I was fortunate to be able to be part of two exciting conferences this past month: ISTE 2014 in Atlanta and BLC 2014 in Boston. If you have never been to ISTE, the only thing I can say is ISTE seems to be on steroids, compared to the MassCUE/M.A.S.S. fall conference! There are so many presentation and connections that it makes your head spin. By far my favorite presentations are the Ignite Sessions, where the presenters (usually teachers) have five minutes to tell the audience something they are passionate about. The other great part about attending ISTE is meeting some amazing teachers and administrators from all over the country. Making connections is also what Building Learning Communities (BLC) is all about—the chance to meet “face-to-face” interesting educators from all over the world. BLC makes me wish I could go back to teaching again. I feel a little cheated that when I was in the classroom in the late 1970’s and 1980’s we did not have the wide variety of opportunities to collaborate. Two projects really stood out for me: Banding Together at https://www.smore.com/n65m-students-schools-banding-together and Never Seconds at http://neverseconds.blogspot.com/. Luckily MassCUE is offering another way to collaborate and connect this fall. The MassCUE/M.A.S.S. fall conference, Confidence to Create, at Gillette Stadium (Oct. 22 and 23, 2014 has an amazing lineup of speakers and presentations. If you missed ISTE or BLC, now is your chance to grow your personal and professional learning community!
About the Author : Shelley Chamberlain is a former special needs educator, staff developer, and technology director. She is currently the Executive Director of MassCUE.