The FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) Conference....What An Amazing Event!

                      
This week I had the honor of attending the FAME, Florida Association for Media in Education, conference in Orlando.

You can view the program online here.   The conference included so many wonderful educators and just an amazing variety of presentations and workshops.

I had the best time presenting the opening keynote on Thursday afternoon.  My keynote was entitled Be The Change You Want To See In The World.  You can view the Google Presentation in the window above.

On Friday morning, I conducted a workshop entitled Social Media In Education.  We had a really nice group and talked about incorporating social media tools such as Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Symbaloo, BiblioNasium,  Blogger, Diigo and others into the classroom, curriculum and school community.

We also learned how to follow the conference hashtag #floridamediaed and FAME on Twitter at @FloridaMediaEd and on Facebook.  These are great places to catch up with FAME and see the archive of the conference.

On my Google Site that I created for FAME, you can find the links to the workshop here.  It is broke into three sections....I covered "Tools To Connect".

One of my favorite parts of being at library conferences are the authors that we all get the pleasure to meet.  Mackin Educational Resources hosted a lovely author reception after the opening keynote.  To finally meet my friend Donna Gephart in person was so much fun.  And having Sharon Draper and Christina Diaz Gonzalez there too was an extra bonus to the night. 

One of the best moments of FAME was meeting author and illustrator Henry Cole.  Henry has illustrated so many of my favorite picture books like Chicken Butt, The Old House, and And Tango Makes Three.  (Here is Henry with Kitty Heise in the Mackin booth....we had the best time with him!)

And Unspoken...A Story From The Underground Railroad, a beautiful, breathtaking new book Henry wrote and illustrated.   I look forward to connecting with Henry in the near future and introducing him to my students and community.

As I left Florida this morning, I thought about what a special time the last three days have been. Seeing friends, making new ones, and creating valuable connections that will bring so much to my library, school and students.....all made it one of the best conferences!

Thank you Florida....We all have the power to Be The Change!