Supercharge your Learning!

Re-posted from http://21stcenturyedleadership.com/supercharge-your-learning/

I just spent the day at our school district’s Google Summit. The energy was buzzing as new and veteran teachers, administrators, and district staff upped their skills with Google Certified trainers. Sitting in sessions next to my colleagues is always powerful. As we learned, we would sidebar about how this could be applied at our site and exchanged new ideas. I left the summit exhausted! Exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time. Never thought that was possible!

Our site, Woodbury Elementary, had about 15 people in attendance and as usual, we were there to learn and have fun doing so. Ideas were in abundance as we chatted from our sessions via Google Hangout and took notes in our shared Google Drive folder. Tweet Deck was downloaded by some and hashtags were followed (#EdTechTeam, #irvineusd). Whether we realized it or not, we became a small, yet powerful professional learning network.

We especially enjoyed the keynote speaker, Rushton Hurley. We laughed, we cried. Literally! He was that good. He reminded us to ask ourselves, “What’s special about our school?” He gave us a moment to turn and discuss our answer and from this, our Google Hangout exploded with ideas; my favorite being a “commercial” where students are asked this very question about our school. We can’t wait to get started! Other great takeaways from our Keynote Speaker, Rushton Hurley:

After the keynote and sessions on Google Forms, Google Classroom, Professional Learning Networks, and Social Media, our minds are blown and our learning has been recharged. It’s times like these that remind me how much fun it is to be a life-long learner, especially in the company of friends and colleagues. Professional Development is key and collaboration is key to successful professional developments. I am honored to be a part of Irvine Unified, where professional development is not only a top priority, it is high quality.