Saying NO to Work

Coming off of Thanksgiving break has me wondering:

How often do we, as educators, truly take a break?

You see, even when there's no school/work, here's the dialogue that is usually going on in my brain:
"I need to reply to those emails. It would be nice to get ahead on that lesson planning! Oh yeah, and that new tool I wanted to try, this break would be a great time to do that. I can also work on my Google Certification and catch up on grading. And then there's that blog post I told [name] I would write, and that letter of recommendation for [name], and I want to decorate my classroom for the holiday season. And I haven't even gotten to my grad school papers & reading that need to be done, it would be nice to do those when I'm not focusing on school/work."

Honestly, even though I have been working on my work/life balance, I don't think I've taken a real break since last spring. I was busy teaching music, then I dove right into my summer school principal position, and halfway through that, started my new job as an ed tech specialist and jumped to full-time as soon as summer school was over. This Thanksgiving, I was really feeling the need to step away, yet guilt still threatened. It definitely took some discipline to just say NO!

"I need to reply to those emails. NO, they can wait till next week! It would be nice to get ahead on that lesson planning! NO! It would be nice, but it doesn't have to happen. Oh yeah, and that new tool I wanted to try, this break would be a great time to do that. NO! That can happen later. I can also work on my Google Certification and catch up on grading. NO! I don't need to cram all of it right now, and who is really checking grades over break anyway? Even if they are, it is perfectly legitimate to say that I was on break. And then there's that blog post I told [name] I would write, and that letter of recommendation for [name], and I want to decorate my classroom for the holiday season. NO! These can all happen when I go back to work. And I haven't even gotten to my grad school papers & reading that need to be done, it would be nice to do those when I'm not focusing on school/work. NO! You will have time to do that over the weekend, which is when you usually do grad school stuff, you don't need to do it now."

Here's the end of the story - after taking three days completely off, I am back to work today, mostly with grad school. I may not be particularly looking forward to it, but I'm feeling so refreshed! I might even dive into some of my other work today. In a perfect world, I wouldn't work at all over weekends, but I have plenty to do. Taking the time to really get away, though, has me in a much better place than I was previously, and I'm going to guess that my work will go more quickly and be of better quality than it would have if I had forced it over break!

Maybe there is something to learn from a two-year-old whose favorite word is NO! :-)

Going Digital with the BreakoutEDU Platform

BreakoutEDU has a new platform: 👍
You can now create digital games on their site: 👏

...but wait, how do you do that?

I'm not an expert, but I made a quick screencast to show what the new digital game creation tool looks like. You do need platform access to create games, but digital games are always free to play. 

Warning: The "game" I am creating is about the most boring game known to mankind. I think there is a lot of potential to be super creative with these games - play around and enjoy! And please share, I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Colorado Summit 2017: Takeaways

Nearly a week later, and I am finally getting the chance to sit down and blog about the Ed Tech Team Colorado Summit! I had an amazing time (complete with very little sleep!) - here are the three main themes that describe my weekend.

Connections

#sunchatbloggers buddies - @brianrozinsky & @historicalipad

More than anything else, this conference was about connecting with others for me! I had the pleasure of meeting several people that I have interacted with online, and it was so much fun to finally meet in real life. Being only the second ed tech conference I've ever attended, this is the first time I have really seen the breadth of my #PLN. I met so many friends of friends and it seemed like there were common connections everywhere! Last year, when attending this conference, I was just getting started on Twitter. This year, I met so many #eduheroes and realized the impact of being a globally connected educator!

Creativity

From the keynote speakers (@amyburvall & @jheil65) to the sessions (including sketchnoting by @sylviaduckworth), the innate creativity in all of us and the need for it in education was at the forefront of my takeaways from this conference. Even the winning demo slam was @sylviaduckworth rapping with Incredibox! As a music teacher, this fed my soul! It is always so affirming to hear the more creative subjects celebrated. But beyond that, I loved the way we talked about tying it all together - it is not about creating in isolation, but infusing that into everything we do as educators!

Leadership

I can't talk about this event without looking back to my #oneword2017, LEAD. Over the past year, I have slowly come to view myself as a leader in different ways. Starting with being the leader of my classroom, moving to leading a building in my summer admin job, and now being in a leadership position with educational technology in my district, I have been challenged to step up and grow. At the conference, I had a couple of interactions that challenged me to continue to think wider about my influence, as a leader in the greater educational technology community. I still feel like just one small voice in a chorus, but it's humbling to realize that some people may see me as a leader. I feel a sense of responsibility to be a positive voice, to be someone who is unafraid to push for change but who will do so in a way that always communicates love and respect for others. And I feel a renewed sense of purpose in being REAL (both online & in person), in being ME, and in sharing my story.

Thank you, everyone who helped make the weekend a success! What were your biggest takeaways from the Colorado Summit?

One Year Ago

One year ago, I went to my first ever educational technology conference.
One year ago, a friend asked me if I was presenting there.
One year ago, what my mind was screaming was, "NO WAY, there's no way I have enough expertise or anything to share at an ed tech conference like this!"
One year ago, what I said was, "No - I might present at a music conference sometime about how to incorporate technology into a music classroom; that's more where I see myself sharing."

This year, I am going to my second educational technology conference.
This year, I am presenting/co-presenting four sessions.
This year, I'm a bit nervous, but excited to share and learn with everyone who comes to my sessions.
This year, I am recruiting others to share & present too!

What's changed? I haven't become an expert in the past year. Sure, I've learned some things and grown, but it's not like "what I know" is drastically different.
What's changed? I see myself not just as a music teacher who is interested in tech, but as an ed tech leader.
What's changed? More than anything, it's my mindset and my willingness to share in this community of learners.
What's changed? I am growing in confidence as my #oneword of LEAD is really playing out in my life this year.

Here's to a great 2017 Colorado #edtechteam Summit!