These past few months have been a whirlwind. In January, we held our first Saturday Academy which resulted in a request for more Saturday professional development. In February, I headed west to Portland, Oregon to present at AcceleratED and IntegratED - two conferences over three days put on by OETC. Right after that, I was off to Raleigh, NC for NCTIES - our state technology in education conference, and an ISTE affiliate. The energy there is always electric and this year there were over 4,000 in attendance! I did all of this while still managing the duties of my job as a Digital Teaching and Learning Specialist for New Hanover County Schools....oh yeah, and my other job as Mom. So needless to say, I've been a little busy. I've also been a bit reflective as I mentioned in my last post. I've been popping into this blog to make notes and start draft after draft, never having much time to flesh out the ideas. While perusing them today as most of the district is out for spring break, I came across this one I started back in April of 2017. It seemed like a good time to share it. Enjoy! April 28, 2017 Early each morning, after my alarm goes off and as my eyes are just beginning to focus, I put on my reading glasses and check Twitter. I read, retweet, share with the #NHCSchat community, and email myself so I can dig a little deeper into certain tweets later in the day....when my eyes are fully functional. This morning, one of those emailed tweets led me down a rabbit hole. Not uncommon. Never unwelcome - I often stumble across things that resonate. Today was one of those days. As I read the linked article, I thought about my "wake up" post its that were stuck to the wall above my desk. years ago by a precious child who used to love to come to work with me in the summer...even at 14, she still likes to do that. Might be the possibility that we can sneak out to the snowball stand down the street that entices her these days, though. This is my daily wake up call. This is my reminder of my WHY - students! Everything I do is to make the learning experiences of students better. If it is not for that purpose, it sends me into reflection mode. I am notorious for reminding those that I work with to not lose sight of WHY we do what we do with technology in this school district. We can not forget that what we do impacts the future. We need to make the right choices, not necessarily the easy ones. “When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake.”
― P.D. Ouspensky
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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