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 Complete Guide to Evernote in Education #Evernote

I've been talking about Evernote for some time and I have been doing many presentations about how awesome Evernote is for education. I finally decided to write the book on Evernote in Education.

Currently, the book is available on Amazon, iBookstore and Evernote's Trunk.

I'm really excited about this book. It covers all of the important areas educators consider when looking at new technology.

I write about Evernote as a lesson planning tool, as a cloud storage tool, as a great tool for sharing with students, teachers and parents. I also share how Evernote fits in with BYOD and 1:1 learning environments. Evernote is great at being something to everyone and it is really worth checking out.

If you have questions about Evernote after reading the book, feel free to tweet me or email me and I will be happy to answer them for you.

As an official Evernote Education Ambassador, I really wanted to do something to help more people see how Evernote can make a positive impact in their classroom.

If you are interested in using Evernote on your iPad, you should check out my book on the iBookstore. The Beginner's Guide to Using Evernote on the iPad.

Have a great day everyone!

If you want to start your Evernote journey now, follow this link to sign up!

NP

We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together #EdChat

As the semester winds down, I have a chance to see students feverishly studying and working on worksheets, study guides and word finds to help prepare them for the coming final exams. I watch as student pair up and work together to fill out the sheets in the most efficient way possible. They frantically check their phone for answers that are buried too deep in their book to be discovered. I watch all of this and shake my head. 

You see, I used to be married to the handout/worksheet/word search. This all I ever knew in the world and I thought we were perfect for one another. Sometimes I would try and break things off, but it was so easy to just end up back together. It took me 7 years to realize that we were not good for one another. It was a terrible relationship that was negatively impacting the people around me. It was when I realized how badly our relationship was affecting the kids is when I decided it was time for a change. 

A few years ago, I decided a trial separation was necessary. I figured I would make a clean break for 10 weeks. I chronicled these 10 weeks without my partner in a series of blog posts. (Some of the links are broken or gone due to time.) I am not going to lie, it was a difficult 10 weeks. There were plenty of times I felt like taking the easy way out and running back to the warm embrace of my partner in educational crime, but stayed true to my word and went 10 weeks free. I see it now as one of the best decisions of my life.

My new BFF (Project Based Learning (PBL)) has been a perfect partner. We get along great, we push each other to be creative and the kids absolutely love them. My new relationship has given me a spark in my work and a thrill when I see the kids really work with PBL to grow and mature as learners. This new connection has allowed me to focus on the things that are most important in what I do and the kids now feel they have the freedom to express themselves in ways that were not possible in the previous marriage. While I'm not quite ready to commit fully to this new relationship, I am excited about the possibilities our future holds together. 

There are plenty of things I learned about myself during those ten weeks that made me a better teacher. Since I ended that disastrous relationship, I can see that my kids have improved. Their spirits are better and the engagement level is through the roof. Everyone is a little bit happier now that the marriage is finally over. For some, this marriage works well and they feel happy about it. Others are blissfully unaware of the negative impact their relationship has on others around them. For me, I can proudly say, "We are never ever ever getting back together!"

The Complete Guide to Evernote in Education #EdChat #EvernoteLife

I've been talking about Evernote for some time and I have been doing many presentations about how awesome Evernote is for education. I finally decided to write the book on Evernote in Education.

Currently, the book is available on Amazon but will soon be available on the iBookstore.

I'm really excited about this book. It covers all of the important areas educators consider when looking at new technology.

I write about Evernote as a lesson planning tool, as a cloud storage tool, as a great tool for sharing with students, teachers and parents. I also share how Evernote fits in with BYOD and 1:1 learning environments. Evernote is great at being something to everyone and it is really worth checking out.

If you have questions about Evernote after reading the book, feel free to tweet me or email me and I will be happy to answer them for you.

As an official Evernote Education Ambassador, I really wanted to do something to help more people see how Evernote can make a positive impact in their classroom.

If you are interested in using Evernote on your iPad, you should check out my book on the iBookstore. The Beginner's Guide to Using Evernote on the iPad.

Have a great day everyone!

NP