PETE&C Experience

I just got home a little over 24 hours ago from the PETE&C conference (Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference). It was a great experience as usual, I got to see a lot of good friends and a lot of new ones! I was lucky enough to present 3 times and also helped out with some others and I spent some time volunteering in the Social Networking Lounge.

My presentations went well, I know I still need some work, but all in all it was great! I presented my own proposal this year with the 60in60 and they had to turn people away from the session 20 minutes before it was supposed to start. I asked for an interactive white board and the rooms they were in were pretty small. I felt bad there were a lot of people who wanted to see it and had to just look at the wiki. I guess you live and learn, but I was happy with the presentation and have ideas to make it better for next year! I found out later on that I was featured in the DEN blog, (http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/pennsylvania/2010/02/22/60-in-60-with-brandon-lutz-den-star-at-petec-2010/). I have to say thank you to Tracey McGrath for her support as co-presenter and all my friends that created videos for the presentation. I used Prezi to present with and I can say I will use this to present from now on!

Next, I co-presented the follow me project with Civil War Sallie and it was great to showcase the project and promote the creation of other projects. We had a lot of he projects with us and we also had a new project launch, Patriot Pete who will travel to places that follow the theme of patriotism. It is truly amazing to see projects that are owned by single students who have a passion! Many other ideas were formulated due to this presentation, I am exited to see the birth of Kindness Kangaroo and Math Monkey...stay tuned!

There is much more to talk about, and I definitely want to share all the great resources I was turned onto, but that is for another day! For now, I am happy to be home and with the family I really missed!

My Goals for 2010: Goal 1 & 2

Every New Years, I end up setting goals for myself. May it be personal or professional I am a goal setter, sometimes I meet my goals and other times they fall to the way side. This year starting a new decade I find it more important to truly look at where I am coming from and where I would like to go. I think sometimes I set too many goals and I get overwhelmed, so here are two goals I really want to keep.

Goal 1: Enjoy my family & friends
I want to make sure that I don't let life get in the way of truly enjoying my family and friends! I cannot believe Will is already 9 months and Jori is in Kindergarten. Finding the balance between family, work, projects, conferences, my PLN, and other passions can be tedious. The key for me is going to be to prioritize and not do so much that I can't enjoy anything. I am actually presenting at Educon 2.2 with @thespian70, @tcmgrath, and @lorisheldon on this very topic. It has been something I have been interested in talking about for a very long time. So here is family & friends and enjoying the time I have with them!



Goal 2: Blog, Blog, Blog
First and fore most blogging is something I have always wanted to do, but I end up failing at it. My excuses always seem to be I don't feel like I am a very good writer, but what is the best way to become a better writer...WRITE! I also have some other motivation in that my wife, Michelle Lutz @mrsblutz01 on twitter has started her own blog and is writing her second entry next to me. I also, have started doing the 365 pictures in a year challenge, in a way that is a blog within in itself. My other focus of this blog will be to share technology integration tips with the teachers I coach and others who would like to read my blog.

So here on January 3rd 2010, I am starting Goal 1 and 2 by posting a blog. Hopefully it will continue!