Spring Reflections

Hey there! It’s been a while. What can I say…life comes at you fast, and you just have to roll with it. Despite experiencing several personal challenges, I’m happy to report that my professional experiences have been the highlight  of my journey.  It’s always nice to experience success at work.  Yet sometimes, the personal professional successes are what keep us motivated and moving forward.  I have had several in the last few weeks, and today I’m finally making time to reflect upon my experiences.

Let’s start in early March, when I delivered my first keynote address.  You read that right…it says KEYNOTE!! I know that to many it may seem a bit odd to celebrate something like that, but it has been a personal goal of mine since I made the decision to step out as an ed. tech. consultant.  And do you know what made it successful??  Well, in my opinion, it was the fact that even through that experience I still remained the same honest and transparent person that I am everyday. I didn’t speak to my audience about hypothetical solutions to the problems that we face as educators everyday. I spoke about my own personal experiences, both as an educator and as a parent.  I shared real examples of work my children have produced in response to the academic expectations that they have from school. I spoke from the heart about how leveraging technology has allowed my 9 year old son to take ownership of his learning. He even made a cameo during the presentation. We recorded an interview where he spoke candidly about how & why technology helps him as a learner.   It was a very humbling experience to say the least. I continue to be inspired by the reactions on twitter and the personal emails that were sent in response to my keynote session. I can only hope that I continue to to be an influence that positively impacts the classroom practices of educators everywhere.