Working on Google TCA & NECC presentations

While in the midst of a huge undertaking at our church this week, every afternoon and evening is spent working on presentations for the next two weeks.

It will be a very exciting few weeks with many things planned. I'll keep “official” events on my public calendar on Airset and in the list below.

I'm so excited about Google Teacher Academy next week and about Edubloggercon. Also, over the past few weeks, I've booked my school year and now am totally done with that. (Can only do 7-8 days out of school per year.)

But really, the most exciting thing about conferences is getting to meet other teachers and see what THEY are doing. It would be easy to get caught up in my own things and what I've done, but I know, it is not enough. I'm not going to teach myself anything new!

There are only two things that truly change our lives: reading new books and meeting new people. That is it.

There is another thing to remember: When you're green, you're growing and when you're ripe, you rot.

To be green and growing means that one is learning, absorbing new things… the sunlight of other inspiring teachers, the rain of teaching reality to prevent discouragement, the heritage of other teachers and research as our fertilizer to help us grow and be more.

A plant cannot consume itself & thrive, neither can I grow myself.

I like to listen to people who constantly reinvent themselves. To me, if I see someone presenting a year later and they are using all of the same slides, that is a person I'm not going to see again.

Is that a strain to put on myself? Yes. And sometimes I do reuse my favorite slides, however, reinvention is what we all must do.

So, take some time to reinvent yourself this summer. If you're presenting, be thankful, but also remember that engaging the audience is important.

Perhaps the toughest thing about presenting to me is the pd hypocrisy of it all… we talk about how the classroom has changed when pd is mortally wounded…lecture mode, the worst teaching method. The challenge is to provide backchannel chats in all forums and presentations and this is such a challenge to do.

If you're going to attend any of these events at GTA or NECC, we would love to have some backchannel volunteers. Also, we need 10 non-present wiki participants for the NECC workshop. First ten people to e-mail me at coolcatteacher at gmail dot com will be able to sign up for those slots.

We also have slots open July 8,9 in St. Louis for training.
tag: NECC, necc2008, professional development, education, learning