Reflections from TCEA17

I was fortunate to spend 3 days last week at the TCEA conference in Austin, Texas.  19 hours of amazing presentations and that doesn't count the conversations standing in the hallway waiting in line for a session.  Conferences like these are always so overwhelming with information that it takes me a few days to process all that I have heard and learned about.  There was not one session this year that I thought was better than all the others.  Rather every session that I went to offered me something I could take back to my campus.

Here are a few of my take-aways.

Sphero - Emily Felker (@emfelker) did a great job of introducing Sphero as an educational tool instead of just a toy to drive around the library.  While sitting in the session I texted one of my 2nd grade teachers with an idea for using sphero with place value that Emily shared.  She also introduced me to making light trails by using the slomo feature on a camera to capture sphero's light in a dark room.

Sharing Student Work With Each Other-  Google slides now has a Q&A option when you are in the presenter mode where students can ask questions during the presentation, but they can also post work there when finished for classmates to look at.  The same could be done with Padlet.  I have used padlet as a brainstorming tool, but never thought of it as a place to house student projects all in one place.  

Google Virtual Reality Tools - Kelly Fitzgerald (@LISDTechie) led an engaging session on google virtual reality 

Geoguesser - shows a scene from somehwhere in the world and then you try to guess where it it based on landscape, signs, terrain, etc

Google Art Projects - can see a piece of art work and zoom in on the brush strokes and in some cases where it is hanging in the museum to see other art work around it.  (CAUTION... Where there is art there can be inappropriate items for elementary)

Google Street View - can drop into places around the world to see 360 degree view of where you land.  Great for landmarks and ecosystems.

Personalized PD - a panel session with 4 amazing leaders Todd Neslone (@TechNinjaTodd), Jessica Torres(Owl_b_TorresEdu), Jason Bretzmann(jbretzmann), and Mandy Taylor(mandymtaylor).  So many great things came out of this session.  One being getting a picture with TechNinjaTodd!

All 4 educators were adamant about giving teachers choice in their professional development 

And that even if only 5 teachers attend a session, that is 5 more teachers that know about a tool.  That is growth.

TabScissors - this was not technically in a session, but it is one of the best things I learned about!  Before her Google VR session, Kelly Fitzgerald was asking people about things they had learned so far and she shared the chrome extension TabScissors.  This extension allows you to split a window into two smaller windows side-by-side!

Here I have 3 tabs and have to toggle back and forth. 

But by using TABSCISSORS, I can split the tabs and have two windows showing at the same time. 

This is life changing!!  

And one more fun thing.  Have you heard of Bitmoji?

It is an app and a chrome extension that allows you to create your own personalized emoji chatacter. Now besides annoying the people that you text...

which is super fun in itself, but how fun to put them on work that your students are working on in google docs?  Kind of like your own personal stickers... and what kid doesn't love getting stickers?

     

I always learn so much going to these conferences.  Too much to actually post about in one blog. I will write more as I put the tools into practice or share them with teachers.  

Missing TLA

I chose this year to attend the TCEA technology conference in February instead of the Texas Library Association conference going on this week.  I knew that I would miss going to TLA, but felt that I really needed to brush up on my technology this year.  And while I am glad that I went, now, seeing all the tweets and facebook posts from TLA, I am sad to be missing.

I think next year, I am going to try to attend 2 days at each conference instead of 4 days at one of them.  I always feel guilty getting to attend conferences because our teachers do not get the opportunity to go anywhere but I do try to bring back and share as much information as I can.  

I hope my fellow librarians in our district bring back all the good things they learned and will share the knowledge! 

Saturday "Wrap" Up

I was attending sessions and  traveling back from TCEA 2015 yesterday and then had Bunco last night (priorities!)  so I wasn't able to post my Friday Wrap Up, so here it is on Saturday.

 - Met with some of my 3rd grade teachers to talk technology 

- attended my district library meeting

- presented Twitter Chatting to my fellow librarians

- drove to Austin and tried to check into the wrong hotel 

- attended 17 sessions at TCEA

- planned with fellow librarians, GT teachers and EdTech 

- completed EduLS Challenge #5

And my wraps are my absolute favorite wraps and on the retiring list - waaaa! :( Funky Cheetah

It's 10:00 and My Brain Won't Turn Off

Call it a side effect of attending a technology conference, but my brain is on full overload. Swimming with apps, websites and ideas to share back on my campus, my wheels are spinning from 2 full days at TCEA 2015 and the thought of 2 more to go.

We started yesterday off at an iPad academy with Leslie Fisher (@lesliefisher).  HILARIOUS. Perfect person to start of an 8:00 session.  She gave us some of the coolest ipad apps and tips in 50 minutes.  My favorite was Plickers.

 A free app in the "iPhone Only" part of the app store, it is the perfect assessment tool for teachers with only a few iPads.  Teachers create an account and form classes.  Within the class, they assign students a number. There are cards on the website to print off that each have a number, a distinctive shape and the letters A,B,C,D in the corners.  Give the students the cards that corresponds with their number in the class. The teacher asks a multiple choice question and gives the answer choices.  The students decide on their answer and with their numbered card point the corner with the letter they think is the correct answer up to the ceiling.  The teachers gets her iPad with the Plicker app downloaded and uses the app to scan the crowd of students.  The app reads the cards and lets the teacher know instantly who has the correct answer and who has the wrong answer.  How cool is that??

Chirp, Augmented Reality, Photobabble, Adobe Voice, Hyperlapse, ChatterPix Kids, Makerspaces, Google Hangouts... See now why I can't turn off thinking about how to use these great tools in my library, but also how to share them with the teachers in a way that is meaningful for them.  

How do you share technology ideas with your teachers?