Mike Kaechele

Tag: #miched

  • Why you shouldn’t attend conference sessions

    If you don’t live in Michigan this post may not be for you. On the other hand yeah it is.

    Unsession that I "attended"
    Unsession that I “attended”

    So our big edtech conference MACUL was this past few days. I can’t really tell you much about the sessions I attended. There were some good ones, but I won’t remember them next year or even in a few weeks. What I will remember is all of the people I met.

    Conferences for me have become all about meeting great educators and learning from them in conversations in the hallways. Even one session that I did attend on setting up gaming in your classroom while interesting did not leave me feeling ready to try it in my classroom. But I “knew” the presenter virtually and met her this weekend. So I tweeted and set up a meeting to get some help from her. Admittedly during her session I zoned out a bit (it was the last one of the day so I was beat) because I knew that I would just talk to her later in person.

    I could go on and on about what I learned from conversations with people. I will keep it short by saying my main takeaway is that Michigan is full of great educators and many of them “live” under the hashtag #Miched. I have participated in the chat a few times and knew some of them but after this conference I am committed to being an active part of the #Miched community rather than a “driveby tweeter.”

    If you are looking for community online I can not recommend a better group of people than #Miched! I love learning from people online, but it is so much more powerful when it is with people that you also get to know in face to face conversations.

  • Thanks for making NovaNow SWEET!

    12387232275_1b8d76e324_cJust a short post to say thanks to some of the core people of NovaNow. But not the people that you may be thinking. Of course we are thankful for the parents, students, staff, and especially our principal, Kym Kimber (she deserves a separate post at another time) for making this happen.

    But we set the table; others cooked the food. We created a time and space, but everyone else brought the stories that made up the conversations. So we are very thankful for all of you that led a conversation this weekend. Some were large; some were small; some were dialogues; some had us creating; all were inspiring.

    Finally a special thanks to #Miched. I definitely feel like the people of the #Miched community were the heart of this conference both as conversation leaders and participants. I want to give special props to Ben Rimes and our school’s own Jeff Bush. I remember when they dreamed up the concept at edcampGR a few years ago.

    But I have heard many good ideas without follow through. These guys made it happen with the hashtag, weekly chat, blogposts, and later Brad Wilson’s podcasts. I can’t verify this but I feel like #Miched was one of the first, if not the first state hashtag/weekly chat. Other states have jumped in, but I feel like #Miched is the most active and really become a community. I am proud to be a “member” of the #Miched community.

    NovaNow will always be a separate entity but I feel like ultimately it was a celebration of the people of #Miched to get together face to face and grow. I look forward to watching the future of education in our state because of this community!