Marco Antonio Torres addressed the MACE crowd twice, and shared his passion and his ideas for student learning and student success. He uses technology - specifically video production - as one option for his students to connect their classroom skills with their cultural experiences and their personal dreams.

His presentation insights showcased:

Had the chance to listen to Corina Beam and Jeanie Michaelis from Hays HS share their experiences with using Google tools. I've had a chance to mess with Google quite a bit and love it.

Thanks very much to Bentley Richert and Denise Gerhart for making the roundtable LIVE podcast discussion at MACE happen.

Thanks very much to Bentley Richert and Denise Gerhart for making the roundtable LIVE podcast discussion at MACE happen. With their technical media expertise, the session went off without a hitch!

Maro Torres gave me many things to think about and also affirmed many of the ways that I teach. This session was on planning and preparing. When I teach clay animation or digital storytelling I tell the kids that the planning is the most important part. I tell teachers that the process is the most important part. The product is the celebration of the plan!! Below are my notes from his session.

Marco just delivered a presentation about planning -- specifically, the planning his students go through as the map out the movies they will make in his classroom.

I've enjoyed and appreciated a lot of what I've seen at MACE this year, but this was the presentation that made the biggest light turn on in my head -- and it's one of those super-bright halogen headlights that drive you nuts when they come up behind you on a dark highway.

Another great session by Wesley Fryer. Wes spent an hour this morning sharing good FREE web-based tools to use in your classroom. My quick notes below:

"Using Google Tools for Educational Research and Collaboration"
http://teachdigital.pbwiki.com

Google Notebooks – FREE tool that helps you save and collect information from the web.
• Sign up for a FREE google account
• Start a Free Google notebook
• Add links, photos, and other information by clicking on “note this” in a Google Search or Right clicking on an image or text highlighted on a page.
• Share your information or invite collaborators by publishing your notebook

The information in your Google Notebook will be available to you from any computer connected to the Internet. No more need for Flash Drives or disks to bring files and information back and forth from home or from the classroom to the library, etc.

Other Tools for your Classroom
http://labs.google.com
Go to Google Labs to see new Google Applications that are in Beta.

Google Reader
http://www.google.com/reader
RSS Feed Agregator. Allows users to subscribe to content on the web.

Yodas – Find a Mentor!
Marco talked about this in his keynote and Wes highly recommends that we all find mentors to mentor us and that we also mentor others.

Infinite Thinking Machine
http://www.infinitethinking.org
Wes recommends you subscribe to this Blog
Subscribe to speedofcreativity.org – Wes’s Blog

Blogger is Google’s blogging tool. FREE , no software needed,
Has options to control access to allow for safe blogging within a ‘walled garden”

Google Earth – FREE version