I have been offline, quite literally, for a few weeks.  It's been a combination of factors, mostly our big state testing, which means all of our devices are out of our hands and our rooms.  Track started, and The Happy Smackah event has been kicked off.

Many of you know what the Happy Smackah is.  It's the local fundraising event that was initially started to help Dan and me.  It's the local event that our friends help us keep going so we can pay back our gifts by giving back.

On Sunday,  Whitney Bryen, of The Longmont Times Call, did a story on our 4th recipient, Jill Woo Ching.  Jill is a true Happy Smackah, and her family has always given to our community.  It is such an honor to be able to help her and her family.  Our community is amazing, and the Times-Call has always supported us by featuring our recipients in respectful, honest and inspiring stories.  

One of my biggest "ahas" with incorporating technology in the classroom is that so much has changed, but so much has also remained the same.  Every day, I think of dozens of possibilities for refining instruction and improving the learning experience.  Ubiquity has been a keyword since we began talking about technology and education, and that word resonated with me from the get-go.  It was that big picture I've spoken about before, that highest ideal.  And, as I've said before, it is here.

That's what's different.  We are limited, as educators, quite literally, by our own imaginations.  I'm so excited to have an idea, think about it, and then incorporate it into a lesson and implement it immediately.  We are only limited by our imaginations.

But then, I guess, it's not just our imaginations that limit us.  It's fear, the unknown.  Yes, it's also the very real analysis of whether what we're doing matters, is right, is best practice.  Those things though are only time-limitations.  They're not actual limitations that will keep us from jumping in with our ideas. 

The biggest limitation is fear, whatever that looks like.  Control?  Chaos?  Change?

Eleanor Roosevelt advocated that we do one thing a day that frightens us (not a direct quote).  I have always admired her on so many levels, and I try to remind myself to get out of my comfort zone daily, but I don't always do that.  The thing is, most people think of fear in the most concrete of terms, like I do.  I'm afraid of heights, crowds, new-of late, doctors offices and hospitals.  

I guess like anyone else I'm also afraid of change.  Here's why I embrace this change with technology.  It's not a change in the idea of best practice.  It's the ideal of best practice.  

I think most teachers like control.  It's why we're good at what we do; we control a learning environment for precious learners.  The thing is, we all like a different kind of control (thank goodness).  I have always been a constructivist theorist, and so I have never wanted control over the learning modalities.  I have always sought to have students make meaning from the process of looking for a page to the process of writing choice.  

So, using technology excites me.  Beyond words.  My fears?  Well, beyond crowds and amusement park rides (so you can picture that going to Disney World would be my worst-case scenario vacation), I fear letting the "what-if" negatives outweigh the "what-if" big picture promises.

This is why I am so lucky to teach here.  Our district and community support moving forward into the now.  

On an entirely different subject.   Well, not an entirely different subject; this does have to do with our community here.  My husband and I were supported by this community here in St.Vrain three years ago, with love, compassion, and financial assistance, with the creation of the first ever "Happy Smackah."  We are so grateful to be able to be here, paying that love and support forward and onward.  Our Happy Smackah Fun Run is on for May 10th 2014.  Please visit:  http://www.happysmackah.com.  

And back to what is not changed with all the change technology has brought.  Here is a picture of the end of my day today.  At the end of class, I had about five students waiting to talk to me.  I thought they had questions about the lesson.  Two of them did.  The other three wanted me to look to see if they had the steps to the triple jump right.  Track started yesterday.  Today, they wanted to jump around my classroom to see if they had the right steps.  Later, a group of students found me to see if they could still help me with some schedules I was making.  We sat around my desk.  Talking, drawing on paper.  Another student approached asking about a book recommendation. 

Our heads are not so buried in our devices.  Their minds are challenged, but they're still needing to move, run, jump and read.  And they still want to help the teacher, because they are, after all, beings with heart.  

This will be a short one, but I wanted to talk about a few ahas.  I met with a parent today, and in the course of our conversation, she shared her initial trepidation about the 1:1 student: device ratio.  Her concerns were all natural intelligent and realistic.  She had such a great attitude; she said, that though she was concerned, she understood that technology is where we are, and this is what we do.  Yup.  Exactly.  I feel so lucky to be in a community that is so supportive.

More on our amazing community later.  I want to share a quick story.

During class yesterday, we were discussing the benefit of online quizzes and games for concepts like grammar.  I like to talk about "back in the olden days of teaching" (my hyperbole for having taught forever).  As I'm rambling on about how quickly students can get feedback with online quizzes, versus the old-time way, a student raised his hand and said, "So, really, the olden days of teaching were just a few months ago."  

Yup.  That's why this blog.  Holy cow what a few months of change means now.  I'm just so excited to be a teacher, now, more than ever.  

And, as you can see, our noses aren't buried in our technology.  We're talking, learning, growing together.  And that student who realized the exponential factor of the leap from the olden days till now, well.  Can't you just see how fun it is to be a teacher?

Up next:  I have not done a single thing I promised, so I'll just say that up next will be a topic that may or may not be connected to technology, teaching, community or love.