Google for Education Certified Trainer = Me

Overwhelmed. Humbled. A little nervous. SO. EXCITED!!!!!!

I got the long awaited acceptance email back in December and spend most of that weekend reading through posts on in the trainers group page, submitting my info to the database and general geeking out. And of course, I immediately put my shiny new badge into my email signature and sidebar of this very blog. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of applying for this certification. It was A LOT of work, but well worth the effort. Until this application, I really hadn't don't any training videos that involved me on the screen talking. It's still a little weird to sit an edit a video of myself, but doing for this application has shown me that I can and spurred me on to create more mini training videos in the (hopefully near) future. 

Bringing this journey full circle, I just submitted a few presentation proposals for the EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education in Franklin, IN this April. It was at this AMAZING conference last year that I first started on the road to becoming a Certified Trainer. Really hoping that I get to share some of the Google love and put my trainer cred to the test at this year's summit. 

Woo hoo!

There's a little bit of a funny story to this AWESOME badge (and why there isn't a Level 1 badge to match...yet!). I signed up to take the Level 1 exam at the beginning of October, since I'd made a promise to the Twitterverse that my professional goal for October was to become a Level 1 Google Educator. 

But then, I happened to pick that one afternoon last week when there was a wee little glitch with the Google. You may remember from the apocalyptic tweets that were blowing up Twitter that day. I guess it just goes to show how phenomenally consistent Google is with being not-down that it sends the digital world into a frenzy when there's a blip on the radar. 

Anyhoo, I wasn't able to finish my exam that day (and currently have a big fat fail on my exam record, which my type A side is having a bit of an issue processing, truth be told). I was actually kinda bummed because I though the scenario part of the exam was really pretty fun! 

So I thought, what the heck, let's go for Level 2 and a little less than three hours later, one super shiny badge to post for all the internet to see. 

I'll keep you posted on how Level 1 goes...