What I Forgot to Tell You

What I forgot to tell you is I had no expectations when I joined you on Tuesday.  I came with little expectation for creativity, inspiration and learning.   I came because I like to be in a learning mode, and sometimes I just have to push myself into new and unknown zones to get at that learning.  I also did not know who else would be there and that is another way of learning for me - to be in a group of people who don’t know me and I don’t know them.  To take a risk, a fairly safe risk, and just jump in. 

What I forgot to tell you was that I do have technology phobia, and sometimes I don’t think I’m smart at all.  Would I embarrass myself in front of you? And the first thing – not even a welcome, not even introductions, we were to start and build a blog, followed by building a wiki.  Omigosh!  Fear is the warm-up exercise he said!  And that was how we started – facing my fear, and yes, it was a great warm-up exercise.  I asked my seat partner, and she asked me too – how do you  . . . neither one of us knew how, but we figured it out.

What I forgot to tell you was how much I like to learn.  I’d almost forgot about my own learning having been on the other side of the classroom for these past years.  It was great to be a student and givenpermission to have fear, to try something new – go ahead and jump in, to be given permission to make mistakes, and to explore and play, to dream big and share and hear what others were thinking and doing.  I loved that we talked about removing fear, fostering imagination, take charge of your own learning, and the value of making mistakes.  You created a thoughtful, encouraging, environment for us to think beyond the ordinary.  To think about how to learn for ourselves as well as for our students, to think about how will this learning serve us after the classroom and after the academy, and what pathways to different learning and what may be needed for our world of learning.

What I forgot to tell you was that I needed this time and place to work, to play, to explore, and to dream with all of you.  This doesn’t happen often for me, and perhaps it doesn’t happen often for you.  I believe we often work on our own, and forget the power of coming together to learn, to share, to work and to dream big.

What I forgot to tell you is that what you helped to create in these few days, has given me hope and inspiration for how we can work.  That in a few days we have created more than a way of knowing how to work together, how to build a course with technology, but that we have started a community that cares about the highest order of learning and teaching.   


For that I will not forget.