This past week I had the opportunity to attend the MACUL conference at the Cobo Center in Detroit, MI. This was a two day technology conference on March 19-20 that offered an enormous amount of information. Prior to the conference I looked at all of the available sessions throughout the days to decide what I wanted to learn most about. I'm not going to lie, this was very overwhelming! There were 20-30 sessions during each hour block and it was very hard to pick between all of them. I attended this conference with the other media specialists in my district, so we tried to split up into smaller groups to get the most out of the conference. We all started out the conference by seeing the keynote speaker, George Couros. He talked about technology and how he's used it in the classroom, how he's seen it used in the classroom, the benefits of technology in schools, and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed his speech and was very excited to learn about new ways I can incorporate technology into my own teaching.
The first session I went to was called Who Needs a School Librarian? This was presented by three school librarians from three different school districts. The reason I decided to attend this session was because the description said they would talk about different innovative information technology programs that librarians can use in their schools. I thought this would be beneficial to see if there are others things I can use in my own classroom. I'm not going to lie, this session did not meet my expectations. I think this session would have been beneficial for administrators who do not have full time media specialists in their buildings. The three librarians talked about how they are responsible for teaching library and technology skills, and went over the different things they teach. These were all of the things I already teach in my school, so I was a bit let down. They did have posters and information about the importance of media specialists in schools and how they benefit student learning, so that was good to see at least.
The next session I attended was called Projects Your Students Will Never Forget. This was presented by Rushton Hurley who is the Executive Director of Next Vista for Learning. He was a very engaging speaker and it was very interesting to listen to him, but again I was a bit let down. He talked about three specific projects you can do with students, but they all involved making movies. While this is something I really would like to do with my kids, it's not exactly feasible for me. I have access to iPads in my school, but in order for me to complete a project like one presented I would have to have complete control of the iPads. If I were able to complete a project like this in one class period it would work, but a project like this takes much longer than 50 minutes. The others teachers and students have access to the iPads, so I wouldn't be able to have my kids save their work and continue working at a later time. Rushton did have some very good ideas and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him speak.
The last session I attended on the first day was called Little Coders. I really enjoyed this session, which was led by a first grade teacher. I do coding with my students throughout the year, but I've only done it with my 3rd-5th graders. I wanted to learn more about doing this with my younger kids because I know my kids are really engaged and enjoy doing this. The presenter showed different websites and apps he uses with his kids and I loved how kid-friendly they were. He also talked about how teachers tend to teach too much when they code with their kids. I realized I did this when I coded with my students. I showed them what they need to do to complete each level. I think I did this because I know many kids get frustrated when they don't get something right away. However, students needs to be challenged and need to be able to think critically. Next time I code with my kids I want them to figure out the rules for themselves, so I plan to provide little instruction.
While I really enjoyed my day at MACUL on Thursday, I was a bit frustrated because I wanted to get more out of the sessions. Friday proved to be much better. The first session I attended was my favorite by far! This session was called Ideas for Creative Projects. What interested me about this session was that the description mentioned it would discuss other ways to create technology projects without using PowerPoint. While I love PowerPoint, as do my students, I wanted to find other things I can teach my kids. There were so many different websites and apps the presenter showed I was blown away! I felt that this session completely made up for the sessions I wasn't crazy about on Thursday. The presenter, a Technology Integration Specialist, was so engaging and showed us so many things I wanted to use right away. He had examples to show us that we could participate in on our own devices, and I loved that I could see first hand exactly how to use the different programs. One website I really liked that I plan to use in my classroom soon is called Pear Deck. This was a very cool interactive website that you can use during lessons and have students participate as you go through a lesson. Another website I really liked was ThingLink. We only saw a small example of this, but I want to explore this website more because I thought it was something my kids would really enjoy. There were way more websites given that I loved and plan to test out to see if they will work for my classroom. This session was a great start to Friday and I was so excited to learn more throughout the day.
The second session I went to was called Using Kidblog to Tap into Your Students True Writing Potential. This session was taught by a kindergarten teacher, and I wanted to go to this one because blogging is something I've wanted to do with my students. Most blogging websites require a student login or email address so I haven't done this in my classroom yet. Kidblog is great because students do not need an email address to use it and it is very user friendly. I was encouraged because the presenter uses Kidblog with her kindergartners and they absolutely love it. This session mostly showed us how the teacher uses Kidblog in her classroom, so I didn't learn a ton but it did get me interested in blogging with my students.
The last session I went to was called Engage Your Students With Free Web Tools. I really enjoyed this session because we tested out so many different websites. What I loved the most about this was that the presenter gave us a huge list of websites and programs that students can use without needing an account. This is always a big issue when looking into new websites. My students do not have email addresses so this tends to be a problem for some websites. A lot of the things we were shown in this session were very cool, but not all of them seemed exactly educational. The presenter gave us his website that has all of his websites listed on it, so I plan to go back and look through his list to find the ones that I think would be the most beneficial for my students.
All in all I really enjoyed my experience at MACUL. I have so many new things I want to take a look at to see how I can use them in my classroom. I'm finding that I want to try new things with my students instead of the same projects. It will be a learning experience, but, as I tell my students, it's good to make mistakes - that's how we learn!
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