ULearn14 Reflections

I've needed a couple of days to fully process before I could write this. Partly because my brain was so full and also because I wanted to do this post justice. 

Because I owe you all so much. The fact that you all believed in me and wanted to help is amazing. I am absolutely in awe of your generosity and support. You've enabled me to believe in myself and that purely - in and of itself - is something I can never repay. 

While at ULearn14 I felt like the orphan of Twitter. In a good way. Because you'd all worked together to get me there. 

When I'd tell people that they were either confused - where I explained what I meant by the term - or - they said - "you're the girl that crowd sourced to get here!" or something along those lines. The art of asking truly is amazing. This won't be the last time I say thank you. But - thank you. Each and every one of you :)


This will be a long post... 

Tuesday

I got back from Wellington on time, during the day and Rotorua looked absolutely beautiful. I was lucky enough to meet a Deputy Principal from a school in Blenheim and talked to her about the power of Twitter - how I use it for networking and professional development. She seemed pretty impressed and had already created an account prior to coming to ULearn14 :) I have completely forgotten her name and would love to send her the Twitter Cheat sheet I made that I told her I'd share with her. 

I was also lucky to be able to catch up with @Tameey on the way into Rotorua :) I met Tameey for the first time F2F (face to face) at the English Conference last holidays. Every time I talk with her I feel incredibly focussed and gain the best advice and perspective on some of the things I've been dealing with this year. :)

My best friend Steven (@steven_de_bruin) and his colleague - my new friend Michelle (@misplon..) were both staying at the same hotel that Tameey was staying at too. I quickly persuaded them both to come check out the Showcase at the Events centre - which was awesome because they were both incredibly knackered after ULearn Mobile. I was so stoked to catch up with my Twitter buddies again - Danielle, Matty, Philippa, Rachel (@ibpossum), and a few new F2F meet ups - Dean (founder of @mathschatnz) and Philippa's friend (...) 

The showcases were really impressive and I was really wanting to go to two more workshops if I could have! @mageiron? And @tombarnett spoke incredibly well. 

(Put Tweets Here)

After showcase we met up at Brew for dinner where I caught up again with more of the Twitter whanau and met Craig Kemp @mrkempnz and Myles Webb @nzwaikato. I was trying to be cool about meeting Craig and not do a repeat of when I met Danielle earlier in the year. Back then I had jumped around and nearly cried - so I was determined only to be a little excited to meet another good mate. This twitter thing is pretty crazy. It's overwhelming and fabulous all at the same time, because you create such strong friendships through intellect and sharing thoughts and ideas that when you finally meet face to face (F2F/K2K) then it feels as if you already know them. It's okay to hug them straight away. As I did with Michaela Pinkerton @nzkaiako the following day :) - before I even said Hi. Because I knew her - weird but true. And because I'd missed out on seeing her last time. 

Dinner was great because it was the first time both Steven and Michelle had been involved in Twitter and having the chat continue in person would have been a new experience for them. Last time it felt weird talking to these (seemingly strangers) friends of mine about the issues and problems I'm dealing with at school - mostly because I hadn't even told Steven - even though he's my best mate - because there is just so much to say and it's hard to explain. But he must have been confused last time but would have had a better awareness this time and even got a few words in edgewise. Our Twitter whanau.. we talk a lot.. :) 

Wednesday

Felt like the Orphan of ULearn. So incredibly blessed to have been fortunate enough to go to ULearn and it was really cool just booking my breakouts - let alone being there - with everyone! Just being in the events centre with Pharrell's 'Happy' playing - was amazing. Seeing two of our Heights students was awesome too! 

Thursday

Friday

and this - is seriously cool.  https://twitter.com/mrs_hyde/status/522683979229450240
And here are my Storified Tweets again :)