My Ed Tech Journey

I was "sold" on educational technology in the fall of 2005.  I attended a workshop hosted by Bob Hays at ESU 11 in Holdrege, NE.  At the time, I was a full-time social studies teacher and head football coach at Southern Valley Schools.  I also had two daughters ages 3 and 1.  Mr. Hays introduced me to myElearning, which was one of the early Learning Management Systems (LMS).  When I discovered that I could put quizzes and tests online as well as links to relevant websites for students to explore, I was hooked.  

It took a lot of work to put materials online and create study guides, quizzes, and tests, but it was time well spent!  As the years progressed, I added more materials and started going to Ed Tech conferences.  I felt stupid at first, seeing all the amazing things teachers in Nebraska were doing plus I knew nobody at these conferences, but I kept going.

Eventually, my time in coaching came to an end. I then decided to get a Masters degree in Instructional Technology, which I finished in the spring of 2011.  That was a challenge, but very rewarding.  I was still teaching social studies full-time, but added a few other duties. My superintendent at the time, Chuck Lambert, purchased a Daktronics big screen for our gym and asked that myself and the Journalism teacher, Meredith McQuay, be in charge of creating content for the board.  He equipped us with the right tools and we were off!  I was given the duty of running the board, so we trained students to run the board at events in the gym.  

A year later, a young lad named Taylor Siebert came to Southern Valley to pitch his idea of having students live stream sporting events on the Internet.  Meeting Taylor and purchasing his Striv.tv service added to my responsibilities, but also created opportunities for our students to be involved in creating content as well as providing a service to our parents, fans, and fans from other teams.  

Around this same time, 2012, I helped create and run the Southern Valley Schools Facebook page.  To see how communicating via social media has changed over the years is amazing!  Some people are more likely to ask a question on Facebook than they are to call the school now.  We expanded to using Twitter and Instagram shortly thereafter and I became the K-12 Technology Integration Specialist at Southern Valley.

Eventually, in March of 2018, a technology integration position opened at Holdrege Public Schools. I interviewed and was offered the position I now hold, K-12 Technology Integration Specialist.  I have lived in Holdrege for over 20 years now and my daughters attended school here, so the chance to be in a great school system as well as the opportunity to see my daughters at work every day was too good to pass up.  I live stream events on Striv, run the school social media accounts ( which have expanded from one Facebook and one Twitter account to 4 pages on FB,  1 Twitter, and 3 on Instagram). We went from posting once a month to posting about all HPS events. 

Fast forward to March 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.  At practically every meeting I attended to help formulate our plans for an "Alternate Learning Environment," administrators and teachers kept what is best for student first.  We also realized that what is best for students is also best for their families. 

My daughters were greatly impacted by the pandemic. One was a senior and the other a sophomore. I saw first-hand how the pandemic affected our students, especially seniors.  There are several milestones for seniors: Prom, Honors Night, Graduation, and at my house, the Dance Recital where seniors get to make up their solo dance.  

Prom was "postponed," "Honors Night" and Graduation did not happen in the traditional sense and the Dance Recital was cancelled.  I ended up creating "virtual Honors Night" and "virtual Graduation" videos which we streamed on our Striv channel. We eventually held a "live" graduation ceremony on July 24, but it wasn't the same as a traditional ceremony. 

Looking back at my career, several things have become clear. 

1. I love what I do.

2. I have worked with an excellent administrators and outstanding teachers.

3. Getting out of my comfort zone by attending conferences and meeting people from across the state and country has given me a network of people I rely on for advice.

4. I went from being an attendee to presenting at conferences.  I know I'm not the greatest presenter in the world, but one gets better with practice so I keep submitting proposals. I have attended local, state (NETA & Google Summit), and national conferences such as ISTE and FETC.  I have spoken at conferences such as the ESU11 Fall Conference, NETA Fall Conference, and NETA Spring Conference. 

5. Twitter has been a game changer! The #NebEdChat, #NearpodChat, and other chats have expanded my PLN to educators across the country.  

In the fall of 2020, my duties expanded as the tech coordinator at HPS retired, then the tech aide moved on to another job, so I was the only tech person at HPS for a few months. I trained our current tech coordinator, Darren Hanson, when he joined HPS a few years ago as he came to us straight from the classroom. With our background as teachers, we can prioritize what teachers need and help them when they have issues.