Returning to Writing - Yay!

Greetings everyone!

After four incredible years teaching 8^th grade Language Arts in my own classroom, I am officially moving back to full time technology integration – thus fully dedicated to Making Teachers Nerdy.  Yay!  And though, yes, I do miss my own students, I am excited about writing again and exploring all the good things that go along with helping teachers move to seamless integration of technology into their classrooms.

What’s been happening the past four years?

Well, I’ve had the distinct honor of working with some of the most amazing students ever – okay, so I’m biased, but without a doubt, they took every crazy idea I pitched their direction and ran with it.  Plus, they spun the ideas to make them their own and ultimately, brought magic to the classroom – something that generally happens when students have the power to make decisions.  And the best part?  As a group we increased our nerd factors for each other and others. Bonus!

Just A Few Projects We Created

Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island – We created an anti-piracy website written by teens for teens called Le Arrgh (pirates say Arrgh, but French pirates might say Le Arrgh and they thought that sounded cool) inspired by a ten week in depth research project interviewing over sixteen different experts in the entertainment industry.  This project affirmed everything I believe in when it comes to global collaboration and taught me a few tricks along the way when it comes to partnering with large organizations.

Inspired by Elisa Carbone’s Stealing Freedom – We partnered with A Place of Hope International in Nigeria to investigate how the power of a good education can change the future of every child.  The students organized a community service project entitled Exchanging Hope for area teachers to donate old curriculum texts, posters, and manipulatives to help an orphanage start their own school.  This year long partnership built relationships that I will cherish I lifetime with my own students and the people of APOHA.  There is nothing more rewarding than seeing students feel empowered to leave a positive mark on the planet.

Inspired by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – We partnered with Arts Partners of Wichita and Madison High School in Portland, Oregon to explore digital storytelling with video game design.  We began the process of digital tours through some of the poignant scenes of Twain’s classic by building video games with the free version of Game Maker.  Although we were unable to finish the games due to time and other adventures, the experience was incredible.  A few students were even invited up to the Kansas Department of Education to present our project and to our Governor’s office to help celebrate the Digital Learning Day.  Golly, I am still beaming with pride on their presentations that day.

Big News in 2013

I was selected as the 2013 Kansas Teacher of the Year, which has been life changing and rewarding all at the same time.  I have traveled several thousand miles across the state speaking with both preservice and inservice teachers on the power of global collaboration, project based learning, and effective technology integration.   Yep, I’ve taken Making Teachers Nerdy on the road and loved every bit of the journey.  Hey, I even had the opportunity to meet President Obama and attend International Space Camp with the other State Teachers of the Year.  Those were good days for

certain.

I’ll pass on the torch to the 2014 Kansas Teacher of the Year in November, but until then, I’m still going strong and trying to increase nerd factors for as many teachers in my state as I can.

What to Expect from the Blog in the Future

I’m sharing the writing with some of my other nerdy teacher trainer colleagues.  Yes, there’s an awesome network of us that collaborate together.  We are hoping to inspire as many teachers as we can with ideas, so keep an eye out for us.  We look forward it!