When I submitted my application for CUE, all I knew is that I was excited to share with others my experience with technology and my students. I could have piddled forever on the presentation…but when I heard that the wifi was spotty (at best), I spent my time trying to troubleshoot issues by taking screenshots of my wiki.
Luckily for me, the wifi worked (for the most part). I plugged in the Ethernet cable but nothing happened. So I’m glad that someone was watching over me because I was a bundle of nerves. It all started by me walking in 20 minutes early to my presentation to a room that was about half filled. I could barely contain my nerves as I watched people continue to file into the room. I had people sitting on the floor in the front. It was crazy. I seriously thought I would only have maybe 12 people on my session. Wrong. I don’t know how many people were actually there, but it was a lot. One kind gentleman mentioned that I needed to do two sessions. =)
Once I started my presentation, my nerves started to calm down. I was focused on trying to impart all of the lessons and wisdom learned from using the iPads with my kiddoes this year. I hope that I did my students’ hard work justice. Because what I wanted most to impart is that 7th graders can do some pretty remarkable things if given the freedom to do so. But I also wanted to share with my peers the fact that we can easily layer our assignments with levels of depth and complexity that give students practice in communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
I was so touched by the kind words from the attendees. =) Can’t wait to attend sessions tomorrow to geek out.
Living the Learning Curve 