Ch Ch Ch Changes

Wow. That image looks terrible. I need to do better than that. Apologies, all.

Also, it's been a long time. There are some reasons for that. Reasons we'll get to in a bit.

For those of you looking for Tech Tips... umm... Go try watchkin.com. It's a website that's useful for filtering advertising content as well as the comments section from YouTube videos.

1. Find the video you want to watch (or show in class).
2. Copy the URL of that video from YouTube.
3. Paste the URL into watchkin.com.
4. Watch the video without ads.

*** EDIT - Reminder... make sure you always test out your tech plans in the situation you plan to use them. Testing watchkin at home may produce different results when you are on your school network. Also, I have found that some specific videos do not work with watchkin. To that end, make sure you test the video you want to watch on the equipment you plan to use, on the network you plan to use.

There is a browser plugin as well.

Done and done. Now, for those of you that are still here for some reason... Perhaps you know me personally. Perhaps you're a former student. Perhaps you're my wife, or a colleague from work. Perhaps you're one of the people that are visiting my site from Russia for some reason (seriously... 15 visits from Russia since the beginning of September. I haven't even posted any content in September. What are you trying to accomplish?) You must be wondering about these changes I mentioned. Well, here goes.

I'm not a teacher anymore.

This has been such a change for me in the last couple of months that I'm going to say that again.

I am not a teacher anymore.

At least, not in the traditional sense. I no longer have a classroom. I don't write lesson plans. I don't need a substitute when I'm going to be out. I DO still work in education. I DO still work with some students. I DO still encounter stress at work, but it is an entirely different kind of stress, and so far, I enjoy it.

I am now an Instructional Technology Specialist. Basically what this means is I'm now a living, how-to reference for the teachers I work with. A teacher comes up with an idea and says to me "How do I make this work?", or perhaps, "I've got this great idea for a lesson. How can I take it to the next level?" It's my job to figure it out, and work with them until they're comfortable doing it on their own. I am doing tons of other stuff as well. I have been flexing my video editing chops, coding skills, creating staff development resources for sessions, etc. The work is wildly varied, and never ending.

This is an exciting development for me professionally, and hopefully something that will allow me to contribute more here. For example, watchkin.com came as a recommendation from a contact I have made through instructional tech.

For those of you reading that have been a part of the last 13 years, thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your family. Thank you for being a part of all the things that have happened in our school and our community in that time.

For those of you that are a part of this new experience, thanks in advance. Thanks for answering questions. Thanks for calling me out when I'm being an idiot. Thanks for allowing me to vent. Thanks for taking a part of the workload. Thanks for sharing resources. Thanks for asking me questions. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to come and work, learn, improve and grow with you.

Hopefully, I get back to my regularly scheduled weekly post. We'll see. There's a lot going on right now.

Thanks for reading.

Be the reason somebody smiles today.