Angela's Hope

Suicide is a difficult topic to read about and discuss.  Of course, one cannot compare this with the aftermath of experiencing such a horrible tragedy.  

 

I am sad to share that the brother of my friend, Angela Maiers, very recently took his own life.

Angela is dedicating her Choose2Matter cause to her brother, Chrissy.   Please take the time to read her post and share it with others.  At the very least, tell your loved ones they matter. 

Even if you think they already know, look into their eyes and tell them.  It is Angela’s hope to raise awareness and help others who are suffering and let kids know that their genius is valued.   

Please help us spread the word.  Read the article Angela dedicated to her brother.

#YOUMATTER

#CHOOSE2MATTER

#THANKYOU

Choose2Matter: My Personal Story

Angela Maiers shared her important message on a TEDx talk: YOU MATTER.   Her intent was to raise awareness and motivate others to make a difference in the world.  No action is too small. Angela’s message has transformed lives and motivated others to share her message and make a difference. 

I shared Angela's video with my children.  They were immediately motivated and in an effort to help Angela spread the word, my kids invited their friends over to watch Angela's video.  After they watched the video, the group met Angela via Skype.  See the You Matter Young Leaders' video response and conversation with Angela.

You Matter has now developed into a non-profit organization and a movement: Choose2Matter.  We hope you will join us.   You can help spread the word by telling others face-to-face, joining the Choose2Matter Facebook Group and following the conversation/sharing on Twitter by using the hashtags #YOUMATTER  and #CHOOSE2MATTER.  Not sure how to use these on Twitter?  I'd be happy to show you!  Just ask! :)

My friend and Choose2Matter team member, Sheri Edwards shares about Choose2Matter on her blog: What Else?

Global events are coming soon.  Stay tuned!

YOU MATTER!

#140edu: Where Technolgy Meets...Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Thanks to all the  #140edu speakers as they were all awesome and inspiring.  One tidbit of info that stood out to me most was when Alex Benepe (@Benepe) mentioned that  100% of PE participation in a UK school was reported  due to including Quidditch as part of the school curriculum.  Read more here in The Telegraph. 

Thanks to The International Quidditch Association,  the magical game of Quidditch can now be enjoyed in the Muggle world.  Wingardium leviosa! 

Exploring the State of NOW: #140edu

What is the next best thing to sitting in the audience of the 140 Character Conference at the 92nd Street Y in NYC?  Why, watching it via Ustream and participating via Twitter, of course!  Thanks to @WayneNH, I caught a bit of the conference while I was working today and I am looking forward to tomorrow's line up! 

Listen/watch #140edu here, live:  http://bit.ly/MxYKvY and follow the hashtag on Twitter.  Thanks to all who are Tweeting out from #140edu in the Big Apple! 

Place to Complain.

Twitter went down, way down! According to CNN, there was "no place to complain"
Enter: A Place to complain.

What did you do when Twitter went down? Jump on Tumblr? Phone a friend?
I was in a live webinar where a colleague was trying to demo the micro-blogging site.
I clicked...and clicked...checked my blog. Confirmed. Twitter was down; even my Twitter feed was out! Wow! Never saw that happen before. I sat for a moment and wondered what all the Twitter peeps were doing. Are some on and some of us not allowed in? What are they tweeting? What am I missing? Is it unavailable to everyone? My colleague? She didn’t miss a beat.

What did you do when Twitter was down?  Add your .02: Place to complain here!

Congrats @Cybraryman ISTE12 Newbie!

Go. Jerry, go!  Get thee to the ISTE!  As seasoned as he is, Jerry is a 2012 ISTE Newbie!  See more on Angela Maier’s blog.   If you have ever connected with Jerry or have taken advantage of his resources, please look to the right and click "Chip in!"  

Safe trip, Jerry!  Oh look!  Me and an ISTE Newbie (and @shareski). 

The Palm Beach County Tech Conference- Storified!

I was fortunate to have attended The 2012 School District of Palm Beach County Technology Conference on March 26th. 

This conference was very impressive and FREE.  What an amazing job by Lee Kolbert and team!  And the punchline?  I got to meet some rock stars.  It was a sharefest with Dean Shareski, who I have deemed The Sharemeister and the ever-resourceful and very generous Jerry Blumengarten, pictured with me below. 

@cybraryman1 @HansenLaurie @shareski

I do have a few regrets as I could not stay the entire day.  I wasn't able to see the dynamite sessions by Kris or Abby and Lily (Sorry guys!)  I missed other fabulous events including the closing event by dynamic speaker Travis Allen.  Luckily, I did catch his earlier session.   Oh, and I missed the iPad raffle. Darn! 
Opening Keynote,  Rushton Hurley, was a dynamic, brilliant and hilarious speaker.  I also want to share an important quote from his talk: "I am eating granola!"  Confused?  Ask me!

Catch the conference Twitter chat here on Storify http://sfy.co/jri and continue the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #sdpbctechconf.

Palm Beach County ROCKS! #ThankYou

Don't miss:

• Rushton Hurley: http://www.nextvista.org/ 
• Dean Shareski: http://ideasandthoughts.org/  &  http://www.shareski.ca/ 
• Jerry Blumengarten: http://www.cybraryman.com/ 
• Travis Allen: http://blog.ischoolinitiative.com/ & http://ischoolinitiative.org/
• Lee Kolbert: http://www.leekolbert.com/
• Kris Swanson: http://mrswanson.org/ 

Follow #sdpbctechconf attendees in our chat right from Storify!
A shout out to my friend Nancy, PBC dedicated teacher, for encouraging me to attend! 

Tweet Smart (again!)

This was originally published onThe Innovator Network, a.k.a. The Innovations Lab Blog (original post: Tweet Smart) but I felt it was worth repeating. Perhaps I am preaching to the choir. If so, maybe you can share with a few "non-believers"?

I often describe Twitter as one of a few things:

· A room filled with people where you can enter, shout a message and run back out again

· A pool filled with floating free info that you may gather and sort through as needed

· A gathering of individuals and groups where you may meander through quietly and listen in on interesting conversations or stop and chat for a while

I use Twitter to connect, promote, collect, share and sometimes just spread some love. Twitter is sort of a collective consciousness that some claim will make you smarter! At least that is what David “@dmullen”Mullen says. In his article, Five Ways Twitter Will Make You Smarter, David shares the following rationale:

1. You get access to different points of view.

2. The people you follow point you to great resources you wouldn’t find otherwise.

3. You can poll your followers.

4. You can learn what consumers are saying about your company or your client’s brand.

5. Twitter will make you a better writer.

I find number 5 intriguing, but what I like most about Twitter is that it is a place to be nice and benefit from the niceness of others. On Twitter, everyone shares knowledge. Remember what Robert Fulghum said? “Share everything.” Just like in Kindergarten. And it’s fun!

A hat tip goes to Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom), as he shared David Mullen’s (@dmullen) blog post via Twitter!  And, of course, one to you @profdebock!

Words of Wisdom: Talking with Al Gonzalez about Professional Development and Social Media

Alfonso "Educator Al" Gonzalez

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Alfonso (Al) Gonzalez, a.k.a.  Educator Al, during #EdChat on Twitter.  For those who do not know, Al is a National Board Certified Teacher and Social Media extraordinaire.   He also was the recipient of the 2010 WA STEM Entrepreneurial Award which is “designed to provide incentives for quality proposals in exploring new approaches in STEM instructional practices and improving student outcomes.”

I hope this interview inspires you to expand your PLC, your PLN and your PDSM (Professional Development through Social Media).

Take a listen here:

Laurie Hansen Interviews Educator Al Gonzalez by LaurieHansen

Below is the information about the TED talk I referred to in the podcast (via @profdeBock’s Innovator Network aka Innovations Lab Blog) and Al's links:

http://innovationslab.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/zittrain-the-web-as-random-acts-of-kindness/

Educator Al’s Blog WA STEM Entrepreneurial Award 

Mr. Gonzalez’s Webs http://educatoral.com/

Follow @EducatorAl on Twitter