Exciting Opportunity

It has been some time since I have written a blog post.  For that, I am truly sorry.  But I am also thankful that I have the opportunity to write these posts for all of you to read and hopefully ponder.

In about two weeks, I will be taking a trip that will be very informative and inspiring, but not just me.  Twenty-seven members of the NNNC (Northeast Nebraska Network Consortium) will be traveling to Joplin, Missouri.  As many of you know, on May 22 of 2011 an EF-5 tornado hit this town and destroyed many buildings and lives.  There were even several schools that were destroyed.  Yet, with all that happened they opened school on time in August.

The purpose of the trip is to look at how Joplin Public Schools is integrating technology skills into their schools.  There are many questions that I am wondering about.  For example: I want to know how their Technology Leadership Academy works, how they are using a “Big Box” store and flipped learning for their students, and how does their PD work.  These are just a few.

I will be taking pictures, possibly some video, and will be creating a diary of sorts to remember this trip.  As time allows, I will post pictures and blog about each day’s activities.  I will also, hopefully, be able to post to Twitter during the day as well.

I am looking forward to getting to know others from the NNNC, and most of all seeing how Joplin staff and students are rising up from this terrible event.

For more on Joplin Public Schools go to the following link:

http://bit.ly/WrS1qQ

UPDATE:

After writing this post, I received a copy of the December/January issue of "Learning and Leading with Technology" from ISTE.  In this issue is an article about the Joplin Schools.  If you have a chance check the article out.

Here is a like to the surveillance footage from their middle school during the tornado.

http://bit.ly/lWAPrJ