COMFORT ZONE
Getting Kicked Out of My Comfort Zone One of the great things about the EAST experience is hearing student observations about their growth while in EAST. Former EAST Conference Leadership Team Ambassador Anna Cavnor shared her perspective and experience with several administrators attending a Vision Building Workshop (a workshop hosted by EAST that inspires decision-makers and provides an overview of how to add EAST where they are). Anna's thoughts on EAST and comfort zones made a strong impression on everyone in attendance. So strong, we asked her to share it here. My name is Anna Cavnor. I am a junior in EAST at North Little Rock High School (NLRHS). I have been in EAST for six years, and I can say with absolute certainty that being an EAST student has changed my life. The summer before sixth grade, my sister told me I would be accompanying her “to set up the EAST classroom” at North Little Rock Middle School (NLRMS). My face showed my confusion as I asked her “What is EAST?”, and actually, I am still trying to answer that question in a way that encompasses EVERYTHING. EAST is education accelerated by service and technology, but it does so much more. EAST is very different from any other class I have ever taken. It isn’t a class where I sit and take notes or solve equations for 90 minutes, but it is where possibilities become reality. For example, I no longer have to dream of making a virtual tour of my school, I actually did it. EAST takes you out of your comfort zone and makes the unknown, scary, “I don’t know if I can do this” area your new comfort zone. Being an EAST student means you need to be ready to be kicked out of your comfort zone, and be prepared to spread your wings and fly. For me, this experience happened when my team and I were asked to present our project at the Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL) Conference. By the end of that conference, my fear subsided a bit and I felt a little more comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. I had no clue that TICAL was just the beginning of the journey. More opportunities have come about and helped me establish a higher level of self-confidence including presenting to facilitators at EAST Seminar (a professional development conference held each summer for returning educators in EAST) and interviewing with Facebook to discuss the virtual 3D project I was a part of. I never imagined presenting to an audience of over 250 people at an event for middle school students to inform them about all the fun parts of EAST and the things that go 4
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