FETC 2013

As any of you who are regular readers of this blog know, I had the privilege to attend FETC (Florida Education Technology Conference) 2013 last week in Orlando, FL. This was a conference I had been looking at for a few years now, as using technology in the classroom is an area that I'm extremely interested in, and this conference is seen as one of the best in the world in this field (there were thousands of attendees - it was huge!). Part of the reason I haven't posted sooner is that there was so much amazing information that I heard at the conference, and so many great interactions I made with teachers from across North America, my brain is still processing everything I took in at the conference (I've been looking at some of my notes over the past few days, and will continue to do so on the weekend). I had the pleasure of travelling with two close friends of mine who are also techie/nerdy teachers like myself, Ms. Malkoske and Ms. Welbergen. There were some great keynote sessions on great new apps to use in the classroom with your students, or to help keep yourself organized (always a challenge as a teacher!), but my favourite of the keynote sessions was given by Matt Kaplan, who talked about ways to bring in the passions of teachers and students into the classroom (even if they don't explicitly fit into the curriculum), in order to super-charge and maintain everyone's interest in what's going on in the classroom. There were also interesting sessions on video games, and learning and sharing comprehension with student movie-making. One featured session in particular (called 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future'), given by Adam Bellow, was so captivating and fantastic, that I didn't even take any notes - I was so scared that I'd miss something good! Fortunately, because it is an educational technology conference, all of the presenters have made the slides in their presentations available to the attendees, via Edmodo codes, so I'll be able to go back and review it.

I feel very fortunate to have attended such a fantastic conference, and I really must thank a few people for making this happen. Thank you to RETTA (River East Transcona Teachers' Association) for providing the PPDF funding needed to attend the conference. Thank you to my administrator, Ms. Cross, for allowing me to be out of the building for a full week. Thank you also to Mrs. Kosack, who came in and did a fabulous job working with my students during that week. Finally, thank you to my students for working so hard in my absence - when you read "Really enjoyed my week! They were really great! We had fun!" in the notes that the substitute teacher left, after being away for a week, it makes you really proud of your students! Way to go, Room 18!

They had these stickers on the floor, as so many of us techie/nerdy teachers were checking our devices as we were walking - they knew their clientele!

There were lots of ways to follow the conference online, such as through Edmodo, Facebook, and Twitter (my favourite).

The chair of the FETC 2013, welcoming everyone to the conference's opening session.

I took this shot from about 2/3 of the way back at one of the keynote sessions - thousands of teachers there, excited to learn!

So many great things to see in the exhibit hall...

 



...that it took us more than 3 hours to go through!

I met Moby from BrainPop at the exhibit hall - so exciting!

This was from a really good session on iOS productivity apps for teachers that I attended.

The sunset over Tampa Bay on Friday night, our last night in Florida.

I miss the palm trees!