For the next five days, I will blog about the Random Acts of Kindness I complete with a few of my team members as we travel to Atlanta, GA for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference. I am presenting on Sunday, June 29 at an Ignite session, sharing about my passion for blogging random acts of kindness, so what better way to get prepared than to do a few RAKs on the way?
Our first opportunity to bless someone came before we were even through airport security. The gal ahead of us was trying to access her boarding pass using a QR code on her phone, but couldn’t locate the email with the required information. After several moments of frantic searching (which I’m sure felt like hours in her mind), she allowed our team to go ahead of her. I was in the back of the pack, so I could see her hands shaking as she handed her phone to the security officer, only to have him return it back saying, “Can you make the screen a little lighter? It won’t read correctly.”
She looked up and caught my eye, her expression a mixture of frustration and panic. I smiled in return and said, “Don’t worry. You can get it to work.” Sure enough, the scanner picked up the image on the second try and she was allowed to proceed. “I am so glad that’s over! I haven’t flown in years!” Her name was Jennifer and we continued to chat as we approached the section where you place your belongings in plastic tubs and remove your shoes and belts.
Right about that time, I heard the gentleman behind me mumble in frustration, “My flight is taking off in 20 minutes!” With an almost telepathic message, my team of four moved to the side and allowed this man to pass ahead of us all, surely saving him precious minutes in this tedious process.
Once we passed through security and finally settled in for the flight to Atlanta, we were filled with a sense of excitement to attend ISTE 2014. Our AirTran flight attendants were polite and courteous and I left them a small surprise to show our appreciation.
I’m planning to do several little RAKs like these at the conference and my hope is that people who receive one of my RAKs will tweet a photo of themselves (or the item) and post it to Twitter using the hashtag #ISTE2014RAK. My professional goal for this summer is to expand my PLN (professional learning network) on Twitter, so I thought this might be a fun way to make a personal connection with others at the conference.
In addition to performing RAKS, we were blessed by random acts of kindness of others, from the MARTA worker who helped us figure out how much money we needed to put on our card to the Atlanta police officer who offered restaurant suggestions as we stood waiting for the subway doors to close. Even Jeff, our waiter at Max Lager’s was helpful and friendly as he shared his insights with our group. (We even had a surprise visit by Chris O’Neal – what a delight!)
To wrap up our evening of RAKs, Jen donated a dollar to the gentleman on the sidewalk singing a rendition of Bob Marley’s song, “Every Little Thing”. Yes, indeed. Every little thing’s gonna be alright… because celebrating kindness, especially in a large city, makes life a little brighter!
I’m so excited to be a part of ISTE 2014 and I can’t wait to soak up all the great learning over the next few days. Check back in again tomorrow to see what happens next! 🙂
If you would like to follow me on Twitter, my handle is @HCPSTinyTech… I’d love to stay connected to share my journey with you!
