Blue Ribbon Conference

I went to my first Blue Ribbon Conference yesterday.  I didn't know what to expect.  Travis Allen from the iSchool Initiative was the keynote speaker; he was amazing.  He spoke of learning without walls and student driven learning.  He demonstrated a sampling of apps he uses and enjoys as well as projects he's done in school utilizing apps.  I was able to get in a question, "I teach fifth grade, where do I start?"  His answer was simple, "Live it and breathe it yourself."  He mentioned going paperless and using technology for more than simply researching and typing.

I stayed on with him for his first event being Social Media.  I like many others seemed a little confused about how Twitter would work for me.  He showed us how to decipher credibility by a tweet to follower ratio.  He went over retweeting, hashtags and posting blogs.  He explained using Twitter to be an observer or an influencer and how to keep track.  I can now see that if I want to get my teaching ideas out there this can be the way to do it, tweeting my blog posts - which he also told us how to do.


From there I went to 'Appy Hour' where 4th grade teachers gave an honest presentation about using iPads in the classroom.  They went over apps they use in the classroom and organized them by content area.  The explained how students are helping them in the learning process.  They work to figure out how to successfully navigate the apps by creating presentations in apps such as Haiku Deck, Sock Puppets and Educreations.  Haiku Deck does not use sound and might be a good place to start.    The math apps were more grade level appropriate than most I've seen: Oh No! Fractions, Factor Samurai and Coop Fractions.  The science and social studies apps were very tied to the grade level but they also included Brain Pop.  In ELA they had Cramberry - a vocabulary note card app which I've already suggested for a student.  There was also MadLibs, Spelling City and a 4th Grade Reading app for comprehension - there is a fifth grade version.

Finally, I went to an Edmodo class.  As a parent, I was familiar with Edmodo already.  I had never seen the
teacher site.  On it, you can add your students yourself by logging out to create the accounts or just have the students do it - they suggested doing it yourself.  There are apps available through the site or you can put in your own quizzes, assignments or polls.  The site tracks student progress and what they have done.  It is a safe forum for student chatting allowing for a quality conversation about what students put out there.  Here, the teacher can remove any comments that should not be there or are simply questionable.

In the end, the day was full of learning and excitement.  The closing ceremony left me a winner.  My name was called for the registration for next year's event.  Then, my name was called again as the winner for the big prize from the iSchool Initiative, an iPad mini for me.  I guess, I am ready to live and breathe technology!