Using the Internet for Awesome

Some people hate Twitter chats. I am not one of those people, but I'm always interested to understand WHY people love or hate things. The complaint about Twitter chats is often that they are one-hour long echo chambers about the same topics that have been discussed over and over.

I have benefited greatly from a huge variety of Twitter chats. When I first joined the initially overwhelming stream of discussion topics tied to #edchat hashtags, I liked the questioning format of: How do you define x in education? How do you use x in your teaching? What are the problems with x in education? What are some resources to learn more about x? I connected with interesting people, got to share stories from my classroom and was inspired to try new things.

As I become more comfortable with online collaboration, 140 characters at a time, I want to push the envelope (like my friends Sean "#2pencilchat" Farnum, Doug "#weirded" Robertson and Ross "#totallyrossome" LeBrun). A few weeks ago, the incredible team at #cdnedchat (who l am thrilled to be a part of this year) embraced the idea of a virtual escape room, and #eduescape was born. The chat bucked the convention and participants were issued challenges that they had to complete before unlocking the questions about how to create immersive, interactive experiences in their classrooms.

When the other moderators at #cdnedchat invited me to host a chat about my new book, "Creating Classroom Magic: Using Lessons from the Life of Walt Disney to Create an Experimental Prototype Classroom of Tomorrow," I wanted to do something a little different. Because I believe strongly in practicing what I teach, I couldn't write a chat that stuck to the familiar format. Instead, I wondered if participants in a 60 minute chat could, in fact, use the power of social media and a PLN (Professional/Personal Learning Network), to make magic. Rather than talking about magic, we're going to try to make it. My hope is that we will be able to make a real change to someone in our hour together.

One of the recurring themes in edchat conversations is how wonderful it is to be a "connected educator" on Twitter and how powerful social media is. I want to test those assertions. How powerful can our voices be?

In the 24 hours leading up to the chat, as I refined the format and questions, I tweeted to members of my PLN who I know have wonderful ideas and great networks. I asked them to both join us and retweet the invitation to the chat. Several retweets and comments have made me optimistic that we'll have a large crew present to:

• Amplify our voices, stories and ideas in real time
• Be Brave to share the things that mean the most to us, our students and our communities
• Collaborate to raise awareness or funds (or even items) for something we care about
• Determine causes, stories, issues and ideas that would benefit from our help
• Empathize with others
• Find ways to take action

(extra points if you noticed how that list was organized!)

Some things to think about that will help you participate in this chat experiment:

• Let's do something unexpected. Creating magic is about surprising someone, giving them more than they expected and filling them with wonder. How may we do that using Twitter?
• I am going to try to create as much of a collaborative learning space as possible. If you have suggestions on how to make this better, please share them!
• What do you think to yourself, "I wish everyone knew about...." (I wrote a post this summer after a tweet I posted about a dead raccoon went kind of viral, exploring what I wish went viral, including #unicorns4molly)
• The format may be a little different than you're used to, but we'll use Q1/A1 to sort out our thoughts
• The ideas and stories that engage us might be different. I'm not sure what the result(s) of this chat may be, but want to make sure that everyone feels good about what we accomplish together!
• You will likely become engaged with other participants and want to continue the conversation, you can do so in the chat with the hashtag #cdnedchat, in DMs (direct messages) and/or long after the chat has finished. If you break off and have a conversation or planning session in DMs, please come back to the chat and share what you've planned!
• It's totally fine if you have to catch up once the hour is done! We'll monitor the hashtag for a while afterwards!
• Consider bookmarking interesting links that are shared during the chat so you can come back later and read further.
• I hope that we can be productive, hopeful and have an impact in one hour. I know that we can do all of those things in a day, a week, a month, a year or a lifetime. I hope that you'll find something in this hour that you want to pursue well beyond it. 

If you follow me on Twitter, you may notice that I often post videos, stories and pictures with the hashtag #DailyCry or a description of "all the feels" or the goosebumps said link produced in me. I search for and post things like this because I believe, despite everything, that humans are good. Watching the news, or even scrolling through a Facebook feed, it can be hard to remember this. In addition to exploring tough issues, I think we need to embrace and share the stories of people doing good, and, as Mr. Rogers said, "look for the helpers."


Over the past week, there have been tons of wonderful news stories, and stories of helpers. Here are just a few I found:

• Safyre Terry now has boxes filled with Christmas cards. This young girl was badly burned and lost her family in a house fire caused by arson. She lives with her aunt, who shared a photo of Safyre, by a Christmas card tree, and a wish that the tree be filled up.
• A Florida McDonald's Drive-Thru had a 250 person streak of "paying it forward."
• Sports Illustrated's High School Athlete of the Month is a big brother that led his community in fundraising to create an inclusive playground, so that his little brother, who has Cerebral Palsy, could play with his friends. How did he fundraise? He carried his brother on his back for two treks (totalling nearly 100 miles) he calls the "Cerebral Palsy Swagger."
• Students are wearing orange to support a schoolmate with cancer who was being bullied online.
• Residents of a drop in and rehab centre, who are homeless, donated money to the Children's Wish Foundation. The money was raised by collecting and recycling cans.
• High school students practiced empathy in a project called, "Walk a Mile in Her Hijab" where students who don't normally wear a hijab spent a day wearing them.
• A grade 8 student made a video board to help his friend communicate. Because he was struck by lightning, his friend was unable to communicate effectively. This young inventor created a device ethat his friend can control by moving his head to answer "yes" and "no." 
• This has been an exciting week in Canada, as the newcomers (Syrian refugess) that are sponsored privately and by our government begin to arrive to their new homes. Teach Kids News has an article about the newcomers to Canada (this is a great website that features articles written in kid-friendly language, and has curriculum connections for every news story.
• A children's choir in Ottawa (my hometown) learned and performed a historical Arabic song to welcome newcomers.

Some of the above stories have gone viral. All of them, and so many more, deserve to.

Who would benefit from our help? Let's figure it out together? Edvengers (yes, I went there) Assemble!

I can't wait to hear YOUR stories and help make some magic in tonight's #cdnedchat.

Going Vir-ish: 7 Lessons from a Dead Raccoon

If you've been online in the past 24 hours, you may have seen the ridiculous "news" story that blew up and has my phone buzzing almost non-stop.

The Story

Yesterday, across the street from my new apartment in Toronto, a dead raccoon appeared. I have no idea where it came from and have spent entirely too much time speculating on its origin. What I do know is that something about that dead raccoon captured people's imaginations and its story went viral. The reason I'm writing about it on here is that some photos I took and comments I shared on twitter have become a part of the raccoon's narrative.

My friend, Gillian, was staying with me for a few nights before heading off on an eastern Canada journey and back to her home in Scotland. My life's been even busier than usual lately, and, as always, I slowed down for a couple of days and promptly got sick. Gillian and I stopped at the pharmacy to get Halls. As I was paying at the cash, I noticed a gnarled hand out the corner of the window. Puzzled, I pointed it out to the cashier, she explained that there was a dead raccoon out front and people were giving it gifts. As a lifetime lover of the bizarre, I knew I had to see this with my own eyes. I called to Gillian to follow me when she was done and zipped outside.

If Periscope was intended for anything, it was this. You'll notice lots of citizen detective work and speculation naturally occurred as the neighbourhood came together around the dead raccoon and its continually growing shrine.


If you watch the video, you'll notice I seem like I'm interrupting myself a lot. Apparently when you save a Periscope video it only saves your footage, not the comments and questions people post.
Also, I know that videos are better in landscape. Periscope just works better in portrait.

Still perplexed, I shared a picture on Twitter using the hashtag (that was now spelled correctly). A quick search showed that there had only been a couple of other tweets using #deadraccoonto by that point. I confirmed that the city had, indeed, been notified of the roadkill and that they had responded that they were aware of the situation.

Hours later, after a movie and dinner, we noticed the raccoon was still in the same place, but people had turned it into a candlelit vigil. Once again, I shared via Periscope and then Twitter.


We walked the 120 m back to my apartment (seriously, it's that close, I checked) and watched as #deadraccoonto went viral. My phone didn't stop buzzing for hours as I was notified by Twitter about each favourite, retweet and comment.

This is a screenshot from about 24
hours after first posting this tweet,
note the retweets and favourites.

Pretty quickly, news outlets started picking up the story and I began to get calls, texts, Facebook messages and tweets from friends and family about Buzzfeed, Mashable, Imgur, BoredPanda and The Washington Post featuring my tweets and name. I can't lie. This was hilarious and giddying. I've never been a part of something that's been shared with so many people so quickly.

However, if you know me at all, you know that, while I do love the bizarre, I equally love analyzing situations. So, if you just came here for #deadraccoonto, hope you enjoyed the post and pics, bye!

If you are here to figure out what lessons I learned from a dead raccoon and going vir-ish (only going a bit viral), read on.

What I Learned:

1. People Love a Break from the Ordinary
In the middle of an ordinary day, pedestrians on this busy Toronto street found an unexpected sight and most could not help but stop, make a comment and take a photo. Standing over the dead raccoon, people were talking passionately, they were excited, disgusted and confused. We identified the problem and tried to figure out causes and solutions. Roadkill on its own attracts some attention.
This roadkill was brought to a new level by the imagination of the first person who anthropomorphized it and made people think about what they were seeing. I don't know what came first, the Post-It note telling the raccoon help was coming, the framed portrait, the Get Well card, the rose or the hashtag (though I have theories and there is some photographic evidence online) but each element enhanced the experience for passersby. I can't help but think that, while this wasn't necessarily intentional, #deadraccoonto turned into a pretty fascinating social experiment/art installation.

2. Doing Your Research is Really Important
The first article that I saw about the raccoon came from Buzzfeed and included several photos and tweets, including one of mine. Most of the articles that followed contained the exact same information and photos. Even as the story continued to develop (a donation box was added, more flowers were delivered, candles were lit), articles were published without updated information.
This reminds me how important it is to explore primary sources and not just recycle information that has been published elsewhere.
(Edit: In this article, I'm described as a woman who was "particularly touched by it") 

3. You're Always Being Watched
I love sharing my experiences and learning, both personal and professional, into the world on my blog, Twitter and Periscope (and, to a lesser extent, Facebook and Instagram), but it's easy to forget that anyone can see what I post.
This experience reminded me that the things I put into the world can be viewed, shared and interpreted by anyone. This lesson title sounds really creepy, kind of Big Brother-y, but I have kept it that way because, I guess, it is a little creepy. A video was shared online of a city worker looking at the raccoon, clearing a nearby garbage can and driving away. This was filmed from across the street, many floors up. As I viewed the raccoon, I shared what I saw and heard on Periscope.
We live in a world where very little is private. I stress with my students the importance of getting permission to photograph or record anyone, and especially if you are going to share what you've recorded.
Watching back my Periscope videos, I wish I had been more transparent with others that I was sharing what we were seeing publicly.

4. Spelling is Important
It's raccoOn, not raccon. The hashtag was misspelled initially. In the spirit of this collaborative public grieving, someone corrected the spelling. Had she not, who knows if this story would have been shared so widely.
Also, hashtags are so awesome. Students and I create hashtags for events and projects and #deadraccoonto, more than even #iste15, reminded me of the power of discussing a topic and sorting it with a single hashtag.

5. Give Credit Where Credit is Due
It was pretty neat to see my name and photo shared all over the place. When I started seeing people using screenshots of my photos in articles or their own posts without giving credit, I realized that, if I was really proud of what I'd created, I would have been cross. These were photos of an undeniably goofy event, but had these been photos of work my students or I created, I would have felt like they were being stolen.
Several media outlets used my photos and name without ever letting me know. I need to do more research, but I'm assuming that, by posting to Twitter, I'm giving them permission to do so. Others contacted me via Twitter for permission, which just seemed like good manners. The speed of online sharing is so fast that the rules don't seem to be keeping up. Once I put things online, I know that, to some degree, they're not mine anymore. It was interesting to experience that first hand.

6. Goofy Can Lead to Good
Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? People criticized it, but there's no denying that it raised a lot of money. Surely many people who posted videos didn't donate, but Canadians donated $16.2 million to ALS research because of it.
Right now, mourners of "Conrad" the raccoon are being directed to the website of the Toronto Wildlife Centre to care for orphaned wild animals.
With creativity, a goofy situation can be turned into a good cause.

7. There Are So Many Things I Would Have Preferred Going Viral
Far beyond my love for the quirky, offbeat and strange, I adore my students. There are so many incredible things that they have done that I have wanted to share with the world. We have been very lucky to connect with many people, learn with them and get feedback on our work. We've never gone viral, though. We've never reached a huge audience in a short time. Celebrating the strangeness of humans is terrific. I'm all for that. #deadraccoonto is hilarious. Celebrating the awesomeness and thoughtfulness of kids is way better.
I wish that these stories* had gone viral:
I wish that #spreadthesticky had friends and families texting me, saying they heard about it on the local news.
I wish that #Unicorns4Molly had been featured on Buzzfeed.
I wish that Drallibots got 600 retweets in less than 24 hours.
I wish that Project Thank You was written up in the Washington Post.
All of these stories touched me deeply. I am so proud of the kids who dreamed them up. I wish the whole world knew about their initiatives.

After all this, what I do know is that I'm really happy that social media exists. Being able to share, laugh, question and celebrate the details of life is one of the many reasons I'm happy I live in the future. The opportunities my students and I have had because of social media have been transformative. Please keep sharing, I know I will.

*If you don't like links, here is a quick rundown of the projects listed in Lesson #7:
I have amazing students who have shared about these initiatives online.
1. For Valentine's Day, grade 5/6 students started posting positive messages around the school to spread the love. They wrote their messages on sticky notes and hoped that others would contribute.
2. My hero, Molly Robillard, died of brain cancer in October 2014. She was twelve. I was her teacher for two years. Her best friends wanted to collect 1000 unicorns in her memory. The project was a success, we had more than 2600 unicorns on display at her funeral. We even had unicorns from (Canadian) celebrities Rick Mercer and Chris Hadfield. 
3. To raise money in Molly's memory, her friends were inspired by the Brave Bot Molly was given as a gift and kept with her in treatment. We created more than 700 hand-painted robots on dominoes. These robots are programmed to give their owners bravery. They raised more than $1100 for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
4. Project Thank You was created by a grade 6 student. He realized that people weren't showing enough gratitude and encouraged them to pass on words of thank you and then pay it forward. When you receive a Project Thank You card, you are encouraged to pass on two more.
See, aren't those EVEN better stories than a raccoon memorial!?

First #WeirdTBC Chat Complete

I don't mind one bit that this image reminds me of HIMYM.
I do, however, mind the backwards "E".
Love the idea, though!

It's so great to see something that you've thought about and helped organize come to life. Not that long ago (December 21st, to be exact), I noticed some educators that I follow on Twitter were talking about starting a book chat based on the book, "He's the Weird Teacher". I love learning from the author, Doug Robertson, on Twitter and had started reading the book (and enjoying it tremendously), so I chimed in. Because I worship at the altar of Google and can't think of ANY better collaboration tool, I whipped up a Google Doc and invited anyone to edit. We started putting together a framework for a weekly Book Chat. The planning was made even easier when Melissa Eddington started a Voxer group for people to share ideas. I had heard lots about Voxer, but never used it. I was surprised to see how easy the "Walkie Talkie" app is to use. You simply join a group and can listen to messages as they come in live, or save them for later. You can also write text messages to the same group. Aside from a 30 second accidental audio message I added while trying to show off the app to Tiiu, I've found it really simple and easy to use!

Tonight, at 8 p.m. my time (EDT), we had our first #WeirdTBC chat. Melissa hosted and, aside from small Twitter glitches (technology always works the worst when you want to prove how easy it is to use), it was a smooth chat with lots of participation. I think it was a great success for our first chat.

In the last of my tech complaints for this post, I nearly lost my mind earlier this week when my 2-year old Kindle Paperwhite (and, arguably, best friend) suddenly stopped working. I have ALL my reading on there and frequently highlight things I love and write notes. After speaking with an Amazon rep, I learned that it must be a hardware issue and I'm off warranty, so they could give me a small discount on a refurbished Kindle. That's it. Totally bummed, I realized that there's an iPhone Kindle app. Luckily, my wifi was on when my Kindle died, and all my highlights and notes were synced. Though I am not a fan of reading for long periods on my backlit and tiny iPhone screen, I was able to participate in the chat by using the highlights and notes I'd made. Phew.

I really like people who like "He's the Weird Teacher". Like a fellow Weird Teacher (Sandy Otto) in the chat said tonight, I've found my people. Doug's weekly chat (Wednesday nights at 10 p.m EDT) #WeirdEd is a highlight of my (digital, if not real) life. The things I love about the chat are the incredibly creative and thought-provoking topics and questioning strategies Doug uses to lead his chats. He picks a variety of fun, goofy and controversial topics and leads participants on a thought-provoking journey through his carefully planned questions. One week was a teaching as a metaphor for tattoos chat and just last night was a chat about American politician, Arne Duncan (Education Secretary). Some other Twitter chats are just too serious, too repetitive or too darn big. I always get something out of a Twitter chat. I always get A LOT out of a #WeirdEd chat.

Doug uses a lot of Matrix memes. He made this one.

In tonight's inaugural #WeirdTBC, we discussed chapters 1-4 and how our own teaching styles are reflected and inspired by the stories that Doug tells in his book. Melissa Storifyed (can I make Storify a verb?) the chat if you want to see what went on. It would be great to see the chat grow, so if you can get your hands on a copy of the book, we'd love to have you join us next week (time TBA)!

This is Doug's personal Rockstar Teacher mantra. I need something cooler than, "We all learn in different ways on different days."

A highlight for me tonight was getting to chat in more detail with some teachers I really enjoy connecting with. At the end of the chat, I put out a call to connect classes. Three teachers immediately responded, and instead of having one off Skype calls with them, I suggested we all collaborate and connect our classes. In the past, I've connected with other classes, and my kids and I have gotten so much out of it (new friends, global awareness, an authentic audience for our learning, collaborative planning). I've tried to take part in HUGE online connections (like Global Read Aloud), but like some Twitter chats, they've become so big, that's they can be overwhelming to navigate. I am looking forward to working with Sandy Otto, Courtney Albrecht and Jim Windisch and their classes. Want to offer some tips on our collaboration? Check out our planning doc!

I'll leave you with one of my other favourite discoveries of the night, a Mr. Rogers Remix.

30-Day Blogging Challenge: Day 26: Resources

Day 26: What are your three favourite go-to sites for help/tips/resources in your teaching?

The volume of information and ideas for teachers is overwhelming. There are great books, videos, websites, courses, conferences and people to learn from. I spend a lot of time online sharing my ideas and resources and learning from others. Picking three sites wasn't actually that hard, as each of the three I describe below are filled with unlimited ideas and inspiration.

TED Talks - When I need inspiration, not just in teaching, but in life, TED Talks are always there. The ideas worth spreading that are shared certainly open up my mind creatively. When I heard of a principal that ends interviews with the question, "What is your favourite TED Talk?", I thought, that is someone I'd like to work for!

EduAllStar podcasts - Passionate educators talking about their craft never cease to inspire me. It feels like you're sitting down for a chat with an amazing mentor. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, these interviews always empower me.

Twitter - If you're not on twitter, you should be. Play a bit, give it some time and start to interact. I'll never look back. I don't know what I did before I became connected. I have met so many amazing people, been directed to so many incredible ideas, blogs and resources. By selecting great people to follow, twitter curates all the info out there on the web and customizes it just for me. The resources I get are incredible. The connections even better.

#NBTchat in Oz

I love Twitter chats. With no school right now, I actually have time to really focus on them. For the uninitiated, there are literally dozens of chats hosted by teachers and provide you with personalized professional development each and every week. I've been looking over the list of edchats and joining ones that I think sound interesting.

Tonight, I joined #NBTchat (No Box Thinking Chat) and it was the BEST Twitter chat I've been a part of to date. Amazing creativity, enthusiastic sharing and every moment was interesting. As usual, it was hard to keep up with the stream of tweets, but I loved it so much that I popped over to Storify and made a record of my favourite tweets.

I loved that the moderator, Dr. Sharon Young approached the chat in a novel way. Each question asked the participants to relate No Box Thinking (as in, you're not only outside the box, you've gotten rid of the box entirely) to characters from The Wizard of Oz. There was a 30 minute pre-chat that teased at the theme as well.

If you don't participate in Twitter chats yet, I cannot recommend them highly enough. Find one that appeals to you and give it a go! They're the best way to build your PLN.

#summerLS

Instead of focusing on how I had such good intentions for my blog and haven't even come close to posting regularly, I'm just going to get started on this post and make a goal to post more often. That shouldn't be hard, as I have written exactly four posts in a year and a half.

This is what relaxation looks like! I rewatched the entire first
season of Orange is the New Black with my mother-in-law.
She loved it.

In the middle of June, Todd Nesloney (@techninjatodd), the principal of Navasota Elementary in Texas, tweeted out an invitation to join his staff in a Summer Learning Series (#summerLS). Although I am totally wiped from a crazily busy year, I thought I should give it a try. As it turns out, I'm really glad I did. It explains my return to this blog!

For those of you who don't know me in person, I am a BLOG LOVER. It started out with a little Will Arnett research project (for those of you who know me, keep the details to yourself!). After several months of blogging on my own, I realized the awesome educational potential of blogging, and blogged with my grade 7/8 classes at Fielding Drive Public in Ottawa. Access to the school's one computer lab was always an issue, but the blog work students did was incredible and in 2009, I moved four History classes totally online. You can check out my History Blog and the amazing student blogs. The year after that, I changed the name of my blog to a Digital Classroom and have integrated a class blog that I host ever since. Despite, or perhaps because of, the success of using a blog to help direct my students and celebrate our learning, I have let a personal/professional blog go by the wayside. However, I get so many wonderful resources, ideas and inspiration from blogs I read, I figure that I really need to commit to writing one.

One of the challenges from Todd was to reflect on our teaching practices. I do this all the time, in Twitter chats, with amazing friends and colleagues and, most importantly, with my students. I have very little record of my reflections and am unable to share them with others except in quick 140 character bursts! Maintaining this blog will let me do that.

I could add some profound idea about how my life is like a puzzle - fitting all the pieces together. But, instead, I'll brag - we completed this puzzle, all 1000 pieces in mostly bad lighting - even the super tricky part that is open and blank in this shot.

The past week, I was at my in-laws' cottage on Lake Champlain in upstate New York. Being in a cabin in the woods gave me a lot of quiet, reflective time. Even though I had my laptop, phone and Kindle with me, they spent a lot of time tucked away, unlike at home, where my devices and I are joined at the hip (or lap). I slept well, swam, boated, read (for fun and PD), watched 4 fireworks shows over the lake (one of which had more than 10 people firing off fireworks at the same time - awesome!), participated in only a few Twitter chats, and, with the help of my husband (Captain Handsome) and mother-in-law, completed a 1000 piece puzzle. Going out on the boat gave me reflective time, as it's too loud to have a chat and difficult to multi-task. Like when I am in the shower or the car, I had time to just think.

Not a bad place for sitting and thinking.

There are a lot of things I am doing in my classroom that I am loving. In fact, there are very few things I don't love. That's the problem I'm having. A huge topic of discussion in my life right now is Work-Life Balance and because I am passionate about my work, it's often hard to do anything else. Almost everything I see, read, do or hear gives me an idea for the classroom. A goal for next year, which is reflected in my family and friends' feedback, as well as the feedback I received from my students and their parents, is to scale back. Pick a few things and really focus on those. That will be really hard for me, especially when I hear about the incredible things that are going on in classrooms around the world. I hope that regularly reflecting here will help me. By sharing more of what I'm doing and really taking the time to explain the reasons I'm doing it, I hope that I'll slow down my thinking a little bit.

This has very little to do with this post. It's
just my favourite pic from the week at the cottage.

I am very grateful to Todd for his innovative and inclusive #summerLS and look forward to sharing more about what I learn while completing them.

Sunshine Blog Award

Today, I got a notification on Twitter that Jeffrey Humphries @itechteach nominated me for the Sunshine Blog Award 2013. He actually nominated our class blog, but I've been keen to start blogging on here, so I'm going to go ahead and respond on here, but I'll post a link to my class blog as well!

Jeff is an itinerant teacher with our board (OCDSB) and he's the one who, just a year ago, introduced me to the Google Drive. He told me about the accounts that are set up for all students and staff in my board and, since then, my teaching has been revolutionized! I ran into Jeff this week at the first meeting of my Digital Learning Network and look forward to working with him! Check out his blog Technology 4 All and follow him on Twitter. Thanks for the nomination, Jeff!


So what is a Sunshine Blog Award?  A nomination requires some reflecting and some fun at the same time. The requirements include:

• Acknowledging the nominating blogger(s),
• Share 11 random facts about yourself,
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you,
• List 11 bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little “link-juice,”
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and notify them.

11 Random Facts About Shauna

1. I have an undergraduate degree from Mount Allison University with a major in Literature and a minor in Religious Studies
2. I worked for four summers at the most amazing summer camp, Red Pine (I was a camper there from age 2 onwards!)
3. As a kid, I swam, rollerbladed and skied competitively. I haven't skied in 15 years,  or rollerbladed in five but I still swim for fun. One Christmas vacation in Florida, I dared myself to swim 500 laps in a week.
4. My four brothers run a gold buying company with twelve offices across Canada. 
5. I attend just about every Professional Development workshop that I can. In the past month, I attended The Rainbow Youth Forum, The Google Apps for Education Summit, OCDSB Digital Learning Networks and EdCamp Ottawa 2013.
6. I love reading, especially Young Adult fiction, especially dystopian future YA fiction. I read at least a book a week on my Kindle Paperwhite.
7. I've been with my husband, Matt, since we were 17. 
8. I love to travel. I love to plan and if I wasn't a teacher, would probably be a travel agent.
9. I have been to at least two countries in every continent except Antarctica. My goal is to visit at least as many countries as my age, I'm on track for a while, as I've visited thirty-seven so far. 
10. When I was in grade 4, I was selected to give flowers to Princess Diana. I thought that would lead to me marrying Prince William.
11. I don't have any children, but I have three awesome nephews, with one more on the way.

Answer the Following 11 Questions the nominating blogger has created for you:

1. What is your favorite movie of all time? Three way toss up: Wayne's World, Dumb & Dumber and Back to the Future 2.
2. If you could have attended any concert anytime in history, what would it have been? I just wish I'd gotten to see Michael Jackson live.
3. What do you do for fun? Hobby? I love watching TV series on Netflix. Right now, I'm rewatching all of X-Files and starting Episodes. I also love to paint and do crafts.
4. What two guests would make the best comedic pair as co-hosts for the Oscars? Jim Carrey and Mike Myers
5. Cat, Dog or Goldfish? Why? Cats. Because they're hilarious and I want more than the two that I have already. My husband says he is the only thing standing between me an Cat Lady-dom
6. How do you caffeinate? I rarely have caffeine, but when I'm on a long road trip, I drink Coke. I especially like Cherry Coke available in the States
7. Favorite twitter chat? I love the things that go on #bcedchat, especially when they talk student mental health
8. Best place you ever vacationed? I love small, off-the-beaten path places, like Koh Lanta, Thailand, Lombok, Indonesia and anywhere in Lesotho.
9. Best book you’ve read in 2013? 
10. Favorite television shows? Buffy, Arrested Development, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dead Like Me, Survivors, Veronica Mars, Weeds....so many!
11. What is one thing you never/rarely share that you are exceptionally proud of? This one is really tricky, because I don't want to share the stuff that I don't want to share about. However, this was pretty cool. Particularly the letters of support I received for the nomination from former students. Those are the people I'm exceptionally proud of, and the influence I've been privileged enough to have.

11 New Questions for My Nominees!

1. What was your favourite toy as a child?

2. What's your favourite board game?

3. What movie universe do you wish you could live in?

4. Zombies, robots or vampires?

5. What's your favourite TED video?

6. Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is your favourite?

7. If you could start a museum, what would it be called?

8. If you ran a workshop for teachers, what would the title be? (Thanks @msmagiera)

9. What's your best tip for a beginning teacher?

10. What one thing would make your job easier?

11. If you could have any other job, other than the one you currently have, what would it be?

My Sunshine Award Blogger Nominees:

1. Tiiu Tsao (@tiiut)

2. Amy Bowker (@classcollect)

3. Mrs. Martel (@MrsMartel2)

4. Andrew Parent (@parent_ocdsb)

5. Jane Smith (@janesmith)

6. Toby Jones (@rocknrolljonesy)

7. Pamela Jones (@pamguyjones)

8. Anna Hipperson (@annahipperson)

9. Daniel Atkins (@AtkinsTweeting)

10. Lisa Mims (@BriteEyes49)

11. Jen Runde (@JenRunde)

Have fun! I look forward to reading your posts!