ISTE 2015

One of my favorite things is when I discover a book, movie, or song that has existed for years, but I was unaware of it until the exact moment I needed it.  I remember the first time I heard Laura Story's song Blessings.  I cried.  I couldn't believe I had never heard her sing before that moment.  On a recent long car trip, I heard that song again several times.  During the school year I forget how driving long distances can provide great opportunities for reflection.  Listening to her song multiple times helped me see why having the chance to attend ISTE this year had blessed me more than I could adequately describe.

Those who know me well know that I have a big heart and that I have faced many challenges in my life, especially in recent years.  At times I have wondered when circumstances would improve.  I recently heard my pastor preach a sermon which left me with this thought, "If we had all the answers to our questions, we would have no reason to talk to each other.  We would have no reason to seek the truth." 

In the midst of recent challenges in teaching, I have discovered tremendous support and encouragement from an unlikely place.  This time last summer I would never have believed that my iPad could be the door to countless educators who were experiencing so many of the same challenges and frustrations.  Beyond the four walls of my classroom there were more teachers than I could imagine who felt the same way I did.  These educators wanted better for their students.  These educators wanted school to be fun for their students.  These educators wanted learning to be meaningful and life changing for every one of their students.  These educators knew this would require a whole new way of lesson planning. 

I knew that attending the ISTE conference in Philadelphia would give me an opportunity to connect in person with so many of these people who had been my cheering section during the school year.  Because of the generosity of my school's Dads' Club and my class parents, I was going to have the opportunity to go.  I knew the ISTE schedule would be overwhelming at times.  Having the opportunity to meet with teachers I had been communicating with all year through Twitter made my travel nerves and getting up at 4am more than worth it.  Like a new first grader on the first day of school staring at the door to my new classroom,  I stood at ISTE Central  unsure of where to begin.

Then my phone rang.  It was my friend Stacey.  Even though we had never met, we had tweeted more times than either of us could number.  When Stacey found me it was like reconnecting with an old friend.  We decided to head across the street for lunch at Reading Market.  We had a delicious, worthy of Thanksgiving Day, turkey lunch and then headed back to the Convention Center.  While Stacey and I were sitting in the auditorium waiting for the first keynote speaker to begin, the first of many unexpected miracles happened.  Just as Stacey and I were discussing who of our Breakfast Club friends were at the conference, Stacey said to me,  "Ryan is here."  Before we could process our excitement at the chance to meet our educator friend from Ghana, a man in front of us turned around and said, "Hi, I'm Ryan."  And so it began.

Before we left the opening keynote, Stacey, Ryan, and I had connected with at least 6 more of our friends from the #bfc530 spark chat.  Two of those women, Natalie and Diana, along with Stacey, spent the rest of the conference making sure I knew where I needed to be, and I never ate alone.  (True confessions, I have a horrible sense of direction.  How I lived most of my life without a GPS I have no idea:) 

In a sea of 17,000 teachers, I had good friends who looked out for me.  It was not lost on any of us how genuine and natural these initial face to face connections were.  As the conference progressed, I ran into friends from Lebanon, Australia, Ireland, Venezuela, and all over the U.S.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me until this trip, this conference, this experience, that the greatest resources I have available to me aren't tech tools.  The greatest resources we all have are the educators we connect with using those tech tools.

Now you may be wondering where does Laura Story fit into this experience.  Her lyric, "What if the trials of this life, were your mercies in disguise?"  summed it up.  Every challenge motivated me to reach outside my classroom.  Every unanswered question I had motivated me to ask more questions.  Before I knew it my PLN was growing leaps and bounds, and I was growing, too.  I wasn't sure what I had to offer in the beginning.   Now I know I just had to be my best me.  We all have something to give.  Sharing those gifts with each other fills our classrooms with blessings and is what makes teaching such "phun."