Today has been amazing and it's not even done yet! I've been able to meet so many cool people I feel so lucky and happy.
As I
mentioned earlier, I was accepted to come to the #Picademy training in Mountain View, CA this weekend and I am still shocked and honored! So I loaded up my car
late Thursday night and started driving West towards California for a little weekend of learning and nerdery. Little did I know just how amazing the trip would be in its first 12 hours or so.
Upon arriving in Mountain View, CA I was told I was too early to check-in to my hotel and would have to keep myself busy for roughly 6 hours. Six hours! What was I supposed to do? I jumped to social media and started contacting some ed-tech companies I love and arrange to meet-up and tour their facilities.
First up was
Voxer. Voxer is an app that turns your smartphone into a walkie-talkie, kind of like the old Nextel phones of days past. I LOVE this app because it allows me to actually TALK with others and get to know them better than just typing or texting with them. I use Voxer daily and have found it to be a great tool for personalized professional development. I was able to meet some of the team and have a great chat with them. I want to thank
Amanda for helping me find the place and even providing me with a little snack. Thanks Voxer!
After Voxer, I tried to go visit the great folks over at
Class Dojo, but they weren't there. Now, in all fairness, I didn't give them much warning because I didn't know I'd be in the area, but I know that if they had been around they would have welcomed me with open arms and shown me around their neck of the woods. Class Dojo is a great app that allows me to track my students' behavior in a non-threatening way that allows parents to see what is happening each day. It also allows for messaging between parents and teachers which is always nice. I really love using Class Dojo and my students (and their parents) do too!
And now, I'm sitting in one of the amazing conference rooms of
Remind while they finish a whole-team meeting. Remind (formerly Remind 101) is another excellent app that I use to send messages out to parents. I mainly use it as a reminder for events or assignments, but there have a built in messaging service as well that is outstanding. I have my parents subscribe to my Remind class and then they can receive my reminders as well as message me questions to answer or even just comments. I realize I have two different places parents are sending me messages, but I feel that they should be able to use whichever is more convenient for them and whichever will have them contact me. The whole point is that they feel comfortable enough to have an open communication with me. While at Remind, I met
Brett Kopf, one of the co-founders, face-to-face for the first time. We've been on GHOs together and even chatted, but it was great to meet him and shake his hand. I love the Remind service and am so grateful he started it. Special thanks to
Jordan for helping me find the Remind offices, even though she wasn't there to meet face-to-face, she still helped me get to the right location!
I can't believe the day still has more greatness with a tour of the
Computer History Museum and a meet-and-greet with the
#Picademy crew and then the Raspberry Pi action will begin tomorrow and Sunday. Stay tuned for more on the weekend. If you want to follow my antics in San Francisco, feel free to follow #Lars3ebDoesSF online, it's sure to be crazy!
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