Goodbye Collins!

As I closed out my last embedded day at Collins High School, I marvel at not only how fast my time went there, but how quickly time has gone by since I began in Shelby County.  October 1 marked three months with the district.  My work days have some winged feet.

But back to Collins! I was fortunate to meet so many wonderful educators during my embedded stay.  (And there are some more #ShelbyTUITshoutout's from Collins in the pipeline.)  Thanks to all that came to one of my PDs, asked a hard question, or shared a resource with me.

Before I go, one last nod to Collins's principal Mr. Leeper.  I've appreciated every time he's retweeted me (from @MLCTitanNation), and his weekly Smore flyers inspired me to make my own when I wanted to publicize some district PD.  He attended one of those very presentations, in fact, and afterwards asked, "How do you find all of these tools I haven't heard of?"   Which reminds me of something from Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman:

(YouTube clip: http://youtu.be/KA5II5AlO7w)

Well, I humbly accept that compliment; I always try to keep an ear to the ground (and the Cloud, and the Twitterverse) for new sites and tools.

Truth be told, however, many a time when I've tried out new tech in a classroom or presented it at a PD, this is what happens:

(YouTube clip: http://youtu.be/X-rkFaIPyL4?t=5s)

Some tools work like gangbusters, and others are just a bust. The secret is to be willing to fail.  It's the only way to grow.

Up next starting on Tuesday, Clear Creek Elementary!