ISTE 2018 Here I Come

After taking a year off at submitting to conferences I am throwing my hat back in the ring. I officially submitted five proposals to ISTE (two were workshops, they got declined) two were  submitted with just my name attached- those were declined as well. Only one was picked. 

Initial thoughts...

I was bummed that my panel discussion with my co-workers, on our early release PD model- which got accepted at the Title 1 national conference- didn't get accepted. The systemic approach we have taken, the innovation, and what we are attempting could not be possible without some of the technology we are using. Therefore I feel like it is a great candidate for ISTE, but that is ok we will submit next year and have even more data! 

The other session that got declined was an interactive session with my co-workers called the STEAM Experience- now this is still in the works and will officially roll out in February but I haven't been so excited about an implementation plan in a long time. We have been working out the logistics before proposing to the team. The team loves the concept and hates the name- we will be brainstorming on the name tomorrow. In fact I feel like doing a blog post just on this topic coming up because it is THAT good. 

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I submitted on my own some basic topics on reimagining early release or late start- my pet project so far as been creating virtual courses for our staff- I learned a lot from Tony Vincent's google drawing course he offered this summer about having self paced modules that are also moderated and provide specific one on one feedback. These have been a labor of love to say the least. Each course takes me about 25-30+ hours to complete and so far I have completed the following courses:
1. Navigating Your Google Drive
2. Google Docs to Hyperdocs
3. Google Forms
4. Google Sheets
5. Using Google Slides for Better Classroom Transitions
6. Sketchnotes

I have been using our LMS to build these courses, and utilizing the different features within the LMS to showcase and model not only how to innovate PD but also how to build courses in the LMS for teachers to use for their own classes. I thought this would be a great workshop- I believe I am doing something similar on it at iPDX or (integratED depending on how you look it up) but I digress. 

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I also submitted something on Student Creation, this was so vague and I understand why it didn't get picked but the idea really stemmed from a visit my team had to Microsoft Headquarters and then when they took us to a Middle School that was 1:1 with PC devices. They had a wonderful group of students come and join us and allow us to ask questions and my team and I walked away from that school shocked at their answers. There was really only word processing going on at that school- a model school hand picked by Microsoft Headquarters- and it got us to thinking... are teachers really rethinking their summative assessments. I mean I would hope so, this is something I had been doing when I was in the classroom over five years ago. But so often in this job I come across teachers that have not heard of this that or the next thing, that to me is old hat. ​​

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We must not forget that sometimes the old to us is new to others. 

Presenting on Sketchnotes

So ironically the one that got picked up was Foundational Skills in Sketchnoting: Get Started in Class Today. So work has begun on wrapping up lose ends on this topic, I have presented so many times on this throughout our district that it should be a no brainer but at the same time- some of the GREATS will be there too which will make this quite scary! To be honest! Stay tuned. 

I can't believe I had this much to say on this topic! Jon Samuelson is going to kill me for even posting the image!