ETSI

I had the honor of being selected to attend my district's first Educational Technology Summer Institute and it sounds cheesy, but….my life will never be the same! :) I know, I'm being a bit dramatic, but really, my mind was blown by the innovation, collaboration and pure energy of being surrounded by all the best edtech leaders in my district. I have to give a major shout-out to my principal for giving me this opportunity and to the tech team for accepting my application. We spent three days diving into augmented reality, mystery Skyping, virtual field trips, 3D printing examples, BYOD, digital citizenship, Twitter, flipped classrooms, and much much more. I was even able to lead a class in our Mini EdCamp morning! Yikes, I was so nervous thinking no one would show up or find any value in it but I think they did? :)

This experience was perfect timing for the new school year. Let's face it…sometimes we get comfy on the couch, catching up on our favorite TV shows on Netflix, visiting the pool with our children (guilty of all three!!) and we start to think that we could get used to that kind of life. :) Sure, I love my students and I love teaching music but I'm not going to lie….my couch is pretty nice after all. :) 

However, this training was just what I needed to get me back into the swing of things this year! My focus is back with a vengeance and not only that…..but I'm armed with new techie ideas, apps, websites, tricks and gadgets!  Better yet, I'm even more inspired and determined to share with my coworkers and anyone willing to listen. In fact, if you follow me on Twitter (@KellyParrish605), you have probably seen all my crazy comments followed by #pisdetsi. Follow that entire hashtag and you'll find some amazing insight to the last three days of our crazy adventure!

So in the next couple of weeks before school, I will be working on adding to my Websites and Apps pages  to share all those great resources we talked about and I will share some more specific music ideas as well! Check back with those soon!

By the way, if this is what an EdCamp is like, I have to (obviously) recommend it!! I hope to go to the next one in my area whenever it may be!!