Edcamp Awesome

What can I say about #edcampawesome except that it was AWESOME!!! The facility was perfect, the swag was amazing, and the number of teachers and administrators that willingly gave up a Saturday was Awesome!!  To the large number of the participants had never attended an edcamp before, WAY TO GO. I spoke to one teacher who almost left because it was so far out of her comfort zone, but she hung in there and even set up a twitter account. Kudos to her for taking that first step, We have to celebrate those baby steps. 

As a confessed Twitterahloic,  I am constantly curating the content and building my LiveBinders with this content. I've added some links to the big topics of the day: gamification, Augmented Reality, Google in the classrooms. If you got the give-away from Picktochart and don't know what to do with it, here is a link to my Infographic binder. 

It was great to put faces to so many of the "twitters" that I follow. Thanks again for an AWESOME day of learning.

Google Training

Monday was a Professional Learning day in my District. As part of that we re-visited Google Apps for Education. We used the trainer of trainers model to deliver this training. The TOT teachers gave up a morning in their classrooms, to review the content of the Google Apps for Education training. All in all it was a success, or at least I haven't heard of any complaints. As a follow up to the training, I sent out my Tuesday Tech Tip email that was all Google. Here's copy of my TTT.

Did you know you could use Google spreadsheet to make Flashcards?

Did you know you could use Google search box as a timer?

Did you know you could use Chrome Extensions to save time?

Did you know you can use Google Docs for Learning?

Did you know all of the answers to these and many other Google questions can be found here?

TCEA

I just returned from the AMAZING TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) Conference. It is a week of learning with the best of the best, the best classroom teachers, the best administrators, the best tech people. I always leave re-energized and re-focused. This year I was charged by my administrator to come back with some ideas on how to get our district moving in the right direction. For many years the district was the place to be, but we have slowly been losing that edge and for our students sake we need to get it back. In other words we have lost our MOJO. 

In Stephanie Cirihal's blog she states that one super way to jump start your mojo is to

DO SOMETHING ADVENTUROUS AND SPONTANEOUS.

Spontaneity and school administration don't usually go hand in hand so this idea might be a little difficult, but I am certainly going to work on it. 

As the lone Technology Integration Facilitator for the district, it is sometimes difficult to know where to focus my efforts, but I realized after watching The First Follower Video during my own presentation that I was not following the advice of embracing the first followers. These teachers are the ones I need to spend my time with, I need to help with their planning, teaching, and reflecting. They need my support.  

During a panel discussion with members of the Lamar Consolidated ISD Technology Integration team I heard about these innovative teachers being bullied. I was not a core teacher and I was the only teaching those subjects, I never experienced bullying, but it was made very clear that it happens and it is my job to protect them.

In Chris Nilsson's session on Structuring for Change he made several points that I can bring back to my administrative team. Point number one: we must have a clear and unwavering vision, and know exactly where we are taking people. Point number two: facilitators and teachers must be allowed to make decisions. They know what is best in their classrooms and "we" must stop giving teachers "stuff" they have not asked for. Point number three: what is the best use of facilitators face to face time? It is probably not in "how to" tutorials and all of those should be delivered via online. The final point: there is a difference between professional development and learning things that are part of a person's job.

If I am able to do these things, then the change will spread like a virus, one teacher at a time.

Thanks TCEA, can't wait until next year!!