Can It Get Better Than This?

Things are happening so fast here if I don't post now, I feel like I will never be able to capture how meaningful this has all been, and we are only 2 days in!  We arrived in D.C. on Saturday afternoon to a balmy 75 degrees.  We hitched the convenient Metro to the center of the city and started searching for the Willard Hotel.  I had no idea just how famous and cool this hotel would be.  It is literally 400 yards from the gates to the White House and the walls whisper with their history.  I can't even list all that has gone on here over the years, but the 2 things that jump out to me are that the term lobbyist was coined right here in the Willard and that MLK stayed here the night before his march on Washington and his "I have a dream" speech!  We feel a little spoiled and definitely out of place walking past the high tea every afternoon.

Within an hour of checking into the hotel, our doorbell (yes, I did say doorbell!) rang on our hotel room.  The first of many gifts arrived.  A bag of goodies from ING, one of our amazing sponsors.  An hour later, another ring and my Target bag arrived with my red target Teacher of the Year t-shirt, underneath the t-shirt the real surprises emerged: a D.C. tour book and a red canon camera to photograph our journey! 

We headed down to dinner and were able to briefly see a few teachers and their families, reconnecting with all the TOY's has been wonderful.  Soon after dinner though, John and I succumbed to the lack of sleep.  Sunday dawned early to Cordova weather in D.C., 45 and raining!  I had a video and audio filming to do for Pearson foundation at 11:15 and so John headed out after breakfast for his touring time.  The filming was for a Pearson sponsored program called Jumpstart's Read for the Record.  In October there will be a national reading event of a selected book to try and support early childhood literacy and they invited each state teacher to participate in the promotion.  We were recorded reading the book and promoting it with PSA's.  My peers told me how difficult the video portion was and that the book reading was a piece of cake.  Well, for me the book reading was a tongue twister and the video portion was not too bad at all.  I am not sure I ever want to watch myself - but I think that being able to support the program was an honor.

I was able to get rid of a little stress by taking a 5 mile run in the rain around the National Mall - quite a change in scenery from Cordova, but no less breathtaking!  After a quick turn around we boarded the Target buses meant just for us to head to the Newseum. 

John and I headed over a little early to tour the museum before our evening began at 5pm.  We all wore our red shirts so it was easy to pick out the teachers in the museum.  The museum was great, we didn't have quite enough time to explore, but I was very excited to see a piece of the Berlin Wall and moved by all the original Pulitzer Prize photos from the past 50 years.  At 5pm the museum closed and we had it to ourselves, just teachers and our guests.  They had originally planned for a roof-top picnic for us but in the downpour, they moved things inside.  They have the larges TV hanging in the lobby which doubles as a web cam and they lowered it to the floor for us and we were able to do a group shot in front of the capital!  Our photographer for the week is Bill Clinton's photographer during his term in the White House - I think we will get some good shots.   We then moved to the roof where they had an awesome dinner set up for us - very creative Target style.  We were able to mingle and socialize and smile and laugh.   I was most proud to have on a Target red shirt when I learned about their amazing support of education.  By 2015, they will hit 1 billion in donations toward education and are one of the top supporters of the NTOY program each year.  At about 7pm, we then boarded the buses for an evening wet bus tour of the monuments.   Even in the rain, the monuments are beautiful in the evening:

 Monday broke similar to Sunday, gloomy and cold with threats of rain.  All the southern TOY's are walking around shivering and I feel right at home.  We had a wonderful breakfast with live TV airing of our superior peer Rebecca from California being honored in Manhattan as the National Teacher of the Year.  She made us so proud with her first words and we know she will represent us well.  It made us thrilled at the idea of Tuesday morning at the White House.   We then were shocked as the University of Phoenix, who has just recently blessed us all with the gift of giving a scholarship away, graciously gave each one of us a Kindle Fire!  I am not even sure what to think of all of these gifts, I can't begin to say Thank You enough.

We headed over the Smithsonian Castle after breakfast and our guests headed to a day on their own.  We were dressed in suits and excited for our day.  We were broken into groups and my group was to visit the National Herbarium at the Natural History Museum and also learn about a Tree Banding Project.   We entered the museum and were immediately ushered into the backrooms to see the behind-the-scenes of the museum and get hands on!  I was blown away by the Herbarium - an almost archaic looking area with rows and rows of metal cabinets full of about 5 million pressed plant specimens from around the world.  When I first thought of museum I thought history, but what I learned was how much the specimens are beneficial to conservation work around the world.   I held my breath as I photographed the oldest plant specimen in the collection, from 1594!

We spent the next hour our so learning how the entire process works and how it continues to work.  We were wowed when we got to watch 3 women mounting brand new specimens, they were artists in motion and they are all volunteers.  We learned that one of the main reasons the Smithsonians are successful and completely free to the public is because of the volunteers which make-up 50% of the staff!  We headed outside for our last hour to learn about a fantastic citizen science project called the Tree Banding Project.  We were able to not only learn but take part by banding a tree for the project in the gardens of the museum.   We rejoined the other groups for a closing session and delicious lunch in the Castle.  We all shared what we had learned and how the amazing programs could be incorporated into curriculum.   We left with a different view of what a museum means and how learning, conservation and interactivity are really at the heart of the Smithsonians.

We actually didn't quite leave the Castle, we were swept and guided out:)  We were actually locked in by the Secret Service until each one of us could be checked and swept to head to the Vice Presidents house.  We were quite abuzz as we finally got to board the buses, but the buzz got a lot louder when we realized how fast we were going through town at rush hour on a Monday night.  It must have been the lights and sirens of the motorcade guiding our bus that did it:)  We were flying through red lights because we were running late to meet Dr. Jill Biden and that is not a good idea. 

We arrived at the Biden residence and all of us were blown away.  We entered the beautiful home and began photographing away.  The fires were lit in each room and food adorned the table.  Moments after we arrived Jill arrived in the foyer and spoke to us.   She has been an educator for 31 years and we felt not only connected to her but also that her words were extra special.  

 As soon as she finished she began mingling with us and then we each lined up to have a meet and greet with a quick photo opportunity (which I think will be emailed to us).  What a whirlwind that 30 seconds was, I think it was good practice for tomorrow morning.  I now know I need to practice:) 
After our 30 seconds we were able to take it all in by moving through the rooms, drinking tea, eating food and sharing our excitement with each other.  Many of us took the chance for a photo opportunity at different points in the house.  Here I am in front of the dining room fireplace!

  

We left after an hour and a half.  An hour and a half that will forever be imprinted in our lives.  My mind is swirling and I still can't believe I am here.  I am honored every day and so proud to represent Alaska.  I don't think any one of us is going to sleep much tonight as we await a lifelong dream come true, but I better go try...

An Amazing Gift

A week has passed since my trip to Fairbanks, and I am now sitting in Washington, D.C. getting this post written.  I was home for 3 days and barely had enough time to check in with my classes before leaving again for 10 days - phew!

Part of the incredible honor of being Teacher of the Year is getting the opportunity to give away a full tuition scholarship ($60,000) for the University of Phoenix to a person of our choice!  Back in November, when I first won the award, I had a conversation with the 2011 Teacher of the Year and she told me about FEA, Future Educators of Alaska.  FEA is modeled after the national Future Educators Association, which is operated by Phi Delta Kappa International.  In Alaska the effort focuses on inspiring Alaska Native youth to pursue careers in education.  FEA is unique in that it has culture-based activities from around the state.  Currently there are 60 clubs in the state representing over half of our school districts.  Last year the Teacher of the Year worked through FEA to give her scholarship away and encouraged me to do the same. 

I recognize the importance of growing more teachers from our state for our state and decided to work with FEA for my scholarship give away!   I worked with FEA starting in January to develop the scholarship application and have it sent out to all the advisors.  In March, the deadline arrived and I began reading applications.  I was invited to Fairbanks for the annual FEA gathering to give a keynote speech and to present the surprise scholarship winner. 

It was wonderful to see the gathering of diverse students from around the state.  Over 150 students attended with their coordinators and they were excited about there visit to Fairbanks.  My keynote speech was about 20 minutes long and despite a few technical difficulties (now speaker sound, no remote control access and having to sit in front of the computer) I think it was well received.  I was definitely more nervous keeping the attention of this audience than I was at the legislature!

The moment finally came at the end of my speech, in which I wasn't sure how I would get through the emotional feelings.  My teaching journey has been amazingly fulfilling allowing me to
interact and make an impression on thousands of students.  However, that day was one of the most rewarding days of my career.  I was giving the most amazing gift a teacher can give. The gift of education!  Good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher and I was moved as I read the candidates essays as her identity and integrity came shining through.  Her name is Isabella Booth and she is from the small town of Metlakatla, in southeast Alaska. 

Isabella was shocked and overwhelmed as I presented the award to her.  She is passionate about becoming a middle school special education teacher and working with Alaska Native youth in her future. 

It was thrilling to speak to a group of youth who are enthusiastic about education.  I shared with them my teaching story and I hope that as they listened they began to envision a positive passionate teaching story of your own!

Finding My Voice, Finding The Time

Well, I have learned a lot in the past two months since my return from Dallas.   First and foremost, being Teacher of the Year is quite a time commitment!  My lack of posts over the past month and a half have not been due to lack of things to say.  In fact, I have sat down many times to write and realized that I had pressing school work that needed doing the day before and I quickly let the blogging go to the wayside.  I think one of the problems is that on top of teaching 5 preps and six classes and having a lot of new commitments for Teacher of the Year, I have also been trying to find a job for next year and finish the renovations on our house so it can be sold!  So, here I am on a sunny Sunday afternoon, finally finding the time to share what has been going on since Dallas...

In February I attended the annual ASTE (Alaska Society for Technology in Education) conference again.  This time instead of being sponsored through my school however I was representing the Department of Education.   I had the wonderful honor yesterday of attending the first Leadership Summit as an invited guest. The summit was a new design for ASTE in which the leaders from schools around the state were invited to learn from each other and evaluate and discuss technology in our districts and our state, where we are and where we are going.  In addition to 25 superintendents from around the state (not bad since there are only 53 districts), there were also a variety of principals, tech directors, the Commissioner of Education, a representative from Senator Begich's office, the ISTE representative from D.C. and a multitude of amazing keynote speakers.   It reminded me a lot of our leadership meetings that we had in Dallas and so I felt more prepared for the conversations.  I was able to speak briefly in support of the Consortium for Digital Learning and my experience with the 1:1 laptop initiative.  This led into a most exciting portion of the day which was the transition to iPads and mobile devices for education.  A more sustainable initiative for our students in the future.  Since I was one of the first 30 registered guests for the conference I was given a brand new iPad 2 to take home!  Quite a surprise and what a gift.  We all used the iPads at our tables for awhile and were guided into the amazing opportunities for their use in the classroom.   I must say, I am excited and overwhelmed at learning to adapt to this new tool and explore how I can use it in my classroom with my students.  Of course this will take some time and I haven't had much of that lately.

ASTE continued with many inspiring keynote speakers and a successful presentation of my transformation to a more dynamic classroom using technology.  I had a full room and a lot of great questions.  I have pretty much done this similar presentation over the past few years, just adding to it as I have adapted my classroom.  I worry that it will get old, but each year there are more and more people attending and I have gotten great feedback.  I know next year will be a huge leap for me, changing curriculum completely and starting with a new technology framework in the classroom.

Returning from ASTE, I was swamped for what seemed like weeks.  It is always hard to get back in the groove after having a sub for a week!  Grading piles up and lessons need to be revisited and retaught sometimes.  I learned one lesson - never have the sub try and run labs while you are gone:)  It took me 2 weeks to find my Sea Biscuit from my Marine Biology lab - the specimen somehow up and jumped in a drawer and was found randomly by a student looking for scissors!  Sigh.

I immediately had to get down to business preparing for my trip to Juneau.  I was invited by AASB (The Association for Alaska School Boards) to attend their spring fly-in to the legislature.  It entails 4 days of meetings of school board members and some superintendents from around the state.  The first two days are all about professional development, listening to speakers, discussing education policy and brainstorming how to approach the legislature with a shared message.  The last two days are spent up at the capitol building having meetings and speaking on behalf of needed education funding.

I was fortunate enough to get to present on Saturday morning and also was graciously included in the rest of the sessions. I had a one hour and forty-five minute time slot on Saturday morning so I prepared about an hour presentation and hoped that we could go to lunch a little early:)  I created a visual presentation entitled "From Static To Dynamic Education Through Technology."  I filled the presentation not only with a lot of pictures but also videos, including one amazing one from one of my students that wowed the audience.  I had some great questions in the end and a lot of great feedback.  It was really a practice presentation for me - the true test was my Monday morning presentation in front of the House Education Committee at the Capitol.  I had to squish this presentation into 10 minutes max, a difficult task that took me hours.

I really enjoyed participating in the rest of the AASB conference, especially Sunday afternoon as we brainstormed what our needs were in our districts and for our students and how we could effectively share this message with our legislatures.  I felt honored to be included in the discussions and everyone made me feel so welcome and valued as a classroom teacher with a different perspective!  I shared that I think seeing and hearing the board members perspectives is quite valuable for a teacher and I hoped that they would continue with this type of inclusion in the future.  

Monday morning came fast, and it was my time to go to the Capitol and share my voice.  I was quite nervous, not knowing the protocols and worrying about the questioning portion.  I think it went pretty well overall, but there were definitely some tricky questions that I now know how to answer post-haste of course!  I am including the link to the archived video of the session here: http://gavelalaska.org/media/?media_id=HEDC120326A&type=leg as well as the actual power point presentation (in movie format) to view along with my speech:

After my speech I was able to visit with several Representatives and Senators with Pete Hoepfner our school board president.  This was a great experience and I felt quite comfortable speaking with confidence about the needs for education.  I was quite surprised with myself at how much I enjoyed lobbying!  Not a role I ever envisioned for myself, but like someone said, when you are truly passionate about something than advocating for it comes naturally.  After a crazy two hours of running between appointments and floors of the Capitol building we were briefly introduced on the House floor and then I was whisked away to the airport.  I wished at the time that I could have stayed longer, but I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me at home, just being away from school for one day.

Back home again, I am looking forward to my next task, picking a scholarship award winner and traveling to Fairbanks in 2 weeks.  I have a twenty minute presentation to prepare for students, quite a different audience than I have been speaking too.  Also, the day I leave for the trip I have a brief layover in Anchorage, during which I will interview for a job at King Career Center.  I am thrilled for the opportunity to teach in such a unique setting and in the Advanced Health Sciences curriculum.  A lot of do over the next few weeks and Washington is just around the corner as well.  It is all about finding the time!