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!
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