Knowing Your Why

"Knowing your why is essential when attending an educational conference.  What is your "why" for this year's conference?  What are you hoping to learn?"

This was one of the questions that dropped in the #isteten chat earlier this week.  #Isteten is not a chat that I normally participate in, but I jumped in at the invitation of a friend.  I quickly dropped in my response, which was "To help my #4OCFpln family share the message about taking charge of your own PD! Secondary, to connect face to face with my #PLN." 

To be honest, my initial 'why' was just to be connecting face to face with a group of educators that has impacted me greatly in the last year and a half.  I am not a technology teacher.  Some people might question why I would even want to go to a technology conference like ISTE.  I believe I can learn something from any conference I attend, but I would not be attending ISTE if it wasn't for my #4OCFpln. 

We had discussed the possibility of submitting a proposal for a session at ISTE.  When the deadline for proposals came around, one of us stepped up and submitted a proposal for a panel presentation on Taking Charge of your own PD.  (Thank you @leachteach4 for doing that for us!)  All of us were thrilled when we heard that our proposal had been accepted!  I knew at that moment, I wanted to be there!  With no funding from my school, I paid for my conference fee, housing, and travel expenses, because this was important to me.

And then this question of "why" comes up in this #isteten chat.  I have become very familiar with the question "What is your 'why'?" because it comes up in our #4OCFpln chats every week!  (Thank you for bringing us back to our "why" @emercedlearning !)  It has also come up in a book study I am participating in with #2menandabook, Divergent EDU by Mandy Froehlich.  She says that teachers need a why and then references a video on YouTube, Know Your Why by Michael Jr. (2017).  If you have not seen this video, take a few minutes to view it.  I promise you it will be worth it!  My favorite quote from this video, which Mandy uses in her book is as follows:
"When you know your why your what has more impact because you're walking in and toward your purpose."

I truly want "To help my #4OCFpln family share the message about taking charge of your own PD!".  But looking back at the original question, I did not answer the last part, "What are you hoping to learn?"  I am hoping to learn how I can more effectively implement the use of tools with which I am already familiar.  If I learn about new tools while I'm there, that will be a bonus!

Do you know your 'why'?