Today we presented to over 150 people @ a conference of techies, computer science gurus, and master teachers. Talk about a humbling experience! Believe it our not we had a packed out session with people standing in the back. We even ran out of informational cards to give out. I was having people come up and ask me for my email, which I guess as the closes to a Paris Hilton autograph moment as I will ever get.
Beyond just my little session I attended four others and my brain is just swimming with new lingo, facts, databases, and web addresses. I feel as though I need another week just to sort through and digest all of the new information. I also need to weed out the super cool stuff that I love, but do not really need or won't use in my classroom. I know I have goldfish syndrome where I am attracted to the pretty lights, but not necessarily the most practical solutions.
I am really excited to go back and share with my colleagues. I wish everyone could have the chance to attend and learn what is readily available, easy to use, and also (the magic word) FREE!
I know I spend a lot of time lamenting about poor student participation and more work on me, but I really think if I would step back and give more technology a try I would have very little to complain about. I think I was more engaged today than I have ever been at any teacher training or staff meeting and that was simply because I had new material, new technology, and a really cool speaker to listen too.
I know this is the year to do more with less and I think I just might have learned the right tools to accomplish the task.
Sometimes it's just so overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, we have an extra "smart board" (tecnically a "walk and talk board") sitting in our science storeroom. I feel guilty that such great technology is being wasted, but really don't want the extra cords, and extra projector and taking up the extra space...not to mention getting used to using a new piece of technology.
Sometimes....I just really like the book with the worksheet (shhhhh!)
On the other hand, more often I wish we ALWAYS had access to a full computer lab!