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The Power of the Ampersand

Leigh Ann
Aug 17, 2017
4 min read

If you read my last post , you know that I am an introvert and that there are a thousand other things I would rather do than stand up with a microphone and speak to a group of strangers. It's just not my strength. However, with a microphone in hand and a prayer on my tongue, I stood up in our conference room and co-presented our session, "Making the ISTE Standards Work for You."

Check out 90 minutes of session in 30 seconds:

While I won't go into every minute of our hour and a half presentation, I will say that God was joyfully along for that entire ride. Amy and I had a blast during the session; the people who attended were the friendliest and batted ideas back and forth that we all benefited from for our schools! When the room was empty after everyone left, I felt the most peace I had in the few days leading up to our presentation. "So that's how people who love speaking in front of people feel," was honestly one of my first thoughts, and you know what...that wasn't me. God completely showed up and showed out because this introvert has never felt that way! Our feedback was positive, and Amy and I are already working on our proposal ideas for #ISTE18.

Things could not have gone more smoothly during set-up; the ISTE technical support team was amazing! Our room was wired and ready to go as soon as we got there. The only issue that I ran into was I chose a really chunky and somewhat noisy necklace, so the lapel mic wouldn't work for me. While I liked the idea of having free range for the presentation, I was grateful because I had something to do with my hands; Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights is literally me whenever I'm taking a picture or talking without something in my hands. I'm pretty sure that awkwardness is paired with my particular brand of introversion.

At the very start of our presentation, we polled our attendees through a back-channel about their roles in their schools. This was the first big "God wink" I recognized: the majority of people there either 1. had the same job I currently have or 2. teach third grade, the job I just moved from. How perfect! That immediately eased some fear because I was speaking with people who teach the same subjects and ages!

During the beginning parts of the presentation, I caught myself forgetting to breathe; as soon as I realized it though, I said a quick prayer and instantly, I was filled with a calm that I was not capable of creating myself. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for providing the things we lack!

Y'all are probably going to roll your eyes at the next God wink, but I firmly believe that He is in the smallest details. One sweet attendee in the front row was wearing a shirt printed with cartoon cats. I'm a cat person who may or may not have several cat-themed clothing items in her closet herself. While that seems so silly, it was another reminder that our audience members are just people, a fact that I somehow forget whenever I have to speak in public.

Amy and I centered our entire presentation and our last school year around the ampersand symbol. It represents togetherness, a tie between two or more entities. While we initially intended for it to be about technology and curriculum, it quickly became present in all areas of our lives. The meat of our presentation was a break down of the ISTE Student Standards and a lesson planning tool to help teachers incorporate these with the curriculum and student learning at the forefront.

(If you are interested in learning more about our planning tool, message me, and I'm more than happy to share!)

The more we began to flesh out our presentation and lesson plan template, the more we realized how many places the ampersand applies:

technology teachers & classroom teachers

technology & curriculum

teachers & students

students & students

teachers & teachers

While, yes, Amy and I are part of the instructional technology team, we are by no means the only ones qualified to help meaningfully integrate these devices and tools into the classrooms. Students can help teachers and teachers can help other teachers; Amy and I can visit classrooms and assist in any way needed; students can demonstrate new tools through interaction or screen casting. Anyone who has an interest in the student learning experience can and should be a part of technology integration! We're all in this together!

(so many references today: Cue High School Musical)

During the waiting period between the ISTE proposal submission and the acceptance email, Scarlet and Gold released a tee with the ampersand symbol. This is one of our favorite companies with a messages we believe in and are trying to live out, so we went that same day and bought matching ones. The message behind the tee from S&G reads:

"We believe in not doing life alone. We were created for community to encourage one another and build each other up. The ampersand is a connector. It takes two or more things and joins them together....[it] symbolizes the importance of unity in the body of Christ. This takes the broken people with nothing in common and joins them together as family."