This is the 2nd year that the Missouri principals conferences offered an Internet Cafe. The hotel charges $10 per day for internet connection so one day of the conference we sponsor a wifi room. This is an 8AM – 4PM open room with 3 workshops and open lab time to come and check email, get online etc.
8AM Workshop on Blogging – Poor attendance. Principals up too late the night before:) My loyal followers from my district did brave the early times and come heckle me:) Only 3 others joined us but seemed to enjoy the time.
9:00am-11:00am – This is sacred time that we cannot offer workshops so that principals have time to visit the vendors in the exhibit hall. This was open lab time and we did have some principals come in and out. I think they are considering moving this to 10:00-12:00 and offering a 9AM session. Might get more participation at a later time.
11:00-12:00 – PLN workshop – I felt this was over their head and I didn’t do a very good job presenting. My thoughts were all over the place so was my presentation:) I am pretty sure not many understood Twitter at all but signed up for accounts. You have to reach a “tipping point” in Twitter to understand how powerful.
Noon – 2:00 Open Lab – Lots of people were here at this time. Some working on their own stuff but MANY wanting to know more about things I have done or was doing. This was a GREAT collaborative time. A college professor hung out for about the whole afternoon and we had awesome conversations. He just got a Mac so we were learning from each other. (Just realized I need to do a sign up sheet and start a contact list next year. Don’t remember his name:))
2:00-3:00 Google Hype workshop – TOO MUCH FOR ONLY AN HOUR! I should have just picked one thing. I think I overwhelmed them and I didn’t even get to everything. Principals LOVED Google but couldn’t wrap their heads around it.
EXHAUSTED – Next year some other principals offered to help. This was my 2nd year and I don’t schedule a break for myself or get to go to any other workshops. It is hard to give up being their for open lab time because that is when the collaboration is the greatest. But I do need to get some PD for myself. There were really good RTI sessions.
This summer I will be offering longer session of a blogging workshop and Google workshop for Admin. Seem to have a lot of interest so far. We will see what the summer brings!
Any suggestions for the future?
wow Melinda, that was a ton of work for you. Congrats on putting that together. Sometimes, we admins are the toughest ones to win over.
I really enjoyed your Google Workshop and came away with lots of ideas.
I hope to attend the summer session you mentioned. Where should I look for information concering the session?
Nancy
Lutie R-VI
I stopped in to see you at the conference but you were very busy. I know that it’s a lot of work – the blogs, the podcast. But I have learned more from you and Scott then I can say. I am thankful that you have taken time away from your family and school to provide this information.
Hey guys MAESP has their new website up and it is awesome! You can sign up for my workshops directly from the site.
http://maesp.com/
I have tried using Google docs some, thinking I could use it to communicate with my co-presenters as we introduce PLC, but they had trouble using it. I do plan to try it again. It has a lot of possibilities. Also, I would be willing to help you out with the tech room for a while if you want.