MACUL 2012

A year ago, I went to my first MACUL conference.  At the end of the conference, my mind was sWiRlinG and my brain was overflowing with information.  I remember thinking to myself, I am never coming to this conference again.  This feeling came from the fact that I was learning about all these new things and I wasn't doing any of them. This made me feel clueless. Not only that, I didn't know where to begin!  I was so overwhelmed with ideas and emotions, so I thought giving up was the answer. (I was SO wrong)  Well, here I am at MACUL again.  So, what changed?


I was able to change because I realized I don't have to do EVERYTHING I just learned.  Once I made this realization, I was able to breathe and start to filter the information I had gotten.  This was the most important lesson I learned at MACUL last year.  I went to MACUL because I knew that I loved technology.  I left MACUL learning, as an educator, how to use technology in a useful and not overwhelming fashion for myself and my students.  Technology is thrown at us every day of our lives and when new ideas come into our path we have to stop and think:


-Can I see myself using this? (if the answer is no, just let it pass.  If it's really worthwhile, you will hear about it again and maybe this time you will know someone who can offer their background in it making it a little more appealing to you.  And, you may have more courage to try it out.)
-How am I going to REMEMBER to come back to this later? 


In a year I have gone from loving technology, to becoming Knowledgeable about technology.  When I hear about something "new" I ask myself the above questions AND I dig into it deciding right then and there, can I use this?  For me, if I don't start using it right away, I won't use it.  So, if something doesn't appeal to me as being able to utilize it right away, I let it go.  Maybe another time it will work into my classroom, but not now.  This tiny lesson has made me have more courage to try new things and not beat myself up for NOT trying the "newest" and "coolest" thing I heard about, yet.  I like to let it soak in for a bit before taking that jump. 


So, I am going to spend tonight "filtering" through what I have come across these past few days and I welcome you to come back and see what I am going to start implementing "Next Week" ;)


I have added some fun finds to my classroom links page over the past 2 days so feel free to peruse those for now! http://wilsonh.weebly.com/students.html

Thanks MACUL for making me a better teacher and wanting to become a better teacher for my students.