COMPLETING THE FIRST LOOP - FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE END OF THE BEGINNING

When I think of this educational initiative that I agreed to embark upon just last year I honestly thought it was just going to be a summer training and that was it; something akin to every other droll and rote professional development I have ever taken. Literally the program was sold to me in a few sentences: "Hey, can you do this training in the summer for Apple and Lamar? We'll get a bunch of equipment if you do." Sure, I thought. Couple weeks in June, get some iPads, good-to-go.

Here I am a year later, not only having had the best professional growth experience since my college days, but clamoring at the opportunity to keep it going. This is not the end, but rather the end of the beginning.

In June 2019, I sat in a conference room with my Burnet pal Amy while we listened to the requirements of the initiative we had signed on for. It sounded nothing like those initial statements we were given to sell us on the program. Weekly cohort meetings!? Graduate course hours?! ePortfolio?! Needless to say we were flummoxed. "Hey, I'm just here to do this week's training and put on a Coding Camp," I thought to myself. It even went so far as Amy and I having a private conversation with those in power to explain that this was not what were sold on.

Well, the week went by and I started having a feeling I had not had before...like, ever. I actually WANTED to get up in the morning to go to this training. We were making this app to help our campus's Communities in School guy Mr. Jeff. It was really good; so good, in fact, that we started talking about actually getting it made. By the end of the week (only one week!) our app had a fully realized prototype that we could take with us.

That is when I started to realize that this training was more than just talking heads doing their thing and instead had real life, student-centered application (which is what my class is all about). The very next week we took that knowledge and used it in our week-long Apple Coding Camp and the kids loved it. "Wow," I thought to myself. "This is literally the best PD I have ever done". I even said so to our entire campus on our first day back to campus that Fall, when I shared my experience.

That was just the beginning, though. Although I was never pleased with the timing of our weekly Zoom meetings (they took place every week during my son's taekwondo practice), I took a lot of them, collecting ideas for my still-lacking ePortfolio. Then the Leadership and Learning conference in Arizona came around in November. Could anything top my week at Apple in June. Yep. Not only was I inspired by the ingenuity of the educators present, but I formed a bond with my vertical elementary and high school teams. We started talking about how to collaborate and innovate within our vertical alignment team so that the students could continue their journey throughout their entire schooling years.

In February we put on a Maker's Faire to cap sort of a midway point in the year. Students converged on Navarro High School for a Saturday of innovation to drive Spheros, code VEX robots, and just have fun. Things were going great so far.

Then March came and with it so did COVID-19 and the implementation of a hastily put together distance learning program. If there was anything good to take out of the situation it was that this program in general help develop my and my students' skills towards an e-learning and blended model. A lot of the knowledge and resources I used in my distance learning platform came from what I learned from contacts during the Arizona conference. It was almost as if the implementation of this distance learning model was a capstone assignment to the Digital Leading and Learning program.

Now we enter year two. I don't know if the actual initiative will officially continue (there is some kind of non-communication going on regarding if it will), but I fully intend to continue utilizing what I've learned. My ePortfolio will continue to grow and I will continue to share it. APPLE SWIFT PLAYGROUNDS will still be used for my ROBOTICS I kiddos yearly, and my Homeroom will still use the iPads to develop app mockups.

It's not the end, but rather the end of the beginning.