Good Endings

Yesterday was my last after school flex training session. Over the past four or five years, I've facilitated over 150 of these training sessions, working with hundreds of my colleagues, and learned a ton along the way, both in preparing to train teachers, and learning from them during the workshops.

Today was my last in-service presentation... I think. I'm actually not sure if we have any more in-service days scheduled this year, and if we do, I'm sure I'll be presenting again. But this was the last one I know about, and if it is the final one, it was a great way to end. In three hour-long sessions, I worked with close to 90 teachers. The topic was "Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Computer... *But Were Afraid to Ask," and the entire agenda was based on the specific questions the participants submitted ahead of time in a survey, which we read, researched, and answered. A lot of new questions came up during the workshop, and we were able to find answers to these as well, often from other participants in the session who shared their knowledge in a backchannel discussion and out loud.

We might not have flex requirements in our budget for next year, so my days of offering 40 or so of these a year are over for now. And I'll be making a happy return to the classroom in the fall, so I won't be tapped to present at every in-service in our district. Instead I'll be able to actually attend some of these workshops and learn from my peers, which I am really looking forward to doing again, believe it or not.

I am looking forward to the change next year. Working with teachers is both challenging and rewarding, but I feel like I have had five years of intense, full-time professional development for myself. I've learned so much about technology integration and education in general that the only logical step at this time is to get back in the classroom and put it into practice myself!

So this was the end of the presenting to teachers part of my job, and it was a good ending. I still have almost two months of working 1:1 with teachers and providing on-demand assistance with tech integration before the end of the school year, but after today, the finish line is in sight and it feels good to be in the homestretch.