The programmers of tomorrow are the wizards of the future. –Gabe Newell
I have been a day dreamer for as long as I can remember. I spent a lot of time as a child dreaming about far away places I’d like to visit, creations I’d like to invent, and people I wanted to emulate. Part of why I was such a day dreamer was because I was an avid reader. I picked up a book and began reading at age 4 and haven’t stopped since. As a child, my mother would have to force me to put down my book and go outside to play. I ruined many a library a book because I often dropped them in the tub. Yes, I read in the bathtub. I read all the time – at school when I should have been working, at church when I should have been listening to the sermon, and even in the bed when I should have been sleeping. Reading is my escape, and I never want to lose that.
This past Friday I had the opportunity to read If I Were a Wizard to two fifth grade classes at Crescent Elementary School in Griffin, Georgia. It was World Read Aloud Day, and I was so excited to be able to share my love of reading with students in our district. I had two copies of Paul Hamilton’s book (I’m not sure why I bought two) so I decided I would read his book to the students. It was the perfect choice although to me it was just a random decision. I had not read the book before, but I realized I was instantly in love with the message not long after I began reading to the first class. If you have not read the book before, I do not want to spoil the plot although I will have to tell you enough to get my point across. The plot of the book is that a teacher asks her class the usual question of, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The underlying concept is to teach children about coding, but the point of my post is not about coding. Of course she received the usual responses such as a doctor, lawyer, football player, and such. One young man, Ralph, responded with, “I want to be a wizard!” He goes on to tell of the things he would do as a wizard. His wizardry was not the usual hocus pocus type, but more along the lines of helping people to make their lives easier, better, and meaningful. After I finished reading the book, the students and I had a conversation about theme, helping others, and following our dreams. I read the book to the second class and went back to my office with a lot to think about all because of this children’s book.
Part of my deep self-reflection came from the experience reading to our students and part came from the training I attended/coordinated the day before. A number of years ago, I became aware of sketchnoting and saw the wonderful work by many educators including Sylvia Duckworth. I was fascinated and wanted to try my hand at creating works like hers and many others. I did a significant amount of research (Internet stalking) and found out all I could about how Sylvia sketchnotes (her tools, methods, and anything else I could find). I quickly went out and purchased an iPad and downloaded Procreate. I’ve played around with it and tried to teach myself. I was not quite successful in teaching myself. I kept seeing sketchnotes on social media, at #ISTE, and this year at GaETC, the conference committee had sketchnoters create sketchnotes of the spotlight sessions. I knew that our teachers and students would benefit from learning the art. Many of our students are visual learners, and as educators, we know that we have to meet our students where they are. Teaching them how to connect words, symbols, and images to the content would surely help them retain the information being shared in class. Not only that, but engaging them in creating their own sketchnotes would give those students who are doodlers something to do that is productive and meaningful. Through some luck and a partnership with our Federal Programs Director, I was able to secure some Title funding to bring Sylvia to our district. Her sessions put a fire into the participants. I’ve never seen anything like it. All day long, our participants were Tweeting, Facebooking, and talking about how they could implement sketchnoting in their classes. One of my colleagues who attended shared her knowledge with her nine-year old son. He was instantly intrigued by the thought of being able to draw his thoughts and use them to study what his teachers shared in class. That very night, he was practicing what his mother taught him. He even tried to “permanently borrow” her copy of Sylvia’s book. I was able to give him a copy of his own, and he made his mother take him to the store to get his own sketchnoting supplies.
Friday morning, another participant shared a picture with me via social media. She was already teaching her students how to use sketchnoting. She is a speech language pathologists and is always looking for new ways to engage her students. When I tell you, she was on fire after leaving the training, she was on FIRE!!! Here’s a quick video of her reaction after being trained by Sylvia.
Photo Credit: @RobinHarris417
Photo Credit: @RobinHarris417
I think that although our teachers received a superb training and excellent tools to engage their students, and two classes of fifth grade students had the opportunity to hear a life affirming story, I received confirmation that although sometimes we expect things to go one way, they go the way they are supposed to. I never thought of myself as a wizard, but I am. I help people (teachers and students) find their way and give them the tools to be successful. This past week is the week I needed. I have applied on several different occasions to become an assistant principal. This last time I applied, I did not get an interview. That was like a punch in the gut. I felt like I was ready and would be an asset to any school in our district. I let the rejection bother me for a while. It’s not anymore. I am where I am supposed to be at this time in my career. Will I be an assistant principal later? Who knows? Will I still have the ability to be a wizard and impact lives? Of course. However, at this moment in my career and my life, I am doing what matters. I am making magic for the most important people in our district – our teachers and students. Is there anything more important? What I do know is that I am a wizard and the teachers and students will continue to get the very best wizard that they deserve.
Until next time…
As yet to be determined book penned by Leslie R. Fagin 
It has been 44 days since I stopped being a mother. It has been 44 of the longest and hardest days of my life. Until November 18, 2017, I was a foster parent to a funny, intelligent, curious, precious, and loving 9-year-old boy. On November 17th, the Juvenile Court judge decided he and his siblings could return to their mother. He had been with me for 235 days. I was totally unprepared and devastated at the thought of no longer having him at home with me. We had gotten into a routine, and I liked that routine. As a matter of fact, I LOVED our routine. I’m not a morning person, but I enjoyed waking him up every day, helping him make his bed, giving him his lunch box, and then our short ride to drop him off at school. I would continue on to work, and then at the end of the day, I would return to the school to pick him up from the after school program. We would go home, he’d ask for a snack even though he had one in the after school program. I would check his agenda, and he would begin working on homework or finishing up what had not been completed in after school. I would cook dinner, and we would sit down at the table together and talk. We talked about all sorts of things and got to know the sweet little boy who captured my heart within the first month of living in my home. After dinner, he would do Prodigy Math or something similar, read for 30 minutes, and then he had time for a little TV. There were a lot of nights he chose not to watch TV or he would bring his book into my room and sit beside me on my bed and read to me. Before bed, he would shower, and then we would begin our bedtime ritual. Some nights, he would turn back his covers and then come tell me that the Flash had done it. Other nights, I would do it and then lay out the devotion book and Bible we would read from every night. Some nights, we both would read, and other nights I would read, and he would listen. We would take turns praying, talk a little more, and then he would quickly drift off to sleep. On Tuesday nights, we would go to Cub Scouts which he loved! He wasn’t so sure after the first meeting he attended, but he quickly fell in love with spending time with the other boys, his Den Leader, and learning new things. We even went on his first camping trip together. Weekends were different. Every Saturday I took him to his aunt’s house so he could visit his siblings and his mother. He would come home Saturday evening, we would eat, and then we might play a game or he might watch TV. It just depended on what he wanted to do. Now, I do none of that because he is home with his family.
know that not all students are able to explore our country or the world right now, so to me, being able to use Google Expeditions is a way to expose them to as many experiences as possible so that maybe, just maybe a spark will be lit and later in life they will take off on grand adventures and do great things.
answer as to the suitability of an iPod Touch, we made the decision to utilize iPhones. In our district, all building administrators and central office administrators are issued iPhones. Some were eligible for an upgrade, so we upgraded them and retrieved their old phones. Once the phones were reset to factory condition, my colleague 
headsets – they are numbered, two power strips, and charging cables. There is also a checklist in the box indicating the contents of each box. Robin created a Google Form that we use to keep up with the location of the boxes. Once the boxes were finished, they were ready to be put in use.
teachers are asked to complete a short Google Form to reflect on the experience and also to give us feedback or suggestions. We are also working on creating a list of available expeditions for the teachers to use. As we make plans for next school year, we will offer additional trainings for the teachers. We want to make sure that they know how to successfully lead an expedition and seeing it from the student’s perspective will help tremendously.
There are times that I think that I am stuck in a time warp. Although I find myself thinking about what the future holds, I spend a lot of time thinking about what has happened in the past. I guess one could say that I like to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going. I suppose that’s true. As we wrap up another school year and my third year as an instructional technology coach, I have a lot to reflect upon.
Diary of a Not-So-Mad Instructional Tech Coach 