My 2^nd year educon reflection starts with my thought of how education has truly evolved!  Here I was last January 2010 paying my admission fee for my first ever educon experience per Bill Brannick and signing up for this “twitter” account not really sure of what in the h e double hockey stick I was getting in to!  Let’s just say as far as my first ever weekend spent at the Science Leadership Academy via educon I’m not sure when my jaw was lifted back up from the floor in my amazement, but the twitter thing eh, not so much!  I could describe myself to the shy kid in the room last year at SLA, not sure when to contribute with the fear of being laughed at or eyes rolling!  When all was said and done and my last session complete that last Sunday in January 2010 I couldn’t wait to go back!  Where would I use all of this new ideas and information? How would I connect my fellow faculty and administration members to this wonderful “conversation” I had just experienced? All the future possibilities that could come from it seemed endless! Where to begin was the question!  I remember sharing with one of my administrators who seemed thrilled that I would go out and sign up on my own time and tab for such a thing but did he follow up…?  Did he seem proud?  I can answer yes to the nod with a smile of affirmation but no to any follow up and was that my fault or his?

It’s amazing to reflect upon this great experience with the age-old Venn diagram model in my mind amongst the first educon experience of 2010 compared to the second 2.3 in 2011.  What’s in the middle of this Venn diagram you ask that can be considered the similarities, well that’s easy.  Similarities include the incredible educators who share the same passion, web 2.0 tools for dummies, innovation, SLA, the coolest HS students around, and lastly the simple fact of connecting!   I’m sure this list could go on but I would like to keep this short, as one more parallel from my list above is definitely the exhaustion you feel by the end of educon, healthy exhaustion Of course!

The opposite circles when comparing 2010 educon to 2011 include the new faces, Canadians:), more confidence, risk taking, ability to share more, more fun (is that possible!?)  and my new obsession with twitter!  All of these examples I just listed are in the 2011 circle of course! Last and my first educon would have include fear, general conversation, I get to be a city girl for the weekend (YAY!), twitter #newbie, and the word astonished!  I was still impressed and wowed this year but in a different aspect!  I now wonder if I am making sense as I listed that healthy exhaustion earlier, but one thing I do know for sure, I grew just a little bit or a whole lot more in my path to continue my title as a “life long learner”!  As I end this blog which I hope has expressed my enthusiasm and passion in this journey in education my PLN makes me want to be better!;) Sharing this passion w @coachb0066 is a joy and as he has always and obviously will continue to make me want to me better how bout I got my PLN on this journey too!  As the saying goes, “how bout them apples!?”. Thanks #PLN! Thanks #Educon! Thanks #SLA! Thanks Chris Lehmann! One more shout out especially since I was a little mushy with her last night at the Field House thanks Shannon Miller! I’m really enjoying this ride!  What’s next?

PS: Did I mention I went from 163 followers on twitter to over 200 in three days?. pretty cool to me at least!:)

I finally have found the opportunity to compose my first ever blog since my college years at Temple University.  Just a little background to start; I graduated in January 2005 with my degree in Elementary/Early Childhood Ed.  Looking back now 6 years… wow what a road it has been!  I graduated with the class of 2000 from a pretty unique larger scaled school district that I now teach in!  The school district that consists of about 12,000 students with 67 different languages give or take has received the accolades from many. I left my high school with an NBC scholarship pursuing a career in Broadcasting with honest hopes to be the next Oprah or Katie Couric.;)  I finished my freshman year with a sour taste in my mouth unsure if this was the path I wanted to follow always having education and the classic “love for kids” in the back of my mind.  I did an internship at a local radio station and than local news station and decided by my sophomore year I would switch majors.  I’m sure working as a nanny and at a daycare center at the time may have helped in this decision!  My main deal breaker in my young 20 year old brain was the question of money or happiness.  I went with what I believed in my heart #2! 

I look back on this decision and where not only I am now, but also where our world is now as far as education and technology and I am amazed!  I left my high school where I made my mark with the VHS version of my senior yearbook video I helped produce and where my Technology teacher warned me that this was just the beginning for the class of the millennium. He posed that what I would be experiencing in my years at Temple and down the road would be far above and beyond anything we ever could imagine; hence, technology is moving at a great speed so keep up and enjoy the ride!;)

Getting back to the start of my teaching career where I had the classic “your first year is your hardest” I think today man, I could have used a PLN! Man, I could have used Twitter!  I was teaching third grade at a parochial school with the resources of only a small faculty which consisted of mostly new teachers and of course my student teaching experience.  I went on to sub in a public district for 3 years after an extremely tough first year in a Catholic school trying to keep confidence in myself as well as the belief that teaching was my true passion no matter what anyone said and no matter what happened.  I struggled as many of the elementary teachers do to find a secure position that came with a contract and finally landed a job in a place I thought I could NEVER be… the middle school!  I thought there was no way I would enjoy teaching any student above grade 3 and even had many people telling me “you are such a first grade teacher. You are so great with the “lil” ones!”  I have proven to anyone who has said that including me wrong because I absolutely ADORE teaching middle school and can honestly say I connect with my students day in and day out!  With this connection comes my PLN that I turn to when needing assistance, guidance, materials or just plain support!  It has and will continue to get me through and keeps me feeling as I hope my students will continue to be…. “Life long learners”!   I have many people to thank for where I am now and I would not take back any of my experiences leading up to this point because it truly made me who I am now and where I stand at this moment in this tough in the same breath rewarding job we have as educators.

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