Day 2, ISTE 2015. Jaded.  No, that’s not fair.  I am still amazed by this world, every turn there is something impressive and innovative.  There are poster sessions upon poster sessions of educators doing amazing things in their classrooms, excited about sharing their work.  There are playgrounds full of passionate people sharing their experiences that could look awesome in classrooms.  And then there is the Expo center I haven’t even made it to, filled with 4,500 industry representatives anxiously wanting to sell me something incredible for my school(s). All amazing and I am very thankful for these eye-opening experiences.  

However…

Reality check.  I am seeing possibilities but I’m wearied by the fact that I just left the classroom and see a major lacking component for these crazy (in a good way) innovative educational ideas to be successful in our classrooms: leadership.  As much as I would like to say teachers can make this happen, they can’t make the shift alone.  To be effective on a large scale, we need a trickle down effect.  The change has to be prescribed to our educational systems starting with state, administration, and then to the soldiers, our teachers in the trenches*.  Why prescribe?  If you’re sick, you are prescribed a remedy, a treatment to “fix” your ailment.  Our schools are sick.  They NEED the medicine, they have no choice.  Our kiddos need their classrooms to change with the times, challenge ALL of them in new ways.  We need our leaders to step up and administer the formula of enhancing the learning by transforming our classrooms to provide more personalized learning through student-centered, project based/real world experiences.  

*The buy-in from administration to teachers is another conversation. This HAS to be a combined effort of teacher leaders and admin…will post more on that later.)

My first blog post.

The beginning. Where do I start?  I sit here at ISTE Central on the first official day of the conference, off to the side, coffee in hand and soaking it in.  I am in full immersion of this world I was aware of existing but not a part of until recently.  Aside from my amazing team (rethinkredesign.org), the educators I have been exposed to these past couple of days have inspired me more than I thought possible.

I packed up my music and computer classrooms last week to begin my next adventure, instructional technology consulting.

My head had been stuck in the sand for the past nine years. I had tunnel vision.  I was a good teacher with successful programs and wonderful kids and fantastic experiences but my sight didn't go much past the next concert, the next unit, the end of the quarter.  Rather, my eyes were half open to the possibilities of education and have been snapped open and to my delight, wow.  What a world!  Passion, innovation, future, diversity, love, trust, excitement, kindness, and possibility.  One can not sit idly by without getting an itch to dig in and start working toward a common goal in this world when the door has been held wide open for them. 

I think back at my teaching nine years and question the missed opportunities but realize that I was doing everything I was taught/thought to do.  The stars have now aligned, given me opportunity and I'm taking it, head on.  I am going to my use my past half-open eyed experiences.  I will pass on as much information, excitement, awesomeness to the me's circa 2010, 2012, etc.  I'm going to light fires, question, LEARN, dive in.  Head first.  I'll come up for air eventually but for now I am strapping the tanks on and exploring the depths.  Stay tuned.