Of taking the next step

I have been learning quite a bit about EdTech in the last few... years? months? lives?

Well, anyway. Today I decided to take the next step.

I have taken the Google Certification for Educators, levels 1 and 2, which I proudly display on my classroom wall. And then my students ask me what those certifications mean.

I tell them that I am certified to use the tools that Google specifically created for education. 

Then they look at me, puzzled, and say: but isn't it what you've been doing all along with us?

Yes, I have been using Google tools for a long time. I use my Youtube channel to find nice videos, and share with them via Google Drive in a hyperlink doc. They also add their nice findings related to the topic we are studying to this doc. I have been using Google Slides for my presentations, and when I present workshops, I do have a link where they can open my presentation, and share everywhere. After all, I do want my ideas to spread like the Black Plague!

However, now that I am certified, I have two big pluses:

1- I know now what I have been doing right, and wrong too. I can be more objective and focus more on the learning and less on the technology. Because I can get a bit carried away with edtech, sometimes. But it's not my fault: I love ed, and I love tech. Put them together and I am totally smitten!

2- I caught people's attention, I have been talking about using cell phones in class  for learning, and most of my peers would look at me shocked: cell phones are prohibited in the classroom (yes, it was a rule when I started working at this institution, but I completely ignored it, and now it doesn't exist anymore. You're welcome!) But with these certifications, and coming from Google nonetheless, they started listening to me. They started paying attention; what I say isn't just noise anymore. After all, I have studied edtech, and I know what I am doing (well, most of the time... sometimes). 

Ok, so I got the certifications. Am I all set? Hell, no!

So I decided to be a teacher trainer: I got all the courage I could muster and asked the board of directors to create a new role in the institute for me: edtech trainer. I want to guide my colleagues through the same journey I've been taking alone. I want to be their Gandalf through Middle Earth, on the path to destroy the one ring, which is the "myth of technology that impairs learning".

Now, am I set? NOPE.

Google has a great program for educators around the world who like to innovate and foster new ideas to improve education everywhere. And the name of this program says everything: Google Innovators!

That is my next goal: I want to continue innovating. I want teachers to feel empowered, and we know that we can be stronger if we work together. And that is my new project: empowering teachers to learn with each other.

I want to continue my project of showing teachers that edtech is not to be overlooked, and that the only way we can learn and continue our professional development is TOGETHER: sharing and getting feedback, communicating to each other, agreeing and saying why, disagreeing nad saying why, creating new ideas together. Together, and only together, can we improve our education, and therefore, our future. 

Can I do it? Hell, yeah!

I am The Headbanger Teacher. The power of Heavy Metal is with me!

And if you are curious, here is the video with my idea that can shake up the entire educational world (or so I hope):