June has been quite the month for the EISD Ed Techs. We wrapped up our summer training just in time to help out with our second annual EISD sponsored technology conference, iPadpalooza. With a successful iPadpalooza behind us, we rested for a few days and then headed to San Antonio for the International Society for Technology in Education’s convention. What a great way to kick off our summer!

These experiences both held a multitude of highlights for me which I have spotlighted in the photos below, and even more amazing was that each of them provided me with what I consider to be the penultimate experiences of my career as an Ed Tech. 

Carl Hooker managed to procure Sir Ken Robinson as the Keynote speaker for iPadpalooza and listening to him speak from my seat in the third row of Westlake High School is an experience that I will never forget. 

Then at ISTE, I had the privilege of presenting my first ISTE session with 4 of the most remarkable women I have ever worked with. Our session was titled Teach Different and we presented to 140 conference attendees - by far the biggest audience that I have ever experienced. With the moral support of Tim Yenca and Carl Hooker, we accomplished our goal of sharing our iJourney of the last year. 

Just finished two days of training with my fabulous fellow Elementary Ed Techs. It was an amazing experience from the planning stages to the final Nearpod Exit Ticket that Janet pushed out to the participants this afternoon. What a pleasure it is to work with such a dedicated, enthusiastic, creative, hard working group of professionals. We are all exhausted, but proud of what we were able to provide for the incredible teachers who didn't just show up for these trainings, but remained engaged and enthusiastic through it all. 

These are the sessions that we presented each of the two days.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the iPad - iPad Basics - Jolie Jennings
Keep Calm and Make it Work - Workflow and the iPad - Debbie Smith
Teach Your New Dog Old Tricks - Using District Subscriptions on the iPad - Margie Brown
Technology Recipe Lessons - Time to explore resources and make plans for next year - Marianna Husain
Be the First One to Happy Hour - Summative and Formative assessment on the iPad - Janet Couvillion
If You Give a Kid an iPad - Self=paced learning - Jolie Jennings

And here are some of the memories that we made:

Today's Curriculum Camp included a counselor, a nurse, and classroom teachers sharing their innovative ideas with 25 or so of their peers and every single one of the sessions was met with enthusiasm. It was an absolutely delightful day! 

Here is a list of the presentations that were offered:

Boys Adrift
Tier 1 Strategies
Learning Locomotion Style
Germs! Germs!
Nature and Technology
Making Main Idea Meaningful
Adding Creativity in the Curriculum
The Nurtured Heart Approach for Educators

Today, the EISD Elementary Ed Techs spent the day working with teachers on beefing up their websites using Weebly. This was the first full year of Weebly use on the elementary level in EISD and I have to say that of the multiple websites creators that I have had experience with, this is my absolute favorite. Its ease of use and creative potential make it a wonderful tool for communicating with parents, and sharing and aggregating resources. 

The participants were focused and totally engaged and we learned as much from them as they learned from us. Click here for our training site and here for the Padlet on which teachers recorded their reflections for the day. 

Each summer, the Instructional Partners in our district provide two days in which teachers share their best classroom practices with their peers. Today, teachers in grades 3-5 gathered together to celebrate the successes of the 2012-1013 school year.