A Google-tastic Day!

I don’t know about you, but Google has become my best friend since my school became one of the first schools in my district to go Google a couple of years ago.  I fell in love with it the moment we switched.  I loved it so much that I even gave up the Mozilla Firefox for the world of Chrome.  Needless to say, it has been a wonderful journey.

This past summer I attended a Google Apps for Education Summit held in Boulder, Colorado.  It was one of several professional  development courses that I signed up for to keep me busy during my hiatus from the classroom.  Little did I know that this would lead to even bigger and better things in my already Google-tastic world!   I learned so much during those two days, and I left wanting more.  It made me want to go back to the classroom to figure out how to work even  more technology into my day with my second graders.  The only problem was that I have 25 students and just five desktop computers available during the day.  There was just no way that we could have everyone on a computer at the same time except for 45 minutes every Thursday during our scheduled technology class.  We have always been so limited as to what we can do during a class period, but we have always been able to make it work.

Because I attended the Rocky Mountain Google Apps for Education Summit, I was on their email list and received an email that said there was a pilot program that would put a set of Nexus 7 tablets into one lucky classroom.  I decided that I had to write a proposal and see if that lucky classroom could be mine.  I thought about all of the things that I wanted to do with my class if we got the tablets.  I just started writing and finally ended up with a simple proposal that came straight from the heart.  I shared it  with my colleague, Beth Mossholder, and we added a couple more items before I finally sent it off.  Beth is my school’s technology teacher and is also a Google Certified Teacher.  A couple of weeks later I was surprised to learn that I was selected as one of three finalists to possibly be that lucky teacher!  I considered myself a winner to just be a finalist!  I was asked to write a bit more to help seal the deal, so Beth and I sat down and  brainstormed about what else I could say to make them pick me.  I typed and tweaked until I knew I had done my best to share why we needed them and how we would use them.  Thus the long wait began…

After what seemed to be an eternity and checking email more times than I could count, I finally got the email that rocked my world.  The excitement and the joy I felt when I read the email that I was going to be awarded tablets was just beyond words.  As I read further, I was happy to learn that the Ed Tech Team was going to be able to fund each of the finalists’ classrooms rather than just one!  Everyone was a winner!  I would now have two other teachers to collaborate with as we start this pilot program.  It took me a moment to actually realize that this was real and that I was going to get technology into the hands of each of  my students!  I screamed so loud that my husband thought that he was missing out on a great football call from a  game he thought he was missing.  He came in from outside and saw no television on and asked who I was cheering for.  I told him I was cheering for Stewart Team Google!  He smiled and after I composed myself, I was able to tell him that I got the tablets!  It was a very happy moment for both of us.

All I know is that I am anticipating a very happy and exciting Monday morning when I tell the kids that we are actually going to get those Nexus 7 tablets!  It will be very hard for us to stay focused for most of the day, but I am going to go with it and enjoy the ride.  If it lasts all day….I could not be happier!    More on this developing story is sure to follow.  You have my Google promise on this one ♥!

Oh, and some visual encouragement through drawings that my students gave me during our waiting period.  These were some of the surprises given to me…

The Nexus 7 fresh out of the box…

Learning cool math…

Walking the dog while flying….Cool idea!

Someone had a vision that my dream would come true!

Now, I will be able to make their dreams come true with this…

Fresh out of the box!

I hope your Monday is going to be as fun and exciting as mine!

(And if you have not already seen these commercials… Enjoy now!)

Thanks to the Ed Tech Team for making our dream come true!