Carnival of Cities for 8 February 2012

Welcome to the Carnival of Cities blog carnival, where we tour the world in a single post, via submissions from a variety of different blogs, all about any aspect of one, single city or fair-sized town.

This blog hosts the carnival a couple of times a year so if you have an education-related post that relates to or is set in one city, you can participate too.

The previous Carnival edition was hosted on Sheila's Guide, and you’ll find the next one (February 22, 2012) on the Perceptive Travel Blog.

If you would like to host a future Carnival edition on your blog, please contact the Carnival organizer:  Sheila “at” sheilascarborough “dot” com. Thanks!

Here is the roundup….

Cities in the Americas

Columbus, Ohio, USA   Joe Vargo presents German Village Guesthouse: Live Like a Local posted at The Columbus Experience, saying, "The German Village Guest House gives travelers a chance to live like a local in one of the nation's most prized historic districts."

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA   Kailani presents The Waikiki Aquarium posted at An Island Life.

Plains, Georgia, USA   Jack Norell presents The Billy Carter Gas Station Museum, Plains, GA posted at Eyeflare - Travel Articles and Tips, saying, "For an unusual pit stop, visit the service station that used to be owned by President Carter's brother, Billy Carter. Well known for selling more beer than gas, it's a real piece of Americana."

Detroit, Michigan, USA   Caitlin Fitzsimmons presents Why Detroit is worth visiting posted at Roaming Tales, saying, "Is Detroit the most underrated travel destination in America?"

Oaxaca, Mexico   Steve Lafler presents My New Oaxaca Painting Blog posted at Self Employment for Bohemians, saying, "Oaxaca is a true cultural jewel, a hub of art, ruins, museums and matchless cuisine. I'm starting a project of painting scenes from Oaxacan life and posting the images."

Los Angeles, California, USA   Sheila Scarborough presents Los Angeles through a camera lens posted at the Perceptive Travel Blog.

Nassau, the Bahamas   Shereen Rayle presents Shereen Travels Cheap: Frugal Vacation Destination: Nassau 1.11.12 posted at Shereen Travels Cheap.

Cities in Europe

Dudley, United Kingdom   Matthew Hyde presents Becoming a City: The future of Dudley? posted at Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, saying, "In a few months my home town will discover if it's been upgraded to a city. But what difference will it make to the soul of the place?"

Jokkmokk, Sweden   Lola Akinmade Åkerström presents Sweden’s winter Sámi festival : Cultural Activities posted at BBC Travel, saying, "Despite the chilly temperatures, more than 30,000 people flock to Swedish Lapland every February to revel in the history of one of the world’s oldest nomadic cultures."

Antwerp, Belgium   Sarah presents A Little Moment in Antwerp posted at Natsumi, saying, "Photography of Antwerp."

Schmalkalden, Germany   Adam Groffman presents Visiting Schmalkalden, Germany: nougats & a Christmas market posted at Travels of Adam, saying, "Schmalkalden, Germany (located in central Germany) is a surprisingly quaint and nice town. With a chocolate nougat factory and the surrounding forest, the city offers a nice weekend break from most major cities nearby."
Tallinn, Estonia   MoTravels presents Exploring Tallinn in Winter posted at MO TRAVELS.

London, United Kingdom   Johnathan Johnson presents Five Fun Free Things to do in London posted at Glamping -- Camping in Heels.

Cities in Asia

Siem Reap, Cambodia   Michael Hodson presents Siem Reap, Cambodia Travel Guide posted at Go, See, Write - overland RTW adventure travel.

That concludes this edition, and thanks very much for visiting.

Please submit your (ONE, non-spammy) blog post to the next edition of the Carnival of Cities using our carnival submission form.  Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

What's Important in a Conference?

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I don't have any money.  Let's put that right up front.  My district?  We're in Texas - no money there either.   So today I'm attending TCEA 2012 and I'm spending the day with folks I have met through twitter and folks I haven't had a chance to meet yet but am glad I'm meeting.

I'm here planning on buying absolutely nothing.  Wait!  Actually, I might be persuaded into buying an app or two for my iPad.  But nothing more than about $10.  So when I walk by the Vendor check in and I see all of those tables/booths in the Vendor area I know I'm not going to give them any of my money.

There is a part of me that really questions why there is a Vendor area.  Don't teachers learn about new products from other teachers via twitter or in blog posts?  Heck, don't teachers keep up with their favorite "vendor" on twitter so that they know the latest upgrade or change to the product?  Of course the answer is no.  And that's too bad.

I'm here to learn from educators who are using technology in the classroom.  Already I've heard a great session by Kevin Honeycutt on using devices for the arts.  He even got a member of the audience to jam with him .  Kevin is on his guitar (with an iPad velcro'd to it) and John Maklary is on an iPhone.  There is no pressure to buy anything.  Kevin did share out some of his favorite apps for music and then other educators shared some of their favorite apps for art and music. Those in attendance are all part of the conversation.

Right now I'm listening to Carolyn Foote discussing eBooks.  She's sharing various platforms/devices and various apps for creating and reading eBooks.  There's about 20 educators in her session and they are all actively involved in the discussion.

The common theme in these first two session?  Conversations - teachers are sharing information.  Yes, someone is facilitating and, yes, that person is the main "expert" but their main focus is to lead a discussion about their topic.

10 days ago I was in Philadelphia at Educon Philly.  Chris Lehman set up this conference at his school and it is wildly successful.  And, it is totally created around conversations.  There are no vendors.  But, you can bet that there were things bought after listening to discussions with educators using something interesting in their classroom.  I know I spent some money on some apps during that weekend.  But I went to the vendor - the vendor didn't have to come to me.

I like to think that as more and more educators become active in social media and as they start sharing more of the technologies they use in the classroom, we will see a reduction in the number of conferences centered around vendors.  With no vendors and a set number of attendees the size of the conference can be reduced as well.  And then, hopefully, the cost of attending these great events will come down to something teachers (and school districts) can afford.  Of course, if we just had more "Edcamp" style conferences we could bring the cost down to the bare minimum - but that's something for another post.

Questioning Normalcy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/njtechteacher/

Educon 2.4 came to a close but is far from finished.  The conversations started there will continue in the hallways and faculty lounges around the world and in online discussions via blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.  

The overarching word du jour was Innovation. We heard what it was and what it wasn't. We dissected it and defined it and even used it in a drinking game.  But, most striking was the fact that we never gave up on it. 

 Innovation, it seems, was a part of us throughout the weekend.  And why not?  Those of us in those rooms or following along via streaming are education innovators.  How many of us know more people who haven't a clue what Educon is than the number of people who were envious of us in attendance?

But how do we innovate once we return to our offices or classrooms?  For me I plan on bringing up these discussions with my colleagues.  I plan on addressing things that made me question what I, or my school, is doing.  I plan on having discussions with students about these topics and how they can help bring about change in our school.

As this transformation evolves I will be posting the "aha!" moments, the "holy crap we can't do that's," and the "let's get this baby rollings."   Throughout, I would love your thoughts and encouragement.  I'll be sharing this with our students and look forward to their input as well.  And, in a few weeks I plan on linking to our class blog as my students start down this journey.

Thank you Educon, Chris Lehman, and the staff, parents, and students of the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) for providing all of us with such an enriching event.

Educon 2.4 First Day Reflection

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"Wow!  My head hurts, but in a good way."  How many times did I hear some version of that statement tonight.  Yes, it hurts your brain to question what you are doing.  It hurts your brain to question what others are saying they are doing.  And, it hurts your brain to stand firm on something you truly believe in.

All of those things happened (and more) to my brain today.  Actually this pain in my brain started Thursday night as we sat talking inside of Con Murphys, until later than I would have liked, about things related to unstructured classrooms and democratic learning.  [Confession: my brain hurt too because the singer was a little loud - I'm getting old, sigh....]

This continued on Friday as I toured the SLA and talked with their incredible students.  But the best thing about seeing the SLA is that our students are just like those students.  Our classrooms are incredibly similar to the SLA classrooms.  I saw presentations and researching with technology.  I saw hands on exploration in a Calculus class.  [Confession #2: I was told I couldn't help the students but I did give them a hint about thinking back to their Algebra 2 days and maximizing area of a fenced in pen, sorry]

Then, Friday night, there was a wonderful panel of speakers who challenged our thoughts on Innovation. This later became "the I-word" and was worked into a drinking game but the fact is we were discussing until almost midnight what it means to innovate.

The pain today started early as I had to choose between about 15 conversations for each of the three sessions.  Luckily, for me,  Michelle Baldwin had tweeted me the night before telling me I had to come to her session where we discussed finding and nurturing the next Da Vinci in our classrooms. [Confession #3: Glad I didn't have to choose and it turned out to be an awesome discussion with Kelly Tenkely.]

The second session I went to was made easy because I didn't have to change rooms.  I really wanted to hear Liz Davis and Lisa Thumann and they just happened to be in the same room.  Their conversation was on Tradition Vs. Innovation.  This was an interactive session as we had to choose to "Dig It" or "Ditch It" on some dozen topics in education that were "traditional."  Great discussions by teachers wearing their parent hats in this one.

You know, I've heard Dean Shareski speak and I abuse the other Canadian, Alec Couros a lot on twitter so I had to go see them tag team the topic of Learning in Public.  This was definitely standing room only and there were no shy people in the room when it came to discussing this topic.  Somehow this was the only session where I was content to just listen.  [Confession #4: I almost raised my hand to see if I could be selected so I could tell them that Kelly Tenkely kept raising her hand to comment and they were missing her]

The SLA then provided a dinner where we continued to talk about what we had heard during the day and then we took the train out to the meet up this evening where we discussed stuff for another hour and a half and now, finally, I am back in my room and writing this post.

Basically, I have talked about education related topics every waking hour from my arrival to now and that's about 40 of the last 54 hours.  So, yeah, my head hurts.  But you know what?  I'm heading back tomorrow morning to do it all again.