Digging Deeper Into ITEC 2010

About 1 week ago I attended & presented at the #ITEC10 conference in Coralville,IA. This was my 1st conference of any type that I attended or presented at.  I am planning on going next year.

When I 1st arrived at ITEC the hotel was bigger than I in pictured.  It was a very nice Marriott attached to a convention center that also seemed quite big.  One of the 1st people I saw when I arrived was Mrs. Goerend.  When Molly (co-presenter) & I were walking down the hall to our room before lunch we passed about 5 BIG rooms that could hold 100-200 people.  That was really scary because I thought there were only 7 total presenters per day.  I also started to think that Mr. Goerend was lying (just to make us less nervous) about the size of our room being small.

We (Molly & I) met up with Mr. G and went to lunch, which by the way, was too fancy for my liking.  Also to my squandering knowledge of conferences there was a vendor hall with 75+ vendors.  That was my favorite part.  Somehow every single one of them heard that I was coming and brought plenty of chocolate candy.

As people were entering our conference and we were in the room I was talking with people I knew because I had to occupy myself so I wouldn't be nervous.  Once we got past the 1st 2 slides everything went great!

On the beginning slides I forgot to mention some of my "roll playing" and why they were something to have on a blog.  The discussions that we had planned to be 2-3 minutes long were easily 7-10 minutes long.  There was lots of great discussion and @mctownsley was tweeting out some memorable quotes.  I also met a person that went to high school with my principal.  at the end of the presentation after our thankings and resources slide there was a "surprise" public thanks to Mr. G for helping us do all this.

That night I had 30+ Twitter mentions and had 2 quotes on @angelamaiers top 10 quotes list.

At the end of this I realized 3 things. 1.I LOVE conferences!!  2.I accidentally took the spotlight for most of it leaving Molly on the edge a bit. and 3.I am coming to this next year!

In case you'd like to get some insight of what I'm talking about here is the set of slides we used.

What was ITEC?

        1. #ITEC10 was a little conference put together by 5 old college friends with 10-15 presenters.

• It was humongous with about 20 different conference rooms all running at the same time.
• There was a vendor hall with over 75 vendors.
• There were easily 300 people at lunch on Monday.

        

2. The only presenters there were a bunch of no-name people.

• I was there. ;)
• There were 2-4 BIG conference rooms that seat about 200, That were used all day.
• They flew 2 people in on Sunday to start it off on a good note.

        3. It was held in a cheap, old hotel where the wi-fi went out twice.

• The hotel was no more than 2 years old.
• The convention center was state-of-the-art.
• There was great coverage, everywhere!

       4. It was a great conference where learning was constantly available and no one felt limited to the opportunities available!

Schools In Need!

This is a program That Iowa Windstream has put together.  The website is HERE to vote.  It is the exact same thing as the Pepsi Refresh program but smaller & just with 8 rural Iowan cities.  You don't need an account or anything to vote & you can vote once a day.

You can vote for what ever you like or not at all but I REALLY  urge you to vote for Charter Oak-Ute Elementary School.
"Charter Oak-Ute Elementary serves ages 4-12. It wants to give 21st century learners access to 21st century technology. Over half of the rural school's population is on free or reduced lunch. Funding is tight. Their computer lab, shown above, is no longer functioning. They need a new lab to give their students a 21st century learning environment." Iowa WindStream Website.

Charter Oak-Ute Elementary Computer lab

Like I said before you do not have to vote for them, you do not have to vote at all but I really encourage everyone to participate.

Puzzle Experiment Conclusion

As some may know part of the Scientific Process is to communicate, so I took the time to blog my conclusion from a science experiment.

In my Experiment I wondered how long it would take on average to complete a 24-piece puzzle.  I learned that the more often you complete the same puzzle the faster you are able to complete it.

My Hypothesis was, "How long does it take to put together a 24-piece puzzle?"  The average time was 2:05 minutes.  I proved my hypothesis incorrect because I guesstimated it would take 5 minutes.  It only took approximately 2.

Please Excuse the horrible handwriting & words on the back.

Late Night Learning?

Friday was the start of football season so You know who went to the 1st game? ME!  The next morning I was thinking back & came up with something worthy of blogging, comparing the 1st day of school to a football game.
RED= game
BLUE= school

You walk in & you feel extremely late because there are about 10 big circles of kids you know but you don't want to budge in so you just walk around a bit.

You walk in & feel very strange the 1st day because everything is new and nothing is the same as last year.  Some of your friends moved away or are not in your classes anymore.

After 30 min. of walking & wandering you find someone you know & haven't seen forever that also doesn't have a group & is with people she doesn't like but, doesn't want to stand out for being alone.

Around the 3-5th day you have a group of 3-5 people that are in some of your classes & welcomed you to their lunch table.

after 1/2 time you are comfortable with your surroundings & are having fun with the people you've found.

You know more about your teachers & the way they operate.  Everyone in the class has a position (shy kid in the back, know it all, class clown, etc...)

There's only 25 min. left of the game & you feel like you just got here & you're having a blast!

Things are gliding by & everyone but you wants school to end so they can leave.

Do you feel the same way?  Was this a good comparison?

Full Of Everything

I have not written in a while, shame on me!  I am trying to get into a regular routine now that summer has come to an end.  A part of my daily routine will be blogging more unlike this summer. Also now as summer comes to an end it is time to reflect, here goes nothing!

June:  It wasn't realistic that it was all ready summer and it felt like there was so much time left to do everything. Wrong!  June was the beginning of my volunteering services for the library, farmers market, VBS, & the school.  I also started to have 2 guest bloggers here, they have been great!

July:  I vacationed & watched a friends house while they were away.  It was also a great month for biking & mowing.

August: I ended the summer with lots of helping at school, a party at the library, & the start of the Ambassadors at school.

For me this was not a typical summer because not once did I ever say "I'm bored."

Could You Make It?

I think middle school is full of opportunities!!! I think middle school is a great thing...the teachers are amazing, you aren't stuck in one room for 8 hours, how could it be better. Well, everything can get better, right?? I think middle school passing periods need to become longer. The teachers expect you to go to the restroom, get to your next class, and go to your locker (if needed) in 4 minutes. For me that is NOT enough time. I think 6 minutes would be better. Maybe that's just me.....but it's not long enough!!!

I Inspired Him

After screwing around with my technology to be able to write this blog post I have lost my momentum. Please excuse the lack of clarity and perfection.

The 411: I am at a sleepover with my best friend. He is playing video games, & I never was one for video games so I went outside to read my newly started novel "Beat The Street".  After about 5 minutes he came up and asked what I was reading so I told him the synopsis of the book.  

After about another 5 minutes he asked, "Hey that looks good could I read a couple pages?"

Of course I handed over my book immediately because this is a kid who has a hate towards reading & would NEVER pick up a book by choice or force, even during school!
 
Why was I able to get him to read when everyone else failed?  Was that truly the power of friendship or boredom?

What do faces do 4 u

Living in an ever-changing, globally connected world can be difficult.  When sending a MMS message to someone across town or chatting with someone across the continent you are communicating, like it or not.  Since talking to someone face to face seems to be a thing of the past how can you know how they are feeling? FACES, of course! How can you make faces online while emailing or MMSing?  As Americans we have unofficially nationalized the alphabet of faces and emoticons.  Do you find yourself using these way too often?

If yes, how can we find a way around them? What else can we do? One company has found a solution. Who will be the next?
  
What do faces do for you?

Twitter in 2 words

Now that I have been using Twitter for approximately 2 months I feel like I am able to reflect about the service and what it brings to the world.

In 2 words I feel like I can describe Twitter, Life-Changing.

I wasn't at all sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up for Twitter but I believe it was well worth it.  I have come up with lists about Twitter that I believe are worth sharing.

What It does great:

• Connects teachers and anyone to people across the globe that they never would have met.
•  Spreads a little upbeat joy to everyone.
• An easy way to find some neat web apps and cool sites. (especially from @shannonmmiller)
• An easy way for anyone to get news updates on weather to a crash on the interstate.

What makes Twitter great for me:

• I can interact with others who have the same passion and understanding as me. In general people I am constantly around get very tired of always hearing about the library.
• A quick way to get answers for just about anything from what camcorder should I buy, to how can I add pizazz to my blog, to What is a PLN?
• A place to put my thoughts where I feel like people are listening.
• A place for me to build my PLN 15 years in advance! ;)  At that point in time I'm not sure if my Personal Learning Network will be outdated.  I'm truthfully not sure what I am going to use my group of educators I have gathered (PLN) for at this moment. (Note to self: tomorrow's blog post)

Some actual reflecting now...

Earlier I said that Twitter is Life-Changing so here is why in my perspective... Twitter has changed my life by connecting me to the world.  You don't have to wait until the 6:00 news to know that the fireworks display was canceled, or have to wait for the Thursday paper to learn what happened LAST week. You can access the news & people & updates specifically about things YOU like ANYTIME.

  Lets face it... The only bad things about Twitter is that it is  addicting, time consuming, & has too many whale carrying birds!

What does Twitter do to help you? How do we use Twitter effectively? When do we know we are using Twitter effectively?