I spent much of the conference thinking about students as leaders. I included Chris Lehman and Sylvia Martinez in one of my presentations because of how they empower the students they work with.

I listened to stories form the changes Shannon Miller has made in Van Meter, Iowa. I sat and heard Jason Markey and some other folks from East Leyden High School in Illinois speak about empowering students as leaders. I engaged in some great conversations on Twitter:

Heidi Hayes Jacobs spoke about how we are limited by what we know. Many of us tend to do things that we are used to and comfortable with. But she also said that we have to feel uncomfortable in order to grow. I think one of the great ways to get in that un-comfort zone is to put the learning in the hands of the students.

Heidi talked about the following with regards to what makes a good Web 2.0 site:

• encourage engagement and curiosity
• deepens examination of content
• engenders independence
• reflects quality in student products/performance

But I am thinking that we can apply these same requirements to how we put our students in leadership roles.

So, think about how you can push yourself to try something new. Perhaps that new thing can be a change in the role of the students in your classroom. Please let me know what you think.

Here’s the description of the session:
There are a plethora of FREE Web2.0 resources for bringing professional development to the educators in your district. Archived webinars can be viewed at home in your pajamas or with your PLC (professional learning community) as part of a district meeting. Using archived and live Blackboard Elluminate (desktop video conferencing) sessions from presentations all over the world, harness the power of your network to virtually keep learning.

Here are the opportunities I spoke about:

2011 Library Worldwide Virtual Conference
http://library2011.net

FETC 2011 Fall Virtual Conference
http://fetc.org/Events/Virtual-Conference/Home.aspx

The Future of Education
http://www.futureofeducation.com/

iEarn online courses
http://us.iearn.org/

The DEN Fall Virtual Conference 2011
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/VirtualConference2011/

Classroom 2.0
http://www.classroom20.com/

Classroom 2.0 Live
http://live.classroom20.com/

iTunes U
http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

Edutopia on iTunes
http://www.edutopia.org/itunes

Learn Central
http://www.learncentral.org/

Youtube: Apps Edu Certified Trainer Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/AppsEduCT

Ed Tech Talk
http://edtechtalk.com/

Teacher 2.0
http://teacher20.com/

There are countless others, but I only had 50 minutes. Please share links to opportunities for professional development as a comment if you would like to add to the list.

What, Where and When:

EduBloggerCon East
Monday, July 25, 2011
Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Tower, Boston, MA
9am – 5pm: Come all day, or any part of it! (If you want to help organize the day, you can show up at 8am.)

If you can’t attend in person, consider one or both of these ways of joining the conversation:

UStream Channel - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ebce11
Twitter Hashtag: #ebce11

Why:

EduBloggerCon is based on the idea of an “unconference”.  If you are not clear on what an unconference is, please check out my post on it from last year. Join  new and old educational colleagues to discuss topics not always discussed during more traditional conferences. The bonus is that this event is FREE thanks to the donation of space and bandwidth from the November Learning team.

How:

Please visit the “I’m Attending” page at http://www.edubloggercon.com/ebcEast2011Attending and add your details. In the next couple of days, Liz and I will post a schedule that attendees may begin to fill in.

One more thing…

Liz and I have decided to add one more component to this year’s event. We’d like to have 5 Ignite presentations. Liz and I will each take one, which means we are looking for three more volunteers. Ignite presenters will be using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes just as seen in these videos.

From the Ignite site: “Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global—Ignite is all of these and more. It’s a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea—and the guts to get onstage and share it…”

If you are interested in presenting your idea in this challenging format, please contact me (lisa dot thumann at gmail dot com) or Liz (Liz b davis at gmail dot com) to reserve your spot and find out when your slides are due!

I hope to see many of you there on the 25th.

The purpose of education is to help students develop a lifelong love of learning.

Don’t you remember what school was like at age 6 and 7? I do. I had teachers that liked to have us explore, play, laugh and smile. I wanted to go to school and I wanted to learn.

I see this in my second grader. There is no “boring”. There is no memorization of facts. She wants to research topics she interested in and report them to her classmates. She reads, write, draws, thinks and discusses.

What happened between 2nd and 3rd grade?

My 3rd grader's bookcase

An appreciation and love for learning at school is something that is absent from the life of my 3rd grader. At homework time, she says:

• Mom, I can’t draw my comic figures for this report, I have to do it the right way.
• Mom, I can’t ask my teacher that, she might get mad at me.
• Mom, I can’t use the computer for my spelling lists, I have to do this worksheet.
• Mom, I can’t read that book, I have to read this one.
• Mom, I hate homework.
• Mom, I don’t like school
• Mom, school is boring.

It goes on everyday, seven days a week. (Yes, she has homework seven days a week.)

What should we do? Or, how can we help? (Or what should I do and how can I help?)

Do our pre-service and in-service teachers getting enough experience, training and time for:

• Enthusiasm
• Empathy
• Respect
• Self-confidence
• Self-awareness
• The ability to reflect

Because if we can encourage all of this in our teachers, there is a glimmer of hope that they will model them well for our children.

I admit I am critical of those that work with my two girls. Shouldn’t I be? But, I acknowledge that perhaps some are not prepared in the sense that their education and experiences didn’t give them the opportunities to develop enthusiasm, empathy, respect, self-confidence, self-awareness and the ability to reflect.

We need passionate teachers. We need to cultivate a love of learning in all our students. I believe that before test scores rise, more children graduate from high school, and more graduates go to college, we need to focus on the purpose of education – nurturing a love of learning.

The question the students are looking to discuss via Skype is “How are we all connected?”  The primary objective for this project is to increase cultural awareness for students.

We know we have the following invaluable Skype resources:

• http://www.skypeforeducators.com/
• http://theedublogger.com/want-to-connect-with-other-classrooms/
• http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/w/page/11008311/Directory

But if you are interested in kick-starting this discussion, please fill out the following form so that someone from Watchung Science and Technology Elementary School can contact you directly.

Please click on the form to complete it.

Calling all NJ educators!

If you haven’t already registered, now is the time!

What is Teachmeet NJ?
A free conference for educators focusing on innovative practices in pedagogy, assessment, and technology integration.

Where will it be located?
(At the Center where I have worked for the last nine years!)
Rutgers University – Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education
SERC Building 118 Frelinghuysen Road Piscataway, NJ 08854

When is it going to happen?
8:00am-5:00pm on Saturday, March 5
Free Registration:
http://tmnj.eventbrite.com
Website:
http://tmnj.org
Schedule:
http://tmnj.org/schedule
Who is the conference designed for?
The conference is primarily geared towards teach-ers, administrators, and educators, although any-one who is interested in or concerned about educa-tion is welcome.
There will be sessions that are relevant to all posi-tions, content areas, and grade levels. The primary foci of the conference are:
· Effective Technology Integration
· Innovative Pedagogy and Assessment Practices
· Meeting the Needs of All Students

Innovative Format:
All sessions will be hands on and interactive. There will be 3 main types of sessions:
· 1-hour sessions and panel discussions that go in depth on topics.
· 15-minute sessions that are organized around a topic. These are fast-paced and expose edu-cators to many new ideas that they can imple-ment.
· 5-minute participatory sessions where mem-bers of the audience get to share their ideas on a particular topic.

Share in the experience – join us!

I was wondering how in the world the girls and I were going to meet their goals this year and then I saw my friend Erica Hartman post a Google Form for friends and family to fill out on Facebook. Shortly after that, I saw a neighbor of mine update her FB status to “Girl Scout cookies for sale”. Was this the route I was going to take with the girls? I wasn’t sure.

Well, we went out yesterday to sell to our neighbors. It started raining as we were out and the girls were getting whiny, but I told them we had to forge ahead as it was the time I had carved out to sell, sell, sell.

When we returned home, drenched, and far from our goal (we have wonderful neighbors, it’s just that most of them weren’t home), I updated my Facebook status to read…

"I was just out with the girls selling Girl Scout Cookies - determined - even in the rain to fill our quota. We didn't make it."

Well, I have an amazing group of friends, family and fellow educators because I immediately got orders for cookies. Some were from local family that I’d be able to deliver as soon as they came in and others were from ed tech buddies that I would see at ISTE11 and BLC11.  I think there’s going to be a cookie fest at ed tech conferences this summer.

Now, please don’t take this post the wrong way. I am not looking for more orders (though the girls do want their badges). I just wanted to share another story about how using  social media can increase your reach.

(P.S. A favorite aunt of mine, long ago, had a magnet that read “Broken cookies contain fewer calories”. I still have it on my fridge. I’m sticking with it.)

There were two sessions that I thought of as I drove. The Same as it Ever Was, but Does it Have to Be with Leo Brehm and Beth Knittle and The Ethical Obligation to Teach, Learn & Share Globally with Dean Shareski and Alec Couros.

Why these sessions?

Well, I’m concerned as to why I’ve been going to Educon for four years, yet I am still hearing all the same concerns from the attendees.

Beth and Leo

If our schools are not doing things correctly, what is it that we want?

We attempted to answer this question in Beth and Leo’s session. They put together a wiki and I’m hoping to see the folks that were there add to it. Here’s what we talked about together:

• We want learners who can troubleshooting/problem solve
• We want to focus on thinking skills rather than just skills
• We want to look at what’s working and clone it rather than work on fixing what’s broken
• We want self-motivated learners
• We want the school community to be filled with adult learners (we are all learners)
• We want to cultivate a lifelong love of learning

Beth recommended viewing  The Tribes We Lead TED Talk by Seth Godin as a resource for inspiration. What he says makes sense to me:

• You can make change by leading
• You should connect with people for ideas
• What we do for a living now is finding something we want to change and assembling a group of people to change it
• We should organize people who want to talk about something and have the same desires
• One person can’t do this alone, but together we can get it done. We just need someone to lead us
• We’re waiting for someone to show us where to go next

What is it that we need?

The group shared examples of what was happening in their schools. Some stories were encouraging and others were what seemed to be a recurring theme of schools in need of help. Here’s what we brainstormed:

• Learners need to know it’s okay to fail
• All learners should be empowered in a school
• Schools should provide/allow for flexible learning environments
• Learners should be encouraged to be passionate problem solvers
• We need more time
• Let’s not focus on the minute details, but work towards a common goal
• Realize that it may be curriculum redesign that is needed

How are we going to get there?

This brings me back to Alec and Dean’s session as in both our small group and large group discussions, people shared stories.  Is this the solution to our bringing on change? Should we all just talk about what is working and then replicate it? I’m thinking so. What do you think?

For two years now, I have led sessions with Liz Davis, but this year we made a decision to go to Educon, network, learn and participate in the conversations.

Would you like to participate, but can’t make it to Philly this weekend? Here’s how:

1. Join the EduCon website and post a short bio and photo
2. Browse the Detailed Schedule and read about the conversation offerings, sketch out which sessions you would like to view. (all posted times are EST)
3. Follow the streamed Elluminate sessions by going to the EduCon conversation page and click on the Elluminate link.
4. Follow the twitter hashtag #educon
5. Post questions, offer links and resources, from the comfort of your own living room, all throughout the weekend in the forums.

By the way, for those of you not familiar with Educon:

http://educon23.eventbrite.com/

EduCon 2.3 is both a conversation and a conference.
And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.

I hope to see you there, whether in-person or virtually.

This year I was nominated in the Best Educational Tech Support Edublog category. (Votes are always appreciated. Just click this link, scroll down until you see ThumannResources, click the radio dot next to it and then click “Vote”.)

What I like most about the Edublog Awards is the chance to take a look at some blogs that I might not have otherwise been reading. My favorite category is “Best New Blog” and here are the nominations:

1. About A Teacher
2. bcnpaul1′s blog
3. Be Cunning and Full of Tricks
4. Blogging through the Fourth Dimension
5. Box of Chocolates
6. Comments4Kids
7. Connected Principals
8. Culture of Yes
9. Digital Dervish
10. Educating Grace
11. Eliterate Librarian
12. Emma Herrod
13. Experts and Newbies
14. Hack Education
15. ideaconnect
16. InterACT
17. Inter.Connect.Ed
18. Language Garden
19. Libraries and Transliteracy
20. New City Arts
21. Michelle’s Musings
22. MrK’s Professional Reflections
23. Quantum Progress
24. Reflections of a teacher and a learner
25. Teaching Literacy in the Early Years
26. Speech Techie
27. The Nerdy Teacher
28. Think Thank Thunk
29. Turklish TEFL
30. Upside Down Education
31. Venture Pragmatist
32. Walt Gardner’s Reality Check
33. Webb’s Wide World
34. Whose Learning Is It Anyway?

To explore the other categories you can visit http://edublogawards.com/ or select from this list:

1. Best individual blog
2. Best individual tweeter
3. Best group blog
4. Best new blog
5. Best class blog
6. Best student blog
7. Best resource sharing blog
8. Most influential blog post
9. Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
10. Best teacher blog
11. Best librarian / library blog
12. Best school administrator blog
13. Best educational tech support blog
14. Best elearning / corporate education blog
15. Best educational use of audio
16. Best educational use of video / visual
17. Best educational wiki
18. Best educational podcast
19. Best educational webinar series
20. Best educational use of a social network
21. Best educational use of a virtual world
22. Best use of a PLN
23. Lifetime achievement

Happy reading!