Collaboration...Good for Teachers and for Students!

As a teacher I am always looking for ways to challenge myself and move out of my comfort zone. Over the course of the past 3 years I have become comfortable with technology in education and have found innovative ways to use it in my classroom. This past year I moved from elementary to middle school, and again found new and different ways to be innovative in the classroom with technology.

This past week a whole new set of challenges appeared as I spent time working with a great group of educators! I was asked to work with 4 other teachers to create a Coding At the Middle School curriculum. Yes, we were creating a computer coding curriculum that would be integrated into the 6th grade Keyboarding curriculum - the first in Loudoun County Public Schools.  I don't code, and I was very unfamiliar with Scratch, the coding program that would be introduced to the 6th graders, so I was hesitant when I was asked to be part of this curriculum team. I was very excited about the ideas and the possibility that our school could be at the forefront of an innovative technology experience, but what would be my role?

When I think about the experiences this week and the final product that we are producing, one word comes to mind....Collaboration! Too often teachers isolate themselves and feel alone in what they are doing. They are hesitant to step out of their comfort zone and try new ideas, or struggle to find like-minded educators to share in their successes, and help them with their ideas. Teachers need to be part of a team where each member has unique strengths, and a forward thinking attitude. That's what this week was...a group of educators with different strengths and the willingness to collaborate and rely on each others strengths to create this great final product for our students.  I knew it would be a positive experience because of the individuals involved, and the positive educational climate that had been created in our school building by our principal.

As we started this adventure to create our C.A.M.S. (Coding at the Middle School) curriculum, I wasn't sure where I fit in. My role had been defined as the 21st Century Learning Design expert. I had been trained on 21CLD as a Microsoft Expert Educator and was tasked with making sure that 21CLD would be fully integrated into this curriculum that we were developing, but again...I don't code.  Now, after spending a week, I can proudly say that I can do basic Scratch programming!

I was part of the team that would be creating the Curriculum Guide - a narrative explanation for the teacher - of what would be happening during the Scratch instruction, and the pedagogy behind it. The other educators worked on the technical aspect of creating the Scratch programs for the students to begin with, and creating the challenge activities and open ended projects that would end each programming module.

working on the guide...

Collaboration comes to mind again...adults collaborating for the students! We were creating the document, they were creating the coding programs. We shared, we asked questions and we challenged each other. We had valuable discussions about why something should happen, and the best way to implement it. We had "deep" discussions about assessment and reflective writing. We discussed 21st Century Learning Design, self regulation, and knowledge construction. We tried out different tools, decided on different formats all while keeping a sense of humor and enjoying each other's company. And I learned!

working on the Scratch programming...

I learned about coding, and about Scratch, but most importantly... I learned and was reminded what a great tool collaboration is for adults! To work with a group of people from different educational backgrounds ( a keyboarding teacher, a middle school technology teacher, a high school technology teacher - and Scratch expert, and 2 English teachers) with different ideas and different knowledge bases was a great experience.

Our week culminated with a Show and Tell of sorts, for the district supervisors. We were sharing what we had developed, that would be implemented this fall with our sixth grade students. The keyboarding teacher will be doing the instructing once school begins, but we will be behind the scenes to support her through this journey.  As this meeting closed, and the supervisors were asking questions and sharing their thoughts, again the idea of collaboration came up. They were impressed with what we had produced, and they could see the amount of collaboration that had gone on through the week.

We, as 21st century educators, provide opportunities for our students to collaborate in the classroom, but when was the last time that you truly collaborated with your peers on a meaningful project? I can say this week!

What makes your students happy? Do you know?

How often do we ask our students that question and truly listen to their answers? I spent the last week asking my 7th grade Accelerating Literacy English students what makes them happy and it was one of the best weeks of our school year.

We just finished our State Reading test and the feel of summer was in the air, but 5 weeks of school lay between us and the finish line. I needed to bring them back to the moment, while at the same time give them a bit of breathing space before we dove into our final instructional units of the school year….AND we needed to find some joy and happiness! 

We were also without the cart of laptop computers that they had grown accustomed to using throughout the school year. All of our available computers were being pulled for the standardized testing that was happening throughout the building. So, they were anxious, ready for summer and not interested in serious schoolwork. I needed to find a way to give them a brief period of joy!

I shared with the students that they were going to make a list of 100 things that made them happy. The looks on their faces definitely let me know that they weren’t expecting this. I actually had a student ask “Why?”  Why do I care what makes them happy? That comment got me thinking.

As a teacher, I want to know when these kids are happy and I want them to feel that they can share with me what brings them joy.  We started having a fun conversation about what brings us joy, and I shared my project - I had completed my own 100 Things that Makes Mrs. Rahn Happy at home, to share with my students. They laughed at some of my ideas, but then were surprised that they also agreed with some of them.

What makes me happy!

 And so they began - generating a list - spell checking it with a dictionary or with me - and then creating a visual word collage to share with the others.  As I wandered the room, I was able to connect with some of these kids as never before.

“Free Samples at Costco” - Yes! That makes me happy too.

“Painting my nails” - :)

“Eating dinner with my family”

“Getting new shoes”

“Peace and quiet”

Their lists also consisted of the predictable - best friends, restaurants,music, movies, colors, holidays and other standard 7th grade items, but what was really neat were the connections that they were making with each other, that were unpredictable and surprising. The 7th grade boys and girls were realizing that everyone was different, with different likes/dislikes, but they were also surprisingly similar in what they enjoyed.

They were appreciating what each  other was sharing, discovering unknowns about their peers and  they weren’t mocking or teasing. This idea of happiness prevented them from belittling anyone else’s ideas.

 

 

They took the list and turned it into a colorful, creative masterpiece that displayed their inner personalities. I asked if I could display these for others to see - and the answer was a resounding YES!  One student asked for me not to share, but upon completing her colorful poster and being very proud of her final product, she told me (with a grin on her face) that I could share if I really wanted to.

This quick, relaxing project opened my eyes to the fact that these middle school kids need opportunities in school to share their happiness and joy during the school day! They want to be asked!  

These kids are now refocused and ready to tackle the last 4 weeks of school with renewed energy and a desire to achieve.  Why? Because they had an opportunity to stop and share their happiness!

So….what makes YOU happy?

What I Brought Home From the Microsoft Global Forum

I've now been home a week from the Microsoft in Education Global Forum in Barcelona, Spain. I've been at a loss as to how to express what I gained from this adventure. I came home on an educational high and couldn't wait to share what I had experienced with my colleagues and friends. I was asked many times over the past week, "How was it?" "What did you learn?" "Who did you meet?" and I repeated the same general stories over and over, with the same adjectives...wonderful, neat, incredible, crazy (in a good way), and I knew inside that those words weren't enough to explain what I felt, but how do you explain this to those that weren't there? How do you share the adventure of collaboration and communication with educators from across the world? How do you express the feeling of being welcomed into a family of educators that you have never met before, but feel like you have known forever? I'm still at a loss, but while sorting through and trying to come back to reality here in Virginia, I realized that what I brought home can be explained through a picture!

Looking at the items in that picture brings me joy, laughter and many happy memories! The items are representative of all that I experienced while in Spain for 6 days!

Let's start here....

In November, I found out I would be one of 26 educators from the United States that would become part of the first class of Microsoft Expert Educators. I was so excited, and honored to be among the group that would travel to Barcelona, Spain in March to share our innovative and exciting projects with the world. It was a bit surreal for me, because I had recently left my 1:1 classroom and was starting from the ground up again with innovative technology in my new school and classroom. I was excited, but very nervous that I didn't fit in with these fantastic educators that I was meeting and talking with through Facebook and email. Many were familiar faces from my Microsoft adventure to the U.S. Regional Forum in 2011, but still...what I was doing did not compare to what these other U.S. teachers were accomplishing. I battled my inner demons and reached out, networked before we left and felt welcomed by all of them.  Sitting here now, I can again say THANK YOU Microsoft and the U.S. team for creating an avenue for teachers to share, network and collaborate at all different levels. The passion, dedication, enthusiasm and excitement is contagious and yes....Team U.S.A. is an incredible group of people that I feel honored to know and hope to continue to network with. I came home changed because of the energy level of these educators!

The Event....4 days of "Learning"

The badge was around my neck for every moment that I was being challenged to collaborate and communicate and create....the event guide book listed all of the incredible experiences that we would be involved in during the week...the award was the icing on the cake!

I had seen the agenda before we left and was excited about the keynote speakers, the sessions and especially the Learn-A-Thon. What had not really soaked in was the how global it would really be. I knew there were 260 Expert Educators and I was told that over 90 countries would be represented. I had looked at the Partners in Learning website and perused the list of other Expert Educators, but wow....

I got to be a student again for a portion of those 4 days. I got to sit and create projects with my peers. I got to share my work with international judges. I was able to learn about products that Microsoft is developing for schools and classrooms. I saw what was happening in education around the world and started thinking about what I wanted to bring back to my classroom. I was a student of the world for 4 days!!  

That experience of being in a learning situation with others from around the world is something that I wish I could adequately share with my colleagues at home. My Learn-A-Thon team consisted of teachers from South Africa, Switzerland, Portugal and Brazil. We were challenged by Microsoft to create a learning project involving technology that adressed the Millenium Development Goal of Poverty. The experience was amazing - the language barriers were adressed right away and through interpreters and Bing Translator, there no longer were any barriers. We worked for 8 hours...we laughed, we joked, we ate lots of Swiss Chocolate and we created a project that we were proud of; a project that focused on the students and the change that is necessary for our world to move ahead.  We shared our project in the required 8 minutes with the panel of judges and felt proud of our accomplishment. We did it!! 

Later that night we were recognized for our accomplishment with the award of Runner Up in the Poverty category. I was being recognized as part of an international teacher team for a collaborative learning project that crossed cultural and language barriers...on an international stage ....in Spain! I never would have thought that this could happen, and for that I also thank Microsoft and the worldwide education team!

 

The Global Connections

One part of the Global Forum event was the sharing of individual teacher projects. We set up booths, we displayed our work and our students work, we met with judges and we had the chance to see what the other 260 Expert Educators were sharing. The teacher exhibit hall was an amazing place...filled with knowledge, creativity and sharing! The energy level and the passion was overflowing. Many of the educators had items to pass out and share - the small representation of my "goody bag" of international "memories" is represented above. 

• the Frog hand puppet - handmade from Brazil and my Learn-A-Thon teacher partner, Gislaine
• the Zebra keychain - from South Africa and and my Learn-A-Thon teacher partner, Cheryl
• the "Offperts" business card - from United Kingdom and an amazing group of students that were sharing their ideas ad expertise with the world
• the Future Makers - from Egypt - an incredible converation with an incredible educator about the state of education for female students in her country and her quest to help them. She presented me with a blue hair band that her students had made, at the end of our conversation.

Those 4 items are a very small representation of what I came home with. The material items from around the world and the conversations with international educators is an experience that I will never forget!! I'll repeat again, thank you Microsoft for bringing all of these Expert Educators together for 4 days to share our stories, our achievements and our students!

And finally...Barcelona!

I have been to Europe before, but never to Barcelona and only very briefly to Spain. I was very lucky to be able to share this experience with my family, as they traveled with me and spent the week touring while I was participating in Forum activities. The weather was beautiful, the people were welcoming and it was a great week in a foreign country on an adventure of a lifetime!!

As I think back and look ahead .... I again, am so honored to be part of this group of educators and thankful that Microsoft continues to support education in a way that makes teachers feel treasured and respected. I look forward to more adventures in collaboration with my new "family," and sharing my experiences and my new knowledge with my peers and colleagues here in Loudoun County, Virginia!!

I'm proud to say....

Creating Reading and Writing Habits of Mind

Demonstrating Habits of Mind with Reading and Writing

     Building a classroom of readers and writers is a process that doesn’t magically happen. Helping students create lifelong reading and writing habits takes modeling and lots of discussion.  I’ve been working on this during the first semester in my 7^th grade English and Accelerating Literacy classes. It has been a process, and I’m proud of the successes that I am beginning to see with some of my struggling students.
     It was a chain of events that helped me to realize that one of my classes in particular wasn’t reading as much as I had hoped and could definitely be classified as “reluctant” when it comes to reading and writing. I had begun reading, Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller, and was intrigued by her explanation of reluctant vs. avid readers. I was doing daily Status of the Class checks and realizing that many of my students were not progressing through their books at a pace that I expected. In fact, some of them were reading 3-5 pages in a span of 3 days. I knew I needed to do something, but wasn’t sure how to approach the problem in a way that it could be fixed. I think the bigger questions was…could I fix it? Could I help these students to see that reading for pleasure was important and should become a habit, just like brushing your teeth or eating a meal?
     I decided to start with just a discussion. A discussion about reading and asking them why they aren’t reading outside of the classroom. I presented the discussion in a non-threatening way and the replies were honest and heartfelt. They didn’t like reading…they had no time…all of the books are boring…they couldn’t find a good book…their house was very noisy…they had too many chores and other homework. From those responses, we discussed the importance of reading and I shared how I read for pleasure; I shared my reading habits. I read before bed. I read while my daughters are at Dr./dentist appointments. I read A LOT on the weekend when I have more time. We talked about sneaking in reading time and finding the right place to read where you won’t be bothered.
     We then talked about books. Good books, bad books, boring books, interesting books. That discussion was full of life. They all had opinions and could share their favorite books. We talked about habits from when they were young. Did they read or were they read to as “youngsters?” Many shared happy memories of reading Dr. Seuss or Goodnight Moon. They all had a favorite book from their preschool time period.
       After books, we talked about plans. I asked them to create a plan. Where would they read? When would they read? For how long? On my VISION page, I asked them each to create an initial post defining who they are as a reader. My plan was/is to have them update that post every 4-6 weeks to chronicle their reading habits and notice any changes as the year progresses. Below are two posts from two students – the two comments are about 4 weeks apart.
—————————————————————

My reading life:

by ------------Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 1:27 PM

 To start off i only read books that have a movie with it.I am sometimes a reluctant reader but this year I have found myself picking up a book. I like to do all my school related things in my bed room so its nice and quite. My last book i have read was surviving the applewhites. My favorite book i have read well to be honest i dont really have a favorite book but my favorite genre is mystery of science fiction, I really will read any book in these genres.

 

Re: My reading life:

by -------- Thursday, January 2, 2014, 1:03 PM

 January- 2-2014

Now as I go back and I read what I wrote before I think most of that has changed. Im a brand new person. Before I got my ipad mini I just thought reading was overwelming and not quite fun. When I got my ipad mini from my family on christmas, I was SO super happy I have been wanting it for a long time. I saw how my friends had ibooks and how much fun I looked. Now that i have a ipad mini I find my self reading way more then I ever thought I would. I still read in my room i like it when it is quiet (with my door shut). I used to think that just picking up a book was just to annoying and I have found myself reading when I just dont have anything else to do. I would say im starting to change into an avid reader and I see it not just effecting how fast I am reading, but it is making me a better student and person. I honesty dont think I would be at this point in my life if it was not for Mrs.Rahn.
——————————

The type of reader I am

by ----------- Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 1:29 PM

 I am a reluctant reader I ussually only read at school. At home I always procastinate and make excuses not to read. The last book I read was Life as We Knew it its was a science fiction book thats is really good. My favorite book I ever read was last year in the sixth grade. Catching Fire was the name of the book it was a really good a suspenceful book with alot of fighting and gore, it even has a little drama.

 

Re: The type of reader I am

by -------- Thursday, January 2, 2014, 12:58 PM

 January/ Alot has changed sence I last wrote that paragraph. I have found a kmew way that helps me. All I have to do is find the right book I like, because if you dont like a book then why read it. My reading habbits have improoved alot. All I have to do to read at home is to start the book because once I do I cant stop. Also  i found an amazing book. its called this world we live in by susan pffefer its so suspencful its awsome. But I heard the next book in the series is relly good so you never now I might have a new favorite book.

——————————————————

     These are two successes, and not all of my students have showed that much growth over the past few months, but I think all of them are beginning to understand that reading is a habit that needs to be practiced and developed.

     In my Accelerating Literacy classes I have worked to create writing habits with my students also. We are doing daily writing exercises and honestly….in September the students HATED this. The process is that as soon as they get to class they each get their “MadMan Writing” journal. Titled this because their goal is to “write like a madman for about 5-10 minutes every day. Once they have their journal, they are to write non-stop for about 10 minutes about any topic that they want to. It is their journal and they can fill it twith their words on any topic they wish. It was a struggle to get many of these students to write for an extended period of time. I think they thought it would go away, and I’d try something different if they chose not to write. But…I didn’t. Madman Writing continued and I encouraged (sometimes very sternly) them to write about anything. They could write about what they ate for breakfast, how their game over the weekend went, why they are mad at their best friend, the movie that they want to see, what their favorite pop-star is singing…they JUST HAD TO WRITE!
     We have had many discussions about the importance of writing and being able to communicate through the written word. As we finished the second semester, I can honestly say that they have surrendered to our daily writing routine, and writing for 5-10 minutes has become a habit for them. Many of the students look forward to this time. They are not at a loss for ideas, as they were in September. They are able to fill 2-3 pages in their composition book in the 5-10 minute period. They are not scared of the paper anymore and enjoy putting their thoughts down. I have used this process in other classes when I taught elementary school, but wasn’t sure how it would go over in middle school. I persevered and convinced these 7^th graders that writing isn’t bad and actually…it’s sort of fun.
     One evening when I was on Twitter, I read a post about “Zero Drafting,” and it had a link attached to it. Upon clicking on the link, I found that my Madman Writing had a new name. We were doing Zero Drafting in my class. The next day I shared what I learned with the students and they agreed that Zero Drafting was fun and actually…not that bad!

Zero Drafting link: http://seanziebarth.com/2013/09/21/zero-drafting-falling-in-love-again-with-a-simple-pleasure-timed-writing/

     For something to become a habit, it has to be introduced…practiced…and understood. We are working on that in 7^th grade. Not all of my students are showing the same levels of success, but all of them are demonstrating growth. I am hoping that my students are beginning to see reading and writing as habits of mind that they will continue to foster and practice after they leave my classroom in June.

Hour of Code in a Language Arts class?

After hearing about Hour of Code - I decided to dedicate an hour with my 7th grade Reading/Writing class to explore...

They had a blast, and the range of emotions experienced by these kids was fantastic...they were excited, frustrated, challenged, surprised, determined....and not one of them gave up! All of my students finished and got the certificate to prove it!!

They offered help, accepted help and did not give up!!

 After completion they went to their Kidblog pages and reflected on the experience....you can view those blog posts here: Mrs. Rahn's Kidblog page

I think their words say it all:

    

        "I’ve just completed The Hour of Code. At first I enjoyed it and didn’t have to think much about what I was doing. It was very fun but then as I got to the end it got difficult and hard. It required lots of thinking and time. Finally I had finished. I had written 116 lines of code and finished all the 20 levels of code. I was amazed at myself, I thought I would’ve never finished, but I did. I got a certificate that said I had successfully completed “The Hour of Code."

        "My hour of code was very challenging but I got through it and beat the challenge. I exited out to fast so I did not see how many hour of codes I got. But I know I didn’t do so well until a friend showed me on 10/20 then after that I did all by myslef and I did great. I liked this activity today. I really do believe that computers are the next generation to life. They really are amazing, they have thousands and thousands of activites on the internet."

         "I thought The Hour of Code would be hard! No way, not with my smart brain! The Hour of Code was pretty hard, but admit it, it wasn’t that bad. It was fun and a good experience!" 

       "You can call me clutch because I  just finished the hour of code. It was not that hard, but it was a little challenging and frustrating, but I got through it and completed it. It was fun and thought provoking which I like. It also looked very simple to do, but it was harder than I thought it would have been. So just to say I completed it felt good. Soo you can call me clutch."

     "I wrote 109 lines of code, it was so much fun... kinda. At first i didn't want to do it because it sounded dumb and hard, but it was not that hard and really fun! I cant wait to do lines of code again! Have you ever done lines of code? I really want to do it again i loved it so much!!!"

"I loved the hour of code. It was really hard but I completed it with 154  lines. Some of them were harder than the others. If you did it how many lines did you get?I was suprised how hard it was. I thought it was going to be really easy but it was not. I really liked it. I hope I can do it again."

"Right before I posted this post, I did "an hour of code" or something, and programed a character to travel to the goal 20 TIMES IN A ROW! when I first started I was like "oh... well I'm gonna fail" then a while after I was like "you're kidding me, this is like playing a video game (I'm pretty good at video games)"

I teach English classes full of reading and writing activities - and today we explored computer programming and coding. The kids were reading, using higher level thinking skills, reflecting on their decisions, analyzing the next move, predicting what might happen, drawing conclusions, making inferences, determining cause and effect relationships....sounds like English class to me!

And then they reflected on the experience through writing - on their blogs - for an authentic audience!

Hour of Code in Mrs. Rahn's class. Higher order thinking skills...here we come! pic.twitter.com/vUdHnpZ59F
— Blue Ridge MS (@BRMSbulldogs) December 12, 2013

It was a great day in Mrs. Rahn's Classroom - developing 21st Century Skills! 

Talking About Books...In Person and Through a Screen

I truly didn't start to love reading until late elementary school, or possibly even middle school. It was around that time that I found YA literature and there was no turning back. The best part and the happiest memories were trading books with my friends and talking about them.

What surprised us, what we laughed about, what made us sad...Some of our teenage sleepovers actually included sitting around and reading books, trading them and talking about them.

As this school year began and I made the move to teaching 7th grade English, those middle school memories came rushing back. I soon realized that I was faced with the 21st century tween/teen. They were raised with screens - TV screens, computer screens, video game screens, cell phone screens and the book screens (Kindles/Nooks). The idea of sitting and reading a book was not at the top of the priority list for most of these students. These kids were abandoning books left and right...just not able to find a good book that would keep their interest.

And so we began our first book clubs of 7th grade. I introduced a pile of books that I had read over the summer - in preparation for the move to middle school - did book talks and did what I could to sell these kids on these books. I wanted them to read, but a selling point was that they would be able to "talk" about the book after with others that had also read it. That first round of book clubs went well, the kids enjoyed the books and the conversation afterwards.

They were looking forward to the next book clubs, and I was trying to figure out how to add to the experience for them.

I love technology and enjoy finding innovative ways to weave tech tools into classroom instruction. After a #litjourney twitterchat and some pondering about how to move book clubs into the 21st century, I decided to pursue online discussion forums for my students. I wanted to give them more opportunities to collaborate, communicate and create discussions around real books.

some screenshots of student discussions online...

I discussed the possibilities with our Technology Teacher at school and explored on my own. We use a Moodle based virtual classroom and discussion forums were available within the virtual platform. I created a discussion forum for each book that we were currently reading; shared with the students, and they were off and running! (Click on the picture above for a larger image)


One of my most resistant readers was one of the first to post in the discussion forum, and he did it from home! The kids were excited about this, and as I shared during the next class what was happening virtually, more students were interested and more posts were coming.

We are continuing to have our face-to-face book club meetings, but with this added feature, there is more discussion and the discussion about literature is happening at all hours of the day and night. I am receiving online posts from the breakfast table, at midnight on Friday night, Sunday morning, and throughout the afterschool evening hours.

The reactions from the students have been fun to watch. Some took to the excitement of talking about books through a computer right away, and wanted to try it out. Others had to be convinced.

As we continue to move students into the 21st century and help them create, collaborate and communicate - we need to provide opportunities for them to have meaningful discussions. I'm looking forward to more analytical book discussions, whether it be online or face-to face.

Motivating students to read, and giving them a variety of ways to share their reading is a facet of my classroom that I hope to see grow as the students grow in their exploration of literature and their communication skills!

Microsoft PIL Continues to make dreams come true!

 

Those that know me, know that teaching is one of my passions! I’ve been playing school and teaching since I was about 8 years old. I’ve taught 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grades. This year I made the jump to middle school and am teaching 7^th grade English. My passion for teaching is as strong now as that first year that I got hired – 24 years ago.

Three years ago, I was in the right place at the right time, and was able to embark on an adventure that changed my teaching life! Little did I know that the experience that I had would continue to change the way that I teach on a daily basis, and then provide me with another experience of a lifetime.

Microsoft Partners in Learning makes teachers feel important! The Microsoft Education group understands how to support teachers and provide the resources and morale building that keeps us going. In July, 2011 I was invited to be a participant in the Microsoft Partners in Learning U.S. Forum in Redmond, Washington. As stated earlier, the week that I spent at the Microsoft Headquarters changed my life. I met new people, networked with teachers from around the U.S. and formed connections with Microsoft Education executives. I returned feeling like I could conquer the teaching world, armed with new ideas of how to integrate technology into the classroom, and looking forward to continuing the relationships that I formed at the Forum. 

Fast forward three years…

I am definitely a changed teacher. I have challenged myself, set goals and achieved them, and found new dreams that I am reaching for. I have become an innovative teacher, a teacher always on the lookout for new technology tools and ways to integrate them into the classroom. Upon returning from Redmond in 2011, I set up a Twitter account and have continued to connect with many of the educators that I met in 2011, while also finding a whole new world of connected educators that can offer support and ideas.

I have remained in contact with the Microsoft Executives that I met, including Andrew Ko (GM of Microsoft Partners in Learning), and formed new relationships with local Microsoft Executives. I am continually amazed by the support of the Microsoft Corporation and their commitment to education. During the 2012-13 school year, I partnered with Microsoft and Dell and created a 1:1 computer classroom. In spring of 2013, my class was invited to the local Microsoft Store in Tysons Corner, VA for a field trip to share projects and experience firsthand some of the newest Microsoft technology. The Microsoft Store Staff went WAY above and beyond to make that day in May, a day that my fourth grade students would NEVER forget. Again, teaching and education is important to Microsoft!! 

Upon hearing that Microsoft Education was launching a new Expert Educator program, I was encouraged by those around me to apply to become a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE). I was excited to begin the application process, which involved a lot of self-reflecting and analysis of how I am a teacher that uses technology in innovative ways. Through that application process, I learned even more about myself and became even more excited about what I do in my classroom. I submitted the application with a project that I had done with my fourth grade students, unsure of the results, but knowing just from the application process I had again grown as an educator. 

About a week ago, I found out that I was selected as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert – class of 2014. I was shocked! 

The list of about 260 educators from around the world reads like the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. I am going to be one of 26 United States educators traveling to the Microsoft Global Forum in Barcelona, Spain in March of 2014. I am a member of “Team USA.” It’s still a little surreal, and hard to believe that someone thinks that I am one of the best.

I can’t believe that I am going to get another experience of a lifetime. Microsoft treats teachers like Rock Stars! (Here is the blog post that I did in 2011, upon returning from the 2011 Microsoft PIL Forum) I am so excited to be part of this great community that will come together in March to share ideas and learn about innovative technology.  It’s only been 7 days, but already I’m reconnecting with familiar faces from 2011, and meeting new ones. This global community is amazing, and I can’t wait to meet these people face to face in Barcelona.

I am so excited about this experience, and so proud to represent my school - Blue Ridge Middle School, my district - Loudoun County Public Schools and the state of Virginia on the Global stage in Barcelona, in March!

Thank you Microsoft Partners in Learning for caring about teachers, and providing opportunities to network and learn from educators around the world!!