Why I'm Excited for 2013

Classroom innovation
I’m excited to keep blowing up my history classroom, to keep pushing on what a history class is and what a history class can be.

Student discussion series
I am looking forward to talking with students, former and current students, about what school and history class is, and what school and history class can be. I’ve already started to publicize these sessions with my students, and I’m excited to hear what they have to say and how I can incorporate their ideas into my practice.

EdCampsFoDayz
1/12: EdCampLA, 2/16: EdCampCV, 2/23: EdCampMadWI. I love EdCamps. I love the format. I love the energy. Three EdCamps in the first two months on the year? That’s all sorts of #EduAwesome! I’m particularly excited about EdCampMadWI: I’m taking my mom, who has been on her local school board for about 20 years, to her first EdCamp.

Chromebooks
I was lucky enough to have a Donors Choose request for 8 Chromebooks fully funded. I am SO excited for what this will allow my history students to do!

Conference basketball season
I’m lucky enough to get to help coach the JV basketball team at my school. In the offseason, the coaches and athletic directors chose to realign the basketball divisions geographically (as opposed to power leagues as they had been). This means that my kids will be able to play against their friends and two rivals twice each season, as opposed to once last year. Full gyms on a Friday night? Heck yes!

COflip
More soon. Promise. :)

#etmooc
I don't have a huge idea of what #etmooc will be like, but the people who are organizing it, and the people who are involved in it, will make it a place where I learn a ton about educational technology.

#MIflip
I’ve been lucky enough to get to help organize the first MIFlip conference. I excited to get to head out to Grand Rapids for the conference and hang out and learn with all sorts of crazy-intelligent folks.

CanFlip13
Flipped learning conference? Organized by Carolyn Durley and Graham Johnson? That conveniently allows me to explore the mountains of British Columbia for the first time? Done and done.

The roadtrip up to CanFlip13
Redwoods. Oregon coast. Old friends. Hiking across Olympic National Park?

More conversations about flipping history
I was lucky enough to come across Tom Driscoll and David Fouch, two history teachers who flip their history classrooms, on Twitter. I’ve gotten the opportunity to talk about what a flipped history classroom looks like with them several times on Google+. I’m hopeful that these conversations will continue in 2013!

The 18 things I forgot to list
Self-explanatory. I'm getting old.