As with every workshop and training I do, I embed the conversations with instructional technology ideas and strategies. These include tips for helping analyze primary sources, how teachers can empower their own learning by developing their own Personal Learning Network, and my favorite how they can design lessons where students CREATE instead of just CONSUME. These include creating documentaries, digital magazines, and green screen historical flashbacks.
Probably my biggest take away was actually getting the opportunity to talk and share with teachers whom I’ve already worked with. In my three days of workshops I had roughly 1/3 of the teachers in my sessions who had already seen me present before. Instead of saying “oh crap, I hope I don’t bore you with some of the same stuff you’ve seen before”, I took the opportunity to listen to them and hear about their experiences.
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Here are some of the examples of which teachers shared back with me about how they tried some new ideas:

“I started using the SOAPSTone strategy with my government students for virtually all of our primary sources”

“I created a Twitter account after you were here last time and I’ve found many ideas and inspiration from people I follow and from hashtag #sschat”

“I never tried a Gallery Walk before (having students walk around the room and analyze images and other primary sources, similar to Carousel Brainstorming activity) but it was great getting the students out of their seats and interacting with each other and the content”
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I even heard from another teacher who was leading a session on review strategies and he said “I’m showing everyone your Frazzle game, and we having such a fun time” 

Oh… I have to share a non-education moment. On my second day some of the teachers said, you should check out the Civil Rights museum in downtown Atlanta. This sounded fantastic, but after looking up the times I might not have been able to make it before it closed. And then another teacher said, “you could check out the town where they filmed the Woodbury scenes for Walking Dead”?

SCREEEEECCHHHH

{That’s the sound of my rental car tires leaving the training to get myself 40 minutes south to Senoia, GA!, But now let’s be clear I did not CHOOSE Walking Dead tourism over going to the Civil Rights museum, that would be bad…. I just didn’t have enough time!}

Senoia was super cool! It looked just like it did in the show where that Crazy ole’ Governor ran the town. Sorry for those of you who haven’t seen it, but Wow…I was in super zombie fandom. Plus there was a Walking Dead Café and gift shop. I bought a poster and then walked to the end of the town where other super zombie fans had set up because, guess what, the show is again filming there! I stuck around for awhile but only got to see the other crazy fans and one passing glimpse of the actress who plays Tara (we think) on her way to film a scene. 

IN every training or workshop one does you will always get something back in return. One of my favorite takeaways was a new idea on how to analyze visuals. We were discussing various Visual Literacy skills and one teacher simply said, "how about if kids drew what they thought was happening"? I loved this idea and in fact I'm adding it to my list for a future blog post about ways to teach Visual Literacy. Coming soon (except I have like 8 other blog posts drafts just needing to get finished; well, at least I got this one done!)

OK… my 70’s Easy Listening playlist is almost done and I think I accomplished my goal of reflecting on these three days. 

For example, here is a photo I took several years ago during a trip to Washington DC of the Martin Luther King Memorial. I had visited DC many years before this memorial was built, but on this recent trip I was able to run over the the MLK memorial just as the sun was setting. 

My first impression of the memorial was how approachable it was. I walked down the path the the statue and then stood at the base of Dr. King himself. Now, as I stood their and gazed upon him I was filled with emotion and a sense of contentedness

You can imagine what the next thing I did was... reach out and touch it. The marble was the same as any other marble I have touched before, but something human inside us all wants to reach out and feel it. 

It is this desire to make a physical connection with an object that can help you liven up your social studies lessons. 

Many teachers have used Padlet either with their students or at a conference. For those of you have have not used it before, Padlet is a free and easy to use application that enables users to create online bulletin boards where anyone can add notes, docs, files, and more. 

When setting up a Padlet you have a few choices regarding customization like changing the layout. But the one customization I want to talk about is changing the wallpaper. When you click on the wallpaper choices they have preset ones like chalkboard, linen, blueprint, etc. 
Here is an idea though, try making your own wallpaper in a graphic program (anything from Google Drawing to Photoshop) and then using it as a the background for a graphic organizer
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Looking at the example below, you can see how I made a simple Venn Diagram comparing the two music genres Country and Hip Hop. (btw, these two are a great way to introduce your students to the comparison strategy. This can help students see that what seems like two items which appear totally different can be viewed with different perspectives to find similarities. Drop me a line if you would like to hear more about this great intro to comparison)

In this graphic organizer you can see that users know where to put their \notes and ideas on the Padlet. Plus since the diagram and terms Country & Hip Hop are part of the background, they can not be changed. 

I was watching my daughter play on the iPad awhile back and she was using one of those talking apps. These are the kind that let you use the microphone to talk and a character will mouth your words. Meanwhile, I was in the middle of playing with one of my iMovie projects on my iPad. My project was using primary sources for a Jamestown video. Along with primary sources, I was using the video camera to record people dressed as historical figures like John Smith. But this got me thinking... "these remind me of those silly JibJab videos. Can I customize this by adding historical people using this app instead?" And that's just what I did - some App Smashing 

This idea of taking one application and using using it with another is called "App Smashing" . There are tons of possibilities once you start thinking about mixing tools together.  Here is a post all about why you would want to App Smash from ipad4schools.org and check out their list of:

Reasons to App Smash

1. It demands creative thinking
2. It demands more from the technology (value for money)
3. It turns the issue of not having a ‘wonder app’ into a positive
4. It removes any restrictions to take a topic as far as it can be taken.
5. It often results in more engaging learning products
6. It’s a fun challenge for ‘digital natives’

Now, back to Talking Faces. 

There are several apps out there, Face Talk, My Talking Pet, and others but my favorite is called Chatter Pix.  

"Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, or creative cards. And best of all, it’s FREE!"

Its a fun and easy to use app - All you have to do is upload an image, draw a line where the mouth is and then narrate. Its only on iOs for now but an Android app is being released soon. ​ To make this more than just a fun experience though try having your students work on their reading and fluency by having them make characters talk. These can be fictional characters or people from the past.