Conference Connections
It is so hard for classroom teachers to leave their students to attend conferences. It is also very difficult to prepare for a substitute and for schools to pick up the cost of travel, registration and sub pay. Yet, conferences offer teachers some of the greatest professional development opportunities anywhere. My absolute favorite technology conference is FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) in Orlando each year. I have learned more, gained more skills and broaden my network of tech buddies more than any other place. This “tuesdays” I am writing from FETC!
A creative website
Don’t be discouraged. You can be at FETC! This is the perfect time to learn to be “a podcatcher,” one who subscribes to a podcast. The best podcast available for teachers who want to learn about the latest and greatest in instructional technology is without doubt – Conference Connections by the Apple Distinguished Educators. Even if you get to go to FETC, you cannot possibly attend every session and hear every speaker. The Apple Distinguish Educators record as many of the top speakers and sessions as possible and host them for you FREE in iTunes. I have learned more about technology since I’ve been podcasting than all of the years I’ve been going to conferences. Look for them a few weeks after the conference is over.
An image to share
An image to share.
My feature image is the logo for Conference Connections (just a hint to really check it out!)
A proverb
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” Jim Robin
An encouragement
With standardized tests just around the corner, it may seem crazy to mention professional development, but keeping yourself current in your field also keeps you sane. Can you imagine if you only had standardized test preparation to look forward to? Technology integration offers the answers to engaging our students. Learning unique ways to utilize technology comes from hearing/seeing what others are doing and then “tweeking” it to meet the needs of your students. I really would like to encourage you to listen to the following episodes of Conference Connections: Secondary Leadership with David Gordon, Tales of a Classroom Blogger (both from FETC 2007), David Warlick, TEC SIG luncheon (long, but great) and Mitchel Resnick: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society. Let me know your favorites in the comments.
How do you do that?
Using Conference Connections is really easy, but don’t you hate when people say that and then assume you know how to do something? To listen to Conference Connections podcasts, you have options. You can go to the Conference Connections website and click the RSS feed button. This will notify you in email when there is a new episode. Then you can click the link they send, go back to their website, listen to it on your computer or download it for later. The way I prefer to get them is to subscribe in iTunes. Open iTunes and click on the iTunes store and type Conference Connections in the search window. Click subscribe and then any new episodes will be automatically downloaded to your iTunes. Just be careful to delete the ones that you don’t really care about. Overtime, you could have quite a collection. Synch you iPod and the podcast is automatically ready for you to listen while you do the dishes, vacuum or other fun jobs. (It does make those chores go quickly!)
What are teachers saying?
Tales from the Teachers in the Trenches
“Technology has been a huge help building background knowledge for my students. Sometimes we forget that we’ve lived a whole life and they’ve only been around for 10-11-12 years so there’s a lot of things they don’t know. It’s a whole lot easier to show them something than to describe it.” Ramona Fischer, Boone Middle School
As always, I am,
Ubiquitously yours,
K
http://www.ecubedcreative.com
Grace Wycliffe (SL)
