Wednesday, July 25, 2012

TeachHUB Summer Giveaway & other great finds!

Ok, I don't usually post about giveaways, but as the school year approaches, we all need a little surprise.  TeachHUB has a great summer giveaway and you can access the page here at: http://www.teachhub.com/teacher-social-summer-giveaway . It's free and you might win some swag.  Oh, but don't tell my children I called it swag, they think I am way to old to be calling it that. 

    Another great item you could win this summer is a Casio Prism.  Ok, this requires a little more work then just checking out a site.  You have to take their on-line 3 part course.  Once you are done, the calculator is yours.  You must finish the courses by September 15th.  You can access that giveaway here: http://www.casioeducation.com/educators/online_training

  Teaching Blog Addict has a page set aside just for teacher giveaways.  Check in every week and see if she has something you want.  These items could be teacher created or offered by a company.  But still free.  Check her site out here: http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2012/01/giveaway-galore.html

   Who doesn't love Oriental Trading?  They have a $500 a week giveaway until August 25th.  You must enter weekly and only once: https://www.weloveteachersgiveaway.com/entry-form
  Well that's all for now.  I am not real lucky, but if I never enter, I am sure not to win.  So I am going to try my luck, hope you do to.


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

CAMT 2012

Today I attended the first day of a three day conference being held in Houston, Texas.  This year makes the 10th year I have had the fortune of attending CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teachers) in my home state of Texas. 

    Today (July 18th) I attended some great sessions like Todd Whitaker's "What Great Teachers Do Differently", talked with a great friend (Jean Frankie), walked the exhibit hall and met the producer (Jimmy Pascascio) of one of my favorite teacher tube videos Mr. QUE and PEMDAS, tweeted about laughing and building your PLN and volunteered monitoring rooms.  All in all, I'd say I had an awesome day.

Tomorrow I have some great sessions lined up and I am presenting iPads & iTouches for iMath, with my colleague and friend Casey Chapman.  Only downfall is I'm missing the great luncheon and speaker Debbie Silver.  But it's ok, my session is going to rock.  Friday I present again with Casey. This time she takes the lead in a Smart board session.  She is so techy and helps answer all my "I'm stuck" questions. 

 If you are attending the iPads & iTouch for iMath session, here is the link to my presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LD-uzYqArbLlFCpvgKg0W-l3-Dv33-YeFTalt53e-lo/edit
Or you can access the presentation through Edmodo by joining my new group Techy Math @ sijoe4. I hope to add more tech info and other presentations here.

If for some reason you can not access the presentation, just shoot me an e-mail at dkretschmer@lcisd.org or contact me via tweeter @dakretschmer and I will be glad to get you the presentation.

As the conference closes on Friday, I will reflect on the past few days and begin planning next years adventure.
 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Just Thinking! Why do I blog?

I find myself reading a lot of post, but not knowing what I really want to blog about. 
I wanted to blog about great technology that I have used in my class, and I did for a bit.  I wanted to share what I had learned with other teachers, especially math teachers. 
Great thought, didn't work.  I blogged, but not consistently, and nobody read them.....at least that's what I think.  But does it matter if no one comments on your post? I've decided no.
 The fact that I, a math teacher, with little writing skills, have set out to write about math is good enough.  I wanted to share what I've learned and try to get techy in my classroom, and I have done that.  I still need a lot of work on the blogging and I am going to do more of that starting today.  Sometimes just thinking about what to write about can seem overwhelming.  Sometimes we just need to dive in.  I will say that I tend to live on Twitter more than I blog.  I love Twitter.  I have learned so much from following great people like @coolcatteacher, @teachingwthsoul, @web20classroom, @rmbyme, @MrZerber and the list could go on.  I check out hash tags such as #mathchat, #icafelc, #edchat, #edtech and so many more. 
All the technology, with the exception of Twitter, I learned from developing my PLN(Personal learning network).  Where did I build my PLN?  From Twitter.  My district is awesome and offers great training for teachers in all things "techy".  I attended Interact and got my feet wet, but truly didn't know what I was doing.  I then joined a group of educators from my district as we  put on the first ever iMath training three years ago.  While developing our plan and goals and revisiting many techy ideas from Interact, I started Tweeting and mostly following lots of great people(Thanks to @ChrisNilsson & @chadtheteacher).  My kids said a monster was born!!!! Ok, I like to learn, and I love sharing what I have discovered with others.  But sometimes, time just slips away and how I share becomes a web with no real pattern. 
  As with all new bloggers my url is not the easiest.....something to share with new bloggers...don't use crazy long url's like mine: chanceinmath2010.blogspot.com.  What was I thinking? Oh, I wasn't thinking, I just wanted to blog!  Now, it is time to dive in and stay. So I hope to blog more and about all things, not just math and technology. Of course I will still be living on Twitter and my new passion Pinterest!