#METC14 !!!

I was lucky enough to be able to participate in METC 2014 today! I want to know who was teaching all the kids in the state of MO today, because I think every teacher in the state was there! Or so it seemed! I was amazed at the turnout and at the number of "devices" accompanying them, it's no wonder the wifi wouldn't hold up to the demand. I absolutely loved the keynote speaker today. Lodge McCammon, singer, songwriter, dancer, actor and classroom flipper were his specialties. He was able to engage the audience like no other speaker of the day . Flipping is one of the subjects of the days lectures that I was most interested in, and he did not disapoint. It was obvious he is passionate about his career and helping others achieve their goals. He encouraged the most simple ideas and actually embraced the simple more than complex when it comes to presenting to , although he does get pretty fancy in his in home recording studio. I facilitated three lectures today. Two were good , one I wish I would not have had to sit through. It felt more like a sales pitch than an educational session. I will tell you about the good ones and save you from the torture, lol The lecture entitled " Excel-lent Classroom and Assessment uses for Excel" by Sarah Spaunhorst, was very interesting, as I am an Excel master . Even though this presentation was meant to teach kids how to master Excel I leaned some tricks myself . Did you know you could change the background on your file to a picture? Me either!! Going to try that one tomorrow! She also gave some very good assignment ideas for students and showed here flipped classroom model. Great presentation! My third lecture I facilitated was " On The Flipped Side" by April Burton, a High school French teacher. She shared , from beginning to end, how to flip a classroom and gave us all the tools to do it with. This was my favorite lecture of the day! She was able to break down each aspect of flipping into easy an easy to follow plan 1. Sell the idea 2. Create the videos 3. Publish plus all the steps in between on how to do each step. Some of the resources she uses were: Prezi.com, polleverywhere.com ( super cool free anywhere polling) , lifehacker.com ( http://lifehacker.com/125400/cornell-notetaking-method) for better note taking, google docs for collaboration, screencast-o-matic.com , smart notebook iPad app, camtasia, ink2go.org , and educreations.com for video making . She also shared her website that is full of information for flipping www. Flipmrsburton.com/index.htlm Even though I did not facilitate this lecture "30 Google App uses in 50 Minutes" by Amanda Brueggman and Kim Rosenbloom offered some great google apps for kids and adults . The link to their handout is here Overall,this opportunity was fantastic! I got a chance to meet educators from around the state, all gathered for the same purpose and sharing ideas. Couldn't ask for a better opportunity or assignment!