I was fortunate enough to attend ICE last week. I had never attended before, but heard a lot of about it from several members (Anne, Lori, and Smeech) of my PLN. The drive was about two hours and I was able to work out one day of attendance, but due to some family conflicts, I couldn’t attend longer. Attending conferences is something that I really, really enjoy. Sure, the learning is fantastic, but another part that I enjoy is the conversations and chances to see some of my friends face to face. Interactions on Twitter and other social networking sites is great, but there’s nothing like saying “Hi” in the real world. Attending a conference for one day certainly doesn’t provide you with a lot of time to chat and mingle, but I still enjoyed it. If it wasn’t for the cost of attending and getting the days off of school, I’d try and attend as many conferences as possible. I’d really like to attend FETC, PETE & C, CUE, EduCon, and others. Someday.
Have you ever benefitted from an unfortunate circumstance that happened to someone else? Well, that was the case for me this year at ICE. Jen Wagner, one of the first members of my PLN, was scheduled to attend ICE, and leading a few workshops and presenting a couple of sessions. However, due to unfortunate timing, she wasn’t able to attend in person. (She did, however, attend virtually). About a week before the conference was to start, I received a message from Jen, asking me if I would fill in for her during one of her sessions. Me? Are you kidding? YES! The topic was Online Projects, which Jen knew I was familiar with. We chatted a little throughout the next several days, with Jen giving me a few ideas on what she was planning on doing. I took those ideas, chatted with another friend who was presenting on a similar topic at PETE & C a few days before mine, and the next thing I knew, I had a presentation ready to go. The help of Jen and Karen made me feel a little more at ease because this was going to be my first ever presentation at a conference. This one doesn’t count. While it was certainly unfortunate Jen couldn’t attend in person, I was happy that I had the opportunity to present.
I bet you’re wondering how it turned out. Tune in to part 2 of this post, which I’ll be working on later today.
Categories: 
Tags: 
My name is Chad Lehman. I'm currently an Elementary Library Media Specialist. I spent eight years teaching third grade prior to moving to the school library. When I'm not at school, I'm probably online, playing or watching sports, or driving my two kids to one of their activities.
…and I bet you rocked the house! That’s the beauty of the interconnectness of our PLN and how we’ve come to depend on each other. I’m looking forward to reading more about it in Part 2. Congratulations!
You were the FIRST name that came to mind to work with teachers as an introductory to Projects.
I had no doubt you did well…..smiles….and am looking forward to reading Part 2.
Thanks for stepping in.
Jen
I was in your presentation, and saw what a great job you did. You gave great examples, shared some ideas for getting started in an easy way to follow. Thank you for sharing with the IL educators who were in attendance. I know they walked away with several ideas that they could implement right away.
I was in the audience as well. I thought you did a great job too and am looking forward to checking out your presentation online with all the links,etc.
Congratulations. Your blog has been nominated for our Library Blog Awards. In fact, your blog was suggested more than once. We’re in the process of assembling information about all those nominated and will be sending a short questionaire, including the categories of awards and the judges involved. Would you please send me your email address so that I can send you the questionaire? If your email is on your blog, I couldn’t locate it.
Thanks in advance,
Peter W Tobey
ptobey@salempress.com
@Lee – Hardly, but thanks for the kind words.
@Jen – You don’t realize how awesome I felt when you asked me to step in.
@Lee & Jen – Part 2 is coming, I hoped it would have been done by now, but….
@Lori & Nancy – Thank you, that’s great to hear.