Continued from the Home page....
Ezra Center workshops are open to all employees, students/alumni, members, and friends of SMCC, CUSSD, SDCC, SCS, and Turning Point In addition, this year we are adding many online resources that are open to the public. We encourage you to use and share them. We'd appreciate you referencing this site as the source.
We hope you will get to know us by browsing through this website. Our goal is to bring you helpful resources. If you have questions or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.
If you attended one of my workshops lately, perhaps the following story will sound familiar. I include it here because in many ways it answers the questions: What, where, and why… the Ezra Center?
long time ago, a master archer began to search the land for an archer of even greater talent so that he might study, learn, and improve his craft. After many months of walking through forests, meadows, and towns, he came upon a tree with an arrow in the exact middle of a painted target drawn on the tree. He became curious as he walked on and saw another tree with a perfectly centered bull’s-eye. Soon, he saw more and more trees that displayed straight arrows perfectly centered within the round targets. Perfect bull’s-eyes peppered the forest. Suddenly, he entered a clearing and looked up and saw a barn with row after row after row of perfect bull’s-eyes. He knew he had found his mentor and began asking everyone he saw on the road, “Whose barn is it that displays so many perfectly centered arrows?” When he found the owner, the archer saw that he was a simple man, slow of speech, and seemingly awkward in his movements. Unperturbed, he asked the man to share his secrets. “How do you do it?” he asked.
The man explained. “Anyone can. After I shoot the arrow, I take some paint and draw a target around the arrow.*
Have you ever felt like the archer in the story, wishing someone could help you master your craft -- or the ever-changing technology around us -- so you can do your job more efficiently? Or have you ever felt as if your efforts didn't quite hit the target... even if it seems like they did? Many of us do. And that’s when mentors, training, and the right set of resources can reenergize us.
That's why the Ezra Center for Excellence exists. It is not a building. The Ezra Center offers workshops and resources everywhere on our campus and on the web—it thrives when many get involved, learning or sharing their gifts with others.
If you are still wondering what the Ezra Center can do for you, your class, your school, or your ministry, keep on looking around our website, join a workshop, or give me a call. I'd love to talk to you.
Maria Keckler
Director, Ezra Center & Instructional Technology
SMCC, CUSSD, SDCC, SCS
Connect with me via Email, Twitter, Facebook
Or call me at 619.590.2175
*Story adapted from The Story Factor by Annette Simmons (2001).