Skip to main content

SXSWedu Day #2 rundown


Anyone happening on this post because of the SXSWedu title, please know I am no writer...

So this post Im writing much later than last night and under a completely different disposition. Today was a bit less inspiring. Great...but less yesterday. But one thing today did have over yesterday was an experience. There are many links in this post here; feel free to click on them. But especially the video I made today.


Here's the rundown. But there is no possible way I can articulate the awesomeness (in my mind) of each of these things. But I'll give it a try.

Todays sessions were todays sessions. The morning was filled with a little Scratch.mit.com learning. I made a dance video in about 30 minutes. It looks like it, but I have never created in this fashion before. If you watch this video, first click the green flag and then I think you have to click the space bar to get it to start. And its a continuous loop, so shut it off whenever you get sick of me. Which will likely be after about 5-6 seconds.

Next I went to a mentor session with Brooke Miller. She used to curate content for Khan academy and now is in the content building video world. I too am doing these things, so she gave me some great insight on some things to use to make the videos just a little better.


There was no time for lunch AGAIN today, because I was off to a panel discussion with a few of my favorite youtubers. Tyler Dewitt and Paul Andersen are my go to science guys when I need a little more than the curriculum or myself can offer when it comes to higher level science. I got to meet them and take selfies with them which was a little more fun that it should have been. I had a nerdy geeky celeb sighting feeling I hated having.

Paul Andersen

Tyler Dewitt




















From this discussion, a couple more sessions, and then I met The Dan Rather. I got to let him know I was disappointed he wasn't reporting anymore and that I would really like to know what he thought about the campaigning.
He said, "Hun, I don't know much, but it looks like we'll be in for a rough four years no matter what."

Telling me about the future state of the US



After Rather, or Dan as we that know him like to call him...I was off to my last session of the day, which was NOT the session I thought it was going to be. I did, however, end up taking the most notes for the day in this session. It was about these new tech-integrated schools, but when I say tech, I mean like welding, podcasting, and maker-like schools.

I went to dinner with our very own Golden Boy of Oklahoma, Shawn Sheehan. He would probably shrug his shoulders that anyone would call him as such, but that is just because he's a humble guy that is just a regular schmoe.

From here I say I will have one drink at the after party...because it will be free. Well, In the after-hours establishment. I meet a lady whom I have talked to for 5 minutes who says she is having dinner with a few other people, she has room for another 2 people and grabs the other person I met that day and says, please come and me. Sooo, I went. As it turns out, she is the CEO of PARCC, and I was at the table with 7 other people who were all movers and shakers of their compartments in the education world. We all exchanged stories and cards. We all agreed to help each other out. She bought the table dinner and two hours later...it was done. I walked the long walk back to the hotel and am trying to get all of this out before I go to sleep. Its 12:30, but if I don't get it out...tomorrow it would not have been as exciting to write about. I might have glazed over a portion. Maybe some of you are thinking she could have glazed a bit more over this post.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If I Were King...for whatever reason

I was asked where I work this week. It went something like this... "I work for Epic Charter School!" And then I get the..."oh, hm.! And then I am all - you dismissive cuss! I could teach you a few things too. Except I don't really say that, but I am forced to word vomit all over the guy telling him about my school and how it really is closer to his than he thinks. And damnit I am feeling on the defensive and I am good at what I do. I was asked to write an essay this week in one of my Grad classes. The topic was along the lines of Jason James prompting March 23rd, so I will share. Better late than never? If I were King of #Oklaed. Sorry it’s 667 words... I have a beef with public schooling. It is not something housed in your school building. It is housed in your heart and mind. I dislike greatly the competition between schools and districts. I am not talking about the Jenks v Union rivalries.  I abhor that there has to be a huge fight between types of ...

#SXSWedu Day #1 Ramblings

Alright, someone told me right before the opening keynote this morning that by the end of the day my mind would be absolutely blown. I was all like, "Yeah, ok, Ive been to conferences before" And he was all, "But you've never been to SXSWedu" And the I was all like, "Ok, we'll see" Ya'll, wow! This place is like Edcamp meets ISTE meets TED talks. The ideas. and then I get ideas. And then I think that the Ministry of Education would not approve of my ideas. So the opening keynote was Temple Grandin . I had never heard of her before today. She is #amazeballs people. She is a 68 yr old woman that is on the spectrum and also works with the beef industry and more...designing cattle runs to the processing plants. She speaks about her autism and how we should make these kiddos great at their one (or more) thing. Here is a link to her TED talk from 2010. I did not grab a video of her today, but you will see in this video why I instant...

Elevation is King - Guest Blog by Travis Barnes

We met up with the boys around 8PM at the end of the trail for Segment 6. It was an insanely emotional day for us, but  will tell my version of account another time. Let me introduce to you Travis Barnes, my husband and my kids hero. This is his account of the last three days.  The first three days of our Colorado Trail experience are behind us. It’s amazing what can happen in three days. We rolled into Breckenridge today behaving like we’d been gone for weeks, but time is relative as we now know miles are. That’s right, miles are relative. The 500 mile distance of this ride is not impressive. When we left for this trip we could ride 75 miles on the mountain bike with 27 lbs of gear with little problem, then do it again the next day. That being said, the past 3 days have been the hardest riding I have ever experienced in my life. On day two we took a bypass into a town and I was able to text Erin. I told her among other things that, “this is HARD.” Erin knows me better th...