Day 1 Saturday

ASCD12

I arrived at the convention center a little before 8AM. My goal was to get registered quickly and make it to the Marzano session. Registration was so easy and everyone at ASCD was extremely helpful. When I arrived at the Marzano session I quickly began to listen, make connections and, of course, tweet. I was so happy to see that many other attendees were tweeting as well. Bob Marzano’s presentation was enlightening, humorous and, most of all practical. His research has enlightened me to the fact that teaching is both an art and a science.

I went through the exhibit hall. There were so many resources available to increase learning, technology integration, and student achievement. I met up with my Superintendent, Dr. Dave Gentile and another Principal, Dr. Brian Robinson, from the district and we went to the keynote address by Reed Timmer, storm chaser extraordinaire. I have never seen the show, but I will say that the other day as I was doing a walkthrough in my building, a 5th grade teacher was using Reed’s work to illustrate the powerful impact of Tornadoes for a project they were doing. What I liked about Reed was that he modeled effective instruction- he made real world connections, integrated story telling, and utilized technology.

After the Keynote, I went to lunch and had a wonderful conversation about Elementary education from one of my in district mentors, Dr. Brian Robinson. Brian always provides me with with insights into education, and he is a really good sounding board for all of my ideas.

It was all laughs before the presentation

I tried to attend an early afternoon session, but all the early birds got the worms. I attempted 3 sessions but they were closed. So, I helped out the team from Millville who were presenting at 3:00 PM. Their session on Transforming Schools Through Powerful and Systemic Walkthroughs (Dr. Pamm Moore, Dr. David Gentile, Mrs. JoAnne Colacurcio, and Ms. Arlene Jenkins) was the one I was looking most forward to. By 2:45PM the room was packed and the session was closed. My job for this session was to run the twitter feed. I think I sent out 35 tweets during the session. I felt like a court stenographer.

As a celebration to the amazing presentation the team from Millville went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We laughed and joked while we snacked on a very diverse appetizer tray. As soon as we were finished with dinner, Dr. Pamm Moore and I headed over to tweet up.

@timito4 @web20classroom@NMHS_Principal @betavt @tomwhitby @drpammoore @katrinastevens1

At first I didn’t know what to expect from tweet up. I wasn’t sure what I would do or who I would talk with, or for that matter how long I would stay. Fortunately, Eric Sheninger arrived and we caught up and reflected on the visit to his school. He introduced us to some people. Before we knew it, we had met colleagues from all across the country, with various participation with twitter and blogging. We had so much fun! I thanked Tom Whitby, and Steven Anderson, the innovators of #edchat, for all they did to pave the way for all of us who have followed. And to think, only one day completed!

By the way, I sent out about 100 tweets throughout the whole day and I was able to complete this post before going to bed. I have to say this is very invigorating!