Tec sig in Austin

Had a wonderful day yesterday with Will Richardson. I am inspired and ready to begin planning my summer training sessions with my co-worker, Margie Brown It should be an exciting summer!
For all of you who could not be there, here is his presentation wiki. Read it and weep.
http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/

What Inspires Me

I thought it was interesting that the day after I wrote my first entry on my new blog about the things that inspired me about TCEA this year, I read a post by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach concerning inspiration and the power of community.

I connected with this post on several levels. One of the best parts of the week that I spent at TCEA was the inspiration that results from being with a group of people that share your passion. It is the reason that I plopped myself down on the convention floor between those two teachers who were fired up about blogging and helped them to create their own. It is the reason that I sat down in one of the concurrent workshops and within 5 minutes of listening to the presentation was able to put together a technology showcase plan for my campus that I had been puzzling over for months.

Coincidentally, I have begun to use the power of community on my own campus. I started a new after school group this year for 3rd-5th graders consisting of children who are strong in technology skills but do not get to shine in other areas. I am trying to build a core group of technology student leaders on this campus, a community of pint-sized geeks. I am also using the idea of community to encourage the use of Airliners. I have multiple teachers who have this technology in their classrooms and have been trained to use it, but have put it aside because sometimes life just gets in the way. So, we have formed an "Airliner Support Group". We have only met once, but it was quite a successful meeting based on the impromptu sharing of ideas that simply being in this newly formed community inspired.

It would appear that though my efforts at community were not intentional, they were a step in the right direction. Hopefully, I can build on this theme throughout the spring and into next year. I aspire to make this tiny campus a place where teachers feel safe in their technology journey, wherever they may find themselves on that path.

TCEA 2009

TCEA is over for another year and I am exhausted, but inspired. Inspired not only by the leaders of techology that I was fortunate enough to come into contact with, but by the teachers from my school that I attended this conference with. Their enthusiasm was a thing of beauty. After a session on blogging, I sat between two teachers on the floor of the convention center as they set up blogs for their classrooms. As we wandered from session to session watching teachers discuss technology ideas both simple and complex, they began to formulate a plan for their own presentations next year. My only regret was that I hadn't encouraged them to attend for more than one or two days. There was so much to do and so many things that they had to leave undone due to their limited time.

I was, as always, so very impressed with my co-workers, the folks who hold my position at various campuses across the district. They were there to learn, something that they take quite seriously. I have never met a more dedicated group of educators.

I will return to school on Monday envigorated by what I have learned, empowered by deeper friendships and ready to tackle the challenges and rewards of technology in education for another semester.