When an Educator Steps Out Of Her Edubox

I always thought of myself as an openminded, growth mindset kinda educator. In the last year I've even challenged myself to look for ways to get out of my educational technology silo. Then entered this strange opportunity for me...the Alexa Conference. Just when I was patting myself on the back for being chosen to present at ASCD Empower18 (which I deemed way out of my comfort zone) in comes an opportunity outside of education all together- an opportunity to give an educator's perspective regarding the Voice First world. Think Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, etc- any voice user interface...Now think programmers, thought leaders, and even a representative from the Federal Trade Commission. Yep, that was my audience. I didn't feel so open minded. I felt out of my league.

As a rule, being a public speaker is no big deal to me because I am passionate about education and the impact instructional technology that is well integrated can have on the learning process. But, Thursday was different. I would not have even known about the Alexa Conference if it had not been in my own wonderful city, Chattanooga, Tennessee. I saw the Alexa Conference was coming to Chattanooga and reached out to it's promoter- Bradley Metrock. Not only did he invite me but he asked me to speak! And what a crazy awesome opportunity it was.

I walked into the event not knowing a soul but was welcomed warmly. The first speaker, Kevin Old, of Lifeway Tech started off and I'll be honest, my palms started to sweat and I kept hearing in my head "I'm in over my head, I'm in over my head." Because Kevin was speaking Greek to me. I'm not a programmer or even really a novice coder. Fortunately for me, the conversations went back and forth from technical to practical all day and I gleaned so much out of an industry I knew so little about.

And then it was my turn to speak. It's been YEARS since I've heard that nervous voice come out of my mouth during a presentation but boy I felt it! This wasn't my tribe, they were from all over the world and I didn't speak their language but they listened. And they questioned. And they were kind. And I realized at the end of the session that I had actual giving them food for thought. ME? A mere instructional technologist with big ideas for education. I knew I brought value to the conference when Brian Roemmele, a voice first expert tweeted about what I was sharing.

I'm still blown away by the thought leaders in that room and the discussions that were had. I'm blown away by the fact that they acknowledge that Voice First is just beginning to be impactful on our world but they see the future because some of them are already creating it in their garages.

What this conference did for me was to show me bigger pictures and potential. It also empowered me to reach outside of my educational technology world even more to be a part of the innovation that is to come. I can't wait to see what the future holds and I have a few ideas myself that I'm going to work through to see if they could lead to anything feasible.

Thank you to Bradley Metlock and the presenters and attendees of #AlexaConf for exposing me to "different" and allowing me to expose you to the wonderful world of educational needs. It was a great time and I can't wait to try some of the things I learned! And educators, if you ever have a chance to speak outside of your comfort zone...do it!

My presentation can be found here: http://bit.ly/VOICEFIRSTEDU

The Beauty of Ownership and Belonging: Elementary Tech Teams

For this school year our fourth and fifth graders have the opportunity to participate in elective Fridays that change each quarter. Each fourth and fifth grade teacher and out of classroom educators then decided what elective they would like to lead based on their passions. Options included things like drumming, woodworking, crocheting, volleyball, and creative writing. These elective opportunities gave me the possibility of having an elementary tech team. You can look here to see what was taught weekly to the students and you can look here to see the end results that the students created this last quarter. The main point of this blog goes beyond the great resources the students made for our school community and it's more about how it made them feel in the process.

About halfway through this quarter I received an email from the Georgia Educational Technology Conference that included a submission link to be a part of the student showcase at the GaETC conference November 2-4th. Because this group of educators really seemed to be taking ownership of this new "tech team" concept, I chose to apply. Meanwhile, every single week our students were learning how to be technology troubleshooters and they were being empowered to be "go to" people in their classrooms.

How exciting it was to learn that our students were chosen from a competitive group of applicants to be one of the 24 groups to share in the student showcase! The pressure was on to create good resources to share at this conference. Every week, the students would earn a new badge (in the form of a sticker) to show they had completed the needed steps in the process of becoming a certified tech team member.

On the last Friday of the quarter all the students received a tech team t-shirt and their final "certified tech team member" badge/sticker. Then on Wednesday of the next week, 8 of the 13 students got on a bus at 6:45am to travel from Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA to "present." The student showcase is set up in the main hallway of the convention center and any educator can stop, ask questions, and learn about what the students are sharing.


Right before our day started I sat all 8 of my students down and said, "you can sit behind this table and be bored all day or you can go out and ask people if they want to know about your tech team and get this most out of this day." Our team became little salespeople, pulling people over to learn more...I mean, who can say "no" to a cute 4th/5th grader? I was so proud of them all. I only wish all 13 could have attended!

These students that chose to be a part of the tech team because that is what they are interested in, got to take part an educational technology conference and that was an amazing experience for them. They learned first hand the beauty of educational collaboration and communication to best meet student needs. They asked lots of questions about why teachers would choose to come to the event. There are times as an educator you try new things and you think "it was good but I should have done a) or b) or maybe c)." And occasionally you try new things and it leaves a happy little warm fuzzy in your heart because you see students rise to the occasion and grow in so many different ways. That was what the tech team did for me. I'm thankful for the joy it brought and I believe it will always be seen as a highlight of my educational career.