The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Be Making a Top 10 List for 2012

These are the top 10 reasons I will not be making a top 10 list of 2012

1. Sorry, but I do not feel like my 2012 can be condensed into 10 short blurbs. Nothing about me or my friends could ever be condensed into a blurb. Have you met +Timothy Gwynn? What about him is possible to be shared in a short blurb? Have you seen his mustache? That is worth a chapter in most epic novels.

2. All of the things I do are awesome for different reasons. I do not want to spend time comparing one event to another. I has awesome times at MACUL (State Tech Conference) and ISTE. EduCon was a blast and so were the edcamps I organized and attended. Instead of suggesting one is more awesome than the others, I woud like to say that they were all awesome for different reasons.

3. My friends are my friends for many different reasons and I do not want to place them in a list about how important they were to me or my education/growth as a teacher. I learn so much from so many different people. Is it even possible to compare @EduSum to @Web20Classroom? One of them is Australian and the other is a Nascar fan. They both bring very different things to the table, including ridiculously awesome accents. So instead of creating a list where I rank the value of Southerners, Canadians and Australians, I will just say they are all awesome in different ways and I'm happy to know them.

4. I have had the privilege to work with some awesome people over the past year and have some exciting new ventures on the horizon. As easy as it would be for me to talk about the epicness of +Evernote and +Edutopia, I will just say that it is an honor to be associated with both of them and look forward to more silliness and epicness in the future.

5. I use many different tools to reach my students and transform education in my classroom. I would hate to hurt the feelings of any app that did not make my list of apps that are going to rock the world of education in 2013. There are some, but they might not work for everyone. Just because +Evernote and +Nearpod are awesome, doesn't mean that they should be on the top of my list, even if they would be if I was creating a list, which I am not. There are lots of great tools out there, take a look around and glance at Twitter. I assure you that you will find one.

6. If it were possible to tell you the ten coolest blogs to read this year, someone else has probably done it and did a better job than I would. There are tons of great blogs out there. I have over a hundred filling my Google Reader every day. The last thing I want to do is tell +George Couros that he was blog number 11 out of 10 and did not make the cut. I do not need him to rain down the Northern Fury of Canada because of the slight. For the good of the US, I could not do it.

7. I would love to rank my 10 favorite students, but I've been told that might be considered unprofessional. Since I can't do that, I will have to just shower them with candy upon their return from break.

8. I will not be ranking the 10 ten hugs from +Kyle Pace. This is simply due to the fact that all hugs from +Kyle Pace are perfect 10s and suggesting that +Kyle Pace would give anything else besides a perfect 10 hug is an insult to Kyle and his Mom's Cookies.

9. Truly, nothing is even close to the awesomeness of being mentioned by Sir Ken Robinson during the ISTE Keynote. The #EduBros were a force to be reckoned with in 2012 and have even bigger plans for 2013. With that, I'm not even going to do a 10th reason.

Happy New Year from The Nerdy Teacher!

The #EduBros are (not) a big deal #ISTE12

I've been playing with this post in my head for a number of days now. I wanted to talk about the craziness of the #EduBros phenomenon, but wanted to stay away from sounding arrogant, obnoxious and all of those other things I do not like in people on Twitter or Blogs. After talking with some friends that I respect greatly, I decided I could do this post in a way that doesn't come off TOO obnoxious and that is what I'm aiming for. Bare with me and enjoy the ride.

Feel free to skip down if you know the origin story.

In preparation for #ISTE11 in Philadelphia, my buddy Tim (@Tgwynn) and I thought it would be cool to host a trivia based pub crawl after the opening Keynote. We thought it would be a fun way to  relax before a few days of intense learning. We sent out some invites, created some Foursquare checkins and had a great time. It was well attended and people wanted to know what we were going to do next. Tim and I put the word out and we were able to organize a party on Sunday before #ISTE12.

As we got closer to #ISTE12, I thought it would be fun to invite Sir Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) to the event. I sent him a couple of tweets each day that were RTd by friends, but I never thought it would be a big deal. Then, this happened:

Tim and I were shocked! We could not believe that he had actually taken the time to tweet us back. We decided it would be polite to thank him and knight him an honorary #EduBro. Then this happened:

This was our reaction:

Not Staged

We were beyond geeked and our Twitter feeds had blown up over the mentions. We giggled and talked about how powerful Social Media can be if a couple of guys could get the attention of Sir Ken Robinson. We figured the whole thing was done and over with and got to planning the last bits of the party.

We did not go into the Keynote room because we figured we would need to ditch early to get the party going. Then, this happened, 

Skip ahead to the 33:40 for the shout out.

Followed by this, 

Trending Worldwide!

This is the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened. This is the ultimate in silliness.

Here is why it is not a big deal:

I'm not a better teacher for it. It is an awesome story that few friends will think is awesome, but nobody, and I mean nobody, in my district will even bat an eyelash at it. Why should they though? Will it create a better learning environment for my students? I'm guessing that it will not. The fact the Sir Ken Robinson gave me a shout it is neat, but has nothing to do with who I am as a classroom teacher and that is what is most important. 

I'm not a big deal on Twitter because of this either. I'm still the same nerd that talks way too much in social situations and makes too many obscure references to thinks I (or Tim) only think are funny. I'm no more of an expert on all things education and technology related because Sir Ken sent a couple of tweets and mention me in the Opening Keynote. I actually wasn't even mention by name at all. If you listen closely, it sounds more like "EduBras" than EduBros. 

I still have tons of work to do when it comes to being a better teacher and while this was a cool event and story I will share for all time, it doesn't make me a better educator which is why I attend ISTE in the first place. 

Here is why the #EduBros are a big deal:

Two random people became friends and maintain that friendship using social media to connect and keep in touch. We see each other twice a year for a total of two weeks max, but act as if we have seen each other the other day. This is true for a large group of us and will remain true for some time. 

We have managed to leverage social media to throw two parties during an international conference and no cost to us. While most vendors struggle to throw great parties and get people to attend, we took Sunday night to ourselves and brought over 200 people to party. This would not have been possible without the use of social media. 

We started a small Meme at #ISTE12 with the finger-stache photos. These included tons of picutres from all over the world and the conference. We were even able to get Sir Ken and Mayim (Blossom) to join the fun. 

We were encouraged to host an impromptu session in the Newbie lounge where the first honorary #EduBro showed up (Jeff K) over Skype to share his thoughts on the power of social media and making connections. 

We trended worldwide! I'm sorry, but that is a big deal. I know that there are many crazy things that tend to trend (Rhyme!), but this was something special because we had no control over it. It just sort of happened and it's something to remember and share for-ev-er.

The biggest reason that the #EduBros event was a big deal is that it is the best example of educational professionals leveraging Social Media to connect with the world around them. Our only goal was to put together a party for friends. It turned into a trending event around the world where people took pictures of their finger in front of their face in the hopes of attending. I was able to connect to people I never thought possible because a friend and I decided to be a little silly. 

Social Media is a tool that can be used in so many different ways that it is just wrong for any educator to say there is not value in using it. Like all tools, educators need to search for the value and utilize it. While this specific event does not make me a better teacher, it has connected me with more educators which can make me a better educator. That is the big take away from this whole event. It's what I hope everyone who reads this walks away with as well. 

I need to get going to send Sir Ken his money and try and fit my gigantic head out the front door. :-)