For the majority of the afternoon, we spent our time down on the floor of the large exhibition hall traveling around the the different quadrants with large groups of students. It was so neat to see what all the employers and businesses had to share about their companies and fields and how they adapted what they do to appeal to a predominately middle-school aged audience. The Construction area was definitely the one where I took many ideas away, followed closely by the Advanced Manufacturing. Don't get me wrong, the Information Technology and Health Sciences were pretty cool, the others appealed to some of the design things I would like to try with students.
This week I had the opportunity of attending the MiCareerQuestin Grand Rapids, MI. As part of the event, West Michigan Tech Talent and Kent ISD teamed up to provided a special learning opportunity for teachers during the career event that was being held for students. As an educator, this was a great way to connect with professionals and have conversations about what they are looking for in potential employees (our students) and how we can help prepare them for jobs. Although the focus of our educator event was centered around technology, so many of the concepts can be carried over into most other career fields. I created the sketchnote above based on my learning for the day and the one thing that really stuck with me was that of "Digital Disruption." We need to disrupt our way of thinking in order to move forward - especially in regards to technology as it is hard to find a job that does not utilize technology in some way. It really made me think deeper about our learning in general as we often need to disrupt our way of thinking to meet the needs our students - there is no one size fits all learning method. As part of the educator event, we had the AMAZING opportunity to learn more about coding with Arduino and building circuits with TinkerCad. I have not explored using Arduino or any of the tutorials in TinkerCad so it was pretty fun learning something new. I always love when I am put in the seat of the student and learning something new. I partnered up with someone and we definitely experienced some successes as well as some fails. It was great learning about it though and having people in the room who have used it before to help us along the way and think about uses in the classroom. For the majority of the afternoon, we spent our time down on the floor of the large exhibition hall traveling around the the different quadrants with large groups of students. It was so neat to see what all the employers and businesses had to share about their companies and fields and how they adapted what they do to appeal to a predominately middle-school aged audience. The Construction area was definitely the one where I took many ideas away, followed closely by the Advanced Manufacturing. Don't get me wrong, the Information Technology and Health Sciences were pretty cool, the others appealed to some of the design things I would like to try with students. It was definitely a great day of learning and I can't wait to see what they do next year!
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Over my teaching career, I have attended MACUL numerous times and presented several times as well. This year, my experience was a bit different as this time I was a featured presenter! This was something that I will honestly say I was extremely nervous about - something about having the word "featured" in front of presenter! Although my nerves got a workout, I have to say it was one of the most awesome experiences I have had presenting - something I highly recommend for all educators! And I know that I could not have done it without the support of so many friends that I have met and connected with across the state of Michigan and beyond. I have told several people that we all need a Mary Wever in our life - a person who pushes us beyond our comfort zones, believes in you, builds you up, tells you like it is, and seems to know everyone (we joke about this!) and how to connect people with other like minded people. My advice for everyone is to make sure you have your own Mary in your life! One thing I enjoy doing during conferences (especially large conferences when there is a lot of people and things going on in the room) is to sketchnote the speaker and their presentation. This really helps me stay focused on the presentation, key phrases or ideas that I can take away, share with the person as a small thank you for them sharing, and a cool looking reminder of what I learned during that presentation. One thing I always share about sketchnoting is that it is a personal thing and just because you and someone else were sketchnoting the same presentation and captured different ideas and points does not make either one of them wrong. It is what is meaningful to you mixed with your own background knowledge - not about whose looks "prettier" or "better" than another. Everyone has their own style and comes from a different background, so they are bound to be different. Unless we give students a worksheet, we wouldn't expect every single student product to look exactly the same would we? Where is the creativity in that?! Featured PresentationsFor the MACUL conference, I gave two presentations - "Your Greatest Show" and "You CAN Do It - Visual Notetaking with Sketchnotes." Despite the intimidating size of the room, it was a very relaxed atmosphere. One thing I love about the MACUL conference is that it is encouraged to select sessions that fit your learning needs. If you get to a session and it is not quite what you need, feel free to leave and find another session that suits your needs. I personally am not offended when people leave because I have done so myself. For as many people that leave a session, there are always some that join later. The goal is to learn and you need to go to where you will learn best! I had a great time presenting about sketchnotes and what makes your classroom and teaching your greatest show. I presented the two presentations a bit differently with the sketchnote presentation being more hands on (and walking away with a completed sketchnote!). Everyone who attended was great and I can't thank them enough for their participation and making the who experience awesome for everyone in the room (one of the benefits of interactive presentations - it takes the audience to make it successful!). I linked to my presentations below.
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