#hiawathapride for iEngage

     This week, our district is having our first 2-day EdTech Conference to celebrate the learning that goes on in our classrooms every day.  It is called iEngage, and more details can be found here:
http://www.iengage-berwyn.com

     On the first day of the conference, teachers from other schools will have the opportunity to come into our classrooms and see learning in action.  To set up the day, we were told to make an iMovie trailer introducing our school to our guests.  I wanted to grab some ideas from the staff, but I was going to be out of the building for most of the day. I randomly sent the text message above to as many staff numbers as I had programmed into my phone.  Without any prompting the responses ranged from silly to serious.  They can be seen here, compiled into a Wordle.

     One of the text responses came from +Christina Betz.  She said "hot topics" because she thinks of Hiawatha as being pioneers in the new world of education and bettering our understanding of hot topics in education and technology.  Suddenly, the story board for the Hiawatha trailer was right in front of me! I took the words from our staff, and video clips of our staff and students in action, and created this trailer to represent us.

     OK, so I don't know about you, but I teared up just a bit when I watched that for the first time...

      I am so incredibly proud of the work our teachers and staff do every single day at Hiawatha.  For us to consider our job to be a place of opportunity and collaboration and family makes us so blessed, because education is filled with challenges right now.  Not everyone gets to feel like part of a team while doing what they love, and we get to do that while helping our students create the lives they deserve to have.

     To borrow a hashtag from +Christopher Lehman and The Ed Collab, pure #EduJoy for my #CelebrateMonday.  Thanks, Hiawatha, for letting me be a part of your family.