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Google Academy @ TCEA13

So today was full of ideas and refreshers for me. In fact I had to skip one of the time slots simply because I needed time to clear my head.
The first session I attended after the keynote was Becoming a Google Apps Certified Trainer led by Jennifer Bergland. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but without hearing from someone that had been through the process I wasn't sure what to expect. Since I have been doing some training in Google Apps, it would be nice to have the endorsement of Google.

The next session was From Template to Training Site in Two Hours led by Debra Atchison. I have played with Google sites and even developed my own sites for training. It is so much nicer when someone else does the work for you. If you choose the Google Apps template, they have the GAFE training videos already in the site, all you have to do is customize it to fit your needs.

**Hangin' Out: Google+U for K12 was the next session. +Amy Mayer  led this session and did well demonstrating the ideas being Google+ and Hangouts.  They even created a community (Google+U TCEA13) during the session to facilitate collaboration during and after the conference.

Get Your Google On: Google Tools from A - Z was a fast and furious session led by Monica Martinez.  Most of the sessions were about one or two tools, but this one was a rapid fire look at several tools all within or related to Google.  It is well worth looking at the links just to review and explore on your own. Two of the tools mentioned are alternate Google search start pages.  One is What Do You Love and the other is Let Me Google That For You, which is a great tool that caters to the smart alec in many of us.  

The finally session I attended was the Tech Slam.  I will break down several of the tools that were shared in this session after I have had time to explore them.  In all, today was a great set of sessions and I have many ideas to take back and share.  I will elaborate on many of them in individual posts and probably post them to my site later.  
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