NECC/ web 2.0 overload

Well, I am feeling a little overwhelmed. I remembered my professor mentioning that it would be a good idea to get involved in some technology-geared organizations, go to some conferences, and that there was a conference in San Antonio this year. I came across the classroom 2dot0 local workshop site and saw the NECC in SA again. I figured that I'd probably need to look into registration and such, so I filed in my 'Spring Break to-do list' mental file.

Cut to today with me finding the NECC site. Okay, I don't know why I didn't realize what a big deal a conference of this sort would be, but geez! I did get registered, find some hotel arrangements (1 night in 1 hotel & 2 nights in another; good thing I have a sister about 15 minutes outside of SA; guess I'd better start chatting her up!)

Now I'm trying to use the little planner on the site to organize my days. There is so much to choose from! This technology stuff keeps getting me off track.

I started my Master's in Educational Technology in January after looking into Instructional Design and deciding that I wanted O-U-T of k-12 education. In one of my courses, we had an assignment to write a 1-3 page paper on web 2.0 - including a definition, some examples and its significance to education and learning today. Needless to say, this turned into hours of me looking at different sites, joining groups like this one and finding out about all kinds of info that I'd never heard of. I'm adding stuff to my Google Notebook (just learned about in class about 3 weeks ago) for my paper and for things I want to look into for my classroom. There is just not enough time.

I've started an account with Gaggle.net and my kids LOVE it! I've already created a wiki and some of the kids have started going through the process of creating pages and adding content. I mentioned in my 'Getting Started' post that my TAKS test was over (7th grade Writing). I am, however, an English teacher, so this includes reading. I am also the Master Reading Teacher (MRT) on my campus. People are looking to me to find info/ help with preparing the kids for the reading portion of TAKS. ( 6th & 7th grades and the 9 8th graders who didn't pass on the first administration - woot for our 8th graders and teachers w/ 91% passing rate on the first go!)

Now I don't know what to do. I had originally planned to do some partner/group work with my English classes on novels. I was thinking create some study guides/ quizzes/ games on the wiki, maybe a paper/letter on the characters/from different points of view, etc. My kids who had tried the wiki were excited; I was just trying to think of a more interesting/interactive way to get them to read and cover the TEKS & TAKS objectives. But I'm wondering if I need to learn more before I introduce it to them.

See what I mean about getting off track? Now this was supposed to be about NECC and look where I ended up! I still don't know what I'll be doing at NECC or what I'll be doing with my kids next week. AARRGGHH!