February 16, 2018

I think I was a game show host in a former life.
Or, maybe I am a cruise director  at heart....no lie....true story......my former principal officially 'badged' me with a name tag that said " Julie...Cruise Director (The Love Boat) of the Middle School."

I love giving away prizes....I love it!   It brings me great joy to give things away.  I get this from my mother.  She was obnoxious at holidays, like Christmas.  So much giving.  I'm absolutely positive that I got my 'giving' love from her.

The minute I won these professional books at a recent EdCamp (South Carolina), I knew I would bring them back to my school and give them as prizes. 

How to give them away was the challenge:

I offered online training for the teachers in the middle school via Google Slides.  My teachers/colleagues/friends are overwhelmed with duties, classes, initiatives, etc.....I cannot bear to add to their plates by asking them to give up lunch/prep/or after school time by attending a formal training.  So, I am creating many different Google Slide presentations that serve as mini-training's for the staff.  I borrowed one inspiration from Dee....a Twitter slide show he shared at Winter institute.  I made a copy of the show and I completely redid it to serve the needs of my staff.  I sent it via email along with a very brief Google Forms evaluation. 

I gave the 5 books away to the first 5 teachers to complete the evaluation.  They did not know ahead of time about the prize.  I  kept it a secret! 

The winners were so surprised and happy, and honestly, they were so appreciative of receiving a PD book.  They told me they simply do not have time to read through and select a PD text.  The 5 of them are so excited about reading a new PD book and already decided to read and share and switch the books out so they can all become experts in these topics.  They are each sharing a brief synopsis of the books they received with our staff via email and via a faculty meeting.  I love that by giving this prize I stirred up a desire to "learn and share" with our staff!