Labels

MI-Champions: A phenomenal mentoring program in Michigan and other ponderings at #MACUL10

Hello, my friends, I'm in Michigan this lovely evening and just had a delightful chat with my good friends Anne Truger, Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, and Rushton Hurley - all fellow spotlight speakers here at MACUL 2010.  Attendance is up, which is delightfully great news - about 3,300 will be here tomorrow.

I enjoyed dining with Spotlight Speaker Chair, Ren Baldwin today at lunch as he discussed their Mi-champions Program. (See the video below.) The second class of graduates will be graduating at this conference (they have had 300 per "class") and the third cohort will begin.  The year begins and ends with the MACUL conference here in Michigan. 

The premise of the Mi-champions program is that teachers of core subjects who are novices at technology education apply to the program and are paired with a "coach." They have extra training in the summer and then coached and encouraged and mentored.  The attrition rate is very slow.  I WANT TO MEET SOME OF THESE MI-Champions tomorrow. So, if you happen to be here and read this blog, please introduce yourself.


Find more videos like this on MACUL Space

I'm so struck at how each state has a phenomenal "prize" or jewel - in New York where I was in January, there are some of the best 1:1 laptop practices I've seen and some amazing video conferencing work, in Arkansas, there is the incredible EAST program, and here they have MI-Champions.  I commented today to Ren that state technology programs are often so modest that they don't realize the prizes that they have and that other states need to hear about them!  It is important to share these best practices and help others learn - but how?

Somehow we have to strongly consider formalizing the documentation and submission process so that state organizations call also help be clearinghouses of information - whether spotlighting videos on their facebook page or creating videos where they need to happen - there have to be better ways for us to continue to share rather than the piecemeal way. (I love how Edutopia disseminates their information.)

It is an honor to be here at MACUL and truthfully I feel a huge sense of gratitude and responsibility. Gratitude for being able to do what I LOVE (teach and share) with educators.  The educators I've met here so far are so warm, genuine, and caring and just seem to love their students.  These types of educators are really every where I go -- just great people. It is an honor to be among you!  I also feel responsibility as I want to give my 100% best for everyone. Push push push to be better.  But eventually each night before I present at about 1 am in the morning, I push my chair back and say --

"You know what, Vicki, you just need to be Vicki Davis -- nothing fancy - just Vicki.  Give the presentation only you can give from your perspective.  Share as much as you can and realize that there are beginners to experts in the audience.  Just because it is old to you doesn't mean it is old to someone else.  Treat those in the audience as you want to be treated:  with love, respect, and gratitude for their attention and give 100% of your energy and strength to the presentation, realizing that if you push the thinking of those in the room, there will always be pushback - no one is ubiquitously loved by all, it just doesn't happen - but whether they like you or not is not the issue - are they a better person when they leave the room?"

So, this is what I want from presentations and you've gotten to hear my pep talk to myself.  Sure, I want to make sure they know about some of the latest things that have me pumped up (OAR FILES, Google Marketplace and other items) -- but what has me most pumped up is that maybe there is another beginner out there - like me at GAETC in 2005 who just needs to know that this can be done safely in ways that improve the classroom and that you don't have to be some walking code manual to be able to do it!

And with that, my friends, I will again give my spotlight presentations in the mirror until I'm so exhausted that I again read this speech back to myself and let myself go to sleep!  Goodnight my friends.

I also want to say thank you to all of you who have been commenting and sharing here on my blog lately.  For a while, I don't know if it was just a busy time for me and I didn't blog as much but it seemed like the main people commenting were spammers.  Many of you have taken time to teach me through your comments.  I read EVERY comment and try to comment on them all. I work very hard to try to keep spammers out and just want you to know that your comments touch and move me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for blogging here at Cool Cat Teacher - for when you leave a comment, truly, you become part of what happens here on this blog.  Thank you!  And with that, I really will say goodnight!
Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Email Post
Labels:

Popular Posts