The last bit.

Having the proposal broken into a process was beneficial to me. I think it really helped me focus on individual steps as exactly that - steps to a larger movement. As was evident to me in the learning style week, I tend to look at things as a big picture and really don't focus on what it takes to get to that. Having an intricate model to walk through helped me move from ideas to action.

I think the biggest challenge for me was this - moving ideas into action. In a classroom setting, many times I we try things without much thought to the process we should probably use and go through. Sure, we think of pedagogy and the impact it will have on our students, but sometimes we just like to try technology because we saw success on a blog, Twitter, or from friends. We don't necessarily go through a process of how, why, or even IF it will work - we simply just want to try it.  This mindset doesn't necessarily clash with trying to obtain large amounts of money and time to implement a new technology and in my case, a large scale change in grading philosophy for technology. School boards, school presidents and principals, and parents want to see a much more substantiated claim as to why prior to engaging.

I believe that my proposal is going to be proposed at my school.  I want to work a little more on it with the actual tech people here, but I think it's probably going to be a go.  The rubric/dispositions thing was REALLY popular with the teachers/admin I talked to. I think discussing the proposal with them has opened me up to having a greater role in the school. I think we might even consider closing the gap between tech and information. There is discussion about setting up a knowledge management arm of the school and really showing how close the two can really be.  It's quite exciting.

I don't really see anything as incredibly positive or negative - I look at everything as an opportunity for growth. I think I have grown a ton in my knowledge and confidence in all of this and that I am truly grateful.

I think the roles of Tech Specialist and Learning Specialist are so important to schools. We recently got a tech coach at Carmel, but I'm not sure if one person can really do this job. I think it takes a team to do so. To some degree, we all need to be learning specialists or be discussing learning theory and practice on a regular basis. This is how tech integration and use in the classroom can really shine and grow.