#TCEA14

Holy wow!  My mind has been blown by all of the incredible things I learned at the TCEA conference in Austin last week.  I am so lucky to have been able to attend the entire week!  I have never been so inspired by so many things.  People are so creative & talented!  

I was a co-presenter with my dear bestie for TWO sessions!!  Can you believe it?  I was scared to death at first, but as soon as it began I was a cool cucumber.  I think I was in shock.  Seriously.   The sessions went really well and the people were all so nice!  

Our first session was on Monday and was about Virtual Field Trips:

Our second session was on Friday and was about digital publishing with kiddos:

Thankfully, I waited until Thursday to spill coffee all down the front of my sweatshirt.  

I turned it inside out for the walk to get some incredible crepes (brie, honey, and walnuts... OMG) and this beautiful cup of Mocha that I did NOT spill all over my clumsy self:

In between our two sessions, we learned an incredible amount of really useful skills that I cannot wait to share with my team and my colleagues on campus.  I am amazed at just how much I don't know about technology integration at the elementary level.  I am also amazed at how little PK-2 kiddos are mentioned in these conferences.  We've got to do something to change that.  If kiddos at that level do not have any experience with these advances in technology integration, how can we expect them to comfortably perform in the upper grades?  It starts with us, friends!! 

Gnomey + Moby = Happiness ♥

So, I've been inspired and I'm already making plans to integrate many of the tools I learned about at this incredible conference.  I hope I get to do it again.  It was truly an eye-opener for me and I cannot wait to share my new knowledge.  I'm hoping I'll be brave enough to apply to present my own session in the future.  I want to get some PK-2 teachers involved with integrating these tools I learned about here.  Especially early childhood teachers..... since that's where my ♥ lies.

One final note, thank you Istation for the incredible coffee bar at the blogger cafe.  Those chocolate wafers and that tub of whipped cream just melted my heart and kept me going!!  :)

Until next time, TCEA! :)