A Week of Firsts

This week had me travelling into realms previously unexplored, both professionally and within my own professional development.

As an eFellow I was exposed to more new ideas and networks than I could have imagined. Amongst the ideas I came across was that of EduIgnite evenings. These are old hat to some but not something we had experienced in my little corner of the world.

This resonated strongly with me as a method we could try in this same corner of the world to engage teachers in lightning fire professional learning and their professional learning networks.  Connected Educator month also provided the ideal platform for the inaugural ignition.

Mark Osborne oversees the EduIgnite evenings as part of the Emerging Leaders programme. An email or two later and we had a venue and date, although my calculations were a little off as I was aiming for the second week of term and ended up with the first.  This was followed by Tweets from Mark and Facebook posts from me advertising the event as well as the registration process, all of which was handled by Mark.

Shoulder tapping of a possible presenter had happened early, with another two being shoulder tapped this week. I managed to put three presentations together in a short space of time.

Our evening arrived in what seemed like very quick fashion. Drinks and nibbles organised, our guests began arriving. It was with awe that I welcomed two amazing ladies who had travelled two hours from New Plymouth to attend and another gentleman from Marton.

As our group grew slightly larger we got underway. The general feel as we completed presenting was it had been a worthwhile evening. Those there had enjoyed the pecha kucha style of presentation, the topics covered as well as the opportunity to collaborate and meet others. Our lovely New Plymouth ladies had come to see how it all worked with a mind to getting something similar going in New Plymouth.  A mission, they felt, was not so out of their league after all.

Following this evening event I came home to join in - late - with my first ever #edchatnz. It was a furiously flowing chat by the time I joined it and I was struggling to keep up, never mind catch up, for a while. Having thoroughly enjoyed this event it will become an a regular on my radar each fortnight that I can participate.

Bring on the live Google Hangout with the eFellows next Wednesday. Now that I have had a practice run at presenting my research in a 5 minute space of time I feel ready for my first live hangout - actually it will be my third ever GHO. 

Loving these new firsts - thanks #CENZ14