Spice it Up!

The school district where I work in Michigan held our 3rd annual "Spice it Up" Technology Conference.  It is conference for teachers, put on by our own TALENTED teachers.  We had a great start to the day with a virtual presentation by Discovery Education's Steve Dembo.  Can't get much better than that.  Some of the teachers really missed being able to see Steve's face (although they did get to see a photo of him in a Star Trek outfit), but they listened intently and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  We also had a student panel; a mix of high school, middle school, and elementary students.  The students were candid about their experiences growing up in the digital age.  One high school student said "Technology is here to stay.  We really need you teachers to jump on board and use technology with your students."  Another student wanted us to know that teenagers really can read email and study at the same time. 

I facilitated workshops the entire day.  The teachers in my MovieMaker video created a "I am a Teacher" video, following the same format as the "When I Become a Teacher" video that is posted on YouTube.  That was a lot of fun!  I'll load it on TeacherTube and link it up here sometime in the near future.

The day was exhausing and invigorating at the same time.  The turnout was good and the teachers who attended were appreciative and are anxious about putting into practice some of what they learned today.