MACUL

3/19/2015
My first day at the MACUL conference was great. I have left the conference with many things circulating in my brain. Many new ideas and thoughts.

I was really excited to attend a great  session on Augmented Reality and hope incorporate a few of the applications into my classroom. I have seen the use of Aurasma in the art room but was interested to learn about a few other great apps. Like DAQRI. ColAR mix and Color Alive are two that I think will be a great addition to my personal ipad for my children but I feel like they may be a little too young for my middle school students. I was a little bummed that I got to the session so late that it was hard to hear from the back of the room. I learned my lesson and will now arrive promptly to all sessions.

The second session that I attended also was amazing. This was Mobile Photography course, that discussed how to take state of the art photos with your smart phone. As an art teacher I am always looking for great uses of tech in my class that doesn't require me to change so much to make it work in my room. I think everything that I learned in this session will benefit my students and the future projects that I have been thinking of. The session's presenter Luis Perez talked about many wonderful iphone apps. Such as HDR pro, Handy Photo, Snapseed, Hipstamatic, and Storehouse. Plus he also talked about wonderful accessories that you can buy for your such as the mobile media case, istabilizer, the mophie battery packs, and the olloclip. A very helpful and inspiring session. I can't wait to also check out the presenters book A touch of Light.

I did not take  notes in my other session, #COLchat. It was more interactive course, but I did enjoy meeting many people that I have known through twitter. It was good to see them in real life. Wish I could meet more. If you are interested Swartz Creek Schools puts together a great chat #COLchat on Monday nights at 9pm eastern standard time. I have been known to lurk around this chat from time to time when my children choose to go to sleep and hope to participate more actively in the future.

Well tomorrow is my presentation, so I will have to stop here. I update more notes on the other sessions I have attended later this weekend. Come see me in room 338 to learn how to get onto blogger and start blogging yourself, or just stop by to say "HI"

Oh also if you are free this weekend. On Saturday from 8am-12 in Birmingham is AdmincampMI4 its a great morning of collaborating and talking about the future of education with like-minded educators. Hope to see you there.

3/17/2015
I am so excited and nervous to be attending and presenting at MACUL on Thursday and Friday of this week. I feel like I have had so much other stuff to do this week that I haven't even had the time to really focus in on my presentation. On top of all this I started getting a sore throat... figures I would finally get sick the day before an awesome conference and 2 days before I present. Well it looks like I will pushing the airborne tonight and tomorrow and hope I can make it to Sunday morning.

My presentation is actually aimed at adults creating blogs but this is the same presentation that I used with my students to get them set up on blogging as well. One of the things that I did with my students was to have them fill out a survey which asked their name, hour, and blog address this made grading for my classes, much easier.

Here are the links to my DIY Blogging presentation and to the handout and to the student survey.