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Great things in this conference....

One take away I am still chewing on is the concept of search vs. sort. Rather than being excellent sorters, we need to make information accessible through search tools.

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NCCE2015 was my first NCCE experience............took a long time to arrive in Portland................totally worth the wait!!!!!

From the 2 day MIE Educator Workshop to the four sessions I attended during the conference, my brain is overloaded, is on overdrive.........how do I turn it off?...............do I want to turn it off????

I had two goals in mind when I decided to attend this conference: 1. To use the information acquired as a tool to build awareness at my school; 2. To use the information acquired to grow professionally............the missions will be accomplished!

Totally thankful for this experience and excited for myself, my students and my colleagues...............time to go back home now!

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One thing I am going to try is to set up my Google classroom over spring break and try at least one assignment the week we come back.  I am excited to see how this new management program will make sorting and grading the papers submitted easier to handle.  It will also allow me to create worksheets and assignments that include images-in color-, videos, and places for the students to write.

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I have only attended one day of the NCCE Conference. On this Friday I went to the keynote address given from Mr Charbanou, National teacher of the Year. His address has re-inspired me to to try new things in my classroom. One of the points he made was that it is important to keep students engaged by building relationships first, realizing that content doesn’t happen when a good relationship is missing. He also talked about teaching students to be self reliant before than can be can group dependable. How many times have we thought that putting students in groups and giving them roles was going to turn out well when the result is one student really carries the load. He shared how important it is to teach students how to be self reliant first by giving them experiences and letting them fail and find success.

I am also attending an ePortfolio class presented by Nikki Robertson and I am learning how to set up a professional website and blog. I am particularly excited about putting this to work as I will be taking a first semester of next year to travel. I want to stay in touch with my classroom and students while I am visiting new places. The ePortfolio and particularly the blog aspect will be a great asset for me and my student’s learning.

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NCCE is winding down in Portland, and I have experienced both the good and the not so good of professional development.  I know my mind is on professional development as an experience beyond just the content of the professional development experiences.  It's there because I've been working to advocate for the successful passage of HB1345 in Washington State, which hopes to define and bring common language to the meaning of teaching professional development, or professional learning.  While I sat in sessions that I loved and grew from, I also know there were individuals who didn't experience growth in the session.  Just as I sat in sessions that I did not learn or grow, my colleagues adored and grew from the same experience.

As a reflect, I realize that by experiencing the negative, I helped refine and shape my definition of personal professional development.  Did I walk into the conference with a one goal, or even two, that I wanted to see growth in when I left on Friday?  Did I choose sessions and workshops based on that goal, or did I hodge-podge from interesting things all shooting off in separate directions?

Sadly, I think I hodge-podged.  While some "less than stellar" is unavoidable, I definitely would have had a better experience if I had set a goal, chosen according to the goal, and reflected after each session.

The Takeaways and Inspiration
1) Make a goal and monitor your goal as you move through the conference.
2) Office 365 is a viable tool when you can't Go Google.  I sat forlorn looking at the sessions and debating going to all the Google sessions around Google Classrooms, Google Docs, Google-Anything.  My district is not a google district and it will not be in the near future.  But, now I've got a tool that I can push.
3) Snap.Vu - QR code and a website for the non-QR folks.  But, what's great, is you can constantly update the link without changing the poster/handout/link on website.
4) It's hard not to get caught in the balance between focusing on how to use technology and what the techonology is being used to do.  I need to remember this with students and figure out how to reach all students at each level as they move through the tech experience.  But, always keep the learning in the forefront.

5) Virtual Hallway: Show student work and classroom environment in the virtual world to give a positive message. If you aren't sharing it, what message is getting out there. This also helps for 1:1 environments where much of the work isn't physical.

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Although I miss being home right now, I must express that I have experienced a "superb" time at NCCE 2015 in Portland, Oregon

All the presenters and workshops were memorable but what I enjoyed the most was volunteering at the Registration Booth. I experienced educators from near and far who were excited and passionate to learn and share.

I would be remiss if I don't mentioned the Keynote Speaker for this morning, Friday, March 20, 2015.

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The NCEE (Northwest Council for Computer Education Conference) conference had delivered in unexpected ways.

To nurture the growth of the new online program at our alternative high school, we sought out what tools this conference might have to teach. I signed up for every possible hands-on workshop and mapped out the entire three days.

Then conference day came. Not bearing to spend three nights away from the family, I committed to driving the 60 miles there and back each day. The first day the phone alarm failed me! Holding one baby in one arm, my clothes in the other, and rallying my husband out of bed, I scrambled to jet out the door.

I made it just in time to the conference . . . to get locked out of my first workshop. Eeeek! Feeling overwhelmed, hungry, and under-caffeinated, I moped over to a lecture-based workshop.

It was if that alarm was part of the whole big plan to get me to see beyond my rigid plan. I didin't realize before the conference started just how many amazing workshops and resources would be offered. If I hadn't had to readjust the plan I would have missed out on learning about some of these other tools

Below are many of the programs and websites I plan to tackle with the teachers when I return. If you've used any of them, I'd love to know about your experience:

1. Adobe Youth Voice

2. #Edchat on Twitter

3. Getepic.com

4. Nearpod.com

5. National History Day documentaries

6. Fliboard

7. Weebly

There's more, but to save sanity, I'm starting small.

If I missed something, let me know. What is a must know about for an online educator?

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The NCEE (Northwest Council for Computer Education Conference) conference had delivered in unexpected ways. To nurture the growth of the new online program at our alternative high school, we sought...

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I began my conference with an absolutely wonderful full day summit on coding and gaming. I will be teaching a introduction to programming to a class of seventh and eighth graders in two weeks and was looking for some good stuff. I am happy to say that I found it. The Bartle test, was a revelation for me. This test asks a series of questions that then gives a users a percentage of where they fall within four gamer categories, explorer, achiever, social, or griefer (killer). I am a explorer/achiever. Students groups should consist of individuals with strengths in each of these categories to produce a group of unique strengths that the group may draw from. Kids take the test, discuss the results, and then self group. Great concept.

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The notes and take aways are on an 8 page Google Doc! Such a valuable conference! Relationship building while using technology.

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I did not post my reflection on NCCE but I wrote a message to my students. :)

Que vas a hacer durante tus vacaciones de primavera? La maestra va tomar unas merecidas vacaciones con su familia. :) Durante esta semana tambien estara corrigiendo trabajos de los estudiantes. Esto se tardara mucho :(. Espero que ustedes tomen esta semana para relajarse, terminar trabajos, jugar (afuera tambien) y estar con su familia.

What will you do during spring break? Mrs. Argo will be taking a well deserved vacation with her family. :) During this week she will also be correcting student work, which will take A LOT of time :(. I hope you use this week to relax, finish work, play (yes, outside too) and be with your family.

Have a great vacation kiddos!!!

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Amie Mickle @mrs_mickle (Battle Ground Public Schools, WA)

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Amie Mickle @mrs_mickle (Battle Ground Public Schools, WA)

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My reflection is brief (because I was talking too much), but here are a few thoughts I've gleaned:

1) We need to change the way we teach. We need to teach how to SEARCH. We don't wonder, we Google, so let's teach our kids how to ask questions, research information, and explain themselves. #jeffutecht

2) One of the best things we could teach kids for the future: How to make 3-5 minute videos that explain how to do something. That's the future. #jeffutecht

3) If you can't reflect on what you've been doing, you probably aren't doing anything interesting. Think about what you're doing, reflect on it, blog it, and keep yourself in the know. The best teachers are constant learners. #NikkiDRobertson

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Top Takeaways from NCCE 2015

1. Friday's keynote: We don't have to be rocket scientists, but launch pads for our students.
2. I may not feel that smart, but my PLN is brilliant.

3. We’re clearly a bad judge of our creations: what’s obvious to you can be amazing to others.

4. Content is the easiest thing we teach in school, relationships before content!

5. “Teachers don’t care about large-scale data. They care about what happens in their classroom.”

6. Innovation is scary and messy - that is ok.

7. You can embed a PollEverywhere into PowerPoint!

8. I need to play with the Forms extension docAppender and SiteMaestro for Google Sites.

9. The Kaienza extension for Docs lets students and teachers leave voice comments (and video and links).

10. We need to plan to teach seniors how to create their own personal Google account, then transfer anything they want to keep after graduation when we delete their accounts. Especially Sites and Drive folders.

11. Project Management is so neat and cool and totally drives productivity. Define how your idea adds value to the school, set a start and end date, and document everything.

12. Our only students born before 2000 are juniors and seniors. The idea of 21st Century Skills is now just “skills.”

13. I did not know I had this many ideas.

14. Badges are the gateway drug for gamers.

15. Ask "What if...?" not "What the...?"

16. Maybe libraries need an ePortfolio to tell their stories.

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Wow! I am at the last day of the NCCE Conference in Portland and my mind is blowing to pieces. The amount of information being thrown at me is immense. Fun kind of coping. The only way to manage the information is to quickly type in websites to use as tools and bookmark everything. At the same time I have had a Google Doc running with ideas, inspirations, apps, and ideas I want to bring to my administrator.

The most pressing thought is how to implement all of the activities and ideas that I've come across the past three days into my school library. The best I can do is investigate all the fun activities and know there is another full year of school ahead of me. If the kids are lucky we can do some quick activities like Kahoot and a mystery Skype. Planning is in my future!

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Our district has us write blogs when at conferences so I just copied what I wrote there:

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Another day filled with great sessions. You can tell the theme of this year is blended curriculum (online and face to face opportunities). Last year was maker-spaces. That is what I love about this...

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This conference an eclectic variety of sessions from SBAC testing to ePortfolios. You know it is a good conference when you come out of the session thinking: "I can use that next week."
Some of those things were quite simple. Others helped me think about next year as a whole.
Here are some golden nuggets:

PE: our on-line PE contracts should include student-created videos for things like warm-ups and cool-downs (This idea--oddly enough--came from a SBAC session!)

Hacking costs: (It's not what you think!) Don't have a projector? Use a large screen TV, or four mounted together. Makes me want that instead...Can you imagine Superbowl in my classroom next year? Most of those hacks weren't applicable to me, but I did find out about Open Ed Resources (OER).

Classes as RPGs: I came in late for this one, so I need to find out more about it, but it sounds fascinating.

I attended two workshops as well:

Office Mix (an add-on for Powerpoint). You'd think that would be easy, but there was a learning curve for me. There are some really cool options like screencasting, inserting videos and quizzes. This looks like a really good way to flip my lessons.

ePortfolios. Awe. Some. This one has changed the way my students will present their work next quarter.

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For the past 3-days I have attended the NCCE tech conference in Portland, OR at the Convention Center. WOW there were so many great presenters and ideas to bring back for my students. I am excited to bring back the ideas and watch the students grow and learn using tools as the become problem solvers and prepare for college and careers after high school.

The final keynote speaker, teacher from Zillah Jeff Charboneau, was inspirational in asking "What if" instead of using barriers to avoid trying something new. Do not be afraid of not knowing the subject matter and allow the kids to explore and learn. Find projects that students are interested in.

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Kacie Solar @queenkks (Kent Technology Academy) #NCCE2015

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Kacie Solar @queenkks (Kent Technology Academy) #NCCE2015

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A few months ago, after a meeting with our KSD big wigs about the reboot of our KTA program Andy, Anastacia, Allison and I were invited to attend NCCE to present about How to Build a Sustainable Technology Academy. I’d been to NCCE as a participant several times, but I was going to get to present…that was a new box to check off.  Yay me! After weeks of preparation in and amongst all the other duties that come with being a teacher, wife, mother, etc. we had a completed presentation and we were on our way.

Anastacia and I took off Wednesday morning and talked all things, KTA, Mill Creek and life on the way down to Portland. Upon arrival (and after a delicious lunch at Burgerville in the company of Andy and Tom) we headed straight the Oregon Conference Center to get going on our #NCCE2015 sessions.

The first session on Blended Learning presented by Sonja Delafosse was an excellent start.  Attending a session on “blended” learning I honestly wasn't exactly sure what to expect.  Blended learning was a new term to me in the moment.  Come to find out it's essentially what I've been doing for the last 8 years. Yay, Me!  She was an engaging speaker and really got me excited for our district's roll-out of Office365 next year. I'm so excited @beckykeene!

Heading into another session on Blended Learning (this time being a little more prepared for what I was going to get) Jason Neiffer didn't disappoint.  This session focused not so much on the tools to use, but various ways to flip and organize curriculum for a blended classroom. I took lots of pictures and am heading in to next Monday prepared to take an intense look at how to implement them - like now!

Our session day was done and we headed back to the hotel.  The evening was spent partaking in adult beverages, delicious food and getting to know my colleagues and friends even better.  #greatnight #tiredteacher #insomnia

Waking up on Thursday was tough.  While I was super excited to present - really, I love presenting, must be that theater background - boy was I tired...

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Nikki @NikkiDRobertson Elkmont High School

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Nikki @NikkiDRobertson Elkmont High School