My list of what #thedublindifference is to me (in the order it happened today):
- The Dublin City Schools staff met at Jerome High School for our beginning of the year convocation. It was an inspiring morning with constant reminders about why Dublin is the best school district in the state. Several staff members shared what #thedublindifference is. The stories were heartfelt, humorous and excellent reminders about why we teachers do what we do.
- A yummy lunch provided by the Grizzell PTO with plenty of time to catch up with friends and enjoy each other's company.
- Hearing Corrine Evans, Grizzell's new principal, talk about her goals and what goals she has for the staff and students. The main message being about learning, collaborating and reflecting about what students are learning and how they are learning - not what score students get on a test.
- Working with my teaching partner, Rita Shaffer, on various classroom thinking: Google Classroom, student learning, our extensive classroom library, and how to get to know our students as readers and writers.
- Attending an all-Dublin cross country meet at Coffman High School where I was able to cheer on my 7th grade daughter in her first meet ever. I had several former students running in the high school races and got some smiles from the tired runners when I cheered them on and they realized that it was me yelling loudly.
- Being part of #dubchat and connecting with other teachers. The Twitter chat was a little daunting and moved quickly, but it was fun! I had more notifications in 30 minutes than in my entire Twitter life!
- Writing this blog post is my final example of #thedublindifference. After hearing and reading everything today, I know that my job is to push myself as a professional. One of my goals this year is to write more - professionally and with my students. Hopefully this will start me on that path.