One More Thing...

Just posted this to the private Apple Distinguished Educator community site, and I thought I'd share it here as well.

While discussing an upcoming keynote today with a group, I started thinking about the phrase, "One more thing..." and realized that there are two different interpretations of these words in our world. The first comes from beleaguered educators who are faced with changing their teaching in a digital age; the other comes from Steve Jobs who always had us on the edge of our seats when he invoked that phrase. Teachers often perceive technology as one more thing added to their overburdened duties, but coming from him, you knew that something magical and transformative would follow. If only we could turn "One more thing.... " into something more positive for our colleagues who haven't yet grasped the power of technology to amplify teaching, learning and general human experiences. Let that be our mission moving forward... to continue evangelize the spirit of innovation and to never stop believing that we can collectively change the world. 

That said, I'm eternally grateful to Steve and Apple for allowing me to be a part of this community. It's been such a rich opportunity to partake in Apple culture and to learn from so many gifted and visionary people. When I first became an Apple Distinguished Educator, many people told me it would be a life changing event. I admittedly was skeptical, as how often are we given the heads up that a life change experience is imminently upon you? Time, however,  has proven this to be true, and I want to thank everyone at Apple for inspiring me to be a better educator, advocate for excellence, and active participant in this world. Let's carry on, always remembering all that Steve stood for.  We still have a lot of work to do!