NETA Conference & an Excellence Challenge

Last week I attended the Nebraska Educational Technology Association Fall Conference in Kearney, NE.

Located in the Younes Conference Center, literally steps away from the hotel - Younes was a beautiful center for this conference.

Key noting and providing multiple breakout sessions for the fall conference, was Jimmy Casas. Jimmy alone made this trip worth the 3.5 hours of driving.


Here is the rundown of the sessions that I attended:
Welcome & Keynote - Start. Right. Now. - Moving Beyond the Status Quo
Cultivating a Culture of Excellence
What Connected Educators do Differently
Teaching and Leading for Excellence: From Beliefs to Behaviors
Beyond the Fine Print: Legal Issues for School Tech Officials
'If You Build It, They will Come...but Only if They can Help Build It Too.'
Twitter…Is It Really a Game Changer?
If you would like to see all of the conference handouts - you can access those here.

Here were my big takeaways:

  • It starts with a mindset
  • Everyone has the capacity to lead
  • Live excellence
    • What we model is what we get.
    • Don’t just talk about excellence - live it.
  • We often forget why we do what we do.
    • We will not be able to sustain excellence - be average at best.
    • We need to remind - why (joy) in what we do.
  • Don’t say it unless you really believe it.
  • Trust and relationships - keys to excellence
    • 3 tiers of relationships
  • Live your "core" every day.
    • Model the behaviors you want to see repeated
    • Push, empathize, expect excellence
    • You have to live your excellence to bring excellence out in others.
  • The world is full of aversage
    • What does average look like in your organization?
    • What are we going to do about it?
    • START.RIGHT.NOW
    • Process. Framework. Systems
  • Bring your best everyday
    • Don’t let failure define you
    • Don't be an awefulizer
  • Excellence -- Leadership Matters
    • Leadership is a messy process
    • See yourself as a coach not an evaluator
  • 8 key characteristics of connected educators
    • Invest in a P2LN - personal learning network
      • personal and professional
    • Learn when, what and how they want
      • community
    • Embrace the 3 c’s
      • Communication, Collaboration, and Community
    • They give, take and give more
      • Why are we afraid of lifting each other up and our profession?
    • Strive to be tomorrow...today
    • Know it’s about the 3 R’s
      • relationships, relationships, relationships
    • Model the Way
      • Don’t ask people to do what you are not willing to do
    • Know when to Unplug
Maybe the biggest take away - Live Excellence
I have to admit that I have been average. And if I am really honest, I have at times been an "awfulizer". I don't want to be average and live averageness. I need to "start.right.now.". And this blog is step one. Model the behavior, live my core, coach, invest, embrace....today.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Launching

Image
This little rocket ship may not seem like much. If it caught your attention, you might look at it and wonder about it. Why does it have a circle on the right upper side? Is that an open window? Why are the letters "L" and "M" on it? What if I were to tell you that only graduates receive them? That the letters stand for "Launch Me". And that circle on the side, is so that it can be worn with pride.  But no, it has nothing to do with NASA! However, everything to do with a launch. Intrigued? So was I! Here is where it all started: Was I ready to take my skills to new places? As an instructor or presenter I know that I can keep refining and fine tuning my presentation skills. So, what would it hurt?! Sign me up.... So this last week I spent two days in Hutchinson at ESSDACK with two top notch presenters and forward thinkers. One is pictured above, Kevin Honeycutt . The other can be found with all things PBL, but also as co-collaborator wi...
Read more

A Yellow-shirted Girl's Announcement

Image
Recognize that yellow-shirted girl? Somehow I ended up being the "star" of the Central Christian College Education Department advertisement. At the time the picture was taken, I was part-time. At the time of release, I was serving as an adjunct. At the time of this writing, I am announcing that I will be full-time! That yellow-shirted girl.... is now..... Education Instructor & K-12 Professional Development Coordinator for Central Christian College!
Read more

Combine Literacy and Technology

Image
Here are some resources to "combine literacy and technology" (taken from my Combine Literacy and Technology presentation). 1. Big Huge Labs ( www.bighugelabs.com ) Take your pictures and create fun projects with them. When I shared this I featured the motivational poster. If you are like my husband you might like making a " demotivator ". Teachers could use this site to create a poster without the title or description and have the students come up with them! Or teachers could fill in the title and description and have the students find a fitting picture. These two options would provide a way to use the site without students being on the computer!  2. Superlame ( www.superlame.com ) This is a very easy to use site that again uses your pictures. No logon required and free to use! Take a picture and add a speech or thought bubble to it.  Here is one that I made: 3. Jing ( www.techsmith.com/jing.html ) This is one of my top ten sites also! I LOVE ...
Read more