As I prepared to give birth to each of my two daughters, my husband and I struggled mightily to agree on their names. As a former teacher, names with certain connections to former students (positive, and not so much) had a way of complicating the selection. Add to that the opinions freely shared by family and friends, and we ended up being scolded by the hospital staff for not completing the necessary paperwork (particularly the names of our new humans) on time before our dismissal. The pressure was intense, and we wanted their names to perfectly suit the people they would grow to become.
The prospect of naming this new Community felt similar. Pressured to select a name before filing the official paperwork and building a website, I knew that it had to reflect the goals of what I strove to build, be expansive enough to include all educators from all geographies, and become a home to all of the services I hoped to eventually nest within the organization.
Much like choosing my children’s names, selecting ConnectEd Learning Community involved a fair amount of hand wringing. Hesitantly, yet confidently, I introduce this “baby” to the world. I am eager to hear what aspects of its new name resonate with the work of our fledgling community.