The Smell of a New School Year!

The smell of a new school year is in the air! Teachers know what this is. It's more than the Back to School signs in the stores, football and volleyball camps before official practices begin, even a possible change in the weather.  It's teacher vehicles hanging out in the parking lot at school, fresh wax on the floors in the hallway, emails and letters from the principal reminding us of workshop days, and last minute attempts to get the most out of summer with short trips or vacations.  Teachers know once workshop begins their once free time is now dedicated to school time, adequate sleep is something we hope for on the weekends, and our bladders are back in training mode, only on call when the appropriate bell rings.

For me, I still have a month before workshop will be calling my name, but I have many friends and former colleagues that have received their calling to return in the next few weeks.  As I look back on summer 2013, I reflect on the house projects I got done (and some I still need to complete), quilts I finished, started, and also still need to complete, and the school work I tackled to get ahead of the game for the new school year.

So what did you accomplish this summer?  Is there something more you want to do?  Get it in now, do something you can share with your students when they walk into your classroom.  Use your summer experiences to make connections with your students all year long!  Teachers are real people, don't be afraid to let your students see the real you!

Reflections from Great Plains Google Summit

Well it's Sunday again, the house is clean, walk with the hubby in, school related work tackled (not the 4th down though, still have a few more plays to try before the balls in my hands), time to sit down with my cup of coffee and reflect on the past week.

I spent most of the week in Nebraska.  Got to see most of my family on this trip, my niece was home from PA with her girls, visited with my brother and sister-in-law, went to Dad's, stayed with my nephew and his wife for 3 nights, I think I hit them all.  And as a bonus got to have lunch with an old friend from high school, what a blast that was to catch up with her!

But for as much fun as all the family bonding was, the highlight of my trip was the Great Plains Google Apps Summit I attended at Southwest High School in Lincoln.  Two days of Everything Google!  Just when I think I have my feet on the ground, I get "exposed" to all this wonderful knowledge and these amazing people out there doing wonderful things in Education using Google this and Google that!  While I have tried to let my brain settle since leaving the school on Friday, I now have to start digging my way back to ground level, decipher all this information and come up with the best ways to share it with the staff at my school (and get their heads spinning before the new school year starts!)

There's the new Google Maps, great for social studies or scavenger hunts, Docotpus and Flubaroo for those using forms for assessments, WatchDoc to see who's editing the documents shared with you, Sexy Undo Close Tab (because it's just cool to say that), Announcify to read the screen to you, and on and on and on.......And then the ultimate session (at least for me) on Google Certified Teacher and Googler Apps Certified Trainer! I am IN! Where do I sign?

There is just something about being in an auditorium full of professionals with the same goal of wanting to my education better.  Next Summer......I'm bringing friends to Lincoln!!

Because I'm an Educator

It's Mid-July, Sunday am, I've been up for several hours, and what have I been doing? Listening to Friends on TV and doing school work.  It's summer, I'm suppose to be taking a "break" and getting rejuvenated for the next school year, right?  What does that say about me?  It says I'm an educator.

Nothing irks me more than when people make comments about teachers having their "summers off", my own brother is one of the worst. As much as I love him, when he gets his little "dig" in I want to climb through the phone and slap him!  I know very few teachers that leave school in the spring and literally do nothing school related until the first workshop day in August. Why is that? How many professions put in the hours outside of the workday that teachers do. We do it all school year, nights spent grading and planning, weekends learning new content or technologies, breaks catching up on tasks put aside for another day, to the point (at least at my house) that our families need our picture just to remember what we look like away from a desk, computer, pile of papers or textbooks.

So why on this particular Sunday am I spending the first several hours of my day doing work? Because I'm Educator.  I where this badge with pride. I take pride in my classroom, in my students, in my district.  I want to bring new ideas and activities to my room next year, I want to learn new technologies to share with staff in August, I want to inspire, even one person, to go out and try something new and share with someone else. Educators are lifelong learners, and because I'm an Educator, I'm taking this time today to learn something new.

Happy July!

Change is a good thing, right?

When I started my career as an educator, I chose Business as my content area for two reasons.  One, I had a degree already in Business - Accounting, as well as work experience in the private sector, that I felt would be an asset to my teaching. Second, the content is always changing and updating, that excited me!

Now, 17 years later, change came knocking on my door and I answered.  Starting next school year, my "course" content will no longer be geared towards students in grades 7-12, but their teachers! Effective for the 2013-14 school year I will be the Tech Integration Specialist for the Fairmont Jr Sr High School in Minnesota.  I don't even know how to describe my emotions. My mind is just spinning with thoughts and ideas, plans and schedules. The possibilities are endless, at least in my mind!

The hardest thing, and my only regret, will not be working directly with my students.  And today, when the message went out to the staff about my new position, I had 2 students in class tell me all the classes they were going to take in High School so that they'd be in my classes! They joked "You're never going to get rid of us!" I had all I could do not to break down in tears! I didn't have the heart to tell them about next year, not yet anyway.

Memories like this will stay with me forever, as do all my students.  They are my kids away from home, they are the reason I come to work, to see their smiling faces and watch them learn.  But change is good!  My new "students" I'm sure will be exciting, challenging, and forever learning to improve their own classrooms.

I will look behind with happiness and fond memories, and look to the future in excitement of the possibilities!

Where has the time gone???

So my intent for starting this post was to actually update it on a regular basis.  As you can see, it's not happening.  School starts in September and I'm off and running.  Now it's April, 5 Mondays left in the year, and I have failed at my own goal. Better late than never, as I would tell me own students.

The tragic events today in Boston bring to mind two things for me.  First, what is happening to our world?  How is it that something intended to be a celebration of health and personal accomplishment can so easily be turned into such tragedy?  There are so many unanswered questions at this point, in particular the who and the why.  But no answers can change the feeling in the pit of my stomach right now.

Second, as all tragedies do, it is a reminder to treasure every day. Never walk away from an opportunity to do something good, to make a positive difference in someone's life.  As I reflect on my day to day routine, I'm going to be looking harder at what I can do differently tomorrow, and every day, to reach those unreachable students, to put a smile on a student's face, to give a colleague a boost of encouragement to try something new, or keep doing the great job they do every day.

What difference will you make in your world tomorrow?

It's not as though my life isn't busy enough.  Any teacher can relate to time spent planning, teaching, grading, changing lessons, reteaching, looking for new ideas, integrating technology, 20 minutes to inhale lunch (on a good day), student supervision, grading work, entering grades, contacting parents, tracking down students for make up work, teacher meetings, PLC's........WHEW!  I'm pooped just listing them all, and I KNOW I didn't get them all.  So why on earth would I take this on?  Why on earth would I start a blog?  Because I have something to say.  It doesn't mean anyone is out there to listen, but from what I have learned while reading other people's blogs and about blogs, it's not about writing for someone else, it's about writing for yourself.

I started my 17th year in the teaching profession this fall.  17 years!  One year short of my youngest child's life time.  While to her these years seem to have slugged by (because by age 18 they ALL want out of the "rent's" house and in to their own) I can't believe how they have flown and more importantly, how many changes I have seen in education.

I went into teaching because I love kids, more specifically high school kids.  I chose Business and Technology because it is always changing.  I can create a course and write curriculum for it, but that's usually only good for one, maybe two years.  Then something has changed in reality to make me have to rewrite or update so I can stay current.  If I don't, my students will let me know.  I love that!  I love that my classroom is open for students to express they know something I don't, I love that they can teach me something, I love that I can use these experiences to teach them humility about their own knowledge.  I love my job!