a topic that you felt confident facilitating on the blue note, or a topic you wanted to learn more about on the yellow note.
For those who wanted a digital version of a schedule, Guidebook, sponsored the event by providing access for free. We just downloaded the app and scanned a QR to get the schedule.
Tweep Board
Flipped Classroom with Shea Regian Forney ISD
Homework has never been the same. With a flipped classroom, students learn the basics and mechanics at home by watching a video and do the work/practice/projects in class. Shea shared her experience and how the flipped classroom works in her 8th grade math classes. Read more about this session here.
Build your Own App
Yapp Box is a free app that can be used to create your own app for the classroom. It could be an app for a tech tips. You can add buttons on the bottom for pages to twitter feed or a photo gallery. It’s definately an app I will explore.
Hacking the Classroom
I snuck into this session so I missed the beginning. Aimee Bartis was sharing how her class is hacking the tech apps classroom. You can read her student’s blog and experiences at http://hackingtechapps.blogspot.com. They love comments. If you have time, leave one for her students.
Genius Hour
Martha Lacy shared what Genius Hour looks like in her classroom. She said it’s important to decide when and how often genius hour would be. To me, genius hour in her classroom seemed like a time to for students to create and integrate technology. I loved Martha’s student examples, how well her elementary students collaborated with Google Docs and how excited she was about the students progress. My favorite take away was the keynote story her students created.
Leadership and 1:1 with Greg Gardener
Greg facilitated a discussion to see where everyone was with 1:1. I decided to attend this session because I work with a campus that will be going 1:1 iPads next school year. I feel that not enough conversation is happening and not enough planning and preparation is in place. Read more here.
App Smash or Smack Down Click on the link to view the list of things shared during the Smack Down. It was awesome! Tellagami is one of the free apps that were shared. I created one very quickly.
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