Moving to Georgia three years ago gave me an opportunity to meet new people, make new connections, and build great relationships in instructional technology. While I would have loved to report every relationship was a match made in heaven, I think we all know that isn’t realistic. I had a lot of great learning experiences when it came to trusting people, working with and for people, and finding a balance between partnerships and competition. After all of those lessons I have a few ideas of what real #EdTech relationships should be… and thanks to Amy Pietrowski I can tell you for certain they are attainable with the right mindset. Amy leaves me this next school year, and blesses Maryland schools with her passion, but from our days as collaborators I can tell you for certain the recipe for true success.

1. Encourage each other – It wasn’t about how well Amy did something… or I did something.. it was about how we encouraged each other to go for it. We held the same role at two different elementary schools just minutes from each other, but we weren’t worried about who was doing what. We encouraged each other to just go in each day and make a difference! Having no true team in this school based role, we were each others ‘team’. By 7:20 am I had a “good morning from the bus loop, have a great day” message. Encouragement makes every day better!

2. Be real- My frustrations… they were heard. I knew if I needed someone to just listen, Amy wasn’t going to do anything but take in what I was telling her and give me her best advice. I tried to always do that in return. Never was it a weakness, but an understanding that there would be success and there would be failure. We always celebrated the successes, and tried to do the same with the failures. When you are real, you show the most human part of this experience. This career is full of ups and downs, but having someone you don’t have to sugar coat things for is crucial.

3. Competition is never allowed! When I took the job down the road from Amy last year, what did she do? She helped me.. every.single.day! Yes I know instructional technology, but what I didn’t know was all the crazy little ins and outs of how that was going to work in a new school, in a new district. When I had a great idea… she built on it… When she had a great idea, I ran with it. We always gave each other credit, where credit was due, and we never ever wanted to see the other fail. We were a team. We voxed daily, shared ideas, and never once wanted to be better than the other. I promoted her ideas, and she promoted mine! Competition has never once been a part of our relationship, and that is why we were successful, without a doubt!

4. Do it together, even when you see it differently- Our brains work so differently that it is almost hilarious to watch. Give us the same task, and you will see two very different interpretations of the same task. We fed off each other’s passions, then went our own way with implementing it. We built an idea, an instructional plan, and then we each took our own path. Reporting back what we accomplished was amazing, and led only to our next big instructional mission. You don’t have to see things the same way to be a team, you just have to appreciate each other’s differences.

5.  Inspire each other to keep growing – No matter where we went, we were likely not heading to the same sessions or meeting spots. We didn’t have to sit side by side in our edtech adventures, rather we gained much more when we headed different directions and reported back what great ideas we discovered. We didn’t hold each other back, expect each other to be our tag along at a conference, or expect one another to be front row when one of us was presenting. Instead we encouraged each other to go off and learn something new. We grew far more from that, than just sitting together at every event!

6. Use your experience to help others- While this chapter of our relationship closes, another will open. While Amy won’t be down the road from me, she will only be a vox away! What I carry away from our collaborations will be used to make more relationships this strong. I look forward to reaching out to others in this role, and using this recipe for success to help our district grow in instructional technology based leadership. Amy will go on and do the same. She will carry this to her next school and district, and the ripple effect will exist, change will happen, relationships will be fostered.

So to sum it up… be there, don’t compete, value each other’s ideas, listen, encourage, share, and celebrate. It is the recipe for instructional technology success, that when used can create dynamic change in our schools. It is worth a try, don’t you think?

jaime