Overwhelmed, shock, awe, and invigorating are only some words to describe my first day at ISTE. Registration was seamless, quick, and welcoming! They provide you with an icy treat and you are on your way to explore! Being the type A teacher type I created an excel spreadsheet of my activities so I was off to the First Ignite session. On my walk to find the Hall there was so much to see and do. Clearly written signs and LOTS of helpful people were there to guide you around. My first session was called Ignite.
Ignite- spark an interest, gain attention, and spread the word.
After the ignite session I went to the PLN fair. This is where you make connections, find new Twitter handles to follow, and join ISTE regional groups. This was also a great place to meet the moderators for any chats you may follow/ participate in. I happen to know the co-moderator for #digcit so I wanted to catch up with her. It was helpful but a little too overwhelming to really figure out what direction I wanted to follow. It's like high school with a lot of cliques with similar interests and passions. In high school you wanted to join a particular clique. This was a flip on the clique. Instead of you trying to join the clique, they wanted YOU!
After that my colleague and I decided to find a spot to debrief our learning and conversations. We traveled to LOVE park and discussed our learning and other things...more so other things, but sometimes your brain needs a break.
Overall, it was a successful introduction to ISTE. There are lots of sites that I followed to try to get tips to understand ISTE prior to attending.
Here are some of mine so far:
* Attend an ignite session
* Make a schedule ahead of time, if it changes so what, atleast you have a security blanket.
* Philadelphia is more complex than other ISTE- the building in multi-floors and across several city blocks. From what I have gathered from other people who have been to other venues they are not as big. So if I can figure out how to get around Phili by Wednesday I should be good for Denver next year :-)
* Plan for this to be your vacation! Bring at least 1 teacher friend, you will have a blast and you can both explore the unknown together. Getting lost alone, you look and feel funny, getting lost with a friend is funny and memorable.