I’ve
been blessed beyond measure with the best job in the world; when you enjoy what
you do it is not even like working. I
love the school environment (mostly because I had a great high school career),
I enjoy working with and helping colleagues who have the same shared vision and
desire to reach technological mountaintop accomplishments. After twenty years of being an educator… I
truly love the kids. I do enjoy working
with teachers, but it is sometimes a roller coaster ride; most of my professional
development trainings are successful. Teaching
teachers can be tricky. The group you
present to often “know all the answers” or “ know little nor care about the
topic” and rarely like to “not talk” while you talk. Some want a step-by-step guide and some just
want the direction in which to go. At
any rate, I still like it a lot! Really,
almost all of my pd’s have been good.
What happened last year and this
year will be forever be an enduring part of my career. I worked extensively with two of our elementary
schools and helped teachers and students implement educational technology into
the classroom. 2nd graders,
4th graders and 5th graders worked on : Edmodo, iPad apps, PhotoStory 3, Glogster,
Discovery Education, Storybird, Animoto and lots more. It all went great using the tools; the
younger kids are very intuitive as it relates to embedding educational
technology. I was very pleased with the
efforts of the teachers to allow me to work with them, but I did not expect
what would happen next. After working
with the kids a few times, they started to like me and became excited to see me
when I came back. One of the students
didn’t really know my name and called me Missssttter??? and then said Sir. From that it stuck and all the students started
calling me Mr. Sir in a kind and caring manner.
I would walk into the class a few days later and as soon as I walked
into the room, sounds of Mr. Sir, Mr. Sir echoed. I shared with them about the movie Holes and
that Mr. Sir was in the movie and the book and he was one tough dude. I felt like a real “Rock Star” every time I
saw them. School ended and I assumed the
5th graders would have a fun summer, start the junior high and
forget all about me. Hmmmm not the case.
Watch Mr. Sir - Skip to 25 seconds for the best story ever.
I was asked to help one of the
junior high teachers work on a dropbox project
just a weeks ago in her classroom. I
quietly walked into the rather large class and you guessed it, there were
shouts of “Mr. Sir” echoing throughout the rather large classroom. The teacher was a bit bewildered and
astonished with my “Rock Star” entrance.
Most of you know me and know my head swelled two hat sizes on that day. I felt pretty special. Those of you who know me know that I am
really not all that special; my mom and sisters think I am but to most of the
world I am just another guy. So what is
the point to all of this jibberish? I
BELIEVE the opportunities the teachers provided last year helped the students
to become more engaged. They were
allowed to work in an environment where “rigorous and fun” learning
ensued. The teachers I worked with were
a bit apprehensive in the beginning last year, but I don’t believe any of them
would change their instruction this year.
The only real problem is that the teachers I worked with are so
confident in their abilities; they really no longer need me. Remember you may not have to do a lot of
technology, but you gotta do something.
