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.