During Adam Bellow's keynote, he talked about "owning your failure", and I decided to take that idea and roll with it :-) So here's the skinny from my presentation...I received 6 ipod touches from MACUL to be used in my school to make virtual book reviews. Those book reviews would be loaded to Youtube, turned into a QR Code & put in the reviewed library book. Then they would be viewable to anyone who was interested in checking the book out. Sounds great, right? Whelp, it didn't turn out so fabulous because very few teachers participated.
I shared all this information in my presentation, as well as what I think went wrong and how I would change things if I were to do it again. Then I went on to the bulk of my presentation, which is what I'm using the ipods for now, because leaving them in the library not being used was blasphemy (at least in my mind)! I brought the ipods back into my room & started using them for some Augmented Reality, to assist in my students genius hour projects, and to make some virtual flash cards.
I was very transparent about my lack of experience with Augmented Reality, but I shared what I was doing, and I shared resources I used. From there the audience shared ideas, which was awesome!
I ended my session sharing a project we did as a class to boost building morale. My class has been inspired by Pharell's song "Happy" and wanted to create one for our school. They set up a schedule, and used the ipods to record each class AND staff member dancing. Then I spliced it all together using Camtasia.
You know how sometimes in your head something sounds awesome, but the end result doesn't work out (sort of like my grant), well this was NOT one of those times. I am beyond proud of this video and the work my kids put into it!
After my presentation was over (deep breath), I sat back and enjoyed the Lightning Talks. For those of you unfamiliar with lightning talks, the speaker talks for 5 minutes. They get 20 slides for 15 seconds each and they just GO. I had thought about applying for a lightning talk, but I don't know that I have anything as inspirational or motivational as what was presented on Friday. Topics ranged from being connected, to building relationships, to developing empathy, to expanding the walls of your classroom. I know MACUL 2016 is a LONG way away, but I'm toying with turning my post, A Teacher Coping With a Disability into a lightning talk...I'm still not sure I will, it would be exceptionally hard to do, emotionally, but I definitely have it in the back of my mind.
All-in-all I think MACUL 2014 was a huge success. I learned quite a few things, and was inspired by many!
