I'm Walking on Sunshine

By Michele Corbat

Photo by Kristen Duke

I was SHOCKED today to learn that two people I admire greatly nominated my blog for a Sunshine Award.  Educators, Starr Sackstein and Drew Frank, are two people I follow on Twitter.  Starr is a high school English/journalism teacher from New York.  She is the author of Teaching Mythology Exposed (a must-read).  Drew is  Director of Academic Operations and Lower School Principal at The Davis Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.  These individuals contribute to my learning, inspire and wow me with the ways they are reaching and influencing students every day.  In fact, if you aren't following these Edurockstars, stop reading this blog and go read their blogs right now.

Being honored by your peers is a fantastic feeling. Being honored by these peers is especially amazing because I am in awe of them.

Sunshine Award:

According to the rules of the sunshine award I am required to:

1.  Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2.  Share 11 random facts about myself.
3.  Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for me.
4.  List 11 bloggers that I believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
5.  Post 11 questions for the bloggers I nominate (cannot nominate the blogger who nominate me).

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I LOVE music!  I don't have a favorite genre but know the lyrics to hundreds, if not thousands of songs.  Everything from Pink to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Kid Rock to Hank Williams Jr. to Luther Vandross!  I love it all.
2. Before my kids were born, I spent my evenings teaching step-aerobics and kickboxing six days/week.  I was a lean, mean, fighting machine (well, not really, but it rhymes).
3. My early career goal was to become a social worker.  I spent my first couple of years in college on this career path. 
4. My only sibling, Becky, was killed in a tragic car accident at age 6.  I was in the car.  Our birthdays are 364 days apart (mine is 3-17-69 and hers is 3-16-70).  I miss her.
5. I spent 5 years working at a group home for developmentally disabled adults before I was hired as a teacher.
6. I'm scared to death to walk on high school bleachers.
7. My strange addiction:  Real Housewives of ANYWHERE (O.C., N.J., Atlanta)
8. My next strange addiction:  HGTV (Love House Hunters, Property Brothers, Love It or List It and so many more).
9. I could live on eating cereal alone every day for the rest of my life.
10. I don't untie my shoes when I take them off.
11. I hope I can be the kind of parent to my kids that my parents were to me.

11 Questions for me (From Starr):

1. What made you want to go into education? I was inspired by my middle school math teacher, Johanna Brown.  She was creating a culture of learning back in the 80's with me and my peers.  Our paths crossed again my second year of college where she was my math teacher again.  I realized that I wanted to inspire others the way she inspired me.
2. Which teacher made the greatest impact and why? I answered this in #1.
3. What is your favorite professional learning?  Edcamps!  My first one was nErDcampbc last summer and I was hooked.
4. If you could recommend one professional book, what would it be and why?  Only one? Hmmm, I would recommend Choice Words by Peter Johnston because it gives us the language and research to build healthy learning communities.
5. What’s your favorite chat and why? When does it happen? After #COLchat and #SBGchat (*wink), my favorite chat is #satchat or #satchatwc.  These chats were my firsts as a newbie to Twitter and connected me to so many amazing educators around the world.  Both take place on Saturday mornings. 
6. What do you like to do on your “free” time? Ha, what's that?
7. What is your most vivid childhood memory?  My fondest childhood memory is playing Sonny and Cher with my sister.  I was older so I made her be Sonny and we would do concerts for my parents.
8. What’s one topic you could write about every day?  I could write about my children every day.  They help me to remember what's important in life and I am blessed to be their mom.
9. What’s your favorite meal?  Spaghetti and meatballs
10. Did you play any sport as a kid? if yes, which one(s)?  I played softball, volleyball, ringette (hockey for girls), and was on the swim team.
11. What would you like to share that you haven’t already?  I need to write every day to sharpen my skills and deepen my reflection about teaching/learning.  I wanted to choose this for my nerdlution, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do it.

11 Questions for me (From Drew):

1. What is your favorite movie of all time?  The Green Mile
2. If you could go to have attended any concert anytime in history, what would it have been?  I would have seen Pink's performance at the 2010 Grammy's.  Check out the video here.
3. What do you do for fun?  Hobby?  I like to spend time with my wolf pack (my 3 best friends that anyone could have).  We enjoy shopping, going to comedy shows, or just hanging at one of our houses for a girls' night in.
4. What two guests would make the best comedic pair as co-hosts for the Oscars?  I enjoy Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (girl power).
5. Cat, Dog or Goldfish? Why… Cat!  When I am stressed and my cat, Marley, jumps in my lap, my blood pressure goes down just by petting her. 
6. How do you caffeinate? I used to drink a fountain diet coke every day for several years.  Last year I gave that up and became addicted to coffee.  Now, I have one or the other only once/week.
7. Favorite twitter chat?  See #5 from Starr's questions above.
8. Best place you ever vacationed?  Ft. Lauderdale, FL with my husband and kids.  We went there about 4 years ago and had the most amazing time because of the beautiful weather, upgrades, and awesome people we met.
9. Best book you’ve read in 2013? I just finished reading The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom and am still reflecting on the lessons learned. 
10. Favorite television shows?  Pretty much any reality TV (I know that most of these shows are not real).
11. What is one thing you never/rarely share that you are exceptionally proud of?  I can wrap my arms into a weird pretzel shape and then put them over my head.  It's rare that I meet someone else who can do this.  (not sure I'm proud of that)

11 Bloggers that I believe deserve recognition:

1. Colby Sharp's blog- Love when he writes about his 5 things
2. Katherine Sokolowski's blog- I am waiting for her book!
3. Chris Lehman's blog- I want to write with the style and voice that he does.
4. Ben Gilpin's blog- Inspirational! 
5. Tony Sinanis' blog- I feel like I have met Tony by reading his blog posts. 
6. Tom Schimmer's blog- Have shared his posts with colleagues
7. Charity Stephen's blog- A girl after my own heart
8. Mark Clement's blog- He is an Edunator, ya!
9. Shawn Storm's blog- A fellow positive deviant
10. Rafranz Davis' blog- Find myself saying "Amen" after reading her posts!
11. Dennis Sparks' blog- So many great entries to share!

11 Questions for my nominees:

1. Coke or Pepsi?
2. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
3. Tell about a student who has influenced you the most and why.
4. What are your top 3 favorite professional books?
5. Who have you met in real life that you follow on Twitter?
6. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change and why?
7. So far, the highlight of my career in education has been...
8. If I was a fruit I would be a ___________ because_____
9. My most influential teacher was...
10. In 10 years, I see myself....
11. How do you balance family and work?

I share this blog with Adam Hartley and Rod Hetherton.  If it wasn't for these positive deviants, I probably would not have started writing blog posts at all.  Thank you for reading and spreading the sunshine in my life!