It's Not Me...It's You (all of you)

Last month was International Dot Day (week). It was an amazing week filled with creative wonders from around the globe. The spotlight was turned toward me on several occasions and it's important for me to talk about that and to clarify. This year, there was a new website dedicated to Dot Day and it featured a story about how I started the event. There was a news story on the local news and Dot Day was read into the Congressional Record. All truly amazing and wonderful.

Although the initial idea may have been mine, what happened next was all you. There were literally thousands of tweets about #dotday and too many Facebook messages to count. I initially tried to comment or retweet and lost the battle (I am a full-time teacher). I did read each and every message and blogpost. Each of those messages carried a seed of opportunity and hope.

The picture above was sent to me from a pediatric unit in Vietnam where Dot Day was celebrated. When this year started, I didn't know anyone there...so I couldn't have made this happen. YOU made this happen. I didn't know a person on every continent or in every state of the United States...but the day was celebrated there. YOU are driving force for good and hope in this project. YOU made this what it is.

I would like to thank every single person by name. I WILL thank everyone that I can (and tried to on Twitter). I have joked on Twitter that after I retire, I want to travel to every single site that hosted a Dot Day event...what a dream that would be! Below I am going to list some Dot Day Heroes....but trust me, there are many more. I have waited an entire month to post this because I was afraid of leaving someone out. If you have ever tweeted, facebooked, talked about, emailed, or nudged anyone about this project, you should consider yourself a hero.

Peter H. Reynolds @peterhreynolds . . . Who made this all happen by writing an inspiring book

Paul Reynolds @fablevision. . . The driving force for change and a tireless advocate for creativity

FableVision Learning @fablelearn . . . Julia and Becky did an awesome job of helping to spread the word about Dot Day.

Bill Norris . . . Bill was the organizing force behind the huge Boston event! He spent hundreds of hours making everything work. Bill ways also my spiritual guide and my star that helped guide me.

John Schumacher @mrschureads and Shannon Miller @shannonmmiller... Two of the original Dot Day heroes! I can't begin to tell you how much these two have made the day grow!

Diane Cordell @dmcordell "The Great One" of Twitter. She has such a great heart and has connected so many people!

Karen McMillan @mcteach I love this girl! She is a force and she also has students who inspire me a great deal. They came up with a list of ways to celebrate that was phenomenal!

Matthew Winner @MatthewWinner I got to meet Matthew last summer at ISTE and he brought an entirely new angle to this worldwide celebration, he invited schools to Skype! It was AWESOME!! I appreciate his efforts so much. I was even lucky enough to be able to Skype in to one of his classes!

Erika Victor @victortweets Erika did an awesome job of getting the schools in her area (of Germany) to sign on to participate!! She also was a champion retweeter!

Suzanne Earley @ntredhawks One of the things that made this year extra special was that my school celebrated in a big way. In part do to the elementary principal, but also because of Suzanne. She is the secondary secretary and also the cheerleading coach. This year, Dot Day fell on Homecoming and Suzanne helped us celebrate in a huge way. The Thursday dress-up day was "Dot Day", the banner the boys ran through at the game had dots, and the locker/door signs also were dots.

William Chamberlain @wmchamberlain William is an awesome teacher and an excellent advocate for kids. He is one of my greatest retweeters as well as mentors in the Twitter arena. He is always there when I need him!

Sharon Creech @ciaobellacreech If you have followed me on Twitter for more than a day, you know I LOVE Sharon Creech!! She is an amazing author and amazing person. She was the inspiration behind the Celebridot movement and was a champion of retweeting and sharing. When I was telling people about Celebridots, I always mentioned Sharon and always got a rather large smile that she was the inspiration (guess I am not alone in loving her work!)

Kristin Tubb @ktubb Kristin was one of the early celebridots. She did so much to promote both Dot Day and Celebridots.

Katie Davis @katiedavisburps Katie was also a celebridotter. In addition, she featured Dot Day in her famous "Brain Burps about Books" podcast and LOTS of people came exploring after that!

Jodi Glucksman the driving force behind "Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Project" was instrumental in getting us a lot of Celebridots!

Pippin Properties @LovethePippins is a talent agency and they helped so much with spreading the word about Dot Day as well as helping us find Celebridots!

Candlewick Press @candlewick is the publisher of "The Dot" and they helped spread the word about Dot Day.

All the Celebridots   www.celebridots.com


and YOU. ALL of you!