What have we gained? - Moving mountains for students

Today we went to do some sightseeing in the Canadian Rockies. We planned to visit Banff National Park, Lake Louise, Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and we got to do some souvenir shopping in the town Banff.

Panorama shot at Lake Louise.

This was indeed very nice. I've been to Banff National Park before, but never to Lake Louise and it is a very beautiful site. Even when it's a little cold and rainy. The water in Lake Louise has this typical color of water that just came from a glacier. I've taken so many pictures, but as always one cannot capture the atmosphere in a picture. I tried anyway. I also took the time to create a Time Lapse movie with the iMotion app for iPhone. How many SEEs can you spot? 

Time Lapse movie from the walk around Lake Louise.

Walking around and chatting with new friends (for life) was a very nice ending of this summit. Besides this beautiful sightseeing tour, the past four days at SMART Technologies HQ was topic of the chatting in the morning. We talked what we most liked, what we thought could be better and talked about what we'd gained and will take home or school with us.

Personally I would have loved that we shared more (lesson) ideas, worked and collaborated more with each other, rather than the in my opinion technical issues regarding SMART amp. Don't get me wrong, I really like SMART amp and am looking forward to working with this in my SMART Collaborative Classroom. I do hope that all the comments we made to improve working with amp (and Notebook) will soon be available to make it even beter to work with. Back home I will do a presentation about this trip at school and share all that I've learned and gained from this summit. Mainly it will be things that we've shared in between, such as the outcome of the twitter chat and during the Global Collaboration workshop. We all made new friends and contacts this summit and those I will take with me and either me or one of my colleagues is willing to do a global collaboration project with SEEs from abroad. I also like the Kermit style video's, and that another thing I will take home. I can do that with students within a certain topic I teach or even in my mentor group. And I'm also thinking of Johan and me sharing what we've learned with other Dutch SEEs at the SMART office in the Netherlands ... Lots of ideas and work. Still processing.

Panorama shot taken from the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

After Lake Louise we ate the best lunch ever at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and went for some shopping in the picturesque town Banff. I bought some stickers, pins, pencils and t-shirts. This was good and I want to be back! Canada. Is. Epic. Thank you SMART Technologies for taking good care and having me and the other SEEs around the past week!

At Lake Louise with Lise, Kristin and Amanda.