Hi Everyone!
Hope that you are all happy and healthy! I was fortunate enough to have attended the National Teacher of the Year Program Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona! It was the most profound, powerful, and most stimulating professional experience of my life! The prevalent themes of the conference were teaching, leading, learning: profession, action, and future! Albeit nearly impossible to summarize and describe the intensity of the week, here is a brief synopsis of the proceedings!
We began with a wonderful welcome dinner that offered the opportunity to relax after a long day of travel, and to meet and converse with our new family of educators!
The first full day consisted of SMART Technologies Training, which afforded us the opportunity to learn about the state of the art SMART boards that we will receive! The technology is truly amazing, and as is true of so many technological advances, the world is at our fingertips!!! That evening we heard an incredibly inspirational welcome message from Mary Beth Blegen, 1996 National Teacher of the Year. Jon Quam, the program director, and our fearless leader described Mary Beth as "a force of nature," and man was he ever correct!!! Thank you Mary Beth! Later that evening we broke out into our homeroom groups and tackled the question, why am I here? What incredible and thought provoking conversation!!!
On the next day, Jon Quam set the tone for what lies ahead of us for this year and beyond! Our potential to teach, lead, and learn is limitless, and we began to explore options for whatever path we may choose. We then heard from Chris Minnick, Executive Director of the CCSSO about the Sate of the States, and from Janice Poda, Strategic Initiative Director, Education Workforce, CCSSO. After lunch, Scott Palmer from the Education Council spoke to us about how the federal and national pictures are changing! Next we heard about Opportunities Abound! We were addressed by Dan Oates from the U.S. Space and Rocket Center/Space Camp, Katherine Bassett, 2010 New Jersey TOY and Executive Director and CEO of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, and finally from our beloved Jon Quam about the next steps! Where do we go from here? That remains to be seen, but as Jon said so many time throughout the conference, "the work continues!" Yes, everyone, that was all in one day!!! Are your brains on overload yet?
The theme of day three was transforming the profession; taking action through advocacy! Presenters included Dan Cruce, Vice President, Education, Hope Street Group, Wendy Uptain, Senior Deputy Director, Teacher Engagement, Hope Street Group, and Katherine Bassett. We were all given the task of putting ourselves in the mind set of a teacher, principal, superintendent, board of education member, and legislator while we engaged in creating new policy and advocating for its implementation. Wow!!!
The last day was devoted to media and social networking; Facebook, twitter, blogging, youtube, etc. We focused on what our message would be, how clearly and succinctly we could deliver the message, and what avenues we could use to get it out there! Our concluding dinner honored our four amazing colleagues that were chosen as National Finalists! Congratulations to Melissa, Dorina, Sean, and Ryan!!! You represent us all with great pride, dignity, and honor! We heard from the dynamic Jeff Charbonneau, the 2013 NTOY. The icing on the cake was a tribute to Jon Quam's 25th anniversary as program director! Jon is a truly remarkable man in every regard, and in a very short period of time has touched our lives beyond what we can imagine! There were many remarks and tributes by many NTOY, and they were all heart-felt and inspirational! God bless you during your next 25 years and always Jon!!! You are a treasure to us all!
Now it's home and back to reality! My life has been changed forever, I have a dear new family, and more than ever I feel humbled and truly blessed!!!
