The Palm Beach County Tech Conference- Storified!

I was fortunate to have attended The 2012 School District of Palm Beach County Technology Conference on March 26th. 

This conference was very impressive and FREE.  What an amazing job by Lee Kolbert and team!  And the punchline?  I got to meet some rock stars.  It was a sharefest with Dean Shareski, who I have deemed The Sharemeister and the ever-resourceful and very generous Jerry Blumengarten, pictured with me below. 

@cybraryman1 @HansenLaurie @shareski

I do have a few regrets as I could not stay the entire day.  I wasn't able to see the dynamite sessions by Kris or Abby and Lily (Sorry guys!)  I missed other fabulous events including the closing event by dynamic speaker Travis Allen.  Luckily, I did catch his earlier session.   Oh, and I missed the iPad raffle. Darn! 
Opening Keynote,  Rushton Hurley, was a dynamic, brilliant and hilarious speaker.  I also want to share an important quote from his talk: "I am eating granola!"  Confused?  Ask me!

Catch the conference Twitter chat here on Storify http://sfy.co/jri and continue the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #sdpbctechconf.

Palm Beach County ROCKS! #ThankYou

Don't miss:

• Rushton Hurley: http://www.nextvista.org/ 
• Dean Shareski: http://ideasandthoughts.org/  &  http://www.shareski.ca/ 
• Jerry Blumengarten: http://www.cybraryman.com/ 
• Travis Allen: http://blog.ischoolinitiative.com/ & http://ischoolinitiative.org/
• Lee Kolbert: http://www.leekolbert.com/
• Kris Swanson: http://mrswanson.org/ 

Follow #sdpbctechconf attendees in our chat right from Storify!
A shout out to my friend Nancy, PBC dedicated teacher, for encouraging me to attend! 

Jefe's Taco Story

Jefe’s is named after a famous surfer who attributed his legendary surfing skills to his mom’s tacos.  When Jefe passed, the recipe was thought to have been lost forever.  Lucky for us, the family recipe has been rediscovered and is being served up on a food truck near you!

If you’re ever in Miami-Dade area, you must find Jefe’s Original  and experience this yum-o-licious fish taco.  Yes, it is as amazing as it looks.  This one was probably the best fish taco ever made.  At least I think so!

Can't get to Jefe's? Find or book another a gourmet food truck near you! http://mobimunch.com/

In celebration of Einstein...

Originally posted on my kids' blogs:

March 14th:  Happy Birthday Einstein!  How about a little π?

Sculpture by Mary

http://littlelambcreative.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-birthday-einstein-how-about.html

And a larger, edible baked delight:

Peanut Butter π Pie baked by Anna

Originally posted here: http://bookreviewsavidreader.blogspot.com/2012/03/sir-cumference-and-dragon-of-happy-pi.html

Doodlers Anonymous

Butterfly by Laurie Hansen

Hello. My name is Laurie and I am a Doodler. 

These days my doodles are digital.  However, they are not done with Adobe Photoshop or any special graphic artist’s tool.  I doodle using Powerpoint.

I have gotten lost on a slide using the glow, bevel and 3D rotation features in order to create my tiny works of art. Sometimes it takes more than 12 steps.  I don’t usually count, though.

This butterfly started out as a heart. I filled it with a Wordle, flipped it, used 3D rotation and …viola! 

A butterfly!   

Want to meet other doodlers like your creative self?  Want to get inspired? Doodlers Anonymous is a place where you can meet doodlers like yourself or admire the spontaneous art of others.

Have fun!  I’d love to see your work if you care to share.  

Odyssey of the Mind

Have you heard of Odyssey of the Mind?  My kids and their classmates are part of this NASA-sponsored, international organization and recently participated in a regional competition. 

The basic idea of Odyssey of the Mind is for kids to creatively solve two types of problems as a team.  They prepare what is called a Long Term Problem starting at the beginning of the school year as part of an afterschool program and demonstrate their solution during a live performance.  The solution must follow particular criteria, rules and guidelines and, most importantly, is accomplished by the team members without the help of an adult.  Another part of the competition is called Spontaneous  which is on-the-spot creative thinking.  Although not everyone places or wins a prize, the spirit among all who participate is positive and the experience has great value, which is a prize in itself.

Odyssey of the Mind is made possible by volunteers.  These individuals, myself included, invest their time because they have experienced the results of the program.   I was recently dazzled by the awesomeness of the kids who competed at the Palms Regional Odyssey of the Mind Tournament. 

Speaking of awesomeness, our school went home with accolades, beaming with pride and excitement!  A blast was had by all!  Kudos to Mr. Rowland and Mrs. Killian who deserve a special award for coaching our kids!    

Still not clear on Odyssey of the Mind? Here is a video that may help you further understand the concept:   http://youtu.be/7fqzCIf5JOE

"Behind each one of our [Odyssey of the Mind] finalists is a volunteer support network that can proudly claim to be one of those thousand points of light that I like to talk about." - George Bush, President of the United States

Another important point to note: Odyssey of the Mind has created a community outreach program called Odyssey Angels. The Angels deserve their own blog post, but for now, more information can be found here: http://www.odysseyangels.org/content/become-odyssey-angel

Know a group of kids that would like to get involved?  Applications for next year will be accepted starting July 1, 2012: http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/learn_more.php

Attention Young Innovators and Scientists!

WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF... you won this contest?   Submit a "cool idea that is powered by Math and Science" and win the grand prize:  the opportunity to create a prototype with Fahrenheit 212 

As the name implies, this contest is cool!  It is also sponsored by NASA.  Not cool enough? 

Would it help to say that one of the judges is WILL I.AM?  (Black-Eyed Peas, people!) Will, by the way, is a STEM Education Advocate.

Get your wheels turning kids!  And here's to making the world more AWESOME!

Per the site:
Teams have 2-3 members.  All members of a team must fall within the same age group.
The contest has two age groups:ages 10-12 and 13-15.
Users are limited to submitting one idea — either as an individual or team.
Awesomeness is determined by public vote:  See FAQ for more info.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 28, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. ET

Parents' and educators' questions answered here: http://www.wouldntitbecoolif.com/parents
Enter contest here: http://www.wouldntitbecoolif.com/ideas/choose

An astronaut helmet tip to the AWESOME @krswan for RT this NASA tweet! 

Tube Chop

MS Clipart collage by LH

One of my favorite sayings (excuses) was quoted by Cher back in the 80s: "If it came in a bottle, everyone would have a good body..."  I'll take two, please.  Never know when I'll need a spare!

The version of the original commercial I found on YouTube is 0:30 seconds long , but I TubeChopped it to 0:05 to demonstrate this handy dandy tool.   It's really easy to use!  As they say on the Tube Chop site:

1. Find the video you want to chop.
2. Select & cut interesting part of the video.
3. Share it with friends.

Click here for my Cher Tube Chop example
(Thanks Cher!  Thanks Jack Lalanne in heaven! Thanks Tube Chop!)

So, anyone know where I can get one of those bottles?

A hat tip goes to Kathleen M. for inspiring me to share Tube Chop in the form of a blog post!