This has been an EduAwesome week! I had several workshops to run at the beginning of the week, and the end of the week featured two awesome conferences: Techspo 2015 and EdTechNJ. Three solid days of learning with and from some of the most amazing educators around, who could pass that up? Not me!
Techspo was held on Thursday and Friday in Atlantic City. While it is billed as a conference for administrators, plenty of teachers attend as well. Techspo consistently hosts a variety of great workshops over the course of the two days. The keynote speakers this year – Will Richardson and Eric Sheninger – were both powerful, inspiring speakers. I attended many fantastic sessions on everything from the new technology standards for NJ, to 3D printing, to mystery location calls. Each session left me with a ton of great info and the urge to jump in and try new things.
One of the major benefits of Techspo is always the company. I felt like it was an edcamp reunion, there were so many familiar faces. We spent the long lunch breaks gathered together to laugh, talk, and share what we were learning. In addition to familiar faces, I also met many new educators and made new friends. The Twitter backchannel was constantly full of useful information and resources, and there were quite a few fascinating discussions going on with our conference hashtag of #techspo15 (and the related tag #notattechspo15)
From amazing sessions to lunchtime conversations to getting up at 5am to make it to the pre-conference #CoffeeEduNJ Tweetup, it was a wonderful experience, and I’m already looking forward to next year!
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- Billy presenting on Mystery Location Calls
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- Lunchtime chat with Kevin, Melissa, Elissa, and Billy.
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- Eric Sheninger
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- #CoffeeEduNJ with Kathy, Sandy, and Chris
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- Brainpop buttons!
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- Tiffany presenting on the new tech standards
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- Will Richardson
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- Talking edcamps with Kevin and Tiffany
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- The Game of Chromes card game
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- #CoffeeEduNJ with Sandy
After finally returning home on Friday night, it was time for an early bedtime – another 5am wakeup call awaited on Saturday for EdTechNJ in Edison. The morning kicked off with breakfast at the Skylark Diner with @iSuperEit and @MrNesi where we planned our Keynote Bingo (more on that in another post), and then it was time for another full day of learning with a keynote by the amazing Rich Kiker, tons of great sessions, and more fabulous conversations. There were so many people at EdTechNJ who had also been at Techspo that it felt like a continuation of the EduAwesome Party.
My mind is now spinning with all of the great ideas and conversations from these conferences. I can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned back in my district.
