A Year of Reflection and New Beginnings

2013-14 has been a year of learning, growing, and leading with a myriad of new staff, new building, new students, and much more.  Add in the myriad of increasing technology resources, ever-changing technology tools, and numerous challenges that a 5 year old knows more than a teacher of 25 years of experience -welcome to my world.  Thankfully, I have a great foundation of returning knowledgeable teachers and staff, blessed with a supportive administrative team, and absolutely LOVE learning with my students and staff.  I stress the 4 letter word, because if you don't LOVE what you do - no matter what that may be, then in my opinion you most likely will not be successful or reach your maximum potential.   This blog will attempt to share with you another year of learning as an administrator of an elementary campus to integrate technology as a tool for helping students engage, succeed, and pardon the cliche, go where no other elementary has gone before.  This past year, our district implemented  a vision shared by our superintendent that technology should be an integral part of every child's education.  This was initiated by all administrators developing their own professional learning network (PLN).  I have been exposed to Smore, Prezi, Educreations, QR Codes, and on and on.  This is not unlike any other educator in the business of continuing to stay up to date with new advances in our profession.  Each month, I attended our administrative leadership team (ALT) and then in turn, shared what I learned at our monthly faculty meeting.  I modeled, I shared, and I followed up with staff.  In the end, in retrospect, I give our campus an A-.  Most of that is credit due to "effort".  I LOVE that our staff did their best this first year.  I LOVE that our students did make progress overall.  I LOVE that I learned right along with my staff and students.  We have a lot more to do and lot more to learn.  And, I LOVE that!  I look forward to sharing with you the 2014-15 year of step 2!