By BRIAN COOK, Ed.D.
 
I was like many of you at one time. I knew I had to do more to become a better teacher, and I had the internal desire to do it. But, I wasn’t quite sure the steps to become better. I had a passion for educational technology because it drew me in, like it does for many of my students.
 
I attended the Common Ground conference in Ocean City and stumbled upon a group called the Maryland Society for Educational Technology (MSET). By attending the conference, I had a one-year membership to MSET, but I didn’t know what that meant or how to get involved. I knew I wanted to get involved though.
 
Spring Business Meeting 2014
It was a bit of a hectic time of year, PARCC was coming soon, but I needed a break from school as much as the children needed. I decided to take the day off and head to the MSET Spring Meeting in Anne Arundel County. I’ll admit, it was the middle of the day, but it was worth taking the personal day.
 
I was early and unsure of where I was going, but pulled into the icy parking lot and made my way inside. I was 10-minutes early as people were putting last minute touches on the breakfast items as a foldable table was not being as sturdy as intended. I caught the table to safe the Dunkin Donuts Coffee, but more importantly two other MSET officers came to help me out starting a conversation. One of them I had seen before on Twitter and at a former summer Educator Effectiveness event, but could not remember her name.
 
As the day went on, I sat and listened to the MSET officers and the back-and-forth banter about EdTech. Everyone in the room was very like-minded to me, which was different coming from a then-employed rural school district on the Eastern Shore. I was finally able to ask questions on how others were implementing blogging in student writing and using formative assessment tools (before 1:1 had become more of a norm).
 
In the midst of the meeting, I volunteered to serve on the professional development committee, which people thought it was great to have representation from ‘all the way out East’ I recall one person saying. I brought a different perspective the conversation, but more importantly others brought a different to me.
 
Fast Forward to 2019
Since this moment, I have been a regular at the Common Ground as an attendee and presenter, but more importantly I have made some major connections with a ton of Maryland educators. The relationship building moments over coffee or talking about the ways of middle school students have been invaluable to me.
 
I now serve as the co-chair of the professional development committee and have been active in resurging the Digital Learning Showcase initiative, that initiative alone has connected me with some amazing educators. The work in the professional development committee, as well as other committees, is plentiful.
 
I hope you will consider taking a leap of faith and come out to the March 27, 2019 business meeting as I did to meet people back in 2014. It could be an altering moment in your professional career to as MSET has a ton of opportunities to serve.

Brian Cook is an English Language Arts teacher at Pocomoke Middle School. He serves on the MSET Professional Development Committee. Connect with Cook on Twitter at @drbriancook.