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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

METC 2013

https://twitter.com/METC_CSD

My district asked a few people to attend METC13 and I was one of the lucky few who got to attend! I was excited about this for two reasons: One, the sessions they were offering were things that I have learned about in the MET program and I am eager to see how others are putting these tools into action. Two, I finally get to create a screencast of a lesson for the sub to use while I am gone, which I got a message from my aid that the kids really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to hear their feedback tomorrow!
The conference was awesome! I've never seen so many technology savvy educators in one place! Coming from a building where I am ahead of the rest and it's like pulling teeth to get some of them on board, it was exciting to meet people who love technology and are excited about the possibilities it brings to the classroom. I chose sessions that I wanted to know more about or I wanted to see how other teachers were implementing it in their classrooms. There were a couple of sessions that I wanted to see more than one presentation. Most of the presenters had links to their presentations, so I'm sure I can find the ones I didn't attend.

I’ve been using my personal iPad in my classroom this year, so I was really interested in ways to use it more than just an extra electronic during centers. The first session I attended was “Appy Hour,” which my friend said was a perfect place for me to start, I think she may have misunderstood me (Ha ha). I have used a couple of the apps, but I love hearing about new educational apps to use with my students.

Another session that I attended and was able to walk away with things to use in m y classroom was “Motivated to Write.” The presenter gave us some ideas on how to go through the writing process through different graphic organizers and websites. One that I look forward to trying out is Cube Creator by readwritethink.com. The students choose a cube to use to write about something before they write or after they read and the program provides them with a template breaking the writing process into 6 parts. They can print and fold the cubes when they are finished. This will be a great differentiation tool for my guided reading groups.  
 
My favorite session was “Creative Movie Making with the iPad.” My class has been working on personal narratives and we are ready to make them into digital stories, so I was hoping to pick up some apps or programs to use. The presenter was great and had so many ideas that he uses with his 6th grades, I wish the session would have been longer to learn more! There were so many cool ideas that he gave with us that I will have to create a new blog post to share.
 

3 comments:

  1. It was awesome, wasn't it? So much to do and learn. I definitely want to do it again next year for both days and take in more sessions and meet more colleagues who are using this technology where the rubber meets the road.

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  2. One of the sites I put on our Google project this week has a item like the Cube Creator on the website. I added a sample. I am really interested in finding out about your movie making session. All of our students will be given the iMovie app and I have it - just haven't made a movie yet. What were some of the other apps that they demonstrated? Is there a link to this presentation so I could view it online or at least get some of the information?

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  3. What were some of the names of the apps that you thought were most beneficial?

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