Today was the first day of the ISTE conference and my friend and I hit the conference with a vengeance. We were there for the first set of sessions that started at 8:30am and stayed straight through to the last set of sessions that ended at 5:15pm.
...passes out from exhaustion...
Before I hit some highlights, I'm going to share a few pictures. There's also a very FULL exhibition hall (that we did about half of), poster sessions with students (which we skimmed) and checked out the bookstore.
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| I got a free shirt for facebooking about this company! Teachingfirst.com |
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| eBooks on Demand! Download for $1.00 each! |
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| Interactive Maps Poster |
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| The ISTE "Sails" Pavilion - The bookstore, blogger lounge and other hangouts were in this area. |
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| Inside Ballroom 20cd... Great because I finally had some room to breathe! |
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| A collection of all my FREE stuff that I got in the exhibit hall. I still have 1/2 the booths left to visit! |
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| Cute Shirt! |
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| Awesome canvas tote bags! |
Conference Highlights...
Alan November - November Learning -- a pleasure to attend his sessions because he's always so thought-provoking! He mentioned that we need to help our students learn how to accurately search the internet and not just use whatever junk pops up in Google first. Also, did you know that your Google searches will change based on your geographical location?! So, if I'm in Southern California, I could receive an entirely different set of google hits versus someone who might be searching from England. That's important to consider.
Tammy Worcester - Tammy's Technology Tips -- Despite a few technology issues getting started, it was a really quick paced session that discussed a bunch of different ideas. Check out QR Hacker - take student audio and make it into a QR code!
Google Certified Teachers SLAM - Again, another quick session that had multiple teachers share some quick Google Tips!
Cool Things I Never Knew About...
beta.ck12.org - Create free custom online textbooks! The booth guys were really great and this seems like an awesome resource!plickers - Do you want clickers for your classroom, but can't afford them? Check out plickers - you hold up the card in a certain way in front of a webcam (mounted to shoot the whole class) and it will record your vote! Awesome.
PollEverywhere.com -- Have your kids with smartphones or computer access vote remotely! This is awesome and FREE for classroom teachers (if you keep the presentations small.)
And a big sparkly THANK YOU to all my newest followers! 108? Insane! I started this crazy little blog because I missed my teaching friends at my old (now current) school. Thank you for listening to me and I will definitely be rewarding you all when I do my 100 Follower Giveaway. (Sometime NEXT week. I have to recover from ISTE!)
It sound educational and thought provoking. I went to an "unconference" in May and it was amazing!
ReplyDeleteI just stumbled upon your website today through pinterest. :)
ReplyDeleteI am also a middle school math/science teacher (just about to start my tenth year).
Thanks and keep up the good work!