Last, but not least I was able to attend a session on Online Tools for Math Discourse by Elena Jones. She did an amazing job modeling the tools presented by letting participants experience them as students. I was particularly impressed with the functionality of Formative and Desmos. Both of these tools are free! and I believe them to be game changers when it comes to math education and tech. Formative allows students to annotate their answers with their own handwriting, which I believe to be important for math. Desmos comes with a variety of prepared activities teachers can use that allow students to interact with graphs, inequalities and other mathematical representations. It was incredible to see the new tools that have been created since I left the classroom. It felt so good to return to my roots in teaching math and I am so excited to bring these tools to other math teachers. You can find the presentation here.

As always, it has been an incredible experience attending InnEd CO. This is by far my favorite conference and I feel so lucky to have a place where I am surrounded by incredible educators from across the country. I always walk away with new tools to bring to the classroom and much needed inspiration. Thank you to everyone who made this week so special! Can't wait to see you all again next year! Please feel free to share your thoughts and reflections in the comments below.

Day 2 at #InnEdCO17 was an incredible day of connections and storytelling. I started the morning with Sean Wybrant (Colorado Teacher of the Year) and his session on crafting heroes. As the Colorado teacher of the year, he decided to use the role to serve as a voice for the teachers of Colorado. In his session, he told the story of his student's journey to creating an interactive, periodic table using a variety of augmented reality hardware. For me, the most impactful part of his presentation was the emphasis on sharing your story, especially before it feels like a polished product. Like the many iterations of the Iron Man suit, it is important to understand that there will be constant iterations of your story. The most important thing is to start sharing your story in the first place. Too often, negative headlines take over the educational narrative. In order to overcome this, educators across the country need to share the positive stories they have as often as they occur. We need to not led perfection become the enemy of good enough and reclaim the education headlines through our intentional storytelling.

​I was also able to attend a session on personalized learning by Ben Wilkoff. His session provided insight into the vision for meaningful, relevant, personalized learning for all learners in Aurora Public Schools. This includes a connected learning, with a device that they feel confident using, in a learning space that meets their needs, making things that matter to them. This same learner is connected to a community of other learners and has ownership over their work and data that they can then share with others. These skills can then be recognized via microcredentials, allowing the learner to move their own boxes and engage meet their personal learning goals. I found myself reflecting on how these characteristics are also conducive to a creative and innovative work environment.  You can find Ben's presentation here to click into examples of these concepts.

First, I have been able to spend the day with so many incredible people - both old friends and new friends. As a part of a challenge, I took selfies with all six members of the DPS Edtech team (one of my favorite groups of people). They are a truly incredible group and I have felt so fortunate to know over my career. It is incredible to think that I got started with presenting on educational technology with them back in 2013, the fall after I started my master's degree.

I was also able to present my work on #theGoogleGames in a snapshot session. I had a lot of fun sharing this project with others, and hope that it inspires other to experiment with gamification for their professional development. You can find more information in my presentation slides or in my previous blog post.