This past week I attended Techspo 18 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. For once I did not present and focused on learning. Don't get me wrong, I am always learning through interacting with my PLN, reading, and observing the great things that are going on in our schools. But at least a handful of times a year, I really try to attend educational events as a participant. I enjoy sitting in on sessions, having informal conversations, visiting with vendors, and taking in the keynote addresses. Here a list of things I learned about at Techspo 18...

Don Wettrick's keynote address was phenomenal! He challenged folks in the room to truly think about the innovative learning experiences they are supporting or not supporting. In simple terms: Innovate or Die. I enjoyed listening to the stories and insights he shared related to Kodak, Moore's Law, 20% time, Linchpin mentality, and schools making the entrepreneurial shift. Check out Don's website, StartEdUp for a plethora of innovation ideas and resources. Also, check out his book titled Pure Genius for further motivation and guidance on the very important topic on innovation. As yourself as an educator: Are we really listening to our customers?

• Dee Kalman's session on virtual reality creation was very resourceful and had me thinking about ways we can get kids to create these experiences. She shared some tremendous resources and insights on how virtual reality can enhance student learning including with tools like CoSpaces. It was great to see her students use virtual reality to make sense of their learning. For example, students created VR experiences about the civil rights movement to not only show what they know about the topic at hand, but to teacher others about important historical figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Check out the link to her presentation here: tinyurl.com/VRcreation.
• There was a very useful session put on by a group education attorneys that focused on cyber security. Some things to think about with colleagues include providing cyber security awareness training for staff, drafting an cyber security incident response plan, conducting table top exercises, and really focusing on data privacy when dealing with vendors. 
• Dr. Pam Moran's keynote speech addressed what is possible when school and district leaders truly find ways to support teachers and students. Her stories of tree house projects and district's getting behind students who want to play an active role in their communities and environments were very inspiring. Pam reminded us as school and district leaders that we need to develop a culture of "yes."
• My friend Billy Krakower invited me to #CoffeeEDU. Steve Isaacs kicked off the informal round table discussion. Shout-out to ByteSpeed for providing the coffee at Starbucks. Topics such as VR/AR, Future Ready Certification, and grants were discussed. Always appreciate the perspective that people from the various walks of life in the educational world bring to these #CoffeeEdu conversations. 

I challenge you to attend an educational event in the near future and learn about something new or how some traditional method has been modernized. Ask questions and network with individuals to gain as much insight as humanly possible. We owe to ourselves as educators, especially if we are the ones presenting most of the time, to stay current with trends that will ultimately impact the success of students. 

Looking for an educational event that will help you evolve as an educator? Consider attending the 4th Annual Tomorrow's Classrooms Today Conference at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ on Friday, May 18 an Saturday, May 19. Eric Sheninger and Salome Thomas-El are the keynote speakers. Over 80 innovative sessions will be offered that focus on learning spaces, STEM, paperless environments, assessment, blogging, coding, digital creation, and so much more. Visit the conference website at http://www.evolvingeducators.com/2018-tomorrows-classrooms-today-conference.html for more information. 

For the past six years I have moderated #Satchat, a Twitter Chat for educators from all walks of life. #Satchat was founded by Scott Rocco and I back in 2012. Soon there after, Billy Krakower joined our team, and the rest is history. It takes place every Saturday morning at 7:30 EST. #Satchat is one of the longest running educational chats and appreciates the hundreds of participants that tweet out on a weekly basis. Educators also have an opportunity to not only participate, but actually guest moderate #Satchat. They can select the topic, develop questions, and interact participants during the hour long Q&A. Once people drink the Twitter Chat juice, they often want to take a risk and start their own weekly educational chat. When this happens, people will reach out to me and ask what types tools are used to conduct a Twitter Chat. Way back in 2014 I wrote a blog post titled 10 Tools to Start a Twitter Chat to steer educators in the right direction. Here is an updated version of the list...

Picture it, you are teaching a class just like any other typical day and then all of the sudden your cell phone dings with a notification. At the same time your desktop computer pushes out a blaring alert. It's a Share911 message saying that all students and staff must evacuate the building immediately. Your class quietly leaves the classroom in an orderly fashion and follows the correct evacuation procedures. As other students and staff leave the building, the command center, located in the main office and led by the building principal, is monitoring the Share911 alert that she sent out just a few minutes ago to see, in real-time, the various classes that are checking in from their smartphones. Based off of past drills that were conducted, teachers know that once they arrive at the appropriate evacuation site, they must check-in on the Share911 app. This gives the command center an opportunity to see who is accounted for and missing. Eventually, the building principal feels that enough time has lapsed to call off the drill. Using the Share911 app, she is able to send out an "all clear" alert to the teachers that the evacuation situation is over. Students and staff then return to their classrooms in an orderly fashion. The building principal then runs a report with a few clicks of the mouse or taps of the screen to see if everyone was able to check-in and that students were accounted for. 

​The situation described above would look much different ten years ago. An announcement would need to be made over the PA system, color coded cards displayed, additional announcements, and post drill collection forms filled out and collected. Share911 gives users the ability to quickly communicate with others during a crisis or drill on the internet enabled device. It could be utilized inside or outside the classroom setting. Many schools and districts now use Share911 to communicate during drill or actual emergency. It's part of school safety manuals and is an expectation that everyone uses the web application each time a situation arises. 

So what do you say? Consider moving your school or district emergency management plan to the digital world. Meet people where they are, which is on their devices, to effectively to ensure their safety and provide real-time information. 

Want to learn more about Share911? Click here to fill out a very brief contact information form and someone will get back to you as soon as humanly possible. 
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Disclosure: Share911 will potentially compensate me for helping to spread the word about their awesome product. I only recommend products on my blog that I truly believe in and would use myself.

A new year is upon us and with that comes an opportunity for educators to find new ways to enhance their effectiveness and promote the success of all students. Evolving as an educator should be something that is ongoing, that not only helps yourself grow, but others as well. Make it your mission this year to share the ideas and resources of others in the field of education, more than sharing your own ideas and resources, in order to underscore the importance that the world of education is no longer in isolation. Truly reflect on the ratio of what you put out there related to you as an individual versus others that you work with or that are part of your PLN. 

Truth be told, I really try to share the great work and ideas of others more than my own work. Social media posts, blogs, books, podcasts, events, instructional practices, leadership methods, and other educational items can be shared out both in the physical and virtual worlds. Whether at a faculty meeting or a tweet, great things are going on and other people need know about it. I really believe that every single educator out there has something great to share. Over the past ten years or so it has become easier to share out ideas and resources to the masses through various devices and web applications. I implore you to take it upon yourself this year and commit to sharing the ideas and resources that others have to offer. 

Don't get me wrong, it's still important to share out the wonderful things that you are doing as an educator. In fact, each morning I look forward to reading blogs and social media posts that others put out there. One tip that I like to promote is using a tool like Feedly to keep track of all your favorite online content. Most of what I share out across my social channels comes from Feedly. If I see a post from someone like Eric Sheninger or Monica Burns, I share it out directly from my Feedly feed. Other times I scroll through Facebook groups or Edsurge email insights to stay current with innovations. Once a day I really try to commit to sharing someone else's idea or resource. More often than not, I am able to share someone else's work two or three times a day. It could be on social media, via email, in an observation report, or through an informal conversation. 

One thing I do twice a month is push out a list of five educational resources to my colleagues. When I come across a great blog post, article, or tool I make sure to bookmark and include in the next blast. It's called the Bulldog Bulletin, as our mascot is the Bulldog. Staff enjoy reading it for the most part and will sometimes send me resources they come across to include in the next blast. On the same note, you might want to subscribe to the Evolving 8 which comes out on a monthly basis and contains many great resources.  

Right now take a few moments to reflect on how often or how little you share the work of others. Either way, somewhere around five shares a week is a good starting point. Pay special attention to what is going in your classroom, school, district, or organization and think about how what you experience can help other educators. At the end of the day people don't know what they don't know and it's up to you as a lead learner to let others to stay in the loop of best practices. Sharing brings inspiration to so many and motivates the unmotivated to try something new. It all goes back to helping students and the only way this can be accomplished is continuously sharpening your own saw and the saws of others.