MACUL 2015 ~ Inspiring, Rejuvenating, Powerful, AWESOME!

I was afforded the opportunity to attend the 2015 MACUL Conference at Cobo Hall last week. It was a phenomenal experience. I was able to attend some sessions that I think some of us missed and I was able to present at MACUL for Michigan Virtual University.

Day 1 (Wednesday, March 25, 2015)
Michigan Virtual University Pre-Conference Session was an inspiring experience for me to meet with other online instructors and hear presentations form the Connected Educator, Shannon Degan, Jeremie Coplin, Kalamazoo RESA and Melody Arabo, Michigan Teacher of the Year. I cannot forget to mention, Kristin Flynn, for starting the day getting us energized. She is a tremendously leader and I'm excited to have her as a leader in my life. Melody shared her experiences as a teacher, it was inspiring and reminded me that empathy and compassion for my students is essential to being an educator. Jeremie Coplin followed her with a great session to remind us that collaboration is essential with today's learners. Last but not least, Shannon Degan, who reminds us that staying connected to others is paramount to our success as an educator. After Shannon, we had a tremendous lunch with fellow educators. I must say that the lemonade was just the way I like it. The afternoon we continued to be inspired. I worked with the Math department to utilize Social Media to stay better connected. I was reminded by J.R. Hill about the HTML features in our courses in Blackboard and he showed me how he has used Padlet in his course to engage students. I can't wait to try this with my students. We also discovered how to embed a Twitter Widget into our courses. It was awesome. It was inspiring to be reminded of the flexibility of the Blackboard Course interface. It was great meeting with all of them and I am proud to be a part of the Michigan Virtual School's Mathematics Department.

Day 2 (Thursday, March 26, 2015)
I got there a little later than I had planned. My kids decided it would be a good day to miss the bus. I was able to get there just in time to see a presentation on one of the coolest initiatives in Michigan Education, Edutainment. Todd Beard reminded us that we need to meet students at their level and inspire them to learn. #coursehack Chapter = Level; Assignment = Mission; Test = Boss Battle. Next, I met with my MVU team to practice our presentation for Friday morning in the MACUL Speaker Lounge. We were able to reflect on our presentation and pull together the transitions. It was a great practice and it really helped. In the afternoon, I was able to spend some more time talking with Todd Beard in the MACUL Makerspace about Edutainment. (My plan was to learn about programming with Scratch but I neglected to realize the session needed to be paid for in advance, my bad) But it was awesome to spend some time with Todd collaborating and have a conversation about Edutainment. Last but not least, I was able to attend "Real Scouts have Digital Badges". This was a great session and I learned about Meta Data in Badges. The people in the session were kind and informative. I am looking forward to seeing more with Digital Badges in education in the future.

Day 3 (Friday, March 27, 2015)
Oh wow! This was the day. I was able to present with my colleagues from Michigan Virtual School. It was great to be able to share some of the experience I have had working for Michigan Virtual School. Here is a link to the session description, presentation and examples. https://sites.google.com/site/trainingmvu/michigan-virtual-school---training/michigan-virtual-school---online-learning-making-it-work

After my presentation, in the session room directly next to the one we were presenting in, the FIRST Robotics Team 1023, Bedford Express, from Bedford High School was presenting on their K12 initiative to encourage district wide robotics programs. With funding coming from MDE, this is an awesome opportunity for school to offer a robotics program at their school. I am currently the Team Leader and robotics coach for Truck Town Thunder Robotics, FRC Team 68, out of Brandon and Holly High School. Here is our website: http://trucktownthunder.com/

The last session I attended was presented by a Michigan Virtual School mentor, Julie Howe, from Three Rivers High School. As an online teacher, It was great to learn about the tremendous things mentors are doing with my students and got to spend a little time learning what the students experience at the other end of the internet connection.

Overall, my MACUL 2015 experience was awesome. I can't wait till next year. Let the countdown begin!

This Wordle pretty much sums it all up: