It took me a while to get excited for the 2015 edition of the MACUL Conference last week.
I've been to several during college for psychology (including presenting at two) and another for AmeriCorps last year in Lansing, and I've mostly enjoyed them every time. Conferences seem very relaxed for me--the way learning should be--and are excellent opportunities to meet other individuals who share my passions. MACUL was my first specifically about education, and was an chance to visit my favorite city on earth on a Friday.
However, I wasn't really thinking about it in the days prior; I had lessons to plan and papers to grade and another one to write. I was busy. It didn't really occur to me that I was excited to be there until I arrived.
My favorite part of the conference was the first session I went to called "Ideas for Creative Projects." The gentleman who was presenting was a "tech guy" from a school district in the Upper Peninsula who, thankfully, is not a Packers fan. He had all kinds of humorous quips throughout his presentation that made it engaging enough to sit through, but I was even more impressed with how much he was able to demonstrate in his short hour-long time slot. Whats more, he modeled how to use them and created several project examples on the spot. This guy was great.
My favorite tool he demonstrated was "ThingLink" because it is something I can really envision myself using in a history classroom. It's kind of like having students make an infograph or poster about something, but where you can actually click on parts of the image to take you to different links. He recommended using Soundcloud to create links to voice recordings about the topic. The best part was that it did not take much time at all to use.
This has been such a concern of mine throughout the year having just come from a school where most of the students could not type the amount of text in this post in less than 3 class periods, and often using a finger at a time. How could I trust students to take time messing around with digital projects? Well, ThingLink makes it easy to create the links so students can focus their time on the content rather than the technology. As we have often said in class, the goal is for the tech to be in the background--a seamless vehicle or medium through which students engage with the subject matter.
Other things I really liked at the conference was the Maker Space, which had ideas for hands on learning (including board games), and digital textbook project. Unfortunately, the latter is not fully completed yet, but the creators will be making something for high school this year. The project focuses on highlighting the voices of minorities, and looks very promising as a resource for my future classroom.
It may have taken a while for me to get excited for this conference, but I can't stop thinking about ways to apply what I've learned. I only went to a few sessions, though, so I'm even more excited by the ones I did NOT get to. The sheer number of people at the conference both attending and presenting is really encouraging as a new educator who constantly gets asked why I want to be a teacher or told "good luck" by people I respect and love. Educators who are passionate and willing to learn and improve can do anything. I'm starting to feel ready to become one.
