Connectiveness.  Collaboration.  Community.

It’s interesting because one might think that the moment school is out for summer, teachers shun anything that has to do with work or education.  But you’d be wrong.  This is the time when educators come alive…we don’t have to worry about faculty meetings, after school tutoring, papers to grade, lessons to plan…we finally have the freedom to do whatever WE want to help keep us charged and amped up about being part of the best profession in the world.

This week, I found myself added to a group on Twitter comprised of tech leaders in the OC.  We were lamenting on the fact that we needed to create some type of cohesiveness among the educators in OC…if anything just to touch base but I think more importantly to build stronger connections between districts.  I know that there is a lot of good stuff going on around the county…and we have some remarkably creative and talented teachers who are touching the lives of countless students.  We know that working in isolation is not going to cut it anymore.  The digital society that we live in is interconnected.  We feed off of each other’s triumphs and learn from each other’s trials.  And what better way to build a stronger sense of community than to create a group that commits to getting together on a regular basis?

People were throwing around ideas like game night, getting together for sports events, even using someone’s garage as an informal fort, er meeting place…I’m also thinking that the upcoming EdCamps will be more fun since we’ll already know each other (even if we haven’t met F2F, yet).  And then watch out CUE…#ocXed will be in.the.house.

Needless to say, I’m stoked.  I love our hashtag and our t-shirt design (see above). If you’re an educator in beautiful Orange County, California…join us!  We don’t bite.  Well, not all of us anyway.  😉