ROAD TRIP

Recently, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday my Colleagues @techiefeldie &@jennykbps traveled West to York, Nebraska to present on Google Docs at the York Public Schools In-Service Day.  @chericson & @mrbadura & @Coach_Sautter were the gentlemen who felt highly enough of us to invite us & bring us out to present on their amazing Professional Development day.  It was #dukepd12 if you are familiar with Twitter.

On our Road Trip West we came up with this slogan in HONOR of Dr. King - - - Google Docs is like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. empowering people to be free!  

My colleagues and I love Google Docs and are passionate about sharing it with people.  It truly is a game changer and revolutionizes what we are familiar with in Microsoft Word.  The power & potential that is within Google Docs is endless & bringing that to teachers in any city, state, province, or country I would do if I had the chance in a heartbeat!

Here is a link to what we used for our presentations at #dukepd12

Interestingly enough, in my district, we were off / out of school on this PD day in York.  So theoretically we could have stayed home with our families, rested, relaxed, and enjoyed the day off, but because we love to share, collaborate, & connect with teachers & people we jumped at the chance for the ROAD TRIP! 

It's not everyday you find teachers / people willing to do this I think.  I am by no means trying to toot my own horn here so if you are misinterpreting me I am sorry, what I am trying to point out though is teaching is about PASSION.  I love knowing I may have helped someone in the York PD day #dukepd12.

I love working with my colleagues @techiefeldie & @jennykbps and seeing there passion come through them in their work as well.  I love knowing I may have sparked someone to use Google Docs in a new way.  In my dream world we would all be using Google Docs, we would all be using Twitter, and we would be collaborating and flattening the globe with these 2 simple yet complex WEB tools.  Districts could dramatically improve the way they do business if they only used these 2 tools.

In closing, I was humbled & honored to come to York, NE to participate in #dukepd12 and I hope we did well enough that folks got something out of it & our twitter friends from York will still follow us! 
;  )

Attitude and Victories

I’ve been relatively unplugged for Christmas and New Year’s, and now am ready to roll!  I will admit to checking my twitter feed a few times, but didn’t do much with it.  I downloaded a book and read it in two days.  I posted two things on Facebook.  I looked up a few recipes and worked on family picture orders using Google docs.  For me this was very little time spent in the digital world compared to what I do on a daily basis at work!  It’s important to give yourself a break and be more available to those you love.  That is what I hope I did over the Holidays.

Now that I have made it through the Holidays, I am back now at my desk pondering what is ahead of myself and my incredible teammates this year!  We’ve got some lofty goals ahead of us!  Some of those goals are focused on our own professional development and others that hopefully include some changes for our district.  We know there will be some obstacles that we don’t have control over, but we also know that with our positive attitudes and persistence we will learn more, change more, create more, and impact student achievement! 


It’s a great feeling to come back from a break and be ready to go.  To be excited about the future.  It really is attitude that makes a difference.  We could be worried about what is ahead and wondering if we can actually accomplish everything we’ve set out to do.  But that would only waste precious time and energy.  Instead we focus on what we can accomplish and relish our small victories!  If you look closely enough you can find at least one victory a day and know you’ve made a difference.  Small victories include a pat on the back, a smile from a child in your classroom, learning a new skill, getting a phone call from a parent who just wants to say “thanks”.  These matter!   We will reach our goals big and small this year.  I just know it! 

So here’s to 2012 and all the victories yet to come - BIG and small!