ISTE Thoughts - Day 2

Now that I'm back in the comfort of my own home and not the rat-trap, hell-hole, worst. hotel. EVER. - Holiday Inn where my friend and I had to stay... I can happily give you my Day 2 ISTE report.

(Side Note... I feel it's my civic duty to tell you, my faithful blog readers, that if you are ever in San Diego and need a hotel STAY FAR AWAY from Holiday Inn on the Bay.  My friend had bed-bugs in her room...  I saw cockroaches running around the exterior of the hotel.... A shoebox was larger than my room...  Hotel Management was awful!  ::Shudders::)

Anyway, on to nicer things.

Here are two pictures I took from the view from the hotel.  Lots of great views in SD... 

For ISTE Day 2, I didn't go to as many sessions as I did on the first day.  There were a few that interested me for sure, but I had discovered that many interesting sessions were going to be available for "Video-On-Demand" starting today.  So, I can sit back and view those sessions from home.  I went to one fantastic session, though!  It was by Adam Bellow from edutecher.org.  He listed through so many great education websites that we can use in our classrooms.  For the list... you can check them all out at his edutecher website - HERE!

Also, his company is launching a Pinterest website that is strictly for education called - educlipper.org  I think he's on the right track with this website and it will be broken up into the sections we've all be creating on our own through Pinterest.  It's in beta, but check it out and sign up.

A view from the back upstairs patio of the San Diego Convention Center.  Beautiful.  I love California.

What my friend and I did devote our time to was the Exhibit Hall, since that wouldn't be around to watch later.  We sat through presentations from companies, got more free stuff and... we even WON a few things.  I mean, check out all this stuff!

My friend - WON AN IPAD2!  Amazing right?!  I'm happy for her, since she hasn't been able to get one yet and I already have one.  We both won cool stylus/presenter laser pointers too.  We were able to rock this American President game from All in One Learning.  Their program seems very informative about grading and linking back to common core.  If only our very NON-Techie Principal will go for it.  (He likes to let other schools take risks and then see if they work out before signing us up for things.)

Here's the pile of freebies from the exhibit hall on Day Two.  My husband tried to be excited when I showed him all this stuff... but I know you guys will share my joy!

Then, when I got home, I checked my work email and lo and behold.... I won a free school site subscription to Brain Pop!!!  Whoo hooo!  I'm SO happy because I think that's a great prize that my entire school can benefit from.

Then, finally... we were headed home.  My wonderful husband and son were able to come down and spend the last day there with me.  This is Liam when he gets a hold of my iPhone.  Goofy kid!