In this annual Christmas letter, I review the last year, and look forward to the future.
I began this year with a week of jury duty, even on my birthday! My travels in the spring included Sedona (with my Fielding buddies); a February/March road trip to Eugene, San Francisco, Palm Springs and the Eastern Sierras; an April trip to the Northeast including Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut; a conference in San Diego in April; back to Eugene and Eastern Sierras in May; and a workshop in West Virginia in June.
In June, I traveled to my seventh European ePortfolio conference in London, after a short trip to Budapest to help Erin move home for a few years to go to graduate school. We attended a national technology conference in Washington, D.C. and stayed to spend the 4th of July on the National Mall.
A meeting in Denver was my only other travel in July; the highlight of August was a family cruise to Alaska to celebrate Chris’ 40th birthday.
Right after that vacation, I had two busy weeks providing training in Texas, Ohio, and New Hampshire. In September, I was back working in Boston; in October, I keynoted conferences in Indianapolis and Nampa, Idaho; in November, presented at a conference in Santa Fe and a short trip back to Boston.
The highlight of November was a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, to spend a week working on ePortfolios and digital storytelling in a private school, and to keynote an ePortfolio conference in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, coming home just in time for Thanksgiving.
This fall, I decided to team-teach an online graduate course for Seattle Pacific University, “Issues and Advances in Educational Technology” taught totally using Web 2.0 tools. It was fun to work with student teachers again, and to explore with them a lot of emerging technologies.
I am looking forward to new challenges and adventures in the New Year: I am planning a lot of travel in the New Year, including a conference in Hawaii (again) and trips to India in February and New Zealand, probably in March. I am continuing my work in a California school district this coming spring and a small college in Ohio. I also have a book contract that I should be finishing this winter: Interactive Portfolios. Next August, another cruise is planned, this time out of Amsterdam, exploring the Baltic, including two days in St. Petersburg. Business Class tickets for me and my mother are a great way to use my Frequent Flyer miles!
My Holiday wishes include peace in our world, joy in our relationships, and learning through the power of stories in our lives.
With love, joy, and hope for the future!
Helen Barrett
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