A few years ago, I had the privilege of co-presenting with teacher, Media-Specialist extrodinaire, Tracey Winey from Preston Middle School. Later, She invited me to Keynote at their STEM Educator Symposium. During a quick conversation on the stair well on the last day, their Principal Scott and her made quick comment along the lines of, “we are coming to visit you in Canada.” I thought it was flippant and the normal polite thing to say in conversation. Little did I know….

This weekend, Tracey, Scott, Mary, Ryan and Monique all arrived in sunny New Brunswick to visit. It is odd how some relationships form quickly and strongly despite long distances and infrequent encounters. While I waited in the airport, it felt very similar to that feeling I get when my University buddies get together. It is as if no time has pasted at all and we are good to go in moments despite years in between. How is it that I feel this way from only a webinar, and a symposium with a handful of tweets in between?  I think it has something to do with all of us being in mutual admiration of the other. I think that they rock. The funny thing is, they think I rock and were willing to pay more than the polite lip service, they spent time and ALOT of money to come and see me.

So we spent a day at the Hopewell Rocks, Cape Enrage and Alma. We got some lobsters. Tracey said she was a vegetarian who loved seafood. She wanted lobster. We went to Collins where there was an open tank of maybe a 100 live lobsters. She had a tough time. Just because you like steak, does not mean you want to go to a butchers to get it.

On Sunday Night, Riva opened her house to us and 12 other NB teachers. It was 2 hours of informal talking. I had invited specific teachers to come. I knew some of the needs that the Colorado people had that we could fill and I knew some of our issues that perhaps the Coloradoans could address. At each conversation, it was a 3 min introduction and then it quickly turned to shop talk. No agenda, no reporting, just good chat.

It is funny how “out-of-town” people bring a level of interest. Two weeks before, I had invited staff to come to a DEN conference. Only a hand full showed up. But because they were from away, lots of people showed up. It was very exciting to me.

I think it marked a change in how I interact with RHS Staff. For a long time, I have been giving talks and pondering what school could look like, but I have been isolated and unknown to the staff. This may have been a bit of a wake up, that 5 people from Colorado spent a significant amount of money to come see Ian. I was able to have talks with people I have never really spoken to before. I like it.

On Monday they visited my class. Marcel Leblanc and Cathy Duff from DO also came to visit. They saw Cynthia’s class peer edit on the SMARTBoards. Period 2, was my physics class where they also watched them work together on the boards. the cool thing was that the students came in, they started working without me talking to them and they were productive right away. I had to interrupt their work flow to introduce the guests and give the expectations of the day’s class. P-3 was similar, but they were working on a Phet sim. The class did very well considering it was their first time using a sim. I would circulate, ask vague questions, and leave. After about 15 min, I would circulate again and ask more questions. Teach more by speaking less.

We went to lunch at the HOMESTEAD. Scott was very happy with the large meat portions. Monique eat a piece of chocolate cake with boiled icing that was bigger than her head.

Monday night, we had them over to our house for sea food Chowder. Very fun. Later I went to their hotel where we talked about their Summer Symposium. I thought that their real power and hwo they are different than other symposiums is that they have a whole school solution, where math and english and sciences are not divided into silos, but rather mixed together. I also think it is powerful that you can talk the talk and then go downstairs and see that they are walking it.

Tuesday they went to the Miramichi. I am glad they went. There are lots of pockets of cool around our province, BUT the Miramichi has a whole district from K-12 of cool. They needed to see it.