Crazy Week Ahead

The last week of February is one of the most hectic of the year. It is during this week that both the Illinois Computer Educators (ICE) Conference is held in St. Charles IL at the Pheasant Run Resort. This will my 22nd ICE Conference, either on the vendor floor, as an attendee, a spotlight speaker, or workshop presenter.

It is during this week that the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) also holds its annual conference. This year the conference will be held in Philadelphia. This conference brings independent school administrators, technology directors, and teachers together to connect, learn, and share.

This year will be more hectic than usual. Here is what the week looks like:

Tuesday –  I will be co-presenting a 6 hour workshop at ICE with Quest Academy’s two art teachers, Hether Hoffman and Sheryl Peterson. We are presenting “iPad Media Camp – Mixing Creativity and Art in your Classroom”. This is a new workshop we are trying out for the very first time and we will be exploring and playing with 13 attendees.

Wednesday – I will be presenting one of my old standbyes, a 6 hour workshop at the ICE Conference, “Creating Collaborative Learning Environments Using Google Apps” at the ICE Conference. I will be working with 20 attendees exploring how they can implement the various tools in the Google Apps suite. After the workshop, I will be heading to the airport to catch a flight to Philadelphia for the NAIS Conference.

Thursday – I will be presenting at the NAIS conference with Marti Weston (Georgetown Day School), Renee Hawkins (Garrison Forest), and Larry Kahn (Kinkaid School). We are presenting More 21st Century Learning: Supporting the Parents of Digital Kids. This has been a great project to work on and an essential topic to be exploring.

Friday – Today, I will simply be able to attend the NAIS Conference, connecting, sharing, and learning. I will return late in the evening.

Saturday – While I would love to stay in Philadelphia to attend EdCampIS, I have to return since Quest Academy will be holding its annual benefit. In addition to all of the usual reasons to return for this event, I am returning to create a pop-up maker space, with 3d printers, programming interfaces, and spaces to simply build. We are creating this space so that we can show our parents what experiences their children will have in our proposed Innovation Lab, which is the subject of our spot-auction for the evening. I am really excited to be creating this pop-up space for the evening in the event hall. I have to make sure that everything will be ready when the doors open for our attendees at 5:30 p.m.

I know that I will be both exhausted and exhilarated on Sunday after this week. But I look forward to learning, leading, sharing, and meeting friends, both old and new at the various events. I will do my best to share reflections over the week, but it may have to wait until days after, just so I can wrap my head around everything I will be immersed in this week.

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