Monday, July 5, 2010
Links
I just got an email from the presenter that lead the workshop on Leading Effective Technology Integration in Schools. She posted all of the handouts she gave us here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see a section with handouts and links you can click on. Feel free to explore!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Overall Thoughts
I thought this conference was a wonderful experience!
There were teachers from all over the world that attended this conference. I enjoyed the ability to talk with teachers from different places to see what kinds of technology they use and how they make it work. I was speaking with a women from St Marten who told me that she had to buy all the technology she has in her classroom since her school does not provide anything. She has purchased three computers, a SMART board, mouses, keyboards, clickers, etc. She has taught for 10 years and each year she purchases something for her room.
I also noticed that many schools have a lot more technology than my own school. There are schools doing video conferencing, using MACs to use photoshop in art at a middle school level, and many others.
I got a lot of great software and software demos from different companies so I can see if there are things I would buy for my classroom. It was great to see how the companies suggest you use it and how other teachers use it.
I enjoyed the city of Denver. Great weather, very dry air and a great breeze so you don't realize how hot it really is. The people that live there are very friendly and love to help. The sixteenth street mall is a great art-based place to shop and hang out. I would love to go back on a vacation so I could spend more time exploring the city.
There were teachers from all over the world that attended this conference. I enjoyed the ability to talk with teachers from different places to see what kinds of technology they use and how they make it work. I was speaking with a women from St Marten who told me that she had to buy all the technology she has in her classroom since her school does not provide anything. She has purchased three computers, a SMART board, mouses, keyboards, clickers, etc. She has taught for 10 years and each year she purchases something for her room.
I also noticed that many schools have a lot more technology than my own school. There are schools doing video conferencing, using MACs to use photoshop in art at a middle school level, and many others.
I got a lot of great software and software demos from different companies so I can see if there are things I would buy for my classroom. It was great to see how the companies suggest you use it and how other teachers use it.
I enjoyed the city of Denver. Great weather, very dry air and a great breeze so you don't realize how hot it really is. The people that live there are very friendly and love to help. The sixteenth street mall is a great art-based place to shop and hang out. I would love to go back on a vacation so I could spend more time exploring the city.
Day #3-Wednesday
This was the last day of the conference. It began at 9:30 and ended at 2:00 today. My goal today was to get a chance to visit the rest of the exhibitors before the day ended so that I could have a chance to see what is out there for use in my classroom.
I attended one research paper session from 10:30-11:00. It was a student from Florida University that presented his findings when he used a computer game, Dimension to see if it effected the students Math grades. He used middle school students in his studies and allowed the students to play the game for one full class period per week. At the end of the study he looked at students grades to see if the gaming helped to increase their math scores. There was no significant change. He gave us a quick preview of the game. It is a "shoot-em-up" game that I could see my students enjoying. It uses a lot of different math skills to get from one level to the next.
I also took some time to go through more of the vendors upstairs. I looked at some of the many different classroom response systems that are available. SMART has a new set of responders that look like cell phones where the kids can actually respond with full sentences. I looked at different software that it out there. Education City is a great one! The kids log in and can practice different math skills. The price isn't too bad either! A license for the entire sixth grade is only 120.
After 2:00 we took the shuttle back to the hotel to drop off all of our things and then came back down to downtown Denver. We met Nicole's family that lives in Denver and we all went to a great Irish restaurant. They then showed us a great downtown book store called the Tattered Book Store. It was a great hometown style shop. A great night!
I attended one research paper session from 10:30-11:00. It was a student from Florida University that presented his findings when he used a computer game, Dimension to see if it effected the students Math grades. He used middle school students in his studies and allowed the students to play the game for one full class period per week. At the end of the study he looked at students grades to see if the gaming helped to increase their math scores. There was no significant change. He gave us a quick preview of the game. It is a "shoot-em-up" game that I could see my students enjoying. It uses a lot of different math skills to get from one level to the next.
I also took some time to go through more of the vendors upstairs. I looked at some of the many different classroom response systems that are available. SMART has a new set of responders that look like cell phones where the kids can actually respond with full sentences. I looked at different software that it out there. Education City is a great one! The kids log in and can practice different math skills. The price isn't too bad either! A license for the entire sixth grade is only 120.
After 2:00 we took the shuttle back to the hotel to drop off all of our things and then came back down to downtown Denver. We met Nicole's family that lives in Denver and we all went to a great Irish restaurant. They then showed us a great downtown book store called the Tattered Book Store. It was a great hometown style shop. A great night!
Day #4-Thursday
Today is our last day in Denver. We have to leave the hotel at 1:00 to head down to the airport to catch our 3:20 plane.
We decided to get up early and take a taxi to the Denver Zoo before we headed out. What a great zoo! It was only $13 to get in and they don't charge for parking! Great habitats for the animals! Very few cages! Most of the animals have large areas where they can roam.
Our first plane left Denver at 3:20pm to head to Dallas, Texas. We were a little nervous because we had heard there was a hurricane hitting Texas, but we didn't know where in Texas. But, we got out of the airport on time and made it to Texas without a problem!
Our next flight was from Texas to Bradley. We left Texas about a half an hour late, which got us into Bradley at 1:00am.
I had a wonderful time!
I would go to this conference any time I have the chance! It is in Philadelphia next year! They are already advertising it and registration starts soon!
We decided to get up early and take a taxi to the Denver Zoo before we headed out. What a great zoo! It was only $13 to get in and they don't charge for parking! Great habitats for the animals! Very few cages! Most of the animals have large areas where they can roam.
Our first plane left Denver at 3:20pm to head to Dallas, Texas. We were a little nervous because we had heard there was a hurricane hitting Texas, but we didn't know where in Texas. But, we got out of the airport on time and made it to Texas without a problem!
Our next flight was from Texas to Bradley. We left Texas about a half an hour late, which got us into Bradley at 1:00am.
I had a wonderful time!
I would go to this conference any time I have the chance! It is in Philadelphia next year! They are already advertising it and registration starts soon!
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