by Krissy.Venosdale | Mar 31, 2014 | Reflect
I heard a commercial this morning. It was talking about everyone having gifts and how honored we should be to have “gifts that make things easier for us in some areas of our lives.” I threw a pencil at my iHome dock across the room. Not really – I don’t throw pencils, but I wanted to. It was that phrase. “Everyone has a gift,” and that word “easier.” The commercial was about human nature. It was not about education. It struck me. That is why the misinterpretations are there.
The word “gifted” carries so much weight. And that word “easier” gets roped in.
Easier to learn spelling words. Easier to teach grammar to. Easier to make ‘do chores.’ Easier to enjoy life. Easier to finish a project. Easier to learn math facts. Easier. Easier. Easier.
That is what people think “gifted” is. A false assumption that causes an insane lack of programs that feels like a dog chasing it’s tail at times. People are wrong.
It’s harder. Harder to overcome challenges. Harder to focus on mundane stuff when an intense desire to change the world rattles at your brain. Harder to teach because it’s harder to do the basics when you’re wanting to speed ahead, and can speed ahead, faster than your teacher.
Not worse. Harder. More challenging. As in… requiring greater support.
That’s right. Gifted isn’t about school being easier, it’s about kids needing more support.
That’s what that commercial reminded me of. And that’s why I wanted to throw my pencil. But I didn’t. I wrote a blog post instead.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Mar 30, 2014 | Reflect
Do what you love. People say that all the time. But then we get busy. We get sucked into a vaccum where we can’t see anything but a goal. And we forget. We forget what life is really about. Following your heart. Being guided by the passion that lights up your soul. Yeah, that. Nobody has time for THAT?
Make time. Because that time? It renews you. It refreshes you. It restores the meaning behind what you do every day.
It’s taking a moment on your journey to breathe. Reflect. Re-engage with who you really are. It’s also about losing the fear of making a huge mess of something and reworking it into an idea that represents that little place where you passion, mind, and heart intersect. A place where this is no map, only your vision.
Because that place? It’s far beyond your comfort zone and if you’re not careful, you’ll forget that it even exists. And finding it again brings a beautiful clarity to everything else. The kind of clarity that shines a light on meaning and definition.
Maps are so overrated anyway. Where you are going is inside you. You just have to be willing to let go and find it. Find that place.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Mar 29, 2014 | Reflect
There’s a movement sweeping the country. Making. People are going crazy for building, designing, tinkering, and upcycling in creative ways. People are using old things to solve new problems. People are learning the relationships between various materials to create new products that are innovative, creative, and awesome. Making? It’s turning into the new “sliced bread” in American education. Schools are racing to build maker spaces, talking about integrating making into their curriculum, and realizing how much kids are engaged when they are making. Hands on. Integrated projects. Creating. Doing. Kids are designing their own learning.
It’s a movement, but it’s not new. It was there all along. We just failed to realize that while public education was chasing textbook orders, checking off standards, and passing out worksheets, making was getting buried. Thinking was getting lost. Learning was no longer authentic.
Let’s keep going with this Maker Movement. But let’s take it one step further. Let’s redesign the learning environments so that making isn’t a special event, making is happening all throughout our schools. Because making? It’s learning.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Mar 28, 2014 | Reflect
The one. When you think back on your years in education do you have a particular student or situation that pops into your mind? Mine is easy. It was a kid that everyone had given up on. A kid that most thought didn’t care to do his work. A kid that was ‘rising’ to every expectation that others had of him. A kid that lit up when we started doing a project that he was interested in. A kid that proved them all wrong.
I will never forget the day he walked into our classroom, dropped a crumpled paper on my desk, and said, “I did some extra research last night.” His paper was torn, writing messy, but on it? It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. It was ‘homework’ that he had done. Unassigned. Thinking at home because he was engaged.
The words on that paper said so much to me before I even read them.
They said that if we believe in a kid, even when it feels like all others have lost hope for them, we can make a difference in his life.
We have an educational system that needs so many changes. So many kids with needs that go unmet. So many shifts in thinking and shifts in doing needed. It can overwhelm us in a heartbeat. But there is the one. The one each and every day you can make a difference for. The one whose life you will impact and who impact yours in ways you might not even realize until later on.
And we have a lot of days in education. A lot of change. A lot of impact. The kind that changes the world.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Mar 25, 2014 | Reflect
A dinner we play a game called “Highs and Lows.” We take turns saying our worst moment of the day, followed by the best. The game always reminds me how different our perspectives are from our daughter’s view. She’s the ultimate optimist, often claiming there were no lows in her day. Tonight she hopped out of the car at the gas station and was thrilled to find a lucky penny. She took it inside with her and dropped it into a donation bucket. She was thrilled because she said her luck was going to help someone else. It is easy for us to share the good and hope that the good passes on to someone else. Her high was not about her, it was about helping someone else.
But the not so good moments? It can be about helping others too. It can also help us to share it. I came across this quote and I thought of the “Highs and Lows” game we play at the dinner table. The good. The bad. The real moments. We share them for one reason. To connect. If we allow our lives to become some edited version of what is real, we’re not being authentic. If we live, mistakes, failures, falling down… it’s all will happen.
And if we really live well? We’ll get back up and share it.
