George Couros's Challenge

This is my first ever blog post, and I am scared to death.  To me, writing is personal, and putting it out on the web seems so permanent.  What I think today is likely to change by tomorrow, but today I put it in print, for the love of heaven!  So I am scared, just so you know.  But I am going to do it anyway because last Monday, George Couros issued me a challenge.  "If the only reason you are using the Internet is for research, you are missing the point," he said.  "If you want your school embracing these ideas, you have to model it," he said.  Okay fine, George, if you say so.  Here I go.

Last Monday was what we call "teacher day" -- it was the first day back to school for teachers, and students came back the next day.  We typically allow teachers a lot of time in their classrooms on this day, but this year we brought in a speaker--George Couros--to kick off our year.  I was nervous that people would be upset about losing that precious time in their classrooms and hesitant to hear the message, but I underestimated Couros's charisma!  And his message was pretty awesome, too.  By day's end, we had laughed and cried and learned, and a lot of people entered the world of Twitter.  We learned about the necessity to embrace technology as a powerful tool for learning, but we also heard that all learning grows from the foundation of positive relationships with students and with each other.

Seven days have passed since George's visit, and I am worried the message has started to fade.  There is always so much to do!  How can we tweet to the hashtag (#pccsk12 by the way) and greet students at the door each morning and prepare the lessons and grade the papers and fix supper and make it to the church meeting and, and, and...?  I do not have the answer to that.  Frankly, I am amazed at how much teachers get done every day of their lives with smiles and humor and grace.  The only thing I know to do is set a goal.  Each morning when I take my daughter to her classroom, I am going to greet students with a smile.  Once a day, I am going to tweet to the hashtag, and once a week, I am going to write this blog.  There, I said it.  In writing.  And I am still scared, but also motivated and excited.

I wonder which of George's messages stuck with others.  Are they greeting students at the door each day with a smile or hug or high five?  Are they developing a PLN on Twitter?  Have they used video to show what kids are learning?  My challenge to all of us is to just try something--start somewhere. Let's live out our theme for the year...Relate. Innovate. Create.  And as always, be brave.