There is a saying that 'when it rains it pours' and I have really felt that over the past couple weeks! I was given one of a few short-noticed promotions for Feb. 1st., wonderful news that completely surprised me. I am now a Vice Principal of a Middle School and my two weeks there have been great! But I've spent 1/2 a year developing 3/4's of a program and it was very hard to let go. I spent this weekend doing my last duty for the program. I video-taped a few students doing their Exit Interviews and have put it together for a presentation this Tuesday. I'm glad this lingering obligation is over, and I am happy about my predecessor, he is someone who will take what I have started and make it better!

I've written this post in my head for days now and it just isn't coming out right so I'm switching things up a bit:

Wednesday was when I got the phone call offering me the VP position.
Thursday was my last day of school with students in my Planning 10 classes.
Friday was a Pro-D day and I spent it with Student Teachers telling them all about Web2.0 skills.
Monday morning I was in a session with Alan November.(See NovemberLearning.com.)

And that's when the Tidal Wave started!
It began about an hour into the Alan November presentation. First the announcement for my new position came out and a flood of congratulation e-mails came flowing in. Then Alan was speaking about all the neat tools Google has, and then within an hour I was being invited to present at his BLC08 Conference in July!

To call the events leading up to this serendipitous is an understatement. Here is how it evolved:
• Someone from my Learning Team just happened to be sitting at a table that put me within an arm's reach of Alan.
• Alan began to expand on what Google can do as a result of a participant's question.
• I just recently discovered and wrote about Google History.
• Alan walked right by me on the break and I asked him if he knew about Google History, "No, show me," he says...
• I go to my blog to get easy access to the link and Alan happens to catch the title of my blog as I immediately begin scrolling down to the post, "You're Pair-a-Dimes?"  ["Yes", I say, still fixated on finding the link for him.]
• He asks me again, "You're Pair-a-Dimes, you're that guy? I've read you, I've seen people link to you, you're that guy!" [So now I'm excited!]
• I show Alan Google History and a few things from my presentation I just happened to have done the Friday before for student teachers.
• Alan asks me to show the group Google History and "a few other things, whatever you want," after the break.
• I go through my Brave New World Wide Web presentation, skipping 'the competition' and show a few links from my del.icio.us.
• Alan comes to me afterwards and says he wants to get me to his conference. He asks for 3 presentation ideas, and as of a couple days ago, I'm going to be presenting all 3 of them at the conference.

So many things had to coincide for this opportunity to open up for me. It has been all so overwhelming! A new job, an old job that I couldn't just drop, and a presentation opportunity... all vying for my time and energy. I fell asleep twice at my computer last week.

Despite this overwhelming Tidal Wave of activity, what excites me equally as much are the tiny Ripples that I have seen recently too!
• Two teachers from my last school joined my presentation to Student Teachers, one of them started his first class wiki while in the session. Five of the student teachers have been in contact for some level of support/guidance since the presentation, (guilty admission here, I have not been going to their wikis to see how things are progressing).
• Another two teachers, as they offered well-wishes with my new position, thanked me for my guidance- both of whom I did little more than 'show a few things'.
• At my new school I am amazed at how receptive teachers have been to web2.0 tools. I spent Friday afternoon until 4pm with two of them.
• Considering how busy I have been, and how new to the school I am, I've been awed by the staff's receptive welcome and eagerness to try new tools. On more than one occasion I've been learning from them as I suggest a tool and then they suggest an engaging use for the tool that I would never have imagined.
• Next week, I'm helping out with a presentation to parents, at my previous (high) school, to help them navigate MSN, Facebook and other means to connect to their digitally competent children.
• As an added bonus my Brave New World Wide Web presentation has been viewed almost 800 times, downloaded 25 times and embeded 10 times... more ripples.

I'm totally excited about this Tidal Wave that I caught and have been riding for a couple weeks now, but it the end, I think the Ripples of change that I have seen recently are what's really going to make my new job meaningful to what I blog about in the future. And on this final note, I think that I will be leaving eduspaces and taking my Pair-a-Dimes somewhere else. I think I'm going to follow Clay's lead and host my own Word Press blog. I don't regret anything about my experience with elgg, then eduspaces, I just think that I need some things that this wonderful open-source initiative simply isn't providing me. My move will be unconventional, (and time consuming), and I hope this approach will be cathartic as well as inspiring fodder for my upcoming presentations... but more on that later.