Floyd Bob's Blog

Ok, so I guess I got some splainin to do. Floyd Bob? Actual it’s Floyd Braid but in attempt to not have me named after my father which would have included a series of names followed by “the 6th” my mom agreed to name me after my uncle and took my fathers first name as my middle. So, I wound up with Floyd Robert Braid. It took 13 years for a classmate of mine to realize what my mother had done and “Floyd Bob” was born.

I have been an educator since 1990. But before that I lived the life of an artist. I completed my undergraduate degree in Theater, Directing and Stage Management then attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I honed my craft as a writer, painter and performances artist. My life as an educator came as a surprise. It seems like just yesterday that I walked into that inner-city K-8 school in the Cabrini Green Housing Project in Chicago and practically begged for a job teaching art as a provisional substitute at just $50 bucks a day. There are times even today when I would trade what I have for that again…maybe not. Without rambling 2 much, 21 years later I have racked up many experiences, from a 7 year stay in the Chicago school where I got many scars and grew the beginnings of wings to a short stint working with a “principal from hell” in Georgia and then on to working as a professional development provider for the State of Georgia. I was one of a handful of principal members of a project called Georgia Learning Connections, one of the world’s largest databases of standards correlated lesson plans & web resources. After the sites debut in 1999 I started i3 Inc. with a great friend and colleague. We knew that the professional development being offered at the time for helping teachers integrate technology into instruction in meaningful ways was lacking and usually a waste of time and money for school district. Three years and 100’s of satisfied customers later I spun off a new company called i3 Training Services and continue offer training development and training that enables teachers to utilize the new tools they’ve been given to improve instruction.

If I could narrow down why I do what I do, I would say I do it because my life was changed radically for the better because of the actions of a few teachers. I taught because I wanted the same for my students and I work with teachers so that they can as well. Simple & Sweet!