Every now and then I get carried away. I know that I do it and yet, I still do it. This most recent cause of my runaway enthusiasm was the Technology Fair. For the second year, we have had lower school students participate in what has historically been a "middle school event" for our school. This year was a bit different, however, in that we had a record-breaking number of lower school student participants. It goes to show that the power of marketing really is amazing. I started advertising this year's technology fair during the first week of school. I sent out constant reminders, emails, tweets, signage, you name it to advertise the January registration date for the Technology Fair. Basically, I became a nag. Amazingly, it worked. With the help of the Middle School Media Specialist (@Bookman30022) by registration date between our two campuses, we had approximately 62 registrations for various categories. At this point, our school was feeling proud.
Next came competition day. Again, strong feelings of school pride as we placed in so many different unique categories. You can't help but get the chills as the Director of the Technology Fair calls up the winning students to retrieve their award. Interestingly, I happened to be absent that day as I was at Educon in Philly but I followed along so enthusiastically via Twitter and it brought me back to the pride I felt the previous year. At one point I was sitting in a conference session and I yelled out loud as I was seeing the names come across my Twitter feed. (Another piece of evidence of my getting carried away.) All of those who won first place then made it to the state level. Here's what was interesting though: by the time the state round came to be, we all already felt like winners. Students devoted their own time to these projects and with a little encouragement, a lot of enthusiasm, and superior parent support, they accomplished these remarkable projects that we now all feel so passionate about.
In fact, it shouldn't end with the Technology Fair. Throughout the remainder of the year, I am seeking opportunities to showcase the participants' projects. Today, I showed one of my classes a stop motion animation video created by two 5th grade girls out of Legos. They told the class how they worked for two months, took 3000 photos, and borrowed equipment from various family members to create the amazing project that we were now watching on the big screen. The students were dazzled. I mean seriously impressed. At that moment, I think they realized that they too can create something remarkable.
It's hard to understand how something as routine as a Technology Fair can bring out the level of pride that it has but, it has. Personally, I am so proud of the bravery, the courage, the creativity, the investment, the devotion, and the support that the tech fair participants demonstrated. Each and every single one of them.
