Step 4: Go out and do something!

This week has been a bit crazy for me, had some trouble with my car, my daughter went back to college and I spent half of my week at the Christa McAuliffe Conference in Manchester!  Lots of things to do and learn.

 Img from nhste.org

On Monday night I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Sylvia Martinez on the Maker Movement. I have been hearing about Makerspaces and dreaming of creating one at my school for about 6 months now and we are on our way already! I have surveyed the fifth graders, purchased iPads and Little Bits kits, and started the conversation with my principal(who is fully on board)! Monday night's workshop gave me the opportunity to play with a MaKey MaKey kit, which I will be bringing back to school for the student's use. If you've never seen one, check out their website by clicking on the link below.

makeymakey 

 Img from MakeyMakey website

Tuesday was a full conference day for me and I attended a wonderful keynote and workshop by Sylvia Martinez so my head is full of ideas for the Makerspace. In addition, I attended a workshop on Twitter as a PD tool, which I really can't say enough about. I first logged into Twitter to follow Jimmy Fallon and George Takei, they are both so funny and the hashtag challenges crack me up. But then I attended a workshop at the BLC conference that opened my eyes to the possibility of using Twitter as a PD tool. The workshop this week included some like minded people and some newbies and I learned a few more tricks and tools, including better curating of my Twitter feed through Tweet Deck.  You can follow me on Twitter @hdidi17 or follow my library @LibrarySCES.
                          
Thursday was another full conference day for me. It began with a truly inspiring keynote by Rushton Hurley. The main thing I took away from it was that we, as educators, need to put the fun into learning and we can do that in two key ways- letting kids play(explore, discover, make mistakes, learn) and by putting ourselves out there. The technology isn't always going to work, but how we handle that is key. The time we give kids to do things is key. The support we give them, without "grading" them is key.

I also spent a great deal of the day networking with other teachers and librarians. I feel I've made some valuable contacts and have truly taken my head out of the sand! It can be scary putting yourself out there, wondering if what we have to offer is good enough. But as the keynote speaker stated, the only person you should compare yourself to is yourself from yesterday!  He also said a candle doesn't lose anything by lighting another candle...just something to think about.

Friday I stepped way out of my comfort zone and used Google hangout for a video chat between one of my 2nd grade classes and a second grade class from Henniker Community School. I had gone to visit Carol Sweny, the Librarian at HCS, a few weeks back and we came up with a plan to have our kids share their thoughts about the NH Ladybug Award nominees. In preparation, both groups had listened to all of the books, written about their favorite and cast their official ballot! In addition, Carol and I ran a practice video chat last week to be sure that we could see and hear each other!  The whole experience was fantastic!  The kids were excited and engaged on both ends and Carol and I are planning on doing more of this in future!

 

I know this is a fairly long blog post and I thank you for reading to the end, if you did in fact read to the end!  I have gotten out to do some things this week and I can't wait to get out and do more things!!!!