What Will You Learn this Summer?

Hey Folks,

The end of the school year is approaching.  This year seems to have "flown" by!  After you have slept in late for a few days, what are your plans for the rest of the summer?  I hope that you will consider reserving some time to learn something "new" in the area of technology over the summer.  Here's several ways that you can do that:

If you are a Twitter user, you might want to check out some of these "hashtags" to follow to gather new ideas.  CybraryMan has the best collection of educational groups/people to follow.  Here's the link: http://cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html (also check out the rest of his website--great resources).

SimpleK12 has some awesome 30-minute webinars scheduled for the summer.  The membership fee is somewhere around $200 per person, but they offer lots of free sessions, too.  One June 3, there will be several 30-minute sessions on "Tools for Student Projects".  Also, June 5th, sessions will be on "assessment", and July 2nd will cover the topic of "bullying".  Here's the website:  http://community.simplek12.com and click on "webinars".  Look around the website and you might find even more free resources.  Our very own Melissa Mann from Madison County Elementary presents online for SimpleK12 about Special Ed and technology, iPads, etc.  Great service!  More webinars will be posted as the summer goes by.  Go back to this website again to check those dates/topics.

Dr. Janet Slaughter from Central Office Assessment Dept. created a Symbaloo (icon enhanced website) with some great Common Core (College & Career Ready) resources.  Summer would be a great time to investigate some of these resources.  Here's the website: http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/janetslaughter.

Two conferences that might be of interest to you--for more technology "knowledge".  Alabama Educational Technology Conference (AETC) will be in Birmingham on June 10-12.  The website is http://alex.state.al.us/aetc/.  You can still register onsite.

Also, Madison County Schools is once again sponsoring the North Alabama Technology Conference (NATC).  Those dates are July 23 & 24.  The conference is located at Hazel Green High School and price is $30.  To see workshop listing and also to register, go to this website:  http://goo.gl/qrBFQ.  Registration closes June 3rd.

I'm sure there are many more opportunities for professional growth that will be available to you.  Please feel free to share those with me.

Til Next Time (and Happy Mother's Day) . . .

Vickey