Passport to AWESOME

People I met in the passport office,
on the scavenger hunt, & two other places.

I went to "sleep" around 5 this morning. I actually slept for an hour and 45 minutes before I woke up again. My brain is rejecting the reality that I have to leave this wonderful place (not the AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center - although, it's lovely as you see). My brain and heart aren't done being surrounded by these amazing people. I know this blog was going to be SOLELY about teaching strategies and if you're an ADE you might be thinking, "Well, yes AND..." This has some strategy embedded in it AND so much of that is about this experience.


Last Sunday I received a passport upon arrival at the Apple Distinguished Educator Conference and the sticker collecting began. I decided to make a circle map from my stickers and it turned out to be one of the best things I did.

I wrote where I met people, significant things about them for example Kristen (@MrsWideen) and Kyle (@MathletePearce) are from Windsor and hilarious people. Kurt from Portland is in transition to move right now. I grouped who I sat with at meals and who was in my scavenger hunt group. I wrote email addresses and twitter handles and even collected all three Newfoundlanders. I had enough Canada pins for someone to start a conversation with, "Where in Canada are you from?"

Darrin in action

I met Clay from Green Bay who wrote a fantastic post about his experience on his blog, iPaddiction. Kris spent his lunch upleveling my limited skills in Motion that began with Darrin and Kerry late the night before. John and Tony literally taught me everything I know in Final Cut Pro X. I met my official buddy, Sean. Stephen was the only Aussie sticker I could collect and I had a wonderful dinner talking with Stephen, Dean, and Erin. Awesome conversations were had with my group, pro film production which included Jason, Daniel, Anthony, Peter, Kerry, and Logan. Warren, Logan, Peter, and Anthony helped me figure out what to do about sound recording in my classroom at lunch one day. April was the only other woman in my group and she has the same job I do which, up until this week, I didn't think was possible. I felt alone. I felt like no one else did what I did and no one else wanted to go where I wanted to go. I felt I was both pushing boundaries too much and way behind the rest of the "real" world. Jon and Steven introduced me to "geek chic." Carl (with a C - not to be confused with Karl with a K) took a bunch of us to experience really good Texas BBQ at Rudy's one day and he was a fabulous host showing people around the city.

The pages of my passport are not just filled with stickers, they are filled with people and memories. I am glad I decided to do what I did with my passport so that I can remember those people who are going where I want to go. I hope I see these wonderful people more than once per year.

These people are cool. Like so cool.

As far as the take home lesson goes, for your classroom, lessons and techniques are great things. Cultivate them. Grow a collection of resources for yourself. Just don't forget to fly over yourself as an educator and remember why you're really in this. Don't forget that even more important that cultivating those things is to cultivate a network of people who will support you, who you can turn to for help, who you can cry to in your most frustrating times, who will provide that much needed feedback. Like Clay from Green Bay, I wish every teacher could come here and be a rock star for a week. You can (as long as you do your video, submit your materials, and get selected)! If you want something now though, don't wait for someone else to create the experience. Connect with others. This post has the most links of any other post I've ever posted because of the connections I made this week to the people, not just the information.