The first thing I'd like to do when teachers come back in the fall is organize an Ignite session. If you haven't heard of Ignite, it's a series of presentations ala TED talks where presenters have 5 minutes and 20 automatically-advancing slides. Just like TED, speakers share a variety of passions, from the importance of bike lane safety to the pentatonic scale to the inherent pettiness of women's actions towards one another.

The point lies in sharing passions.  After attending the annual ISTE conference this past week, I'm starting to see how passion is going to be one of the major driving forces in educational reform--our passions as individuals, as educators, as change agents, as guides for helping our students and communities discover their own passions.

I'd like to start Ignite Timberline with staff members sharing what they love. I think it will give us the opportunity to start connecting as individuals, not just as committee members or that guy who teaches across the hall, and as we begin sharing our passions we can start looking for ways to use them to impact our students and our school community.

Won't you join us in August for Ignite Timberline?

Places to Start

How timely is this, as I sit and try to figure out where to start merging my virtual PLN into actual changes in my in-building professional relationships.  I will definitely send this around just before everyone comes back in August.

25 Ways Teachers Can Connect More with Their Colleagues

Though this doesn't feel like 25 entire, different things, it's more like a list of 25 ways in to the professional collaboration game, but it links to other articles that describe just how to do each of these things.

I feel like I spend so much of my day sitting around waiting to be needed by someone for more than just checking out a book or collecting a fine payment, but besides blasting my staff with emails about how I am happy to book them some library time, I don't quite know where to begin. I am starting to believe I have a wealth of resources and ideas to share, and this list gives me some ideas on where to start finding outlets.