TCEA 2009

WOW !!!!
What a great conference to attend - I only wish ALL could attend. It was very energizing and full of GREAT ideas. Here are some of the major ideas that I internalized.

Nettrekker - has added a neTrekker Village Online Community where educators can connect and share ideas and best practices. http://nettrekkervillage.com

Twitter & Plurk - I heard these phrases being tossed around a lot - but did not get to attend a session on them.

Inspiration - Attended a few mini sessions in the vendor booths on Inspiration and Kidspiration. The products offered through Inspiration revolve around "The Power of Visual Learning". The various graphs, and graphic organizers created with this software are directly related to the TEKS for Language Arts, Reading, and Math. This software company has also added a collaborative network. Educators can join the learning community at www.inspiredlearningcommunity.com There are also complimentary professional development webcasts on www.inspiration.com/webcasts

Thinkfinity - This was one of the most popular sessions and booth to visit. I attended a mini session at this booth that was informative. This website offers FREE state of the art interactive, eduational websites. These websites have been filtered, filtered again and yet checked once more for content. Diana and Maggie will be training a few teachers on this site. This is a great way for teachers to have the most up to date material at their fingertips. The only drawback is that most educators DON'T know about this. Hopefully we can schedule more "train the trainers" workshops in our area - where tech contacts can attend. We brought back t-shirts for our 2 Thinkfinity Trainers (Diana and Maggie) to wear when they train their teachers.

SchoolBlog - ePals - This website offers free student emails and free teacher blog pages. The great thing about this site is that it allows the teacher to control what is going back and forth. It is very similar to Gaggle -- BUT FREE!!! Everyone loves free. This is a site that I would like to investigate further and offer training sessions for teachers. www.epals.com/schoolblog/.signup I think many of our teachers are at this point - where they would enjoy having an e-mail account for students - BUT are unsure of the safety issues involved. This allows our teachers to control the content and who e-mails who.

iGoogle - I attended a mini session by a very renowed presenter named "Tammy". Needless to say the lines were out the door. She taught us the various ways to use an iGoogle page and how that could help educators. Sylvia R. and I already played around with that and have started. I think that Norma has started as well. Again, this is a free resource that we need to tap into. http://www.tammyworcester.com/Tips/Tammys_Technology_Tips_for_Teachers.html
I was very excited to attend and meet this presenter. She offers her training materials online at her website.

GoogleEarth - Attended a mini session on using google Earth as a geography tool with students either as part of the focus, scavenger hunt etc. This was a very interesting session - Free resource for teachers filled with facts - and of course visually interesting.

Tech4Learning - attended a mini session on using Podcasting with Web blender by THE Angela Allen - former sales rep for our district. She's very energetic about the product and was very informative.

Neo2 - attended a mini session on how to integrate the Neo2 with AR quizes, Wordle, collaborative writing activities.

Ren Learn - attended a session highlighting the parent section of Ren Learn. This site is extremely informative for parents - Our school district already has this - It would be optimal for all parents to use this portion.