Some cool apps that I want to remember...

From my twitter feed...
http://en.linoit.com/ love the organization of this tool! #mp21st

• Linoit is more of an organized wall wisher.  Looks very cleaned up!

clea.nr is AMAZING! Thanks @betswan !! #mp21st

• Love, love love this!  Takes away all of the junk of youtube

Answer Garden

• Easy way to get short answers from a group and the most used answers "float" to the top

Final Reflection from Learning for the 21st Century Conference

Phew!
It is been an incredibly engaging and at times overwhelming week - which is not a bad thing :) We have been lucky enough to have had three different presenters who worked with us to help open our technological windows to help us lighten our classrooms.  They have introduced us to new technology, they have shared their experiences, and we have absorbed and played, absorbed and played with each new idea they have brought to the table.
Through processing all of this, I am basing my action plan on the shift.  There are loads of videos out their talking about making shifts in education.  I have tried and tested many different types of technology, but instead of just showing and sharing these with my students, I'm going to try and shift my classroom to having the students not just experience these tools, but take ownership of these tools.  For example, I currently create videos for students as part of my flipped classroom.  From here I will shift to having them (hopefully) take part in creating video tutorials for other students about current topics. This shift will be laid out in detail in my action plan from this conference.

Day 4 with Shannon Miller

Shannon's enthusiasm for kids and technology is awesome!  She is created a brand around the term "voice." Everyone has a voice - an authentic voice.

Suggestions from Shannon:

• Animoto - cool site to use to create videos.
• Create and nurture collaboration between colleagues no matter where they are!
• Importance of creating a team, including the community and connect to students
• Create a voice for your classroom and remind students to find and use their voice.  Allow them to be heard!
• Think. Lead. Serve.  - Van Meter's whole school motto, carried out and supported through the district.
• Student clubs based on their interests - photo clubs, writing, skyping with authors, creating claymation videos.
• Sending wikis out on twitter to encourage others to contribute.
• Choose a simple curriculum based goal and see where it can go
• hootsuite - can read twitter, schedule tweets, and add an icon to tweet from pages
• Twitter suggestions - 
• check out other's lists and add more people to follow
• always respond to mentions & direct messages
• Easybib app - allows you to scan book and email to yourself

Tweets from the day from ‏@abridgesmith

RT @betswan: Little Bird Tales - create an ebook - bit.ly/fi3p4n

Student clubs based on their interests allows them to ignite their fire!#mp21st #passiondriven

Passion matters because it fuels us to go forward. #mp21st#passiondriven

Starting Day 3...Angela Maiers

I have never seen results accomplished without passion...Peter Druker

Starting the day with students by saying... YOU are a genius and the world needs your contribution

How do you change our focus to passion/happiness?

Personal Branding:  What is my title - Chief Creativity Discoverer? Creativity Explorer?
Renaming ourselves to discover our collective genius

Crab Bucket Culture - Does someone grab you and pull you back down in the bucket?
If there is a crab that is pulling you down, rename them to show their "blessings" that they can bring to you and your team/school

Passion is the genius of genius - How do we as educators to increase students' passion quotient (PQ)?
Passion-Driven Learners: optimistic, genuine, compassion, persistent, laser-like focus, couragous, risk-taker, confidence, visionary ---fanatically disciplined, fiercely determined, empirically creative, confidently unstoppable
---never lose your motion

Create a To Be list, not a To Do list!

**To watch - TED Talk - Start with Why - http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

ACT - A=agree, C=challenge, T= tangible action (for 30 days)
A= everyone has an inventive genius inside of them
C= getting out of the crab bucket
T=

2 By 2 -
1st and Last two minutes of the day: honor and acknowledge students -- last two minutes - honor and acknowledge accomplishments of the day

WOW - worthy of the world

Genius Hour Laws (not rules) Everyone begins with an A - you need to keep that A
*all genius matters  *contributions are nonnegotiable  *freedom -> reponsibility  *you matter
Identify a problem- ask for help from geniuses - actions

Creating a heart - sharing with others can be difficult

Tweets from the day from ‏@abridgesmith

Never discount the value of students as problem-solvers whether they are classroom problems or world problems #mp21st #passiondriven #edchat
Create a To Be List, not a To Do list! #mp21st #passiondriven

My challenge is to get that extra inch to get myself out of the crab bucket #mp21st - but once I'm out...will I know where to go?

Where does your energy come from? #mp21st

RT @joe_bower: Best. Education cartoon. Ever. http://bit.ly/KTSWAH#edchat #edtech #bced #edreform #mp21st

Student centered learning is engaging! #mp21st

Brian Mull - Day 2

Beginning the discussion with a home based for me---the flipped classroom!

Eric Mazur - Twitter: @eric_mazur -From Harvard -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYrKPoVFwg 

• only creates lessons based on what students don’t understand 
• students will only remember 2/3
• Teaching by questioning and discussion – uses clickers to begin discussion – vote and revote – only he sees results of the voting
• Discuss and defend answers and responses– he has a sophisticated system where he can group it so that 1 person in each group has the correct answer -- so cool!

Poll everywhere is a great tool.

Flipping the flip -- make it more student centered --Students create tutorials for other students.  Totally a goal for the future! - mathtrain.tv

Student scribe of the day.  Could this be a note taking form for my future videos? give feedback about what was good and what could be improved.

Creating student experts about a type of technology.  Students sign up for what they feel comfortable with and students can come to them.

Students collaborating on google maps together perhaps as part of the ecology unit?

Tweets for the day from ‏@abridgesmith

@vifirst it would be cool to make connections with other buildings as well - students tutoring students - #mp21st
If you want to check out a video about my #flipclass experience, check this out - http://youtu.be/MgT_f8jflnk #mp21st
Using flip class, I had parents put the vid schedule on calendar at home 2 watch together as a family-Great parents here! #mp21st#flipclass
I want my students to stand on the shoulder's of past students -- awesome! #mp21st

RT @Angie_Wass: Ignoring tech in ed will soon be equivalent to educational malpractice. #keynote #unltechedge #mp21st

From 1 of my 1st teaching classes. The best conversation is student to student. mathtrain.tv VERY Cool! #mp21st

Encouraging students to be independent learners has been my never ending goal! #mp21st #edchat

Instant feedback to students encourages motivation to correct and move forward #mp21st

Being open to changing the process is the first step to becoming better. #mp21st

Teach by questioning, not by telling. #mp21st

Learning for the 21st Century - Day 1

Here is where I'm going to store my reflections from a technology conference that I am attending the week of 6/11/12:

Day 1: Speaker of the Day: Brian Mull from November Learning

Topics:

• Twitter: how to use it, what can it do?
• As a teacher, students can use my twitter to attempt to make connections and get questions answered using appropriate hashtags to try and make connections
•  Evaluating websites - use the REAL technique

R –read the url (web address) like looking at the cover of a book – what is the file cabinet? Starting at the beginning

E – examine the content on the page --skimming and scanning

A – author – look at top or bottom to start - ~ (tilde) – easywhois.com

L – links – forward links – where will this page take me? Does it only link to itself? Does it take you to anything that references the topic? Back Links – link:url –google will tell you what websites have linked to you

• Diigo - social bookmarking

Below are my tweets from the day:

Amber Bridge ‏@abridgesmith

I love highlighting in diigo! Makes my life easier #mp21st

RT @jackiegerstein: Why digital literacy is important for science teaching and learning http://bit.ly/LE8JCD relevant 2 discussion#mp21st

How can we help students build libraries of knowledge that they will continually build on in future years? #mp21st #edchat

Need to teach students to constantly question! #mp21st

Websites to help students to evaluate sources from the Alan November site - http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/iii-websites-to-validate/ #mp21st

Mental note - remember the gear button on google #mp21st

Who is the best source when searching for answers? #mp21st

Love comparing wikipedia & news article - would be a great activity b4 starting a research paper with students! #mp21st #edchat

Can my reflective journal for the Learning for the 21st Century be my twitter feed for the week? #mp21st

Did NOT know about twuffer! Very excited! #mp21st

Technology allows us to connect to information and people in a whole new way that didn't even exist 10 years ago. #mp21st