Wednesday, March 3, 2021
A year and a week later.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
CDW-G Presents CITE's Women in Technology Executive Q&A Panel
I am so lucky to be moderating this panel with CITE. As a woman in educational technology sometimes I feel like an imposter in informational technology environments. So to be able to learn from these women is so valuable.
Every time I feel that twinge of doubt I'm reminded about my success in my introduction to computer science class in college. It makes me wonder what could have been if I had more exposure and support to the world of technology beyond coding my MySpace. Those feelings led me to collaborate with Girls Who Code and the Picademy program to help inspire educators to inspire young women.
I'm so happy to be able to continue that work and expand it with the support of organizations like CITE and CDW-G.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
20 for 2020 Follow Up
Last December (isn't it a relief to say that?), I started a Twitter project called 20 for 2020, and as promised, here is the list of all the tweets in one place. I will adjust the grammar and punctuation because I don't know about you, but I will sacrifice punctuation and turn words into numbers for character count's sake. So here they are, starting with the first going all the way until New Year's Eve with a short reflection on the whole process at the end.
- Happy though from 2020: The floor on #edtech use has been raised way up! I hope I never hear "I can't do that" or even worse, "My kids can't do that" ever again. Technology will continue to change, but we've learned students' and teachers' capacity is greater than we believed. We can't forget that.
- I've always been a fan of shopping, but this year, I've focused on #sustainability. Thrifting helps me find unique pieces, give items a second life, and it's a small way I can reduce my carbon footprint. Despite going through multiple stay at home orders, I've enjoyed thrifting online too.
- While flossing, I lost a piece of filling the next available appointment 1/20, and my phone repair is lost in the mail. Also, I never heard from my Dr about an appointment request I made on the 7th. Their next available, 12/31. I'm annoyed, YET I'm not letting this ruin my day. 2019 me would not have been this chill. #GROWTH
- I've read EdCode a lot this year & weirdly, I enjoy it. I never took the time to understand it, and I can't remember it being explained to me. It was a nebulous thing referenced to incite compliance. Moving forward, I plan to integrate EdCode when relevant into my professional development to help demystify and inform.
- A hope for 2020- More we, less me.
- I take medication to help address my mental health. In 2021, I need to be better at remembering them. There's nothing like going to take my meds in the morning and being like, 'Oh, I didn't take my meds yesterday. No wonder my day felt off.' I guess this also about striving for consistency as well.
- My phone was MIA for about a week or so, and I liked it. I plan on scaling down my apps & using do not disturb way more often. So if you need me, you know where to find me, but maybe take a walk or play a video game while you wait for me to respond, because that is probably how I'm relaxing if I don't pick up.
- Sometimes you get so busy you forget to do something you like, and that's ok.
- A personal work in progress is learning how to better manage my time, so I can truly relax. Not my usual 'after I do the dishes I'll be relaxed,' relaxing.
- I've been all Google since the early 2000s, but I will say, now that I work in a primarily Microsoft environment, there are some cool tools and features I've been sleeping on. However, I still find myself yelling at M365 from time to time. I miss Clippy. I could use his help sometimes.
- After an injury and the pandemic, I've lost my way with health and fitness. I've realized it's hard for me to be self-directed in this arena of life. I'm hopeful now that I recognize this, I can invest in ways to help me feel strong and healthy again. Now to figure out where to start.
- This year I updated from a travel hairdryer & plastic combs to a full-size GHD one and bamboo combs. I'm still learning how to style my hair like my stylist, but I'm able to duplicate the shine & softness, which is pretty cool. It's a nice thing to do for myself to feel cute, and I like it.
- I've been lucky to build relationships online & it was always amazing getting to meet folx IRL, but sadly we all know how that worked for 2020. However, 2020 reminded me how lucky I am to have connected w/so many wonderful folx & to never take the IRL moments for granted.
- Staying at home has given me a new appreciation for the moment of the sun, as I've watched the spots my cat likes to sit move throughout the house.
- Communication isn't a destination. It's a long-distance road trip.
- Some people learned to make bread, some got fit, others perfected a personal hobby, and I learned how to do my nails. However, you spent your time during various stay-at-home orders and quarantines. Don't let yourself or others shame you with how you spent your time. #StayAtHome
- I think this qualifies as a life hack. If you have room, save some wire hangers from the dry cleaner. We've used them for minor makeshift repairs, garden stuff, and holiday decorations. Also, many dry cleaners recycle them, so that's always better than throwing them away.
- We all get nervous during performance reviews, starting a new job, and the pandemic amplified those emotions. But today, I was reminded you never know how people see and value you and/or your work even if people up and down the chain of command and in your PLN don't actively tell you. Trust yourself, trust your work.
- I work with folx in education across the US, specifically the West Coast. As cliche as it sounds, the problems facing states and districts are not so different across state lines. One major trend I've witnessed is the push and pull between guidance vs. mandates and how to lead while still honoring local needs and local work.
- Just because things went your way doesn't mean you shouldn't stop to reflect and assess. If things didn't go your way doesn't mean you failed or that you've lost momentum.
Overall, I'm glad I did this project. It was nice to have one thing to do a day to think and reflect every day. It showed me why lots of folx like doing gratitude journals and one a day lists. I'm not sure I'll jump on that train, but it was cool to gain insight.
It was interesting that the tweets with the highest interactions based on likes (11, 6, and 16) had nothing to do with education. They were all about some sort of mental health concept. I think in many ways, that's a sign of the overall vibe of 2020 and a societal shift toward being more open to sharing and learning about mental health. Which if that's a side effect of 2020, I think that's something to be happy about.
During 20 for 2020, I also posted this meme-based tweet (not a part of the series), and it got 281 likes. This makes sense because memes and images do well on social media, but it makes me wonder about the time I invest in social media posts. I truly believe it's not about the likes, but part of why I've always loved social media is for the connections. That tweet had 23 comments, versus the 15 total for all of 20 for 2020, so not a lot of connections. I'm not going to stop posting, but this might be another reminder about time management and work-life balance.
Overall, I'm happy I did this because even though it was pretty inconsequential, this exercise showed me I can do something for 20 days in a row. Well, almost 20. There were two days where I had to double up because I missed a day, but it wasn't a horrible failure, and no one else noticed the doubles but me. Besides, fitness regimens have rest days, so this works right. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Knowing I have the capacity to do this is helpful because I have a lot of goals, big and small, that I'd like to work on in 2021, and consistency would be really helpful as I strive to make progress towards each one.
Speaking of goals, maybe I'll share those too. ;)
Monday, June 10, 2019
I haven't been on the Honor Roll Since High School.
My work ethic didn't stop when I left school in fact, if anything, it grew in strength. This school year was no exception. For my EdTech life, I found myself away from home volunteering or working about 15 times for anywhere for one to three days at a time. For my job as a Staff Developer, I worked my standard contract, 185 days, plus an additional 196 hours of overtime. That equates to 26 days.
For all of this, I am incredibly exhausted and grateful. This has been one of the most challenging school years of my life, managing the needs of teachers, budget cuts, and my husband and I bought our first house in January (thank you over time). I've had to say no to opportunities with friends and family during this past year all for the career I love, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I must say I am very happy for summer break so I can recharge my batteries.
I woke up Sunday morning, my third day of summer break, and started my regular routine. When I sat down with my cup of coffee to swipe through my notifications, I saw the following tweet.
— Jennifer Leban (@mrsleban) June 9, 2019
At first, I was confused. Why was Jen tagging me in this retweet? So I clicked the link and there in the 11th spot of the Honor Roll I saw my face. I almost did one of those tv sitcom spit takes. I had no idea about this. This was published on June 5th, and I was clueless.
Everyone in education has their sweet spot. My husband works at an Elementary School and loves it, my good friend is a new Teacher Librarian and is kicking but even in her first year. For me, I thought my place was high school, but after 6 years working with adults, I've found mine. I love specializing in pedagogy-first technology integration to enhance practice & student achievement. I'm so grateful that my travels with EdTech have helped me pursue my passion for inspiring others to share their stories & skills through technology. Best of all, I'm so happy that I can share the vision that technology needs to be implemented equitably to provide all students access and opportunity.
I am so lucky to be able to do all of this, and to be highlighted for my efforts is never something I expected. To be included on a list filled with other wonderful educators and EdTech enthusiasts perfectly punctuates the 18/19 school year.
Thank you EdTech Magazine for recognizing me.
P.S. If you're interested in seeing me IRL I'll be at #ISTE2019 this year. Click here to see where I'll be for #ISTE2019 and beyond.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Adventures in NV and AR Part 1
Monday, September 25, 2017
Drop and Give Me Clicks
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
& We're Back, to School That Is
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Pre-Back to School Happenings
- Have teachers sit by grade level or content area, especially when sites are mixed. Help push people towards collaboration and give them the opportunity to work in groups so hopefully, this can continue beyond this specific training.
- When you can, tag team a PD with another presenter you trust. Having a colleague from my department there to help share the load, saved my voice and provided additional perspectives to our learners.
- If your learners need to respond in an app, have them read something useful, like the California ELA/ELD Framework, important article or useful in district document.
- Specifically, with technology remind teachers it’s embedded in the standards or in other district initiatives.
- When attendees are walking in, play music, but not just any music, play stuff people can sing along to. I’m enjoying the Songs to Raise Your Kids to playlist on Google Play right now.
- If you’re filming sections of your PD and your participants don’t want to be on camera, film the slide they are responding to, that way you get their awesome comments but respect their privacy.



