July 14, 2017
Yesterday at #GREAT17 was a GREAT learning experience for me. I’m really glad that I was able to go to so many great sessions about specific teaching methods/strategies and take away many different things I can immediately integrate into my own classroom this fall. I feel that the MAET Year 2 cohort did a great job overall.
During this time of reflection, I want to really focus on what my biggest takeaways were.
First of all, I feel that GREAT17 really met their objective of giving their audience things they can use in their own classrooms. One thing I was worried about, especially with the whole technology aspect, was that I wouldn’t be able to implement the strategies and teaching methods in my own classroom because of my age limitations. I really felt that the presenters made a point to address all of their research and knowledge on their audience of all age levels.
The sessions I attended were…
- Maker Movement
- Instructional Coaching
- Project Based Learning
One thing I would I wish I did differently was sign up for a session different from my SIG project. I spent a lot of time researching Project Based Learning methods, and I felt that I knew most of what the group was presenting.
One thing I really enjoyed about the conference was that it was very interactive. I was surprised with how fast the day went! I was always doing something and thinking about what I can do in my own classroom.
I started to do a little research on educational technology conferences, and I found some interesting and insightful things. I would love to go to more ed tech conferences when I get back home to Michigan.
I looked into the MACUL conference that will take place March 2018. They’ll have three different keynote speakers, and it looks like over 5,000 people show up! That seems like so much, but that just means more opportunity to learn from others.
One thing I found interesting was that there was a diverse group of keynote speakers. One is Bonnie St. John who is an author and olympian. Another is a teenage boy Jack Andraka who seems far more accomplished than I was at his age. Last, there’s Joe Sanfelippo, who is a school superintendent and also an author. I think it’s nice to have both genders and different age groups to speak.
I also looked on the ole twitter to see what other ideas I could find for educational technology conferences.
I found a tweet from Bryan Miller who shared a link with 12 tips to connect at an educational conference. 
The 12 tips seemed really helpful! Though it wasn’t geared towards technology conferences, it was still a good read and something to keep in mind when I go to a technology conference on my own, and as well as planning for next year!
Thinking ahead…
Our #MAETy1 has started a google doc on all of the things we liked/disliked from the conference. That will be really helpful next year when we are all scrambling trying to figure out what to do for the conference with about half of the people that #MAETy2 had.
Ideas for a hashtag…
#GR18 #Greighteen #GR818
Helen Fountain 