Coming back from the conference was something of a jarring experience, not entirely due to the the hour long line for security at Hartsfield Airport and a delayed flight.
In addition to the usual rapid transition back to “normal”, I also had on my calendar exit interviews with five of our school-based trainers, all of whom have worked with us since the start of the program seven years ago (has it been that long?).
They’re all headed off to exciting new chapters in their lives, but it’s always hard to see enthusiastic, experienced people leave.
On top of everything else, we also had to pack up our office. We’re only moving out temporarily so they can rearrange our cube farm to give us a little more space. (I don’t have to sit partially in the conference area any more! :-)
But it’s still an interesting experience pulling stuff out of drawers and from under the desk that I haven’t seen for years and didn’t know I needed in the first place. However, it’s also very therapeutic to toss some of it in the trash.
So, with all that going on at work I decided to use this extended weekend (I have to work at home on Monday. Poor me. :-) to also extend the NECC experience by going through my notes and starting to figure out how to use what I gathered.
I’m also listening to some of the podcasts from conference sessions (and sidebars) I missed. One I highly recommend is Mitchel Resnick’s talk Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society.
Last summer (during the BLC Conference), I had the chance to visit the Media Lab at MIT and was blown away by the creativity and passion for learning from Resnick and his colleagues in the Lifelong Kindergarten Group.
I was also excited to see Chris Lehmann’s proposal for a hybrid of NECC and EduBloggerCon to be held next January at his school, the Science Leadership Academy, in Philadelphia.
If you’re interested in participating, read Chris’ post and let him know in the comments.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re half a world away from Philly. For me, one clear take-away from this year’s NECC is that you don’t have to be in the same place at the same time to be part of the exchange of ideas.