When you work with middle school aged kids, there is bound to be some Internet safety and computer ethics issues.  I have decided to dedicate a lot of my lessons and professional development to awareness this month.  I will be presenting two workshops at my school - the first for parents and educators of students in Kindergarten through grade 5.  The second will be  for the parents and educators of students in grades 6 through 8.  

Some of my material is based on my own personal experiences with kids and teens with technology as I am a parent who has been through this with my own kids who are now adults.  I also reached our to my PLN (professional learning network) and have compiled ideas to create what I hope will be an informative presentation that will benefit my audience.  My goal is to work together with the community to help the students use technology in a safe a productive way without harming others or how to safeguard themselves from harm.  At the same time, I need to express how beneficial technology and the Internet can be - even with it's faults.  Not such an easy task.  It is so much easier for presenters to just scare the parents into thinking that their children should NEVER go online.  This does not benefit anyone in the end.

Once the workshops are completed, I will share the presentations here with anecdotes on the successes (or failures) of the events.

Life happens and time has flown by.   Since ISTE 2013 I have attended 2 FETC conferences and I am planning on attending ISTE 2015 in July which will be held in Philadelphia this year.  Most of the notes from both FETC conferences can be found if you followed me on twitter - @mrsmartinusa 

Technology in schools has changed tremendously since I first posted on this blog.  The current trend is moving towards MakerSpaces and tinkering as opposed to step by step instruction.  This will be a difficult transition for many, but it seems that the studies have shown that it will be greatly beneficial to the students and to the future industry leaders of our country and the world.  Student learning will go back to being the responsibility of the student, but it also requires all educators to be more creative and open to new ideas and accepting of the needs of each individual student.  It is an environment where collaboration among educators and one that allows student collaboration is vital.  

3D printers and augmented reality has allowed us to introduce the students to concepts at younger ages.  In K-12, there is a move towards teaching concepts in a more concrete manner before moving to the abstract concepts of formulas and theories.  It allows the students to not only have a better grasp of the concepts, but also excites them and makes them more engaged in the learning process.

This has caused me to rethink my teaching methods and redesign my curriculum to better fit the needs of our students.  

It has taken me a while to finally organize all of my notes and my thoughts from ISTE 2013.  I don't know how some people can continue going to conferences immediately following that "invigorausting" event.  I think I had information overload.  

Anyway, back to my normal routines and getting the school ready for a wonderful new school year.  I think it will be a good one.  We added more computers to the classrooms and are adding a few more SmartBoards as well.  I am also excited that I will finally be getting my Polycom system up and running so we should be able have more virtual interactive field trips and continuation of our Mandarin distance learning with Bishop Ahr.

July has been a busy month, mostly getting the technology in the school updated for the fall. A highlight of the month was presenting my first Corporate-sponsored webinar on overcoming obstacles in global collaborations.  I am looking forward to presenting and participating in more webinars on the topic of global collaborations.  

Next week I will be attending a STEAM EdCamp.  It should be very fun and informative.  I am looking forward to a little time off from working.

I am finally coming down from the ISTE high.  I still haven't completely organized all of my resources and notes, but most of them have been added to my Symbaloo site.  All that is left are the bookmarks I made during some of the workshops on my MacBook.  Wow - there were so many!!  

Tomorrow is July and the beginning of my planning for the 2013-14 school year.  I began putting together a project that coincides with an exhibit I saw at the Texan Museum of Cultures.  I m hoping to have it up and running by September through ePals.

I was just recently contacted by ePals and will be presenting a webinar on Wednesday, July 24th at 5pm for them.  The webinar is Get Connected: Against All Odds and will be how to overcome some of the obstacles that present themselves when doing an online collaboration with another school, either internationally or within the US. 

So, before I left the San Antonio Convention Center yesterday, I just happened to run into my idol, Kathy Schrock!  She was the one I looked to for advice and ideas when I first became a technology teacher.  And she is just as nice in person as she is on Twitter!  

To quote what one person said at the Ed Tech Women's dinner, it is nice to learn that "I am not alone" and that "there are people who are just like me".  Thank you ISTE family.  To Robin (she's the other techie in the pic) -  I had fun hanging out with you.  I am looking forward to keeping in touch with the many people I met and continuing to connect to those who I once only knew as their avatars and Twitter handles.

I just did round one of my Symbaloo tiles of all of the exhibitors, presenters and school projects that I found interesting at ISTE 2013.  It is probably only about a third of what I collected and at this time they aren't really organized in any specific way.  I figured I can do that once I have them all up online.  

Ok....so it is the last day of ISTE2013.  It was so jam packed with activities, I was too exhausted to even blog about it....what's the new word for ISTE13.....invigorausted?  LOL

So , to recap.....
Ran around all day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday trying to visit all of the exhibitors and to see the Poster Sessions, Videoconferencing Playground, SIGS and other stuff.  Didn't really have time to eat lunch and even had to order room service on Sunday and Tuesday for dinner because I got finished so late and was too tired to eat out.  I went to the amazing ePals Cultural Event at the Texas Museum of Culture,  Ed Tech Women's dinner at Ritas on Monday (which was such a wonderful experience) and Ed Tech's Karaoke Party last night which was lots of fun.  I am in the process of creating a Symbaloo of all of the resources I received this week.  There were so many, I may have to make two.  I will post on my Professional Development page as soon as it is done.

First day of the ISTE 2013 Conference and it was a very busy one.  Got up early and headed over to the ISTE Unplugged Hack jus tin time to  mingle with a few people and then create a focus group  for Global Collaboration.  They created two sessions, so I facilitated the second one and it was very informative and rewarding.  I met so many people with the same passion that I have about the importance of global education and awareness.

I also took in a few of the sites, mainly the Riverwalk.  We took the little 35 minute cruise to learn a little of the history and story of this San Antonio treasure.  Of course, at 12:00 I headed over to the Grand Hyatt to pick up my free Microsoft Surface (pictured here).  Ended the evening with a short visit to the ISTE Unplugged After Party - Thanks Steve and all of the others involved for putting together such a great day.I am looking forward to doing this event again.  Now, I'm exhausted and heading for bed.  I am planning to get out at 8am tomorrow for the Photo walk.

Only a couple more days until the ISTE 2013 Conference in San Antonio.  I sat down last night to make my schedule and I don't think there was any room left for eating.  So many wonderful workshop options and I can't even begin to imagine how many vendors will be there.  Hope to man of my Twitter and Google circle friends there.  Two more days!