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.