Wednesday began my adventure with the other state Teachers of the Year. At breakfast we had a chance to get back together, introduce our families and reconnect. As our families headed out to a day of sight seeing we were taken to Arlington, Virginia for another day of training with Smart Boards. My new Smart Board has been delivered to school and will be installed this summer. I'm extremely excited by the prospect of using this wonderful tool in the lab. Space is so limited in my portable that I see this tool as a real life saver since everything I work on with a class can be saved and used the very next time they are with me. The ability to introduce graphics, charts and pictures is incredibly useful. I'm also going to be teleconferencing with other Teachers of the Year and their classrooms across the country so my kids can learn more about places outside the Sunshine State. This was an incredibly productive day.
At the end of the day we were taken to the Iowa Jima Memorial for a group picture. This monument is incredibly beautiful and inspiring.
The on to an evening reception hosted by the SMART Foundation. This wonderful organization has a ten year commitment to the National TOY program and gives each state winner over $15,000 in hardware and software for their classroom and school. That amount to well over half a million dollars contributed over ten years! Thank you SMART Foundation!
After dinner Susan and I joined Paul Cain (2008 Texas Teacher of the Year) and his family for a walk to the Vietnam Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. Paul served with distinction in Vietnam (he was in three different helicopters shot down over water) and has been teaching in El Paso, Texas for over 30 years. At the wall we both located friends lost. The Lincoln Memorial at night is incredible. There is so much strength to be drawn from Lincoln's words and it was the perfect conclusion to a fantastic day.
