I feel so thankful to have been given the opportunity to attend the Midwest Educational Conference. I loved networking with the different educators who were thereu. Enjoyed all the Twitter opportunities, when the network was working, that I had during the keynote speaker. The rest of the day it was extremely difficult to Tweet.
Flipping the Classroom with Lodge McCannon was such an excellent way to start the mornig. It made waking up early even more rewarding. He shared so many excellent ideas for a flipped classroom and one day I would love to have my classroom work in that manner. He spoke about how he films his 45 minutes of speaking and turns it into a 5-8 minute video for the students to watch. Then this leaves more time about 30 plus minutes to have collaborative discussion going on in the classroom. There are less intruptions going on in the classroom while the students are basically learning on their own while the teacher is guiding and modeling in the classroom. By playing the videos studnents are able to watch, stop, ans process the information given. Another thing Lodge introduced to the educators were his 3 minute videos he is making on YouTube. They are on the 50 states and have dances to go with them. You can look for his hashtags at #50statesalbum and find him on Twitter by searching @pocketlodge! He said he has completed 13 states and Missouri is one of them... Go check it out, I promise you won't be disappointed. It was nice cause he's alresdy retweeted some things I posted from the METC14. I enjoyed listening to how passionate he is about the flipped classroom and how he has made others passionate too! Him and his 6 yr old niece collaborate on different songs she creates and it was awesome to see how inspired she looked in the video he showed.
The next speaker I went to see was It's not about the apps; connect, create and collaborate! I enjoyed listening to Christine Ruder from Rolla School District speak about how she incorporates the iPads and the many different apps into her daily lessons. She did stress over and over before the iPads are used in her classroom the students must draft on paper first what they are going to use the iPads for and also have a basic outline to use to guild their assignments, so they aren't just looking at the iPad. The other things I learned from her session was how to use multiple applications to create a finished product. I learned about many different apps that are free to download to the iPad, the file will be attached to the bottom, and make these awesome assignments with my class. I learned about a new application called Puppet Show where you can take photos of the kids and place them into a puppet show the students can also add their voices to create their movie. I also liked that a majority of the applications she used were free! Which makes it easier to justify when having to ask if you can buy something for the classroom.
The second session I attended was Teacher and Studnets Finally Seeing Eye to Eye on Technology. This was the session I facilitated in and actually learned a lot about StudyBlue! What was extremely nice about this session as being able to get a free account code at the end of the session and a free T-Shirt. The lady who gave the session on StudyBlue was fantastic and really stands besides the product she spoke about. The site to me seems easy to navigate and add a classroom to. You can track the Studnets study progress and see who need more remediation on the different topics being learned. 4.5 million people from elementary to high school. Then what struck me to be very interesting was the over 200 million study topics that are on the site. You are able to make lessons plans and many other things using the Pro version which is 4$ a month. The lady teaching the session said she used the free version for 7 years and it is just as good as the Pro site. You can follow them at @studyblueedu on Twitter to hear the latest news about the site. You can check class averages and make sure the Studnets hold themselves accountable for studying and make sure they are studying and keeping up. You can create study aides to help your students and upload videos too! The program is so cool to use. There is a web version and also an iPad app version.
The session after that was on Interactive SMART foldables! I love foldables and using them with my younger studnets. The ladies teaching the session teach at a Monissori School in Chesterfield. They seemed to use foldables in their upper elementary classrooms! One of the ladies is a Science teacher and the other is a History teacher. I loved being given a template to be able to not have to reinvent the wheel! What I liked even more about this session was how you can use the SmartBoard to introduce the different aspects of the foldable. I haven't used foldables for study aides but these two ladies say they make their Studnets create studio materials this way. I made a foldable with my class the other day for living ans non living things and they loved it! I made sure to get the SmartBoard up and running and go step by step with how's along with living and non living. It was an interesting session but one I might not have went to if I wasn't facilitating! I did like that we were able to make a foldable to show the importance of making foldables, but not quite sure about the whole session.
The last session I attended for the day was on The IPad not just being an iPad! It was presented by two teachers who teach in Quincy at a Private school where a majority of their day is done by digital interactions. The students have to access the lessons before they come to class and if they need help they use a program call educreations which is an interactive iPad application. The Studnets in their school pretty much when they are sick are able to access everything online and not miss school. This also I feel is easier on teachers so they don't have to keep their lessons or worksheet for the Studnets to review. One of the ladies does a lesson preview on YouTube for the Studnets to look at before the lesson is even introduced in the class. Before each class the Studnets are expected to print lecture notes too! This is an excellent way to prepare the Studnets for college! I enjoyed learning about Kahoot which is an online survey/ assessment tool used at their school! I loved playing and interacting with the game!
Overall I was extremely excited to be given the opportunity to go to the Midwest Educational Conference! I have alresdy went back to school and shared all the excellent things I learned that day!
Some pictures from the day are added below!
Chart from Flipping the Classroom by Lodge McCannon! Sorry it's kinda blurry!
Resources from SmartBoard Foldables!
Once again not quite clear hahA!
