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Learning, Unlearning and Relearning Yourself

When I decided to blog I made the call not to give it a tech-centric name because I was at a crossroads in my career. I was smack dab in the middle of graduate school, getting my administrative certification and becoming a principal seemed like a potential career option. While my path didn't lead me in that direction it has veered me off the track of solely technology integration - coordinating data and assessments. For the first time in my professional life I'm looking at how I can help teachers assess student work, or meet the Common Core changes, rather than evangelizing why they need to embrace 21st Century Skills development...communicate with Web 2.0 tools...or something of that nature. It's refreshing.

I think Krista Moroder's post on focusing on learning helped to make me conscious of the importance of remembering why we're in education. She blogged more about this just the other day. I have no doubt I had lost site of that, lost in the world of wireless gadgets and web tools. I never got traction in my last district because all I was doing was saying - "boy this is really cool...try this, learn about this."

This evening on my rainy and windy run I wrapped up Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. I completely paused The New Digital Age because the content was so timely and compelling for me. Outside of having of having the ndmielke handle market cornered I don't have a brand, but I certainly see a new future. Author Dorie Clark offers quality advice on ways to help change directions in your career (I'm glad she mentioned that looking up big wig's bios is part of the process to find your path. I was starting to think I might be weird).

Two great take aways from my first listen to the audiobook.
1) Mentorship is powerful. Working in a new, more densely populated area I've been able to make many contacts with folks who work in technology, data, assessment and curriculum. The non-tech folks are the ones I bug the most far and away, because those are the areas I need the most development in. Luckily that data and assessment folks like Mel Stewart and Nick Dussault are incredibly giving of their time, talents and resources.

2) is that we don't always leave everything about our old careers or interests behind, but we find ways to leverage those strengths. Last night I was up watching a CRESST YouTube video on the Future of Assessments. It's fascinating to me, and totally nerdy to imagine all we can do with better adaptive technologies and gaming that provides students greater feedback on their performance.

I hope more folks in this grand field of education pick up this bug. To some people in all stripes of life, change is horrifying. I've found it to be completely liberating. I think once you try it...it hooks you. Hope it hooks more folks as we all search to find our passions and make a difference in our lives.
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