I was fortunate enough to receive a $15,000 grant in 2012 (Thank you CDE and PacTIN) that would essentially be used to pay for professional development on my journey to implementing Common Core. I had set out to use the money to hire outside experts to help my team learn about increasing the opportunities for our students to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others (SMP 3), but what I discovered was that we weren't ready.
I felt that I could be successful in executing our original plan, however, some of my department members and colleagues were finding it difficult to even get started. So, instead of trying to fight it, I decided that the money would be better spent on hiring the outside experts, but shifting our focus to Common Core in general (Thank you, Patrick Callahan).
This is a video that I made that is my "digital story" of my journey with this grant. I chose to focus on how the grant impacted me personally and the growth that I experienced from receiving these funds. I believe that because of this grant I am a better teacher, colleague, and person. This is my story...
