It's that time of year....

The semester is over, I have one more day and a few hours to work before 2010. I am sitting in my quiet office reflecting on what I have done for the semester/year and pondering how I take my performance from good---to GREAT. I love my job, I love teaching, and I love the people I work with. Sometimes that's the perfect storm which motivates you to do MORE and BETTER. So, as I sit in my office, winding back up for the next semester, I wonder what my next "thing" will be. With faculty professional development, we have to stay current and relevant because we already know that faculty have very little time to devote to us and it's our job to make our learning opportunities hard to resist. In fact, we need to make them a necessity...without mandating them! What I really want is for faculty to have "conversations"...conversations get our blood pumping, give us fresh ideas, build camaraderie, and inspire us. As an example, I think of the conversations I have with my fellow techy faculty and instructional designers/technologists. We meet several times a semester to plan workshops and share ideas. I always leave those meetings feeling inspired and motivated. I would like to replicate those emotions with all my professional development opportunities. With that said, a few bland and boring ideas bubble up -- create a college technology users' group, schedule open conversations in the CTL....*yawn* HELP! Ideas please! Maybe I need a weeks vacation and the ideas will begin to flow....happy holidays