Every chance I get, I talk about the power of social media.  I tell people the value in getting connected, sharing your story, learning from and with others from around the world.  I still get that “alien look” (like we talk about in “Kids Deserve It“).  I still get those eye rolls, huffing and puffing, and those ‘I’ll never do that’ comments.

But yet again, Monday was another example of why I choose to be a connected educator.

Monday was our first day of the new school year with kids.  We were so excited.  We were ready.  Because if you remember back in May, I wrote about how we didn’t get a last day of school with kids.

The first day went AMAZING!  My team killed it with the excitement and bonding with kids.  There were smiles, hugs, and high fives everywhere.  It was a pretty perfect day (besides a few arrival or dismissal hiccups, like every school haha).

But the epic part came at the very end of the day.

You see, I do car rider duty every day.  So I was outside, in the HOT Texas heat, in the middle of two lanes of cars, directing first day car rider traffic.  Then, out of nowhere, I see a guy walking up to me.  Immediately I knew who it was…..it was DAVE BURGESS!

I remember the first words out of my mouth were “what?!?  What are you doing here?!??”

And I remember looking around and my teachers were all freaking out because they knew who he was too.

You see, Dave was traveling through Texas from one city to another, passed by a sign that said Navasota, knew I worked there, so he pulled over, looked up the address of the school, and decided to do a surprise drop in.

It’s also worth it to note that I’ve known Dave for a little over 4 years now.  I followed Dave on social media because of reading his book “Teach Like A Pirate“, then I was able to meet him while I was at an event in San Diego, and from there we’ve grabbed dinner a couple times, chatted over social media and the phone a bunch….oh….and he published my first full fledged book “Kids Deserve It” with Adam Welcome 🙂

Well after getting over the shock that Dave was at my school, I begged him to stay about 30 minutes because we always do a quick “end of the first day; we survived!” staff meeting.  Of course being Dave, he said yes, and he was able to meet my whole team and even share a magic trick or two.

I share this story first of to show everyone how much of a great guy Dave is.  But I also share this story to share another example of the power of being a connected educator.  I would have never been connected with Dave, much less having him surprise my school, if I had never taken the leap on social media.

And now because of that act of bravery of putting myself out there, not only did I get a surprise visit, but my whole staff got to experience a little of the awesomeness as well.

It truly was the perfect ending to an incredible first day of school.

Can’t wait to see what happens next!  As our theme this year states, “Let the Adventure Begin!”

Here’s a video Dave made of his visit to Webb….