2008 MACUL Conference Blog

Always a perennial favorite of pre-conference planning, the At a Glance pages are now on the net, and ready for your consumption. I remember my first year of the conference, trying to flip through the massive conference booklet, searching for the sessions I had highlighted the night before. It can be difficult, and often downright daunting, to sort through the many pages of sessions, hand-on workshops, and featured speakers, so the At a Glance pages come in quite handy in providing a nice grid organized by location of the sessions and times. No more flipping back and forth in the conference booklet; just go down the list for the 10:00-11:00 slot and see which sessions are going on that hour.

I spent this last Monday going through the At a Glance pages with the teachers in my building that are headed off to MACUL, and many of them seemed to appreciate looking at the grid to see which sessions they would be able to attend. They also got to make the difficult choice of which session to attend for sessions scheduled at the same time without having to wait for their full conference programs. The At a Glance pages are a definite MUST for anyone looking to pre-plan their trip to Grand Rapids this year for MACUL08.

MACUL08 Thursday at a Glance

MACUL08 Friday at a Glance

MACUL is just a couple weeks away and I can’t wait. Last year one of the things I was looking forward to most were the Guerrilla Sessions. It looked like they wouldn’t happen and then there was some internet buzz and the MACUL Borad found a room for the first Guerrilla Sessions. I was excited.

Unfortunately there ended up only being one impromptu session and I missed it. The folks from the Geek!ED! podcast did one where they recorded live at MACUL. I would have been there, but I was presenting a hands-on session at the same time.

I still really like the idea of Guerrilla Sessions. Basically, these sessions could be on the cutting edge of new technologies, so new they didn’t really exist before the session submission deadline. Or maybe they’re a bit geeky/technical, or maybe a little too short for a full one hour session, or maybe the presenter has good ideas but was a bit intimidated by the quality of MACUL presentations and consequently didn’t write a session proposal.

This year I have ideas and I plan on doing at least one Guerrilla Session, maybe two. One I’m planning on for sure is:

How do I, as an educator, exercise my fair use rights with DVDs? There are times when I need a small section of a DVD that I legally own for use in my classroom. I can, of course, cue up the DVD to the proper section, but this is cumbersome and wastes valuable teaching time. It is much more effective to extract just the small section I need.

I’ll be shooting for a good time on Friday for this one, keep your eye out if you’re interested. Does anyone else have any plans?

Everyone wants a free t-shirt, right? I mean, they’re comfortable, easy to wash, and help you blend in with the students. Well, sort of…

So I was surprised to learn at yesterday’s MACUL board meeting that we have an over abundance of extra t-shirts. Apparently, we’ve got too many of them, and they’re just sitting around in the MACUL office where Ric Wiltse eyes them, hoping to secretly take home the entire stash of beautiful MACUL tees. As great as Ric looks in a T-shirt (and he does), I was shocked that MACUL members hadn’t already claimed them all, so they could look stylish lounging on the deck this summer, while they proclaimed their love for MACUL.

So I asked the fellow board members, “what does a member have to do in order to receive their own MACUL tee?” The answer? Volunteer for 1 or 2 hours at the conference. That’s it! No tricks, no gimmicks, just volunteer an hour or two of your time to be an “ASK ME!” person, and help conference goers find their way around to the various sessions, exhibit hall, or restrooms. Sounds easy; in fact, so easy that I’m going to be donating an hour or two of my conference time to snag one of those T-shirts. Well, that and I really enjoy helping newcomers to the conference find their way around. It’s a simple job since you’re given a map and can point out the registration booth for really difficult questions like where people go for SB-CEUs. That andyou get a chance to introduce yourself to new MACUL members or run into old friends.

So if you’ve been pining away for one of those luxuriously soft and stylish MACUL t-shirts, visit the 2008 MACUL Volunteer Page, read up on the “ASK ME!” duties, and then click on the link to Volunteer and fill out the simple online form (takes less than 5 minutes). Please, help MACUL get rid of all of these t-shirts so we have room to buy more goodies and freebies for the members!

I’ve been off this week for mid-winter break, and have spent lots of time preparing for my MACUL presentation.  I have a few book studies that I facilitate, focusing on Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works.   I’ll be sharing how I structure and facilitate my book studies, along with all the materials I use. 

Most everyone probably knows about Marzano’s nine instructional strategies that improve student achievement, according to thousands of research studies (Classroom Instruction That Works:  Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement).  This new book shows how technology can support the nine strategies.  I thought about writing a similar book about a year ago… wish I had acted quicker, as the authors beat me to it! 

My session will be on Thursday, March 6, from 2:30-3:30pm.  I’ll be sharing some on-line and printable resources that participants can use for their own book studies. K-12 teachers may learn about some ready-to-use tips and strategies that can make a positive difference for student learning.   Hope to see you there!

I haven’t attended the Thursday night reception during the last couple of MACUL Conferences. I know, you must be thinking “Wait, aren’t you a board member? Aren’t you required to be there? Don’t you want to hang out with all of the cool MACUL members and network, connect, that sort of thing?”

The truth of the matter is that I really enjoyed the receptions that I did attend. In fact, the Gateway sponsored event at Comerica Park a few years back was a real blast! And I really do like to connect with others during the conference; just try to find me at the conference and you’ll see me madly running to catch up with a presenter to introduce myself or ask a few questions. I especially enjoy meeting new MACUL members (which we’ll have a LOT of thanks to the MI-Champions Grant), but I’ve been so busy the past few years, I haven’t been able to make the Thursday evening reception. It’s either time I’m spending with people from my district or preparing for a presentation the next day (I get REALLY nervous otherwise).

So I was happy to hear that this year’s Thursday night reception will feature Roger MacNaughton, a rather famous jazz pianist from West Michigan. It’s been awhile since I had the opportunity to listen to live music (an unfortunate reality), and with refreshments being served, I may very well find myself meeting, greeting, and catching up with others over at the Eberhard Center on Grand Valley State’s Campus to hear some hot jazz on Thursday night.

And while you’re there, you can also check out Graduate Educational Technology programs from several of Michigan’s leading universities, who are happily sponsoring the entire event. So if you’re looking for some entertainment, some refreshment, and a look at graduate and masters’ programs in Ed Tech, consider stopping by the Eberhard at GVSU on Thursday night of the conference, from 7:30-9:00.

Image Source: “Jazz Hands” www.flickr.com/photos/84834136@N00/24575274

This year’s Macul conference keynote speaker Hall Davidson and fellow Discovery Education Network colleague Steve Dembo with host several sessions at our 2008 gathering.

Both recently participated in DEN’s Virtual Conference and posted their talks online. Take a peak and then meet each of them in person next month.

Hall Davidson: Revenge of the Digital Immigrants

Steve Dembo: 50 Ways to Spin a Digital Story

The schedule for the TWICE sessions at the MACUL Conference 2008 are posted online now. If you’ll be attending MACUL, please stop by the TWICE room in Gallery Overlook H, Upper Level, DeVos Place and check out the HD videoconferencing provided by Polycom and the interesting sessions we have scheduled! Hope you can join us!