Come Experience Podstock 2011

Today in our ‘Countdown Smackdown’ on Classroom 2.0 LIVE!, Kevin Honeycutt, and his sidekick Amy, played and sang for us using his guitar and his iPad. Kevin is always entertaining and a wealth of knowledge. We had a lot of fun and as Kevin says, any time he presents, shares, or speaks he strives to ‘create an experience’. He definitely did that this morning for us.

One way to experience that ‘experience’ is to attend Podstock 2011 on July 22 and 23, 2011 in Wichita, Kansas. What is Podstock you may ask? Well, it is one of the best experiences you will have this summer! If you visit the Podstock Ning, you can see photos of past Podstock conferences. The speakers that present at Podstock are top notch presenters and Kevin makes sure that there are plenty of virtual components for those that cannot attend in person. The photo slideshows on the Ning exhibit the fun that goes on during the conference sessions and definitely help portray the ‘Podstock experience’.

As you can see from the schedule from Podstock 2010, the topics of the breakout sessions are about current practices for educators of all content areas, backgrounds and positions. The 60’stheme is prevalent in everything related to Podstock making for a fun setting to learn about amazing instructional strategies and technology integration. I haven’t been able to attend a Podstock in person (yet!) and am working to change that in the near future – hopefully for 2011!

Kudos to ‘Kevin and the Gang’ for creating such inspiring, life-changing experiences for us. I know it takes a team of people to put on a conference of this caliber and appreciate the long hours and effort contributed by everyone to make Podstock conferences so successful.

Do You Love to Win Prizes? Then Join Us!

This Thursday, December 30th at 12pm EST, Classroom 2.0 LIVE will have its final show of 2010.  We are counting down to the new year with a ‘Countdown Smackdown’. We have some exciting things planned including virtual food, fun and festivities. Part of those festivities will include a look back at our past shows and special guests by sharing personal reflections about the webinars of 2010 as well as a Countdown Smackdown where you can share your favorite or unique technology tool or resource. If you would like to share a tool, please complete the sign up form here.

We will also hold three drawings for the following prizes –

a USB microscope

an Amazon Gift Certificate (you can use this to purchase an iTunes gift card!)

$1200 in Gaggle Safe Online Learning Environment accounts (a one year subscription)

We are also requesting that people leave a comment on the VoiceThread tribute to Steve (don’t want to use his full name so that this post doesn’t come up in any Google alerts) about how you met him and the impact he has had on you personally or professionally. The VoiceThread will be presented to Steve on December 30th so if you see him online please don’t tell him about it – I have asked him to stay away from all VoiceThreads until after the show on December 30th. He has confirmed he will join us that day so be sure to contribute to the VoideThread and join us for the Countdown Smackdown! You can respond to the VoiceThread here.

Countdown Smackdown

From all of us at ‘Classroom 2.0 LIVE!‘, we would like to invite you to a ‘Countdown Smackdown’ as we countdown the new year with a  smackdown! This will be our final webinar for 2010 and you are invited to participate in the smackdown.

The Countdown Smackdown will be held Thursday, December 30th at 12pm EST. If you would like to share a resource, please take a few moments to complete our sign up form. It isn’t necessary to share a web tool to attend or register for the session. A smackdown is where people have two minutes to share their favorite technology resource or web tool.

Note: If you would like to share a tool, please make sure you have a USB headset to prevent echoing or any audio difficulties. Please take a moment to fill out the short form below prior to the Countdown Smackdown session so we can prepare the gl.am link with as many of the resources that will be shared as possible prior to the Smackdown.

Countdown Smackdown

From all of us at ‘Classroom 2.0 LIVE!‘, we would like to invite you to a ‘Countdown Smackdown’ as we countdown the new year with a  smackdown! This will be our final webinar for 2010 and you are invited to participate in the smackdown.

The Countdown Smackdown will be held Thursday, December 30th at 12pm EST. If you would like to share a resource, please take a few moments to complete our sign up form. It isn’t necessary to share a web tool to attend or register for the session. A smackdown is where people have two minutes to share their favorite technology resource or web tool.

Note: If you would like to share a tool, please make sure you have a USB headset to prevent echoing or any audio difficulties. Please take a moment to fill out the short form below prior to the Countdown Smackdown session so we can prepare the gl.am link with as many of the resources that will be shared as possible prior to the Smackdown.

Thank You Classroom 2.0 LIVE Supporters!

The 2010 Edublog Awards were announced last week and thank you to everyone who supported the awards and voted for a nominee in any of the categories. ‘Classroom 2.0 LIVE!’ was graciously nominated by ‘McTeach – Karen McMillan’ and we were truly honored that our webinar series is popular and valued by many.

As part of the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! co-hosts team of Peggy George, Lorna Costantini and myself, we are so are blessed that we have such a high caliber of guests and regular attendees each and every week. We placed First Place in the ‘Best educational webinar series’ for 2010 feel as if we won as the overall winner! It is so rewarding that others appreciate the work and preparation that goes into each weekly session. Our venture is definitely a team effort between the three of us, Steve Hargadon and each of our faithful supporters.

When the nominees were first announced, I noticed on Twitter/Facebook/Plurk that were several negative comments about the awards. I am not sure I understand this. The purpose of the awards is to highlight new and established bloggers/web site developers and celebrate the success and contributions of everyone nominated. From the comments, I wasn’t able to ascertain if the people were upset because they were not nominated or they truly didn’t care about the awards this year. Regardless, the reason negative comments were made, I didn’t let those comments influence me voting for someone in each category. I personally enjoyed the contest just as I have in previous years even though this is the first year I have been part of a nominee for one of the categories. I value the awards and greatly appreciate all that Sue Waters, Steve Hargadon and Ronnie Burt into making this year’s award ceremony such an exciting, fun event!

That said, last Saturday was our 137th show. It was the last live Saturday show and Angela Maiers and Amy Sandvold were our special guests. They were sharing about their new book, “Passion Driven Classrooms” and were dynamic presenters. It was so rewarding to see 88 participants in the live session on the last Saturday before Christmas. Almost 50 people stayed on for 30 more minutes for continued conversations in the post show after the scheduled hour had passed. It was a truly amazing show and we are so grateful that your support made 2010 such a successful year for us.

We have a very special end of year show planned and more info will be posted here about that specific show. I would like to extend a personal thank you to each and every person that has ever joined one of our live events or viewed a recording of our webinars.  Without ‘U’, we truly would not be a success! Thanks again for your contributions to our efforts and here’s to make 2011 another successful year for Classroom 2.0 LIVE!

Win $15,000 Worth of PaperMate Products for your School

PaperMate is offering a contest where you can win $15,000 worth of PaperMate products for your school by saving and submitting UPC codes from PaperMate products. You have a few more weeks until the contest closes on January 15, 2011. By collecting and submitting 25 UPC codes, you will win $50 in PaperMate products. If your school collects the most UPC products, your school will win $15,000. We all know that educators spend an inordinate amount of money out of our own pockets to supplement campus supplies and this contest could ease this burden for one lucky campus! An informational PDF and submission form can be found here. Good luck to all who enter!

My Dear, Dear Friend

Today I lost a very dear friend and my heart is grieving deeply. The past two years I have suffered a great deal of losses, both personally and professionally. I came across this poem and felt it fitting for today.

The beauty of life I miss when my thoughts race in an unsteady haste Is worrying about problems the solution or is it only that I am making waste? Taking what I have for granted instead of appreciating the good in life that awaits Do I not take notice of the kindness others show or do I dwell on past experiences that arise which bring about the hates Life is too short not to have fun and experience the joy of giving and sharing one’s self as I awake to a brand new day To overcome the small unimportant problems or worries that mount because of the lack of not understanding one’s inner self and not applying one’s faith by turning and running away I look around and see what’s before me and come to notice I have a choice either to live life to the fullest or watch it go by Life is what you make of it and how you perceive yourself by making positive choices and decisions that you will remember and know as your time has passed that you will not have to ask yourself why? Struggles and challenges of making a living and caring for one’s self and loved ones is what most of us live for It’s the determination to make our lives more meaningful and happy as difficult as this is to achieve when we fall short of our expectations and cry out in silence of wanting more I am a person who accepts the good with bad and glad I am healthy and alive to be able to view life as the person who I am without regret or sorrow I live for today to know my horizon can be reached for it is my tomorrow — Copyright © 2003 Duane Gomez

My heart goes out to my dear friend Susan and her family. I will forever hold the memories of our friendship and sisterhood near to my heart each day.

We were Nominated!

It’s that time again! Time to vote the nominees for the Edublog Awards. While there are so many valuable contributors and innovative educators nominated, we hope that you will vote for our webinar series, “Classroom 2.0 LIVE!” at  http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-educational-webinar-series….  The competition is fierce for all of the categories and we are honored and thankMcTeach for her dedication to our webinar series and for nominating us.

Please consider voting for the Classroom 2.0.com Ning as the best educational use of a social network at http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-educational-use-of-a-socia…

Consider voting for Classroom 2.0 Ning again or the Global Education Conference held in November 2010 at http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-use-of-a-pln-2010/.Regardless of who you vote for in each category, please take a few moments to vote for your favorites and honor those educators who have devoted time to sharing with their online colleagues at http://edublogawards.com/.

 

We were Nominated!

It’s that time again! Time to vote the nominees for the Edublog Awards. While there are so many valuable contributors and innovative educators nominated, we hope that you will vote for our webinar series, “Classroom 2.0 LIVE!” at http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-educational-webinar-series….  The competition is fierce for all of the categories and we are honored and thank McTeach for her dedication to our webinar series and for nominating us.

Please consider voting for the Classroom 2.0.com Ning as the best educational use of a social network at http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-educational-use-of-a-socia…

Consider voting for Classroom 2.0 Ning again or the Global Education Conference held in November 2010 at http://edublogawards.com/2010awards/best-use-of-a-pln-2010/.

Regardless of who you vote for in each category, please take a few moments to vote for your favorites and honor those educators who have devoted time to sharing with their online colleagues at http://edublogawards.com/.