Exciting News to Share!

I am happy to share some exciting news with you! But first a few announcements.

Thank you to those who have stuck with my blog and supported my writing endeavors on this blog and the educational technology books that I have published. I have neglected my blog as I have been teaching online with a virtual learning school located in Massachusetts. That commitment is coming to an end. I appreciate everyone sticking around and visiting my blog when I have written a new post or presented at a face to face or virtual conference. I plan to continue to write blog posts and share resources that I believe will be valuable to educators.

Additionally, I still have some books on hand of each of my books that I have written and published. If you would like to order either the “Kid Detectives Classroom Gamification Learning Activities Mystery Adventure Quests” or “Transform theTeaching through Technology”, you can use contact form to order a copy. Each book is $7.99 and I can send you a PayPal invoice if you are interested in purchasing one of my books.

Recently, I received a huge compliment on Facebook from Ron Clark, Disney’s Teacher of the Year and whose teaching career experiences were made into a movie. He has been a huge role model since I first met him at TCEA many years ago when we were both much younger! I have read his books and have enjoyed hearing about events and accomplishments at his school, The Ron Clark Academy (RCA). RCA started a Club RCA for teachers to join (monthly fee) and participate in weekly webinars, training sessions, and conferences hosted by RCA.

I posted in a thread to the Club RCA FB page how when he hosted webinars each month from his school many years ago that I shared several resources for creating fake text messages, fake textbook pages, newspaper clippings, etc. Back then the tools were rather new and I learned about them from Chris Beigenho at TCEA. He created a very unique project for his students that was similar to a scavenger hunt, mysterious adventure, field trip, – complete with clues along with way as to where the students were going to travel in chaperoned and chauffeured vans. This is what gave me the idea to write about ‘adventure mystery quests’ and publish my first book.

In a recent Club RCA webinar, he was sharing the use of gamification in the classroom and how to create clues using several web tools to increase student engagement and excitement throughout a unit or project. Teachers ‘competed’ in teams to solve the very difficult and challenging clues Ron Clark set up and since it was summer teachers were up at all hours of the night responding to clues sent out through Instagram or text messages, etc.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, I shared this in a post and he responded to my post that we were ‘two peas in a pod!” Just hearing that I was thinking alike and approaching teaching and education similar to my role model was such a joy! That really encouraged me and thrilled me to no end to see his comment online. I had been going through a difficult time and my self-esteem and confidence was really boosted. Then I got word of some additional good news!

Now for more EXCITING news! I just started a full time remote learning teaching position with Edgenuity! My students will be located in Arizona and I will be teaching fifth grade – all subjects. Edgenuity works with school districts to provide virtual instructors and curriculum as well as for parents who are homeschooling their children. I really like the offerings and development of the curriculum courses for each grade level. The instruction is rigorous and thorough with high expectations for teacher productivity and student achievement. So far, I am enjoying my new virtual teaching position and will be sharing posts about my students and projects when time permits.

Thank you for reading the whole post of my exciting news announcements! Stay tuned for more posts and updates!