FETC 2020

Published by TheJenalleeShow on January 28, 2020January 28, 2020

Once again FETC didn’t disappoint! This year the conference stepped it up a notch and took the learning to the beach, Miami Beach that is ⛱ We couldn’t wait to bask in the sunshine, put our feet in the sand, enjoy some yummy Cuban food, but MOST off all we were looking forward to connecting, reconnecting and recharging. And we did it all!

What a great place to recharge!

FETC was a wonderful conference full of learning opportunities from the exciting opening ceremony to the quality sessions, to the inviting vendor floor. During the opening ceremony, we had the opportunity to hear from two passionate speakers. Each speaker shared eye opening thoughts on education!

Alberto M. Carvalho, Miami Dade Superintendent, shared his background and passion for educating every single student 👉”It’s not Mission Impossible, it is Mission Inevitable!” he said, as he passionately spoke at FETC. He shared that their large size, demographics, and socio-economic status may make you question their ability to educate every child, however it is not impossible it is inevitable. Every. Single. Student. will be educated in their school.

Educating every single child in our school “Is not Mission Impossible, is is Mission Inevitable” @MiamiSup Thank you for an inspiring message of hope, support, & expectation. #FETC #FETC2020 #Jenallee #MIEExpert #Microsoftedu
— Sallee Clark (@SalleeClark) January 15, 2020

Mr. Carvalho was passionate an inspiring, while our second speaker brought science into reality! David Pink, author of When: The Scientific Secrets to Perfect Timing, shared the importance of time in our lives. In particular, he shared time and rest go hand in hand! Recess and sleep were two of the big take-aways for us. Why recess? It has been proven that students need time to rest their brains with recess! The numbers show that students who have more recess breaks perform better than those that continued to rest. Not only does rest matter, the time of the day matters as well. The research shows that teenagers need to sleep a little longer and start their day a little later.

Welcome to Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD! We were so proud to be from EMS ISD, where students K-5 enjoy one whole hour of recess a day and teenagers start school at 9:05 am!

Breaks are important. Thankful we work in a district where we provide our Ss multiple recess breaks via the Liink Project w/@TCU and we also start school later for teenagers 🙌🏻

Thank you @EMSISD for doing what is best for Ss! #EMSProud #FETC2020 #Jenallee @danabarnesEdD pic.twitter.com/G8YcZvj6bk
— jlo731 (@jlo731) January 15, 2020

Presenting

This year at FETC we had the privilege of presenting with Matthew Joseph (@MatthewXJoseph) in two of his sessions. We met Matthew at a Tech & Learning Summit last spring and our connection has deepened over time. He asked us in the fall if we wanted to join him at FETC and of course we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to present with THE Matthew Joseph, author, blogger and featured speaker at FETC. We learned so much from presenting with him during our sessions. We truly are #bettertogether!

We also had the opportunity to bring the #eTwinz into our Globally ConnectED session. We asked them to do a Mystery Skype demo for our participants and they didn’t hesitate. Alberto (@aalbertoherraez) & Mario (@mmarioherraez) are amazing educators from Spain that teach in Utah. We have become friends through the Microsoft Educator Community and because of that connection we have been able to support each other in many ways, digitally and also in real life. This presentation was a direct result of that.

Coaching Track

This year FETC added a coaching track to the session options. We knew we wanted to be a part of that right away. The coaching Collab (@coachingcollab) through Kennesaw State University (@ksuiteach) offered four modules for participants to engage in before the conference. We also participated in frequent Twitter chats and online discussions beforehand. Being in the first cohort is so exciting 🙌. One great feature of the Coaching Collab was that they provided a list of sessions specifically geared toward coaches. In order to receive our certificate we had to attend 5 sessions of our choice from this list along with a final celebration session. We were so excited to see presenters such as Kasey Bell (@ShakeUpLearning), Holly Clark (@HollyClarkEdu), Matthew Joseph (@MatthewXJoseph) and many others. Here is a link to learn more about this program.

Networking

Not only did we enjoy the opportunity to present and participate in the coaching track, we also enjoyed connecting with the #MIEExpert community. We learned from fellow Microsoft educators about how they utilize these tools in their classrooms, ideas on how to make the classroom more efficient, and new tech tools that we need to try! Check out our reflections and the take-aways from our personal learning network (PLN)!