T-shirts, T-shirts

One thing I like about going to conferences is all the giveaways they have for attendees. Today I collected 8 t-shirts. The ugliest of the bunch was definitely from Electronic Field Trips (hey I signed up for them and the woman as helpful but the t-shirt was not easy on the eyes. The most colorful shirt was the red tye-dye one from Studica Skills. All in all I enjoyed the exhibit hall. One thing I do not like at any conference is all of the literature you are handed out. I know it helps to sell the product, but I would rather see a demo, get a reps name and number or better yet give them mine and maybe if I need it I can take some literature. I would rather be given a listing of all vendors and links to their sites so I can download and view what ever information I needed. I mean I threw most of the stuff I was given anyway and I just think its a waste of paper. All workshops should also give you the ability to download handouts from either their site or a centralized one for the specific conference. Yesterday I was at a great workshop for Internet and PreK - 2 and the presenter gave out color coded handouts with so much info it blew aay your mind. She later mentioned that all the materials were on her website, so I saw no need to track all this stuff back to New Jersey. Maybe they should give attendees access to a special webiste or have it password protected so that only the people who attended the workshop would have access to the files. I mean if you didnt pay for it, why should you get it for get free?

Anyway I really liked the Google scavenger hunt which introduced us to all their tools. Google's Spreadsheets and Documents look so good, it has me thinking why should I reccommend my school spending money on licensing Office from Microsoft? I also liked the presentation from Smart Technologies and seeing their new SmartBoard 600i with the buil-in projector and the demonstration from Crick Software on Clicker 5

My only dissappointment today was I attended one afternoon workshop for Wikis and the Internet was down in the lab for almost and hour, so I left and went to see the BYOL session for Tips and Tricks on Photostory and MovieMaker but that seesion was packed and you couldnt even stand.


More to come...

Touchdown Atlanta

Well I arrived in Atlanta yesterday and checked into my hotel. I had a few problems connecting my laptop to the Internet yesterday, its working, just a bit slow. There wasn't much to do last night except check in, unpack and grab dinner. Today I am at a workshop for Using the Internet in PreK - 2 by Gail Lovely. It has been great so far and I am looking forward to finding new resources for little fingers.One thing the presenter talked about that I found interesting was that kida are more interactive today. 20 years ago you had a baby and maybe laid it down on the floor with one of those toys overhead that had rattles for them to play with. Today they still have the same toys only it has more interactivity. If you squeeze the rattle hard the noise gets louder, or there are different sounds coming from the toy like bells and whistles, etc. The point is kids come to school now with the need for constant interactivity from websites, text messaging, and video. And our challenge will be to keep them engaged.

Just in the NECC of time

Well I am on my way to Atlanta to my 2nd NECC conference. I am looking forward to visiting the Exhibit Floor and see what the vendors have to offer. I am particualry interesting in seeing whats new with Smart Technologies and also maybe looking into videoconferecning or video on demand for the classrooms.

I am also looking into checking in to my hotel and working out today, my hotel seems to have a state of the art fitness center. I am also looking forward to visiting the Georgia Aquarium. I plan on taking many pictures.

NECC

Well I am headed to Atlanta for the conference next week( I actually leave on Saturday). I am looking forward to visiting Atlanta and spending some free time there as well. I know there is an opening reception at the Aquarium that I wanted to see in my free time and I also want to visit the Coca Cola factory. This is my second time going to NECC, the first time was in Philadelphia so I am trying to learn as much as I can about whats new in technology and waht my fellow colleagues are teaching/integrating in their classrooms. I am looking forward to learning more about Web 2.0 tools and integrating them in the classrooms. Creating this Blog was my first forray into utilizing this piece of technology (well not really my first, I visited other Bloggers such as http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/ and http://www.teach42.com/ to at least read a few blogs first). I am also interested in learning more about utilizing ipods, handhelds, Flickr and Wikis. Some resources for Photoshop and what to do with K-2 in the computer lab wouldn't hurt either. But hey who is kidding who 3 days out of the classroom, a free trip to the aquarium and maybe a qucik visit to the Coca Cola factory wouldn hurt either.

Well I think will do for my first post, dont know who will read it but will see. Oh one more this I saw this great you tube video on Steve Dembo's blog about what teachers make so I thought I would repost the video here:

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