Reflections on #NCTIES12 - Day One

"Master teachers must be public learners."  -David Warlick at NCTIES 2012

Today and tomorrow I am getting my geek on at NCTIES - my state's annual tech ed conference - in Raleigh.  This is one of my most favorite conferences of the year.  It's tightly run, full of smart people and just plain fun. Today, I had the pleasure of sharing two presentations with some incredible educators from around my state. In the morning, I got to tag team with my buddy and fellow librarian, Jennifer Northrup, for a web 2.0 smackdown session that was standing room only!  There's no formal presentation for this session - instead we use a symbaloo to share some of our favorite web 2.0 tools and then asked the audience to share theirs.  It's not the first time we've done this presentation - and it's always a BLAST!  Today's session was particulary fun AND the icing on the cake was when two student presenters at the conference (who sat on the second row during our presentation) got in line to add to our symbaloo as part of the smackdown!  I mean, really.  It just doesn't get any cooler than that! Our symbaloo, which is updated frequently, can be found here!

Later, I was honored to get to share my "Snapshot of a 21st Century Library Program" at another full house session with some great librarians and tech folk from around our state.  It was a blast and afterwards so many gracious colleagues came up to ask questions and share their stories.  It was truly humbling to be a part of their journey - even in this small way.

Photo Credit:  Ryan Redd

Photo Credit: John Downs

But, for me, the best part of this conference has been the chance to connect and reconnect with both old friends and new ones.  I've bumped into friends from *cough* almost 20 years ago while also making time to stalk connect with my latest brain crushes.  One of my favorite people to connect with stalk is Uber Tech Guru, David Warlick. He is smart.  He's funny.  And he is from North Carolina, which means I get the chance to see him present fairly often.  Whenever I go to one of his sessions, I learn something.  Every single time.  Sometimes, I learn about a new web 2.0 tool, (David was the first person I ever saw use Prezi back in 2008), but more often he makes me think about my practice - as opposed to *just* the tools I use to deliver it.  Today, in a session full of gems, the most impactful nugget of truth for me was that master teachers must be PUBLIC learners.  He then went on to talk about the "trail of breadcrumbs" that public learners leave behind for others to follow. Genius.  I know!

As day one of this great conference draws to a close, I am feeling totally exhausted but also renewed and inspired to leave my own trail of breadcrumbs as both a public learner and a wanna-be master teacher!