Have I made it sustainable?

This time of year always makes me wax nostalgic. We still have over a month of school, we go until the end of June, but around now is when the year becomes more about wrapping up than it is about starting new things.

I always look back on what we've done in the lab. This year was particularly busy....

• 600 students a week
• 22 teaching periods
• 21 classes fully up on Google Apps (GAFE)
• 9 classes building independent Google Sites as portfolios
• 2 classes running their own independent blogs
• 1 class collaborating with pre-service teachers in North Carolina
• Rolling out ~100 Chromebooks for student use
• Tweeting, hash-tagging, and TagBoarding

the list goes on. These are just the things I did with students, reflecting on school-wide technology, data, social media, and professional development will have to wait until summer...

I am looking forward to next year too. Starting off by improving the blogs and Sites. Doing more. Pushing the envelope further. Seeing just how far 2nd through 5th graders can take this wacky thing called technology.

But what if I'm not here? Is it sustainable?

I'm not leaving. But what if I did? Have I created something that can continue without me?

My greatest fear is that I haven't done enough. That I haven't built enough of a foundation and framework so my students could carry on the torch after I'm gone. I worry the things I've put in place, the projects we've begun, will collapse without me.

It's a bit about me, selfishly, I think

It's not to say that I think I'm the only one who can do what I do. Definitely not the case. But everything I've done, all the projects and platforms we've put in place, has been for them, the students. And they like it. I think (I hope).

They haven't gone Lilliputian on me, strapping me down by my own mouse cords. Yet.

I suppose my greatest concern is that the students in the lab get pushed as much as I try to push them. That they get to do things beyond what most people think they should be (most people are surprised I  use GAFE, tweet, blog, and build websites with elementary students).

And if I'm not here, will it continue?

Will the blogs and websites be maintained. Will the tweeting continue. Will they still be able to push the bounds of possibility?

Back to the original question, have I made it sustainable? And if not 100% sustainable, to what percentage? 80%? 50%?

Which, I suppose, leads me to a related question, why do I stay? Why not pursue other opportunities?

... do I stay because it's about me and I don't want what I've helped build to falter. Or is it because I'm afraid I haven't given my students enough for them to make it sustainable on their own. Maybe it's because I know that without them, my students, I just some guy who spends too much time on his computer.

Like I said, waxing nostalgic. Nostalgic for September when the year is ahead of us, a blank slate. This time of year I think of all we've done, and I'm happy. But I always question whether I've done enough...

I'm not leaving. But what if I did. Have I made it sustainable?

#reflective