It had been brewing since last June, when I went to New Orleans for professional development in the area of digital storytelling. The Pearson Foundation gives teachers from across the United States development opportunities as a "give back" since they are the #1 textbook publishing company in the US. It seems fair.

But since attending, even while I was there, the idea of one day working with them was on my mind. And I started to develop a friendly email relationship with Sandra and Angie, the two women in charge of this particular project. In October they came out and led my students through the same class I went through, with the students producing research-based public service announcements on a variety of issues.

Last November they came to give a one-day training on our school site about blogging and the use of cell phone technology in the classroom. And that's when Angie and I began talking in earnest about setting up a week-long training using this same technology to meet teachers' needs in the classroom. So emails flew, phone calls were made, and eventually, with my teaching skills and her planning, we created a damned good week-long lesson plan. This week they came out and we made it happen.

And lunches were held, and dinner invitations were given (and accepted, I knew a free drink when it calls to me) and a very informal interview process began. By the end of the week, I'd been offered at least two weeks of summer employment, one in New Orleans and one in a city not-yet-determined, with the hope of more to come. And because of my classroom experience, I'll be the lead facilitator talking to teachers about how to make their teaching lives easier with classroom technology that the students probably already have. I think this summer is going to be fun.

Of course, this does delay my whole "running off to Thailand" solution to my unemployment problem...