Sunday, July 14, 2013

The Lone Nut and Moonshot Thinking: Lessons learned from #CUERockstar & #GAFEsummit


   
All week, I kept thinking that I needed to reflect on my experience at CUE Rockstar, a hands-on teacher tech camp that took place last week in Truckee. Such a gorgeous place! This is a picture of Donner Lake shot with  my Android phone on the evening of the last day.
I’ll never forget the Facebook message I sent Joe Wood after seeing his call for presenters on Twitter in February. “I don’t really think I'm a rockstar, but it seems like there just aren’t that many people out there doing tech with little kids.” Joe, like he always does, says “You’ll be great!” And so, I sent off my application and waited. I was very excited when I received the email that I’d been accepted. I went to school and encouraged my friends to sign up to attend. Three days of professional development for $149? In a vacation destination? Of course, they said yes. I was both nervous and excited about the opportunity to lead tech PD for CUE.
And then I saw this video. Trina Carter mentioned that she had seen it on the CUE Rockstar website. Watch it and then continue reading.

Trina told me, “Jen, you’re the shirtless guy! I’ll be your first follower!” Now I was really scared. I was going to have to raise my game for sure to be a Rockstar presenter. And I was even more scared when I saw the list of presenters. Kevin Brookhouser. John Stevens. Will Kimbley. Alice Chen. Diane Main. Ryan O’Donnell. Jeanne Feeney. Joe Wood. Tally Burkhart. Most, if not all, are Google Certified Teachers. REAL Rockstars. The kind you read about all the time on Twitter and in CUE Magazine. But, I am fearless to a fault, so I just got ready and crossed my fingers! Catlin Tucker said once, “It will either be fabulous or it will be over.” I adopted this as my mantra. I asked my daughter Hope, “What if no one comes to my sessions?” to which she replied, “Just go learn from someone else!” Smart girl. I WISH I could have attended the other sessions. There is so much to learn and there were so many amazing sessions. Long story short, I had a great time. My sessions were full and I discovered that it’s true what they say: the smartest person in the room is the ROOM. We all learned together and had a great time. We took a Rockstar hike. We danced. We ate ice cream. We tweeted. I loved hanging out with my Buckeye friends - Poppi, Trina, Connie, Kori, and Natasha! I can’t wait for next year!
But, in spite of what you might have heard about me, I’m not always the shirtless dancing guy leading people down a tech rabbit hole! Sometimes I’m that first follower. Take this weekend, for example! It was about 7:00 am. I was up early to let my new puppy out. She’s very cute, but she does not sleep in!
Since I was up, I decided to participate in the #satchatwc chat on Twitter, a chat moderated by Shelley Burgess that provides a weekly forum for West Coast educators to talk about current issues. As I was chatting, I started noticing the #GAFEsummit hashtag showing up on Twitter. It turns out there was another conference going on in the Bay Area- the Google Apps for Education Summit. There was no way I was going anywhere else, but I was able to follow the conference online by following the tweets! It was ALMOST like I was there. I sat there in my PJ’s and learned right along with the attendees. I so appreciate all of those educators who tweeted out tips and links during the 2 day conference. I learned how to email a video to my YouTube channel from any mobile device and how to add voice comments to a Google doc. I have two pages of notes just from following the Twitter conversation.
Sunday afternoon, someone tweeted out a link to the video from the keynote speaker. Moonshot Thinking. Check out the video and be inspired!

I think what I have realized most from these two different experiences is that we need the lone nuts- the dancing shirtless people willing to start a movement. We need moonshot thinkers who are willing to say out loud, “Let’s try this!” even if the outcome is uncertain. Sometimes I’m the lone nut, but I also want to be the first follower! When Kevin Brookhouser tweeted out today “Who’s following #GAFEsummit from afar?” I immediately tweeted back, “Me!” I’m so glad I did. Turns out he was looking for a remote correspondent to participate in his session via Google Hangout as he taught teachers how to do student broadcasts. I got to report about my experience following the conference via Twitter-- from my pool deck! I had no idea how it was going to go, but I fixed my hair and said yes. I am so thankful to know educators like Kevin who dream up something cool and just ask for someone to join. Here’s the YouTube video of our hangout. Good, messy fun. And I learned a lot. Next time, I’m presenting from my pool floaty!


So if you aren’t ready to be the shirtless dancing lone nut, I challenge you to be the first follower! When that lone nut asks you to dance, just say yes! After all, it will either be fabulous or it will be over!

12 comments:

  1. Woohoo! It was such an honor to be considered in the same sentence as you and the rest of the lone nuts! Realizing that we are all in the same boat has been a privilege that we certainly don't take for granted. Thank you for elevating the level of awesome!

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  2. Well said! Your new staff is so lucky to have you at the helm!

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  3. Back at you John! I was so happy to meet you in Truckee. Croquet rematch next year :) YOU are awesome.

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  4. Jeanne, it is my dream come true to work with you! We have many more adventures ahead!

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  5. What a great post! We were so lucky to have you at CUE Rock Star and for those of us who work at Natomas Charter are lucky to also have you as a colleague next year. Looking forward to having you join our crew of lone nuts.

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  6. Aww, thanks! I loved every minute of it! I am also excited for this year at NCS. *Whenever* you EVER get a vacation, after that I've got big dreams and you are in them! LOL

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  7. I had such an amazing time learning from you at CUE Rock Star Truckee in your Blogging session. You are passionate, creative, dedicated and determined to succeed. I will certainly be posting "Be Calm and Sparkle On" in my classroom this year. Thank you for taking the leap and responding to Joe's call for Rock Stars. You are one and I am proud to have learned from you! I'll be posting the links to my new class blogs on Twitter in about 1 month. I hope you will check them out!

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  8. Hey Jen! So great to get to meet you and work with you last week! Thanks again to your folks for hosting us, and I have to say, I am loving this font for comments, and that is SUCH a cute puppy!!! I wanna just squeeze it! Yeah, shiny things distracted me. Who's surprised?

    Before you start thinking that list of folks is some other kind of Rock Star that you aren't, remember, the Rock Stars are all those attendees who took three days out of their summer vacations to attend at-will PD. The real Rock Stars are the students who will be inspired by their teachers, who may have been inspired by us (and that includes YOU), but I think it is very safe to say we ALL learned from each other and from the folks attending our sessions. For example, I think I have met my song parody writing match in Rebecca Girard!

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  9. Hi Rebecca! Thanks for checking out the blog! I am so happy you enjoyed the blogging session! I can't wait to check out your class blogs this year!It was awesome learning with you! Post some of those parodies, too!

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  10. Hi Diane, Likewise, it was great to connect with you and your awesome kid! I hope he has a ton of secret missions this summer. Our puppy is so cute- she's a handful! Our little rescue dog Lola. You are so right- everyone attending that conference is a rockstar! I am still fired up by all of the energy and sharing. My daughter LOVED Rockstar. I want to go to one next summer as an attendee- I wish the Hornet wasn't sold out! See you in August!

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  11. Thanks for such an inspiring post. I hope you won't mind that I am going to adopt your "It will be fabulous or it will be over," mantra as my own. It was so great to meet you at Rock Star Tahoe and I look forward to connecting again soon. You are definitely a Rock Star. Don't let anyone tell you different!

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  12. Hi Nancy!
    When I heard Catlin Tucker say :it will be fabulous or it will be over" last Spring, it CHANGED MY LIFE. Such great words to live by. Will you be at CUE in Palm Springs? Can't wait to connect again!

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