Esri and being a Teacher Video Challenger Winner

I've been working a lot with ArcGIS online for almost 5 years now.  This amazing mapping technology has completely changed my teaching and given me so many experiences I would not have otherwise had.  

It all started with an amazing 3 day PD at the University of Maine at Farmington in 2015 with the Maine Geographic Alliance- The presenters are ALL now friends and GIS colleagues 

Then 2016 I actually went to Esri in Redlands, CA for T3G (Teachers teaching teachers GIS) where I met the most amazing people including many important people in Esri Education who I have continued to work with

I was invited to Louisville to look at a GIS teacher certification with other GIS educators from around the country

I've been asked to present at conferences on using GIS in the classroom including the National Geographic Education Summit and most recently I presented 2 sessions on making Story Maps at the North East ArcUsers Conference (NEARC) at Sunday River.  

My passion is teaching other teachers about this awesome technology, but I also love teaching students to use this technology, so imagine my excitement when I found out last Friday that I am this months Esri Teacher Video Challenge Winner for my work with GIS in my classroom.  I will be recording a 3 minute video next week for Esri talking about how I use ArcGIS in my classes and I get $500!  (I'm buying computer mice and a 360 camera for my class).  

It's amazing how passionate I have become about this company and this software.  All K-12 schools get a free ArcGIS organizational account.  I'm also very excited they are starting a national campaign and have released their first commercial, which means they will becoming a name recognized in households around the world.  

National Geographic Education Summit 2019

A week ago I returned from the National Geographic Education Summit, where I had been invited to co-lead a session on using ArcGIS online in the classroom.  This week has been crazy since coming back but I have to blog about this amazing experience.

So on Thursday October 3rd, I worked half a day and then boarded a plane to DC at noon to head for the conference.  Here I am listening to Michelle Obama's Book Becoming.  An hour and a half later I was landing at Ronald Reagan.

I took the metro from Reagan to the city and walked from the Metro station to my hotel.

 

 

I was tired (I had worked that morning) so I though I might take a nap, but then I realized how close I was to the Whitehouse so I decided to take a walk.  There were protesters out and sooooo many secret service agents around.

 
 

I then walked over to National Geographic for the Reception and Opening Ceremony.  I walked in an immediately ran into other GIS people I knew.  The reception was amazing, so much food, open bar, great conversation.  Then we went into the Grosvenor Auditorium and heard about the National Geographic Strategy and from some amazing presenters, we even went on a VR dive to swim with the Manna Rays.  This set the stage for the rest of the weekend.  I can't even remember all I learned I just know it was amazing, the explorers, the research, the imagery, and people.  I am now horrified by plastics, amazed by photography, want to explore the world, and map it all.  I worked with some other amazing GIS teachers and our presentations went very well.  I got to talk with educators in Mexico through a portal, learn about how Genetics works in creating medicines, oh and did I mention the people.  Every photo of me at the event I am glowing, I was in my element, and all I could think about is how do I make this my everyday.  I want to work with educators, I want to teach them how to teach about the world and use GIS, but I live in Maine and have a family here.  I think this is my big take from the whole thing is I need to figure out how to make this my reality, working with amazing professionals who inspire me, allowing me to travel, keeping me in education but in a different aspect, but still live in Maine with my family.

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

By the time it ended on Saturday afternoon I had fallen even more in love with National Geographic and Esri, if that is at all possible.  I still had some time to explore the city and I did, the entire time thinking about how I can do this type of work all the time.  

 

THANK YOU ESRI FOR INVITING ME TO BE ONE OF YOUR VOICES AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR THE AMAZING EXPERIENCE!