This is Philadelphia. I walked outside the Philadelphia Convention Center to snap a picture of this Masonic Temple. This is #ISTE2015!
Before I start, I just want to remind you that laptops need to be out with your shoes at the security checkpoint in the airport. I forgot that and they held me. I had to run to my gate and barely made the flight.
When I arrived in Philadelphia, it was already 3pm. After our District dinner at 6pm, the only event/session available was the in-person #TXEDUCHAT at 9pm ET at the PLN Lounge near Broad St. It was quite exciting to meet Whitney Kilgore in real life. She shared her passion. She just got her Doctorate on that. Certain passions cannot be shared in a series of 140 characters through Twitter.
I soon learned that she will be partnering up with the #AussieEd participants from Australia. I was excited since I'm currently looking to connect with educators outside of United States so my students can learn math with a global perspective. Don't ask me how I'm going to do it or what specifically I want to do. Brian Jones recently inspired me with his #GCLchat so I just know I wanna do it and I need my connections. We'll go from there. So of course I got excited when I met Shane Mason and Grant Mitchell. They are deputy principals in Australia.
Their accent is beautiful to my ears. They sounded even more beautiful when they promised me they will have one of their math teachers contact me. We talked about using Touchcast so students can communicate with each other asynchronously (Hope this works. Fingers crossed)
A few participants of #TXEDUChat stopped by here and there. Soon Tom Kilgore walked in with his daughter. He was returning from his poster session on Makerspaces. I stayed after the chat was over to ask Tom a few questions about Makerspaces.
Perris Union High School District, where I work, is currently creating a Makerspace at our middle school. I am very excited about this even though I don't work at that site. I already plan on playing there before the summer is over. And since I know that my awesome principal will also create Makerspaces at my site (Perris High School), I wanted to know what I can do to encourage my students to use the space effectively.
Tom and Whitney shared a story. There was this student. He was not really motivated to embark on a project. Tom learned that the student loved Thor. So Tom asked, "Why don't you build a prototype of Thor's hammer using different material and estimate the weight?"
There was another student. I think Tom said he/she was a fifth grader. This student recreated the Boston Tea Party by calculating the amount of Tea dumped at the Boston Harbor, the size of the ship and the harbor. He said that the student's parent reported that the student worked on it diligently for more than three weeks and asked if her calculations/creation was accurate. He said, "You see, I don't know. But the important thing is that the student did all that work. The amount of learning that goes on during that time is invaluable"
In the end, Tom left me with this comment.
"You see, I thought Makerspaces was about space. I even had a catchy name for it (Imagination Lab). But now I see that it's not about spaces."
I saw this post on Twitter today.
I now understand what that means thanks to Tom and Whitney.
It's only Day 1 and I'm getting some profound stuff.
I can't wait till Day 2. Catch you later!
I soon learned that she will be partnering up with the #AussieEd participants from Australia. I was excited since I'm currently looking to connect with educators outside of United States so my students can learn math with a global perspective. Don't ask me how I'm going to do it or what specifically I want to do. Brian Jones recently inspired me with his #GCLchat so I just know I wanna do it and I need my connections. We'll go from there. So of course I got excited when I met Shane Mason and Grant Mitchell. They are deputy principals in Australia.
Their accent is beautiful to my ears. They sounded even more beautiful when they promised me they will have one of their math teachers contact me. We talked about using Touchcast so students can communicate with each other asynchronously (Hope this works. Fingers crossed)
A few participants of #TXEDUChat stopped by here and there. Soon Tom Kilgore walked in with his daughter. He was returning from his poster session on Makerspaces. I stayed after the chat was over to ask Tom a few questions about Makerspaces.
Perris Union High School District, where I work, is currently creating a Makerspace at our middle school. I am very excited about this even though I don't work at that site. I already plan on playing there before the summer is over. And since I know that my awesome principal will also create Makerspaces at my site (Perris High School), I wanted to know what I can do to encourage my students to use the space effectively.
Tom and Whitney shared a story. There was this student. He was not really motivated to embark on a project. Tom learned that the student loved Thor. So Tom asked, "Why don't you build a prototype of Thor's hammer using different material and estimate the weight?"
There was another student. I think Tom said he/she was a fifth grader. This student recreated the Boston Tea Party by calculating the amount of Tea dumped at the Boston Harbor, the size of the ship and the harbor. He said that the student's parent reported that the student worked on it diligently for more than three weeks and asked if her calculations/creation was accurate. He said, "You see, I don't know. But the important thing is that the student did all that work. The amount of learning that goes on during that time is invaluable"
In the end, Tom left me with this comment.
"You see, I thought Makerspaces was about space. I even had a catchy name for it (Imagination Lab). But now I see that it's not about spaces."
I saw this post on Twitter today.
I now understand what that means thanks to Tom and Whitney.
It's only Day 1 and I'm getting some profound stuff.
I can't wait till Day 2. Catch you later!
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