My #EduBroAwards #Winning Speech

Winner for Best Bald Head

When you win an award like this, you don't accept it in under 140 characters. 

First of all, I'd like to thank my Grandpa Pepsi, who passed away earlier this year. While he wasn't able to see me reach this gold standard in life, I know he's looking down on me with pride. Without him, I'd probably have hair.

To those who voted - how much time do you have on your hands??? Thanks! I couldn't have done it without you!

Finally, I'd like to thank the organizers, Nick "I'm Nerdy and I Know It" Provenzano and my favorite-North-Carolinian-who-has-ever-attended-EdCamp-Omaha-to-date, Tim "'Stache" Gwynn. 

In closing, viva la #edcampomaha y #nebedu!

An Open Letter to #nebedu

To those of you who use the #nebedu hashtag, I wanted to take a minute to say thanks. Last May, I put a blog post out begging for you to come forward and share all of the great things that you were doing in your schools. Other states had done it...Why not Nebraska? In talking with you at conferences like NETA, I knew many of you had great experiences to share and you knew others that had great experiences to share. In a little more than 6 months, #nebedu, along with #nebedchat (Wednesday nights at 8pm*, hat tip to lead instigator Chris Stogdill), are true testaments to the great educators across the state. In talking with my good friend Kristina last month, we were discussing our strengths and specialties as it relates to professional development. I couldn't really think of what mine was (being involved K-12 will do that to you). I finally settled on, "I know the right people to ask questions of!" That is all a testament to the great sharing that you all are doing.
As with any online interactions, they are greatly enhanced when you get to meet and interact face-to-face. I encourage you to mark your calendars for EdCamp Omaha on March 23, 2013. EdCamps are education un-conferences - no fancy keynotes, no corporate driven agendas, just you, sharing with other colleagues who are passionate about all areas of education. ALL attendees have the opportunity to facilitate a discussion on what THEY are passionate about - and its all free. Yes - free, choose your own, professional development. You can find out more about EdCamps on the "What is an EdCamp?" page of our wiki. Please consider joining us.
So, as we all get ready to hop in our cars or open our doors to relatives and share in a Thanksgiving feast, I give thanks to all of you for making education in Nebraska better.





*#nebedchat is taking a break this week and will return on Nov 28th talking about homework and moderated by Jodie Morgenson.

Sept NE PLC

Once a month I join in on a PLC via Google Hangouts. Feel free to watch live here or replay it when we're done! Today's topics may include bridging the technology gap among staff and iTunes U. Although we really don't even have a set schedule. So who knows.

IFTTT for #paplv

I realize I'm late to the IFTTT bus, but that's not uncommon. There are a couple buses that I've been late to. But hey, I'm glad they come back around every now and then.
IFTTT allows you to combine some of the online tools you use to create, essentially, an automatic workflow, hence the name: If This Then That. You create "recipes." For example, every time I tag one of my Instagram pics with #mykids, it automatically gets sent to Flickr, which is where we store all of our pics. But you can also browse other people's recipes: Now when I favorite a tweet, it sends it to Evernote, where I've been doing a lot more collecting. 
As our teachers come back to school, our superintendent, Dr. Black, has been talking about "sharing our story...the media, legislature and politicians aren't doing a good job of it." I've been touting Twitter more often and the use of a common #paplv hashtag. I've even set up a Tumblr site so that when a picture is taken in Instagram and tagged with #paplv (by anyone, I'm hoping - haven't had others try it out) it gets posted. Now, I've updated it so that it also includes tweets. Twitter is such an easy way to communicate the great things that are happening, this is just an easy way to have them all together in one spot. 
Why? Our teachers do great things. Amazing things. But we don't always know about it. Hopefully as they use Instagram and Twitter (and more recipes...Ideas?), their message gets out with little-to-no work on their part. I've also been thinking of more ways to use IFTTT in other areas of the school day - after school clubs, Facebook pages, etc. So many possibilities...what recipes are you using in IFTTT to help with your productivity? I'd love to share them with our staff!