BYTE

Dang it!  While I was busy enriching my mind, watching the Oscars, Lois and Christine were stealing all my ideas and writing them down on this blog before I had the chance leaving me with less to write about.  Wait a minute that’s okay  according to the keynote speaker, Joan Badger, who based her inspirational talk on this guy, Austin Kleon.

Frankly, this was one of the better PD sessions I have been at, and by better I mean that I came away with ideas to share from every session to use in my own classroom as well as with colleagues. 

 

My first session led me to the website www.blurb.com, which okay seems to be a more useful resource for publishing a printed book for the iPad or iPhone.  Are there other options?  Yeah, Mixbook, Picaboo, Photoipress, Shutterfly, My Publisher, Smilebox  etc.  etc. etc.  The big difference between this site and others is that you can use free bookmaking software to work offline and when your book is ready, you can upload to Blurb’s site and purchase a hard copy.   It can also be made public to read online.   Don’t worry Mr. Macbook this works on both mac and PC.  It is also really easy to navigate through because you can go to the dropdown menu to find training videos.   The final product is a professional looking book, which will impress everyone, even your dog.

During my second session I was a pop star!  Okay maybe not quite a pop star, but  I was photographed with three other participants by all that attended the class and then the instructor showed all the ways you can alter photos with different iPad apps.   (Photosynth, Dynamic Light, Pizel works and Effects Cam) I was disappointed it did not make me thinner, however it was helpful in that the photographs can be altered to make people think you are a professional photographer!  It really went along well with the first session I attended and gave me ideas that I could use in the classroom. 

My third session was about a girl who lost her memory after a car accident and …. wait a minute that was the movie I went to on Saturday night (one of the perks of being in the city).  It was about using the iPad in the classroom.  Although it was not what I expected since the focus was for resource/speech teachers using the iPad with specific students.  Christine already wrote about it in her blog and probably addressed it much better than I, so read on!

My last session was with the Mimio.  The instructor, Catherine Strifling was incredible.  She uses her mimio all day long in the classroom and was able to give us some great tips on organizing the classroom and files for the mimio. One great tip was to visit the staff development page under Lesson Plans and Activities for ideas and resources.  You can find her listed here  http://www.mimioconnect.com/users/cstrifling .  All in all, it was a great day and I am already looking forward to next years BYTE conference.