Just Try It!

I was extremely nervous to start a blog.  Will people want to read what I have to say?  How many times do I need to post in a week, month, year?  What if I am a complete failure as a blogger?  All these things have been going through my head and maybe, in the not so distant past, I would have waited until the perfect time to start writing a blog… and maybe you would have been reading my first blog post in the year 2040!

I teach technology at a Jr. High School in Arizona and, as my title suggests, I feel many times throughout the year like I am just barely keeping my head above water.  Trying to balance learning new technology, preparing for my classes each day, and spending time with my family is a full time job and then some.  I had the opportunity to go to the CUE conference in Palm Springs last year.  While I enjoyed it immensely, my head was spinning with all the new programs and possibilities.   I felt a little inadequate.   As a technology teacher, I thought I should have already known about all the new programs and ideas that were being circulated.  How to integrate with Google Docs?   What is this Edmodo thing?   My students already know how to use PowerPoint, do they really need how to use Prezi too?  How am I going to use Animoto in the classroom?  And, most importantly, how am I going to learn everything I need to know before I introduce it to the students?!

It was exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  Soon after we returned to school, I found myself talking with my assistant principal. We were discussing Edmodo and how I wanted to use it with my classes, but I hadn’t had a chance to really looked at it completely and find out all the things it could do.  He looked at me and said, “Just try it.”   “If we wait around for the perfect time to try something new in education, nothing will ever get done.”   That was my epiphany!  It was like someone had given me the keys to a sports car I didn’t know how to drive and said, ‘Here, take her a spin and see what happens!”  Since that moment, all my classes have  participated in Edmodo, I have a twitter account, I use Google Docs instead of a word processor, I created a Prezi and QR code for my curriculum night, and have written my first Blog.  There is a lot more to get to, and it’s still overwhelming.  It might not go exactly the way I had planned, in fact, I might turn out to be a total disaster, but if I don’t “Just try it,”  I will never know.