It’s about that time of the year when students and teachers head back to school to embark on a new adventure. Despite what seemed like an all too short summer break, I’m just about ready to head back. I like the routine of being in school and the excitement of a new school year.
I’m definitely not a teacher who slows down over the summer though. I’ve been hard at work! Here’s a glimpse of what my summer entailed:
I attended the annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference in Philadelphia for 5 days. I sit on the board of directors of MassCUE, the Massachusetts affiliate of ISTE, and represented the organization at the conference. It was a jam packed week of learning, collaborating, marketing, reuniting, and meeting folks in my PLN (personal learning network) that I had never met in person before!
In the spring, I was recruited by Knowledge@Wharton (part of the prestigious Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business) to write Personal Finance curriculum with a team of 3 other business educators from around the country over the summer. What an honor! It was exciting to be part of such a challenging endeavor. I even managed to complete my 20 lessons before the deadline 🙂
Locally, I attended a 2-day retreat with the board of directors of MassCUE. I took home some great new team building activities that I’ll be sharing with my students this year. I also represented MassCUE at the annual Executive Institite for the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. My goal there? To engage superintendents and talk about the importance of technology integration in education.
In Mansfield, I participated in 3 summer institutes! We integrated STEAM projects into existing courses and aligned them with various state subject standards and teacher evaluation standards. We revamped the Marketing curriculum at MHS. And I also worked with a great group of teachers sharing our favorite classroom technology tools.
And have I mentioned that my family is in the middle of building a new house and packing up our existing house? I’m typing among the boxes right now, ready for our eventual move to the new house mid-September. It’s fantastic and overwhelming . . . and maybe you’ll forgive me for being a little fatigued throughout the month of September!
Coming in the next posts – a look back at some of the things I never blogged about at the end of the school year. EdCamps, a STEM conference, being crowned the 2015 Massachusetts Business Teacher of the Year (well, there was no crown, but I did get a lovely plaque), and some other fun things that I’ve had up my sleeve.