Lynn+Bilbrey



**Space for Reflection:** Appreciated cohort time at this conference, inviting collaboration and flexibility withut restrictions or a tight hold over original goals. It has been validating being in a group with teachers of the same subject, good to be hearing things shared that are similar to my own experiences as well as the shift in the direction I want to go, which is less content and more creation. I feel like after attending a few ed tech conferences over the past year, learning on my own thru my PLN and connecting with Twitter, teachers, tools, tricks and tips, the only T-word I want in my vocabulary at this point is TIME. I tried to lead a PD session at our school's last ed tech PD day last spring; the topic was specifically for the English teachers in the school...Time for Teachers. Nobody signed up. Feeling pretty bummed after having thought for two weeks about a topic for a session to lead (and wanting to give back some of what I had been taking from my tweeps), I approached this conference after taking the summer off and having a host of new challenges and teaching responsibilities to adjust to at the beginning of this school year.

I think this conference was timed a little early in all honesty, but I wanted to make myself be ready for new ideas, sharing, learning, etc. Aside from being around great current and former colleagues and friends, as well as getting to meet a few of Asia's most well known ed tech integrationists, I found that what the students had to share was still just as enlightening as anything being presented. I have not been inundated with a ton of new information, which has been refreshing, and want to keep it real, keep it simple in many ways still and keep it engaging. Hearing others in the group also comment on the value of being realistic with our time, of sitting with real books, of having real discussions and of making the learning real is all good--it is what I want to focus on this year with my kids, some of whom are either just beginning to use technology for the first time or who are years being in their English capabilities, or both in a few cases.

I have enjoyed finding some time over the past couple of days to confirm what I thought I wanted to do most when I go back to my school, which is just digging deeper into what I already know, fine tuning what I have done and moving forward with this year's kids one unit or lesson at a time. Last year I attacked technology and was a bit frantic in my search for a change in my teaching style, a newness that would help me feel refreshed and liven things up. Now it is more a matter of maintaining, keeping the balance, slowing things down a bit and gaining skills in a few areas (global collaboration, designing, publishing) that can benefit myself in where I am professionally as well as my students and their learning.

**Ideas and Takeaways:**

--something that I've run into while on Twitter when sharing/checking out others' links...what to do with the info I find that I either want to come back to, explore, use, etc...is there a tool for us/kids to organize the info from these links? I use diigo to organize my bookmarks into different lists, have a notebook on Evernote for storing links just from Twitter, but still feel that the info and sites are pretty scattered...any suggestions?
 * Questions:**


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