Barb in Nebraska’s Top 5 Moments of 2010

Taking a nod from Father Roderick’s top 5 Geek moments of 2010, I thought I’d gather my top 5 Geeky- Professional moments. It was a good year. 

• #5 Gadgets: Buying an iPod Touch for my students to use in May 2010 and buying a Kindle as a birthday present for me in October. Both purchases have been wonderful additions to my classroom. My 3rd graders have loved using the educational apps that I have added and I love getting tips on what are good apps to add from them. I read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to them on my Kindle which really seemed to spark their interest in buying their own Kindle. I’m curious to find out if any students got an iPod Touch or Kindle from Santa this year.
• #4 Attending Professional Conferences: This has been a great year for conferences! In April I attended NETA, Nebraska’s tech conference. I think every session I went to was all about iPod Touches, look what happened! The best part was getting to meet my Twitter friends ‘in real life’ at this conference. Suzanne Whisler found me sitting in the same row as she. How did she know what I really looked like? In July my husband drove Lori Feldman and I to Wichita for Podstock 2010. This was another wonderful conference where I got to meet more Twitter friends. It was very cool attending Mass the next day with Paul R Wood, his wife and Mary Keuterbach. The friendship I made at Podstock led to a Skype session with Mary’s students in November. In August I was lucky enough to attend the Catholic New Media Celebration in Boston. Meeting so many cool people, who happen to be Catholic and like geeky stuff, was right up my alley! I especially enjoyed meeting Jim Beeghley and his family because they gave me a boost of confidence to present a session at our archdiocesan teacher’s conference in October. To top the year off, my husband and I drove down to Lee’s Summit, Mo for EdCampKC in November. Again, a wonderful time connecting with my PLN and discussing big issues in education.
• #3 Teaching a class on Wikis: I’m a member of a local technology sharing group called OPUG. It’s a funny name, but it stands for Omaha Private Users Group. All the Catholic schools in our area band together to purchase technology and share ideas. Mike Mansour and I worked together to teach fellow teachers how to start a wiki back in January and February. It was a 2 session class and we were a great team. That gave me the confidence to write up a proposal to led a session at our Catholic teacher’s conference. 
• #2 Presenting at a conference: In October I hosted 2 sessions at our archdiocesan teacher’s conference. I was nervous when I discovered I had to use a Windows machine since I’m an Apple Fan Girl and then I  discovered that I had standing room only at my first session! But I survived and I’m planning on giving another session next year!  I really enjoyed sharing what I have learned about technology and how I use it with my students. The Wiki I shared 
• #1 Putting together a Catholic Collaborative Project: Adding it all up and using what I learned this year, I started an Advent collaborative project with Catholic schools. With inspiration from Sean McGaughey who started the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar and Nancy Caramanico who hosts the Catholic Schools Connect Wiki  I really loved hosting this project and seeing how other schools prepare for Christmas. I was really excited that one school joined from Missouri. They had never done a digital project before. I was so happy that they did! The Advent 2010 Project 

So, now I am looking to the future and have started The Advent 2011 Project.  Happy New Year!