Rebel U 2011: Teacher Learning & Experiences

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This a post in a series about Rebel U 2011.

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As part of the Rebel U 2011 evaluation, participants were asked to complete the following sentence, "If you were at Rebel U 2011, you would have learned, witnessed, or experienced..." (similar to the question Scott McLeod posed on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant). We received many responses that really spoke to the learning experience that teachers encountered during the day.



So, if you had attended Godfrey-Lee Public Schools' Rebel U 2011, you would have learned, witnessed, or experienced...

1. Teachers focused on doing what is best for students.
2. New ways to implement technology in the classroom.
3. A very involved staff who knows a lot!
4. A lot of talented people who took a lot of time and energy to create, master and explain things they use to help in their classrooms.
5. How to use technology in your classroom without stressing out.
6. Practical ideas to use yourself or with your students.
7. How to integrate technology into your classroom to increase engagement.
8. The welcome involvement of technology at all levels of education.
9. Co-workers teaching co-workers new ideas and new uses of current things.
10. The technology and wisdom of those presenting.
11. Technology doesn't stop even if servers are down! We just kept on learning.
12. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things with technology.
13. Multiple ways to engage learners in active experiences in order to prepare them for the digital world in which they live.
14. You would have witnessed Ron Houtman.
15. How professional teachers look forward to being more effective.
16. Educators who are focused on 21st Century learning and very valuable collaboration amongst our Rebel family.
17. Teachers learning and playing together.
18. Staff members presenting information they are excited about which would make you excited about using the tool presented!
19. Cooperative learning.
20. How far I am behind in technology and what great opportunities lie in the future.
21. The constant buzz of different technological tools as people experienced many different conversations and applications.
22. Teachers working together to help each other be more effective.
23. Teachers learning the tools needed to reach the 21st Century student.
24. Highly effective teachers increasing their knowledge for a technology driven curriculum and school year.
25. Supportive instruction.
26. How dedicated the Godfrey-Lee staff is to trying new things and implementing technology into their classes, not only so that their students learn and grow in an exciting way, but so that they can learn and grow from their students!
27. Individuals talking together, helping each other and an understanding of issues that arise from technology.
28. Teachers in students' shoes learning new ways to engage their students.
29. Fantastic ways to connect with others and explode learning into bits of fun, fantasy and future use.
30. How hard Dan T. works.
31. Many professional and talented educators modeling and teaching their peers.
32. Enthusiasm, excitement and empowerment.

The buzz of Rebel U could also be found on Twitter and TodaysMeet. Some of the tweets noted from the day:

1. The excitement leading to Rebel U.
2. The Tech team working early to get ready for the day.
3. Teachers looking for bribery.
4. Teachers using Twitter on their mobile device for the first time.
5. Past Tech team members still joining in the day.
6. Teachers overcoming technical difficulties to keep the learning going.
7. Teachers learning about Twitter while using Twitter.
8. Teachers sharing resources they learned about in their sessions.
9. Teachers collaborating together for session presentations.
10. Teachers promoting the motto of the Tech & Media team.
11. Guest presenters participating in a panel discussion.
12. People not associated with GLPS or Rebel U enhancing the discussions of the day.
13. Teachers exploring test taking strategies.
14. Tech team members calling each other out.
15. Showing some sponsor love!
16. Panel discussion members being serious.
17. Tech team members reminiscing about Rebel U preparations. (Picture here.)

Doesn't it make you wish all technology professional development was like Godfrey-Lee's Rebel U?