Vacation is really hard on the brain.  I've been away for the last week, which has been really good for soul, family, and health.  I've run, body surfed, enjoyed my 10 nieces and nephews, eaten gobs of ice cream (hence the running), gardened for my in-laws, and ridden a few roller coasters which is increasingly more challenging to recover from.

Vacation is hard on the brain because I've been challenged in the last several days to recall how to navigate around Google.  I was kicking myself for not completing all of the work prior to vacation, but in retrospect, am seeing that perhaps there are benefits to having waited.  It has been useful to review my class notes while relearning by trial and error (lots of frustrating blank minded - aimless cursor moving and clicking).  Just figuring out where my blog was turned out to be a 10 minute challenge.  Once located, I spent another 5 minutes determining how to be able to pull up a text box to type in.  I resisted the temptation of calling over my children for assistance.  I hate being "dumb" in their eyes!

You should have seen me try to locate my portion of the class project!  Again I resisted calling in reinforcements which is only a phone call away (mostly because I knew that phone call would last an hour).  I have to be able to do these things myself in order to help my students use these same tools.  I'm becoming more and more anxious about leading a three hour inservice workshop introducing Google Tools and the navigation of our new Google Domain to our staff.

While Google offers lots of really neat opportunities and tools, it is not necessarily easy to use.  Some aspects seem more intuitive while others are simply frustrating and not at all obvious.  I have resigned that it is OK to not know everything and to be that bumbling idiot.  At least I'm trying.  I've committed to using a Google Tool or app at least once a week, whether it is as an assignment, as an instructional tool, or an administrative tool.  I need to push to use it or I will lose it.  Vacation is an acceptable reason for forgetting, but I need to move my Google comfort beyond dabbling and digging.  I need to become proficient enough that I can support 21st century instruction and prepare students for the skills that will be expected of them.