So here is a funny story. I am exhausted and just spent a great deal of time reflecting on my day on my be inspired blog… Then I hit submit and the screen seemed to jump up and smack me. Error, Error, Error. All lost. AHHH! I told my husband that that type of experience is why so many educators do not trust technology. I say, “Not only should we trust it, but we must be smarter than it”. I am typing this blog entry in Word now and will cut and paste. A lesson I learned a long time ago. (And sometimes forget!)

The blog entry was all about today at the conference. Mostly it was my reflection of my presentation. I was excited to show up and show off the very neat work my students have done with my guidance. And similar to what I wrote yesterday and in the above paragraph, we must be ready and on our toes when using technology because it is not fool proof. I tried to show the movies my students created, but could not due to a security restriction on my tablet pc. I didn’t have permission to hook up a foreign projector to the computer. This was nothing I could have planned for. It was just something I had to react to. I did a bit of sorting and resorting and was able to show other projects like their podcasts. I won’t pretend to be all heroic about this bump I hit. I was and am still truly bummed about travelling all the way to Washington to share our work and not being able to. However, on the bright side, I will know for next time. I will know and make next time better. That always seems to be how to make technology work in the classroom or even in regular life. Try and try again. Build character!

I was excited about the amount of people that stopped by to read our poster and talk about our grant process and project. I learned about other schools that have done similar work and even spoke with teachers of older students who encouraged me to dig deeper in regards to invasive species in Lake Ontario. Actually, I am teaching fifth grade this year and am looking forward to looking further into it.

The two hours went by very fast. I talked to so many people about our podcasts, the tablet, movie maker and the grant. I loved it. I love talking with people about following their passion.
The rest of my day was a whirlwind…………..more to come.