Maximizing Google Apps for Education Archives

It has been too many weeks since I have created on this space. I have thought about it everyday and miss writing and sharing. The school year is off and in full gear, which also means my daughters lives have also become equally as busy and also means I fall alseep on the couch about a half hour into my favorite TV show every night at about 9 o’clock. BUT just because I haven’t been here doesn’t mean I haven’t been creating (you don’t actually think I could go a single day with out creating or writing something?) For weeks…yes weeks… I have spent my evenings (when I am not falling asleep) and weekends working on my newest conference presentations. The first one I finished was one that I have had an idea for since last spring. I was an idea that I worried would not be special enough, innovative enough or meaningful enough to other educators. I worried it was not worthy enough to share. Well, last Friday I had an opportunity to take a deep breath, a chance to keep stepping out of my comfort zone and I decided it was time to shared my ideas.

Last Friday marked the day…the official day. It marked the day I stood in front of other educators and shared with them that I am a hacker and I decided to teach them how to be hackers too!!!

I know. I know. When you think of hackers you think of something like this

but I am talking about EduHacking (a totally and official and very technical term I completely made up). I taught and shared at two sessions at Quest Academy Mini-Con. It was a small conference with intimate sessions. There were no crowded rooms, no hashtags and crazy streams of tweets about sessions… it was me and my session’s educators. I spent the morning sharing and teaching them about Hacking Google Apps. I shared with them how to stop thinking about what Google Apps for Education are developed/made to do and how to start thinking about the individual and unique things each app can to, how to connect that with students individual strengths and weaknesses and use those tools to enhance student learning and their teaching. It was an amazing morning!

By the time I left their school and could not help but smile as I drove home. They were exactly what I needed. They welcoming. They listened. They questioned. They learned. They reminded me…They reminded me of something I had not remembered or owned for a long time. This group of educators filled me up. They had welcomed me. They had welcomed my ideas. They had soaked up my passion and shared theirs with me. They left me filled with a confidence. It was a confidence that reminded me how deeply I love the incredible things technology can do for students, how much I really love learning and how deeply passionate I am about teaching not just my students but others too.

Here is a SNEAK PEAK at my Hacking Google Apps presentation. It is an interactive and clickable presentation packed full of resources for a variety of EduHacker abilities and there will be more to come soon…I promise!