Defining Moments

by | Jan 27, 2013 | Reflect

What do you see when you look back?

I’m convinced our lives as educators are a series of defining moments, strung together to make us who we are.  Maybe it’s that quote by Steve Jobs that says “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards,” but it’s true.   We don’t always recognize the dots when they occur.   Days go by, weeks pass, and we look back.  We realize that the hard moments were about our growth. We realize the people who seemed to be in our way only made us even more focused.  The people who reached out? They changed our lives, too.  We realize that the huge roadblocks we thought were telling us to consider a different path, were really just there to see how far we were willing to go to make something happen.  Because in going that far? We grew.  We learned.

These dots? They are the same for our students.  We can’t define their learning journeys with test questions and points.  Telling a kid what to know and how to know it isn’t going to work.  Ever.  If it does work, it’s a facade. If someone had told you the easy way around a roadblock, it would have never been a roadblock.  Our classrooms, our kids’ learning experiences, our lives, are about a series of dots.  Dots that end up connecting one day to lead them to a career, a lifelong passion, to their places in our world.

It’s all about learning. Whether you’re two or sixty two. Whether it’s the best day of your life, or the hardest day. It might be something you hear, a moment you experience, or it might even be a tiny word from a kid in your classroom. The dots are there. Because life, every single day, is about learning. Shouldn’t school be, too?

One of my dots.

 

Words

by | Jan 26, 2013 | Reflect

I recently had a conversation about words other people have said that were hurtful.   I teach in a gifted program.  I am sharing this to help people understand.  I don’t want to argue about what the best model for education is or talk about what is fair.   I want to talk about the thing that matters most… the kids.  The mis-perceptions of labels in our educational system puts our kids into a predicament.  The lack of understanding. The unwillingness to address kids with differences.  Mold yourself to fit in, or don’t.  If you don’t? Be prepared.  People will say hurtful things.

  • “Duh, you should know that, you’re SO gifted.”
  • “Can’t you spell? I thought you knew everything.”
  • “It’s not fair you get to go do other things, you don’t even seem smart.”
  • “You’re weird.”
  • “Why can’t you just be normal?”
  • “Oh, well, since YOU’RE gifted, you must know all the answers…”
  • “You must just play games in class all day?”
  • “Geeze, you missed so many problems on that test, I thought you were gifted!”

These statements?  They are real.  Real things that people felt it was okay to say to each other.  Real things that hurt.   It’s not about elitism.  It’s not about “better.” It’s about different.  A kid said it best:  “We’re not better, we just think differently.”   Why do we hang posters on the walls of our schools that are all about diversity, differences, and being unique if we’re going to expect kids to think one way or be another?  Embrace differences. Celebrate uniqueness. Above all? Meet their needs. That’s where learning and growth truly happen.

Passion

by | Jan 24, 2013 | Reflect

I sometimes wonder where it all got lost. Or did it?  It’s still there.  Passion. Excitement for learning. Kids’ curiosity. Wonder. Dreaming. A child’s natural need to explore. It’s still there.  Sometimes it just feels… buried.  Schools became about numbers.  About reports. About data. Points. Grades. Percents. Levels. More data. Stuff.  Is a percentage of “facts they know” going to matter in 30 years?  Or is that passionate teacher they had who inspired their love of science going to make the difference? Or what about the teacher that encouraged their understanding of history? It’s what counts today and tomorrow and well into our future.  You just can’t put a point value on passion.  Even worse? When we put all the value on points.  Let’s start a national movement to get passion for learning back into our schools. Into our classrooms. Into our kids.  How about today?

Collaboration That Matters

by | Jan 23, 2013 | Reflect

I used to think collaboration was just ‘working with others.’ Get together and make some plans.  Divide up the workload.  But, it’s really so much more.

A few months ago, over 200 teachers from all 50 states joined in our #KidVote project. Just over 30,000 kids voting. Learning together.

A couple of weeks ago, we built a schedule to allow 32 teachers new to Mystery Skype to partner up using a simple Google Doc. One document, 32 classrooms.

Just today? I was looking for a fresh perspective on presentations, shared a Google Form, and ended up with some great, thoughtful ideas on what to focus on.  Ideas, sharing, feedback, and learning. In one click.

It doesn’t matter what the tool is. Twitter, Skype, Google Docs.  It’s about people.  It’s about a willingness to know that you can learn something new from every person you meet.  Simple moments that became something more because of others.   It’s the kind of collaboration that asks each other the hard questions, that pushes each of us to move forward, and the kind that continually inspires us to become better versions of ourselves.  It’s the kind of collaboration that matters.