It was an interesting week for sure! I spent Monday and Tuesday presenting at Get Your Teach On in New Orleans. We had 900 excited educators from around the world! I was able to bring four of my own staff members to be a part of the magic as well. During the trip we got to celebrate my friends Hope and Wade King's new book The Wild Card with a rock star party at the House of Blues! If you haven't picked up your copy yet, do it now! And it's not too late to join us in Washington, DC in March for the next GYTO!
I was scheduled to fly home Tuesday evening, but Mother Nature had a different plan, as airports shut down everywhere and my teachers and I were stranded in New Orleans all the way until Thursday morning. It was adventure indeed! Then luck be have it, as I got home Thursday night, I came down with some nasty illness, and for the past 36 hours I've been cooped up in my bed.
Needless to say, it's been an unconventional week, but I think there were some solid takeaways from it:
1) Positivity trumps everything. Even with many flight delays and cancellations, being surrounded by many friends who had smiles on their faces definitely helped make it through the experience (shout out to Stranded Teachers crew).
2) My bosses rock. Long story short, I had a nightmare situation when I had to switch flights and extend hotel stays, which is not as easy when you're using school funds. But my boss and Title 1 director were superstars and helped me get through everything!
3) Sometimes you meet people for the first time and it's like you've known them forever. Our Get Your Teach On team grew this conference and our new team members are simply all amazing. They are such positive influences in education and had a huge impact on the educators in attendance.
Finally, a neat story that I wanted to share. On Sunday in New Orleans, during check-in for the conference, I met three ladies. They introduced themselves to me and then shared how they all came to this conference by themselves, but through social media, had discovered each other and had become great friends. They live in New Jersey, Arizona, and Australia. How often can three people from such different places connect like that for a common cause? Social media has a powerful reach, and I thought this was such a great story to show how connected we can become when we choose to be!
On a final, final note, my co-author, Abe, and I had a call with Dave Burgess this week about the release for our new book, The Limitless School! We are excited to share the release date very soon! Stay tuned for big news!
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