Mrs. Monahan's Class Blog: August 2016

Somebody pinch me! I just spent the best week with the best of the best of the best at the Global SEE Summit at SMART Headquarters in Calgary, Canada! It felt like a dream because for one week, we were treated like absolute gold. To use this week's term, Olympic gold. I had the opportunity to connect with 56 other educators from around the globe to learn, collaborate, and create during the week of July 17-22nd. Some were old friends from previous SEE Summits, and some I met for the first time, but by the end of the week, it felt like I had known them for years.
The overall theme for the week was Teachers are Superheroes. Technology is their Superpower. Every day a new Super Power was introduced that directed the agenda for the day:Engage, Innovate, Collaborate, Create, and Empower to Succeed. These principles are everything that SMART exemplifies! Each day these were showcased through sessions with SMART executives, SMART employees, and SEEs. We participated in a Hackathon with the software and hardware developers that was innovative and extraordinary! We can't wait to see what actually gets developed. SEES Jorgen Holmberg and Lotta Ramqvist shared their Global Collaboration project that they created at last year's Summit with 3 other SEEs. This lead into creation of Global Collaboration projects for everyone else. Our group is extremely excited to get started this year for our students.
We had the privilege to listen, talk, question, and interact with the executives of SMART Technologies to find out the nitty-gritty that goes on inside SMART Technologies. The interesting thing, though, is that they were really interested in hearing from us, the teachers and educators that are in the classroom. They wanted our feedback as to how things work with the students, what we like, and how it can be better. While meeting with Greg Estell, President, Warren Barkley, CTO, and Tim Toyoshima, VP of Software Development at our Fireside Chat, we had the honor to ask questions about the roadmap of SMART Technologies and things to come. I was thrilled I got to ask a question to them again this year.
During the week, we were celebrated as superheroes. Each of us found out that we had SMART and other SEEs as a sidekick that we could count on to help whenever we needed them. Sidekicks were also given to us in the form of monsters for the new Monster Quiz in LAB for Notebook. Each Hackathon group was given one of the nine monsters as a group mascot. My monster, Thonius A. Hack, was busy going different places throughout the week. He went to SMART Headquarters, of course, and even went into the laundry room at our fabulous accommodations, the Aloft Hotel!
The entire week could not have happened had it not been for Kelly Miksch, Ainhoa Marcos, Kelly Davis, and Karen McKibben. They made sure EVERYONE had EVERYTHING they needed. They were the SUPER Superheroes of the week. They can not be thanked enough for all they did. It was truly an honor to be celebrated and appreciated in the manor that we were. The happy tears I shed several times that week with my "SMEEPS" (SMART Peeps) is a rare occasion for me. I'm not usually an emotional person, but at times, the tears came because it was so overwhelming. I just couldn't imagine how wonderful the whole experience could be, even though I had been through it before. I thank all of them, and everyone at SMART, from the bottom of my heart.