Having never been to a professional conference before, I wasn't totally sure what to expect from MACUL. (Honestly, I was just pretty excited to carpool in). I thought maybe there would be a lot about flipped classrooms and other "buzzy" ideas - things that I'm still trying to figure out. Mostly, I figured that the ideas that I'd gather would be filed away in that "Next Year" drawer where I put all the ideas that aren't so practical to enact in my student teaching setting right now.
I was pleasantly surprised by the first session I sat in on, and pretty enthused by the second. Andy Schoenborn's presentation on using Google docs to provide digital feedback to students gave me a realistic look at what using Google Drive can do in the classroom. This is an idea that I've thought about before for digitizing the writing process, so it was neat to see it put into practice. The second session that I sat in on was one that I'm sure several people are already mentioning. David Theune's "Friday Night Lights" presentation on creating authentic audiences was awesome. While Mr. Theune offered some great ideas for using technology to open your students' writing up to new audiences, what I appreciated most about his presentation was how "doable" the idea was. One of this biggest hold-backs that I've had with some tech tools is that, at least for the classroom/subject I'm in now, they aren't always practical. A lot of this has to do with the "middle school factor"; they're still acquiring most of their technology skills, and there is a wiiiiiiiide range of technological abilities. However, many of the concepts that Mr. Theune suggested - like inviting parents to sit in on class readings or linking research projects with local nonprofits - seem like options that I can tailor to my class's interests and abilities. (Though I will say, live streaming my class probably wouldn't fly considering about half of them aren't technically old enough to set up their own Google accounts).
One of the biggest takeaways from this presentation, for me, had less to do with a specific technological idea and more with a practice that I think is very important to the writing process. Having an authentic audience can be created in a number of ways (one being through the internet), but what is even more important is HAVING ONE. One idea from this session was having students write for younger classes in the district. I'm trying to flip that idea a bit, since I teach in one of those "younger" classes, and I've made it my mission for the rest of the year to give my students an out-of-class, in-district peer feedback opportunity. We've been introducing the idea of peer revision groups, and this motivated me to seek out other classes, either at the middle school level or even above, who would be interested in participating in a cross-class writing workshop. I'm still playing around with the idea right now, and have yet to cement anything with my MT. HOWEVER, let me take this final opportunity to shamelessly solicit for partner classes: get at me! ( :
