I’m so excited and amazed to officially announce that I have been selected as a White House Champion of Change for Connected Educator Month!  The recognition honors educators who are taking creative approaches with technology “to enhance learning for students.”

The ten of us selected were among thousands of nominees (all very deserving), which also rocks my world.  We get to be part of a panel on Thursday in D.C.  talking about our work and the work of connected educators.  And in the connected way of things, I am thrilled to actually know four of the people because of Twitter.

I feel so absolutely thrilled to get to share all the powerful work that so many of my colleagues do.   I know how hard so many of us work to share the power of connections with our faculty and with our profession in general, and I want to do my best to represent that.    And as the only librarian there, I especially want to support the many ways librarians are taking the lead in schools in getting students and teachers connected.   I’m so thrilled, too, to just celebrate all the people I’ve met and learned from all these years.  These connections we build make our work so much more thoughtful and powerful, and inform our work in our own schools.

To be specific, connecting is the way that I (and many educators) work.   I’m learning from the first tweet of the morning until the last webinar at night how to be a better educator and librarian.  I’ve built friendships, traveled to new places, found new passions and interests, engaged with our students and teachers, and deepened my own learning.   I want the same for all of our nation’s students and teachers.  They all deserve those opportunities to explore, learn, and grow beyond the borders of wherever they live.

To be honest, there are so many people I know that are doing so many interesting and good things, that I initially felt a little embarrassed to be selected.  But I decided that my mission is to go and “represent” on behalf of all the good things that I know are going out there.  I think each of us can give voice to that, and if a larger venue gives it more voice, that is a good thing.

The event is going to be livestreamed (which I am trying not to think about) on Thursday on WhiteHouse.gov, and will be available on White House.gov’s YouTube channel after that.

I’ll be sharing more details of the trip when I get back, but for now, I just wanted to say, I’m going to the White House!