What Tickles Your Mind?

"His ideas tickled ideas of my own"-David Warlick in reference to Stephen Heppell


I am always amazing when I attend conferences.  There are always the naysayers and the optimists.  Some folks seem to be bored or under impressed by the musing of others and some become inspired. I think it all boils down to who you were in college. I am not sure that I ever sat in a class where I didn't learn something.  On the plane ride home from the  21st Century Learning Conference, I thought about all the ways I could be inspired by the conference and then I started to write.  I have pages of notes that I am still going through over a week later. Here's what I now know . . .

• Really good bloggers are no different in person than the one they show you online.  I met Jabiz, Ann, Neil and David and realized they were just as insightful in real life as they are on my RSS feed.
• Old friendships can pick up exactly where they left off with Gary and Rob
• My new tech team for next year: David, Gary, Greg, Phil, Ruichira, and Stacy (from curriculum) shares a similar vision and hope for our school; we are going to be able to accomplished some amazing things together
• People have a great way of bring others together to make dreams happen, thank you Todd
• I met some great people from other schools and countries. I sincerely hope we don't lose touch: Sean and Chet
• Some schools are doing some really amazing things such as King George the Fifth (KGV) in Hong Kong.  They reintroduced me to the power of Moodle and shared their successes and failures in a 1:1.
• I still love Hong Kong.  It's beauty even despite the rain will always be so memorable.
• It is OK to ask others for help.  I am no longer afraid to go up to someone and ask them questions about something I want to learn
• I no longer feel like an outsider peeking in at the people I wanted to be, I am becoming one.  You can change who you want to be when you grow up, even when you are over 40.
• I still have so very much to learn and so many more connections to make, but that the ones I do have are invaluable.
• Lastly, I learned that we no longer need to say goodbye.  Educators are forming connected learning communities all around the world.  We are all connected and it continues to grow.

People don't always have something new to say, 
they don't always have an insightful moment,

but let your mind go and see where someone else's thoughts may lead you. 


Thank you everyone for another amazing opportunity to learn and grow.