10. Digital Learning Horoscope from Powerful Voices For Kids
I didn’t actually attend this session, but a friend shared this with me. Think of this like a Cosmo quiz that reveals your teaching personality. It is very creative, and a great way to play up the strengths of teachers. Believe it or not, my results revealed that I am not a “Techie,” although it was a close second. I am “Teacher 2.0.” See my results below, or take the quiz yourself.
(shared by Carl Hooker at the Surviving the Digital Apocalypse Session)
I caught this link on the Twitters! So funny, I had to share. If your technology is distracting you while you walk, maybe you need a Seeing Eye Person to help.
This was a really useful and inspiring session for me. It wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be, but that was a good thing! Braddo introduced some creative strategies for note-taking, and utilizing social media to build content and workflows. Here are a few of my takeaways:
- Allow students to take notes with Twitter, and expect that they will!
- Use the TAGS script to pull the Tweets into a spreadsheet for reference and archival.
- Encourage all types of note-taking! Including sketchnotes. (I saw a lot of sketchnotes last week!)
- Use Thinglink to connect all the sketches, tweets, word clouds, archives, links and more into one curated piece of content! Brilliant! (Below is a Thinglink example I found from Braddo, but not from the actual session.)
Paper by Fifty Three App
I love to see teachers and presenters who do things differently. I was particularly taken with some of the sketches and sketch notes that I saw as presentation slides at SXSWEdu. I am not a sketch artist, but I am inspired enough to try! I even bought a stylus which I really thought I would never need. I saw a few presenters, including Amy Burvall, using this sketch app to create beautiful slides for presentations. (Thanks to Amy for sharing the App, and inspiring me!)
Amy Burvall presented a lightning round session about her work with students at a private school in Hawaii. Besides her beautifully creative sketch slides mentioned above, one project in particular caught my eye...History for Music Lovers! Amy has created some innovative videos using pop music to teach history. You must check out her channel on YouTube. Check out her music video about the Trojan War to the tune of “Tainted Love,” by Soft Cell.
I discovered new authors and new books that I really want to read. SXSWEdu had a great bookstore, though small and crowded. I found inspiration! Below are a few that are now on my reading list.
- Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon
- The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde
- Startup Style Learning by Eric Robertson (This one was a free Kindle book during the conference!)
3. Networking
Networking is always a wonderful part of any conference that is worth its salt. SXSWEdu takes it to a whole new level. It’s still small enough to have social gatherings that are open to all attendees, and the hallways are open enough to allow you to connect with friends and colleagues. I was able to reconnect with old friends, meet some of my Twitterlebrities, and connect with some new and inspiring educators. I was also able to attend the EdTech Women dinner which was fantastic! I look forward to connecting with these groups again soon!
2. Credibility is Everything!
As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of attendees that have never stepped foot inside a classroom. They may be doing great things in the field of education. They may be experts at policy and research, but their lack of practical experience stood out to the crowd. You can’t have a legitimate panel of education experts without an educator! You must have credibility to be taken seriously. There were too many sessions and panels that excluded the classroom teacher, and there were not enough classroom teachers in attendance. And I mean not just former classroom teachers like myself, but the ones in the trenches! This is where the magic happens, and I hope to see school districts sending more teachers to SXSWEdu next year. I will do my part to spread the word!
1. Jeffrey Tambor - Performing Your Life in the Classroom
The closing keynote by Jeffrey Tambor was by far my absolute favorite session! First of all, I must explain that I am a HUGE Arrested Development fan. And I was a fan back in the day when no one else was watching this brilliant comedy. Yes, I know Jeffrey Tambor from other works, but George Bluth is my favorite! I got to the session early, and sat front-row center. (Did I mention I’m a huge fan?) I was more excited about this session than any other, and “Pop Pop” did not disappoint. My only regret was that I forgot to bring my Banana Stand t-shirt!
Going in, I did not realize that Jeffrey Tambor has been a teacher for more than forty years! He teaches acting classes whenever he can fit them into his busy schedule. So that credibility thing mentioned above, ya well Tambor has that! He spoke very personally, made me laugh of course, and another thing I did not expect, he made me cry! Tambor gets it! Below are a few quotes that I tweeted from the session:
“Let’s do it right, is WRONG! Do it badly!”
Yep! Even when we apply this to K-12, we must prepare students to solve problems that do not have RIGHT answers. Try to approach things differently!
“You have to be humble to learn and to teach.”
I was amazed how humble this man actually is...and was so touched when he gave the audience a round of applause for being teachers!!!
“The only way to teach is personal.”
See, he gets it! If you don’t share yourself with your students, you will never reach them.
See a sample of his keynote in my video below.
Up next: New England Google Summit I can't wait!