Using Technology in Early Primary

While travelling back and forth to Texas twice, with Haiku Deck and the images in my iPad camera roll, I created this mini slide deck of some of the ways my grade one students are using technology for learning.  I hope it sparks some new ideas for you to try with your students too.


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

ADE Institute North America - Austin Texas 2013

I’ve spent the past week at the most incredible professional development of my career.  You see, a few months ago I found out that I was chosen to be a part of the Apple Distinguished Educator Class of 2013 (ADE Class of 2013).  To be a part of this special program I had to go through a rigorous application process which included four essay questions, and the creation of a two minute video.  There were only 50 spots available in Canada and I know many equally deserving people had applied.  So when I found out that I was chosen the significance of it’s importance was not lost on me.  It is a true honour to have been chosen.

Landing in Austin 

Fast forward a few months, to this past week at the ADE Institute North America in Austin, Texas.  Wow! There isn’t much more than I can say.  In true Apple style I was blown away by both the calibre of people and the quality educational opportunities that were presented to me. Having never experienced anything like this before there really is something special about ADEs. 

Each day was jam packed with  sessions.  In terms of Apple software I learned more about iBook Author, iTunes U , Keynote, Final Cut Pro X, and Motion. Much of what I learned was way over my head, but the ADE family and the actual software creators were extremely patient with me.  We had keynote sessions from  Nancy Duarte, Rebecca Stockley, Sarah Herrlinger, and Bill Franks and Laura Heald. I was also able to meet several of my favourite app developers during the Meet the Developers session.

In addition each day I was able to attend "creative agency" sessions which were small group drop in sessions.  Here I learned more about photography, iBook Author, Final Cut Pro, and Motion.

Keynote Speaker Nancy Duarte and her Story Visual

Meeting Book Creator Dan

Meeting Reshan Richards of Explain Everything

The brain exploding learning was only one of the highlights of the week. If you know me at all I am all about the people and the relationships that I build.  The ADE Institute amplified this for me over and over again.  First off  I was extremely happy when I found out that not one but three of my friends from #1stchat were chosen to be ADEs too.  The institute allowed us to meet face to face for the very first time.  Being able to sit and learn with them for five days straight was a dream come true.  And it went way beyond learning.  We supported each other when we were totally over whelmed, laughed tons, and shared personal stories.  I still smile when I think about our time together and how lucky we were to be together so much.

Kathy and Kristen meeting F2F for the first time.

 #1schat gang Kristin, Kristen, me, and Kathy 

I also had the opportunity to connect and collaborate with many other inspiring educators as well.  My official ADE personal learning network included my incredible #1stchat crew along with Maury, Elaine, Robyn, Liz, Rich, Myrella, and Katie.  These people listened when I had questions, and encouraged me when I needed it.  They are the people who are providing me feedback on my One Best Thing chapter. They are all incredible educators too and I am so thankful to be learning with them as well.

Gillian, Kathy and I 

I also loved all the other ADEs and Apple staff that I met while in Austin.  The generous sharing of knowledge was beyond anything I have seen before.  And what really stuck for me was how incredibly generous and supportive everyone was.  Unlike at other conferences where I felt that there was a bit of a class system of the “cool kids” and the “less cool kids” I had no feeling of that at the Institute.  Every single person I met was genuine and supportive of me and what I’m doing with my students.  Every single person!  I can’t stress that enough.  It was like I had finally met the people who really got me.  It was over 300 people that really got me.  And I understood them too.  I was surrounded by incredible brilliance, yet everyone was humble and supportive. There was no ego, just knowledge, support, and sharing.

Kathy, Kristin, Kristen, and Robyn - some of the amazing rockstars in my ADE PLN.

Although our time was very full I still managed to sneak away to see the bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge, snuck in a mini run around the University of Texas, and walked around Austin.

The bats flying our from under the bridge.

Texas State Capital Building

University of Texas Clock Tower
(aka view from my hotel room)

Now that I'm home it's time for me to get started on the one project that I am required to submit to Apple - my One Best Thing.  Over the next few weeks I will be working on a chapter in iBook Author which focusses on starting with choice in a primary classroom.  My chapter will focus on the why, and how of providing choice.  My hope is that my chapter will help support those who would like to offer their students more choice but just aren't sure where or how to start.  In addition I hope that it will shed light on new and innovative ways to provide choice as well.   I have many ideas zipping through my head, including some incredible video footage of inspiring educators who are providing more and more choice in their classrooms. It will be a labour of love.

Now, I can't end this post without thanking the incredible team from Apple.  They went above and beyond in so many ways.  I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that I was just given. THANK YOU!

Using Video Conferencing for Oral Language Learning

I recently wrote a blog post for the International Reading Association (IRA) that is about using video conferencing for oral language learning.  If you're interested you can read that blog post on the IRA site here.

My First TV Interview

This morning I was asked to be a guest on BC/AM Global  with Jill Krop.  She was interested in hearing about how my students are using social media for learning.  Here's the complete 7 minute interview.

ISTE 2013 Reflection - Part 3

I spent Wednesday morning at the poster sessions taking in information and learning with teachers. But before I got there I ran into the ADE Digital Story telling people at the digital playground and I was so impressed with what they were sharing. On the inside I was smiling too because this is a very special group that I am now a part of too. It's all a bit surreal but in a super exciting sort of way.  I'll meet many of them in person at the Apple Institute in Austin later this month.

Back to ISTE. I liked all  the poster sessions I attended because it allowed me to ask my questions, or listen to the presenter share their journey.  It is here that I learned that I can easily e-mail blogger posts to my blogs and it also reminded me that I need to check out what's available on the blogging platforms that I use (blogger and kidblog in particular). It is great to see what people are doing in their classrooms, and it also helped reassure me that I am doing good things in my room too.  It made me think that I could, legitimately, apply to have a poster session at ISTE too.

I also spent part of the morning in iOS Mobile Storychasing with Wesley Fryer and Dana Owens. What was funny to me is that they encouraged us to e-mail blogs to the blog they created for their workshop. I giggled because I had just moments early learned how to do this.  Their session was interesting. My class and I share a fair bit of our stories on line but their session had me wondering how I could involve the parents of my students a bit more. Perhaps they could start contributing to our class blog too, via e-mail, from home.

The conference ended with the most amazing keynote presented by Adam Bellow.  I was extremely fortunate to talk with Adam a few times over the week. On the occasion I have met "twitter" people face to face and as excited as I am to meet them, they really seem to care less about meeting me. I get that because I'm sure they have a ton of people coming up to them wanting to meet them although I'm not saying that I agree with it. But not once did I get that feeling from Adam at all.  What an incredible, bright, engaging, genuine, real person.  Seriously. This guy is the REAL THING.  If you haven't had a chance to listen to his keynote I highly recommend you do. It's in the video below and starts around the 22 min mark.

So with that keynote the conference was officially over.  The funny thing is I think I stood outside the ballroom for close to an hour chatting with a variety of people I met and connected with over the  weekend.  As completely exhausted  as I was I didn't want the experience to end.  What was also nice is that I spent time talking with some local people from my part of the world. I like that because those face to face conversations can easily continue.

ISTE was an incredible experience for me and I can't stop smiling about it.  But what now?

Here are a few more of my reflections.

In so many ways ISTE was the best place  for face to face connections and was the main reason why I was excited to attend the conference.  And as I've now been home for about a week I realize that there were so many people  that I never had the chance to meet and chat with.  But what bothers me is that there were some educators that I tried to meet with little luck.   In fact I was pretty much ignored by people. It made me feel like my voice was not important which I know is not true.  So as much I was warned in advance there there were cliques at ISTE I'm sad that I had to witness that.  Thankfully I did have enough people that I did know (or meet) that did enjoy spending time with me but it does bother me that people treated me that way.  I'm hoping with time they will take the time to get to know me a little better too.  We all have important stories to tell.

The ISTE conference is as over whelming as they say. There are sessions on everything and those sessions can take on so many different formats.  My goal when I arrived was to meet people and I'm really happy with how I did in that department. I met some incredible people face to face who will continue to have a huge impact on my learning and sharing.  The sessions however were not nearly as inspiring as I would have hoped. I know to present at ISTE is an extremely competitive process so I wonder if it was just the sessions that I attended, or that I already have so much trusted freedom to explore innovative ways of teaching with my students, or that I am a connected educator and so I've seen, read, or have had conversations about a lot of what was presented in the sessions I attended.  And I tried to attend sessions that I didn't know much about - like augmented reality, or innovative ways of teaching with new technologies. I'm not sure what it was exactly but it did surprise me.

I tried to take part in far too many evening events.  One night I could have been in eight different places at once and as much as I hate missing out on anything I think I should have narrowed down what I did do to even less. What ended up happening is that I spent very little time at each location and so as much as I had quantity visits I lacked many quality ones.  That's very me though and something I need to work on. I hate to settle on one thing because I don't like to  miss out on anything.   I dabble in a lot of different things and not necessarily master  anything.  As a generalist at heart, with so many curiousities and questions in a variety of areas,  I'm constantly trying to find answers. I am a life long learner for certain.

Since I've returned many themes continue to spiral around in my head and these include...

How can we get more "classroom teachers" to ISTE. I learn with a fantastic group of educators from #1stchat but I was the only one at ISTE. I also know that a ton of teachers from my district would have loved to have been there but it's way too costly for us to be released from class and to be so far from home for close to a week.  I was lucky this year because I won the award and I know that but how powerful it could have been to have other elementary classroom teachers from my district with me. Maybe this can happen next year when the conference takes place when we are not in session.  As it is though I'm thankful I was there with some of my district's helping teachers as it allowed me to get to know the a little better, and for them to get to know me a little better. I'm hoping this strengthened connection will better able me to help them out in their rolls. I am a voice from with in the classroom environment.

What other ways can I help my young learners show the world what they are capable of doing? Any chance I get I will advocate for my young learners, or I will find ways for them to advocate for themselves. This conference made me realize that we aren't doing it well enough. There is so much the "big" people could learn from my little people. I my little people to be heard.

How can I improve my communication with parents, particularly for those who are not comfortable accessing information on line.  This year I made the effort to keep our class blog up to date, and my students shared a lot on their individual blogs. Any working parent could access this information 24/7 but I'm not sure how often they did.  ISTE gave me a few more ideas to try for next year. I think with the change in school I'll be more willing to give up the "what we always do" mentality and explore new options for communicating with parents.

How do I inspire my staff to reflect on their teaching practice and be willing to try something new while at the same time making sure that I am being mindful of where they are in their own personal journey?  As many of you have read I am leaving my school after 18 years. The reasons are many but this is certainly something I've struggled with the past couple of years. As I embark on a new school with a new staff I want to make sure I am there as a support, and not a threat. I know that we all do great things in our own ways and I want to make sure that I very clearly embrace that.  But I also want to inspire my new staff to reflect on their teaching practice and be willing to try something new. It will be a very tight rope to walk and I hope I can find ways to do it successfully.

And before I forget a question that came up over and over again from my on line peeps that were not at ISTE is why didn't I tweet more? The reality was as good as the wifi was for 18,000 people, there were many times when it failed miserably. After waiting for what felt like forever to have a tweet send, the novelty of sending a tweet wore off completely.  

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this.  If you've missed my Part 1 and Part 2 reflections you can find them by clicking here.

ISTE 2013 Reflection - Part 1
ISTE 2013 Reflection - Part 2

If you were at ISTE I'd love to hear about your take aways.

ISTE 2013 - Reflection Part 2

The past two years I have learned over and over again that I never really know what I don't know until I learn something new.  And more importantly I have to be open to learn something new.  My time at ISTE was filled with moments like that.  As I take the time to reflect on the remaining days at ISTE, and I read others reflections on ISTE, I am reminded over and over again what an incredible opportunity I had in front of me, and as much as I tried to make the most of it, I know I still missed out on so much of what the conference had to offer me.

Monday morning I attended my first official session "Personalize Learning through Innovative Uses of Technology". I don't know if it's because my students already have so much "personalized control" over their learning, or that because I'm a connected educator and I am constantly reading about innovative ways to teach, but very little of what was being presented in this session was new to me. In fact I spent a lot of time thinking about using technology to give feedback and how that works with student achievement.  I, and my program specifically, is so much about personal connections and real conversations around learning.  Yes, a computer program can collect data, but can it really help guide a student forward with their learning.  I'm not sure I want my students personalized learning to be dictated by a computer program.

After the session I spent some time on the convention floor chatting with the vendors. Wow, the vendor floor was huge and as much as I tried to visit every booth, I must admit I moved quickly from vendor to vendor. I guess in my role as a grade one teacher I have very little voice when it comes to purchasing equipment for my school district.  I also know that money is really tight back home and so while I may have seen some really amazing products, I am working in a school that desperately needs basic tools like functioning laptops for students to use. However the absolute highlight of this vendor visit was meeting Peter Reynolds, the author of many amazing books including The Dot. Last year my class and I participated in DOT DAY and this year we will again too. It was great to chat with Peter. 

Peter Reynolds and I

Another highlight of Monday was meeting Julie Ramsay.  I was connected to Julie via Lara Zeises Deloza with the International Reading Association. Lara has been wanting Julie and I to connect both virtually and face to face for a while now. Julie and I snuck off the convention site and headed for coffee near by.  The conversation was great as we shared how we are transforming education with the use of technology. Transformation is key for both of us as we both get frustrated when we see people using technology as just really expensive drill and practice devices. The connection was good and I'm very thankful Lara pushed us together.  If I am able to get to all the conferences I want to attend next year Lara, Julie, and I will all be face to face at the International Reading Conference in New Orlenes.

Me and Julie

I returned from coffee to attend my first official ticketed session.  Some how I stumbled across these special free but ticketed sessions that required you to register in advance. I managed to register  in one for each day (you can only attend one a day) but unfortunately I was too late to register for any of the BYOD sessions - those must have filled up really quickly but next year I will make sure to register earlier and try to get into them - more on next year later).

My ticketed session was My Global Voice: Publishing with iBooks Author.  As a brand new ADE I know that what we will be focussing on in Austin is publishing with iBooks Author. Since I've never used it before I figured I'd better learn so that I wouldn't arrive in Austin completely clueless.  I ended up downloading their fantastic resource from iTunes U for using iBooks Author.  You can download it here too. There was way more than an hours worth of information in the course, but between now and July 13th when I head to Austin for the Apple Institute I will have some time to play with it. 

From there I headed to a session titled "Augmented Reality: Student-Created AR Fascinates and Engages Kids and Parents" .  What I failed to mention on the first post is that on Sunday I spent time with Drew and Brad from Two Guys with some iPads talking about this exact thing.   It is something I know I want to try with my young learners but the trick for me is to find ways that they can do it independently. I most certainly see a big buddy little buddy project with this.  A lot of what was shared at this session can be found here.

After a bit more F2F chatting in the Blogger's cafe I headed back for a quick change before making my way to an evening of get togethers.  That's the thing about ISTE, while there is a ton to do during the day, there is also a ton to do during the evening too.  I was fortunate to have heard about a variety of events and managed to attend some of them too.  So on Monday evening I made an appearance at the YEN Social Event, Showbie's Martini Monday, the Mindshare Learning Can-Am gathering.  I then met up with the entire Surrey School District crew for appies on the Riverwalk. It was the first time all eight of us where at the same place at the same time. It was great to be with my "peeps" from back home.

From there a few of us headed to the Gaggle Party which was a ton of fun too. It was a late night and I had to be mindful of the time because I had scheduled my official ISTE photo and video shoot for 9:00 am the following morning.

The ISTE photo and video shoots went well so I'll be curious to see if any of my photos (or video clips) show up any where on the ISTE website or in their publications.  It was a fun experience although I will admit I was very nervous before hand.  

Immediately after the photo shoot I met Dr. Garry Bitter,  He is an active ISTE member and  set up the Kay L Bitter award in memory of his wife.  He was the most fascinating man to speak with -bright, kind and very genuine.  A real highlight of the entire time in San Antonio.  He shared stories about his late wife Kay and how she went above and beyond to get technology into the hands of her young learners.  I certainly hope I am continuing her passion with my integration of technology in the early years.  Our time together was short  but I enjoyed every minute of it.  I couldn't help but smile as we chatted.  I will do my very best to keep in contact with him too. 

From there I headed to the poster sessions again as there were several tables I wanted to visit.  It was here that I once again realized that I could easily be behind one of the tables presenting what my students are doing with technology.  It has me thinking about actually submitting to present at ISTE next year - perhaps a hands on workshop, or a poster session, or a lecture type session. The more I saw at ISTE the more I realized that I have things to share that others could benefit from too. Particularly those that work with young learners.  

I was suppose to attend another session but ended up back in the blogger's cafe meeting and talking with the ISTE board. It was an official session but pretty informal in nature. It was great though because the board was really keen to hear what we had to say, to take our suggestions, and listen to our feedback. It was here that I met all the ISTE board members. It was a very good session in fact and the best part of all is that I won the final door prize of complementary conference fees for ISTE 14! Yup, that's right it looks like I'm heading to Atlanta for ISTE 14!

Between winning my ISTE 2014 conference registration fee and attending my second ticketed session I was interviewed by  Robert Martellacci from MindShare Learning.  You can view that interview here. 

I then attended my second ticketed session Learning Superheroes Connect: Innovation Collaborative Project Design.  Here they shared many projects that they are doing at the district level. I loved seeing same grade students across the district involved in collaborative projects together.  But again while the session was good, my students are already doing many similar projects but taking them even further.  Being a connected educator really has its benefits and working in my school district has allowed me try new and innovative ways to learn.

Joan, Krissy, Cheryl, and I

After this session I had lunch with the most amazing ladies ever. Cheryl Steighner, Krissy Venosdale, and Joan Young and I are all part of the #eduparty group which meets  regularly via google hangout.  We all live in different parts of the world so it was quite amazing to have us all together.  The only regret was that Ann Ottmar and Celina Brennan (also part of our group) couldn't be at ISTE. As you can imagine lunch was filled with wonderful conversation and tons of smiles. I am so glad we were able to arrange our schedules to make this work.  And while I had spent time with most of them on their own at other times during the conference it was really great having us all together.  They are truly amazing ladies and I am VERY FORTUNATE to be able to call them my friends.

  

Matt and I, finally meeting face to face

From lunch it was back to the blogger's cafe to finally meet Matt and Dan from Kidblog. I say finally because Matt and I have had many conversations and e-mail exchanges. I've been featured on their blog and I can't say enough about how wonderful they have been to me and my students. When I have an issue or concern they are quick to find a solution.  Meeting them was another highlight.

I spent a bit of time back on the vendor floor and met Moby from Brain Pop.

  

I also had a meet up with my Global Collaboration friends Melvina, Louise, and Paula. And while waiting for us to meet up I had a wonderful time talking to Rodney Turner from Arizona.

I caught the third and final ignite session as well which was filled with many fast paced presentations.  I liked the ignite sessions a lot. Basically you get 5 minutes to share 20 slides. I'd think for a presenter it's 5 minutes of pure torture. Well maybe not during the 5 minutes but definitely the minutes before you begin.  It's funny though because as much as this totally freaks me out I kind of think it would be a fantastic challenge for me to do.  If you know anything about me, taking challenges and pushing limits is something that I thrive on doing. It's doing something that my logical brain says is impossible, and I prove to the other side of my brain that it is possible.  Hmm...

Tuesday night I had some time at a Discovery Education Canadian tweet up, and then played tourist a bit as a hung out on the River Walk and took one of the boat tours.

I was suppose to go to the EdTech Karaoke party but I went back to my hotel to moderate blog posts from my students back at home. Their posts were all directed at me, how much they missed me and loved me. They were tough to read because I was missing my class a lot too.  I'm leaving my school after 18 years and so I will not see these students again. Needless to say by the time I responded to all their posts I really wasn't in the mood to join in the Karaoke fun. I was also completely exhausted having slept very little running non stop since before I left for Texas.

I think I've now written more than enough but still have more to share. Stay tuned for the third and hopefully final post on my time at ISTE13. 

ISTE 2013 - Reflection Part 1

I am extremely fortunate to have attended ISTE 2013  in San Antonio, Texas.   Extremely fortunate.  As an enrolling classroom teacher in a country where school  doesn't get out until the last Friday in June, it is almost impossible to be released from my grade one classroom to attend a conference such as this.  But this year it was  different because  this year I was going to ISTE to receive the Kay L. Bitter Award.  According to the ISTE website it is "for individuals who demonstrate vision and creativity in a project or program that effectively integrates technology in a PK–2 classroom."   Since this may be one of only a small handful of times that I can get to ISTE it was my mission to make the most out of my time there.

San Antonio River Rock at Night

I arrived in San Antonio late Friday afternoon and was quickly greeted by warmth and sunshine.  After being in rain for the past week it was a wonderful change.  Once I checked into my hotel Sara Hunter , a 2013 ISTE Emerging Leader invited me to join her and her friends for dinner. Sara and I had only ever met on Twitter but what I've learned over and over again is that most of those friendships I've fostered on Twitter, are equally as real in person.  Sara was no exception.

Sara and I on the ADE Photo Walk

Almost immediately I was feeling comfortable with Sara and her wonderful friends.  Selena Ward, Angela Batten, and Rurik-Rory Nackerud were so awesome to be with.  I'm not officially sure what the table brilliance was but I can assure you it was very high, with an equal amount of love for life. Great conversations, great food, and great company. My first night was excellent and besides meeting this awesome crew of emerging leaders, I met Adam Bellow and Jerry Blumengarten face to face too.   A perfect start to this wonderful adventure.

Joan and I at Hack Education

On Saturday morning  I registered for ISTE.  What an incredibly organized registration process right down to different coloured carpets depending on if you were a presenter, a vendor, or a participant.  But despite the incredible organization the best part of the registration process was when  Joan Young came up to me.  She  and I,  along with four other amazing educators,  meet regularly for an "eduparty" in google hangout.  While Joan and I have had many conversations, this was our first face to face one.  Needless to say there were smiles and hugs! 

Melvina, JoAnn and I on the ADE Photo Walk

Together Joan and I headed to  Hack Education.  It's a free conference the day before the "official" conference. It's set up very much like an ed camp where the sessions are determined by the people in the room suggesting topics and then voting on them.  Even before we got into the room I heard a familiar voice, that of Jen Wagner from Projects by Jen. It was great to finally meet and connect with her face to face. I also met Michelle Cordy and Paula Naugle at this time.

My first session was on Global Collaborative Projects. I shared what my students were doing, and how it doesn't always have to be a "big scale project" to have a meaningful impact on student learning.  I also met Melvina and JoAnn.

From there I headed to a session on Social Media. It was here that I realized how very different my school in Surrey, BC Canada is from so many in the US.  In my district innovation is embraced, and most barriers to innovation have been removed.  Every school in our district has an open wireless network and I have yet come across any blocked websites that I use in my grade one classroom. We can tweet, blog, and video conference on a very regular basis without fear of "big brother" watching us.  I also work in a district that has an active district hashtag #sd36learn created for teachers and admin by teachers. It was a very interesting session to be in. It was filled with inspiration too. Listening to Todd Nesloney use his document camera and personal phone to connect with the world was inspiring and helps remind me to keep pushing limits with my students if it is what is best for them.

Linda Yollis and I at the Blogger's Cafe

I also attended a session on Deeper Thinking with Technology. Here we talked about ways people are using technology at the most basic level and then had some examples of how technology can be used to promote higher level thinking. I shared how my students add voice to their work and share that work on their blogs. My example may not have been the best as I forgot to mention that the voice that they are adding is actually talking about the thinking that they are doing with their learning, the reflecting and synthesizing of their learning and not just retelling facts.  I think eventually that point was made but all the while I was thinking to myself that I should have shared more clearly.  It was a great session and had me thinking about what I do and why.  Any one who has seen me teach (or asked me about my teaching) knows that the "why" is really important to me.  During this session I also reconnected with Jackie Gerstein, and met Linda Yollis.

Over lunch I spent time with Joan and Jackie and loved every minute of it. Jackie had a techno ball that came with apps on her iPad. It was a time filled with lots of giggles. I was very thankful for this time with Jackie and Joan.

I also sat in on a couple of sessions during the mobile technology sharing session.  I listened to Jennifer Bond share how she is leveraging BYOD with her grade three students.  I think a lot like her in the sense that the tool (or app) is some what irrelevant and that it's more about having our students show their learning in ways that work best for them.  I wish I had more time to talk with Jennifer because her students are doing some really incredible things with what they have available to them.

Vicki Smart

In the evening I attended the Hack Ed after party, reconnected, and met many more people. It was great to see Matt Gomez and Heidi Echternacht from the #kinderchat crew again.  It was lovely meeting Vicky Smart from Australia.  I actually met quite a few Aussies that evening and enjoyed talking to each and every one of them. In fact I was one of the very last to leave as I was in a great conversation with Keryn Hempel and Sandra Orr from down under.

Drew, Me, and Brad

On the way back I ran into Drew Minock and Brad Waid from Two Guys with some iPads. They were a ton of fun to chat with and it was awesome seeing them all week long. If you're not already following them on twitter I highly recommend you do. Tons of great energy and a lot of information re augmented reality.

If you know me at all I didn't get back to my room with out a few more stops and meeting a few more people. So far I was loving ISTE and it hadn't even officially started yet.

Krissy and I

Sunday morning I woke up early. As much as I was excited to take part in the ADE ISTE Photo Walk (open to everyone) I was even more excited to meet Krissy Venosdale.  Like Joan, Krissy is also part of my #eduparty crew. And like Joan she is a truly amazing educator and I feel honoured to be able to call her my friend. I think we were both equally excited to meet one another before the photo walk. Meeting her face to face was like I had know her for a long time already. That's the thing with twitter, most of the relationships you start there, are just as real when you finally do get to meet face to face.  Anyhow Krissy and I along with about 180 others headed out for our photo walk. Here are some of the photos I took.

The photo walked didn't last too long because Krissy and I got into conversation.  It isn't every day that we get to spend time together so it was important for both of us to enjoy this 1:1 time.

Jen Wagner, Me, and Sue Waters

Anne Mirtschin and I

 After the photo walk I headed into the convention centre to learn the lay of the land. With poster sessions, playgrounds, spotlights, workshops etc I wanted to have a better idea of where everything was. I also managed to find myself in the Blogger's Cafe where I once again saw Jen Wagner, and finally met Sue Waters from Edublogs.  In addition I met Anne Mirtschin from Australia and a member of a group I belong to called Hello Little Skypers. 

I also met Andrew Vanden Heuvel  and chatted to him about his Google Glass. He even let me try them on.  They were very cool but certainly would take some getting used to.

Andrew and I

Me wearing Google Glass

I then headed back to the hotel to get "gussied up" for the official ISTE Awards Ceremony.  I also made sure to wear the very special bracelet that the parent group at my school gave me. It was the way I could include my students in the ceremony because I still believe that the award should go to them, and not to me because THEY are the rockstars here.

Reflecting back I can't believe how nervous I was for ceremony. I had heard the main ballroom was huge and all I could think about was standing infront of so many people and being singled out.  Thankfully Sara Hunter was also receiving an award along with several other super kind people so the waiting wasn't too bad.  Dean Shareski and Michelle Cordy were also back stage and had a lot more to be nervous about because they were part of the ignite session which followed.  It was great to have Dean back stage with me and to have a little Canadian possie to hang with too.  Here's a small glimps of what the ballroom looked like empty. That big grey rectangle is the first of at least a couple of screens that went back. If you haven't figured it out the room was huge!

My time on stage was actually very quick and I was off the stage just as quickly as I got on to it. They shared this video while we got on the stage and once it was over we left the stage.  I was super glad that  Martin, Shelagh, Kevin, Orwell, JB, and Carolyn from my school district were in the room when I received my award. I really wish Elisa Carlson could have been there too. She has been a HUGE supporter of what I've been doing with my students. Without her support, I would never have won this award.   Here's the movie ISTE showed of all the award winners.  

Once rushed off stage we headed to another part of the conference centre for photos. After photos I felt way better. I didn't realize how worried I was about the actual award presentation. Unfortunately while I was out getting photos I missed Michelle's ignite session but I did managed to catch Deans.

From the awards session I headed down to the Global Education Conference where I met Louise Morgan. There I shared our pages in the global scrapbook and passed it on to Anne M to take back to Australia with her.

Still in my "fancy clothing" with my heels switched out to flipflops I headed back to the blogger's cafe and met up with some more "edu rockstars". It was great to see Maria and Amanda (two previous Kay L Bitter award winners) but I was also sad that Kathy Cassidy wasn't there. Kathy has played a HUGE role in my journey with technology and young children. She's helped me find my feet, and with them I've gone running. Like Elisa Carlson, Kathy plays a huge role in me winning this award.

Me, Amanda, Sue, Wes, Maria, and Jen

I also  met (finally)  Tina Photakis from Australia.

Me and Tina Photakis

From the Blogger's Cafe I headed over to the ISTE SIGs (Special Interest Group) tables for a bit of networking. It was great to see what SIGs were available to be apart of.  Before I got there I saw Vicki Smart again and she was kind enough to get a photo of me holding my Kay L Bitter Award. Once there I saw Heidi and Matt again, and the Global Classroom Crew.  It was great to meet Louise and Preston, along with Julie Lindsay from Flat Classroom, and Anne again.

#Kinderchat Rockstars Matt and Heidi, and I

Preston, Lousie, Me, and Anne

I then met up with my Surrey crew (less Jordan and Carolyn) for a group shot.  I still need to get a copy of that photo and once I do I will add it here. We walked around a lot and headed over to the tower. They all went up the tower but I headed over to the president's reception.

The highlight of this particular reception was meeting Kathy Schrock.  She is a total tech ed rockstar and if given the chance I would have chatted with her all night long. She has so much knowledge and is a super kind person too.  I must admit I was pretty nervous speaking to her but I am so glad I did. She is a very bright lady. I was also able to thank her for putting one of my blog posts on her iPad blog. I told her the impact that has had on that post of mine.

After the reception I headed back to my hotel to crash for the night. It was a pretty exhausting and emotionally draining couple of days. My head was spinning from conversations, and my heart was smiling from connections.  I was in a really good place and so happy, and thankful to be at ISTE.

This ends the first part of my ISTE 2013 Reflection. There is still much more to come.

Ahh, just realized I totally missed talking about the  keynote session with Jane McGonigal and the benefits of gaming. The highlight there was when the entire room had thumb wars.  Here's the ISTE short video on Jane's keynote.