Let Them Teach

The last #IMMOOC live chat was viewed, the last twitter chat tweeted. I'm still recovering from the book hangover, but it was stronger this time. I saw people and communicated with people online so it became real. Hunger Games never did. I suppose that is why I am so late with these last two posts for the book study. I will still blog, but it feels different. I am going to try and focus my rediscovered drive for blogging and being connected to a global PLN. I'm starting by reading Teach Like A Pirate. I have a laundry list of books that I want to get to, and now I have this format, this structure, to make the most of it. Excited, fueled, and hopeful even as we slide towards Thanksgiving Break. So what's the big deal? Was the book any good? What did I take from it? I can't narrow down to only a few, but I'll do my best David Letterman. Top 10 Innovative Ideas to Make a Reality 1. The Golden Circle of Storytelling 2. First Draft of Student Advisory Boa...

Everything happens for a reason, right? In February, my district did a Learning Together PD where it was formatted like an edcamp, but with the sessions pre-determined. I was supposed to attend a session with an outside consultant that the district has been working with for the past 3 years, but I misunderstood the directive and thought it was optional and I opted out. Serendipity led me to a session by Mo O'Brien. She's a middle school teacher in our district and her session tag line was about supporting students emotionally. This is an area I wanted to grow, so I signed up for this slot. Rewind-I had just finished co-leading my own session, and based on verbal feedback I was feeling like a real bad-ass. After an hour with Mo, I was put back in my place. This firecracker has created an LLC for the Schools of Tomorrow  and has got to be hands down, the nicest person I've ever met. She just radiates kindess, and that was her whole message. I've taken several things ...

A new role model of mine, whom you can find on Twitter @TechNinjaTodd, stood up at our most recent PD and announced that everything he was showing us that he had done was an idea he learned from someone else. He did not present a single unique idea. Except that he totally did. Unique in the way that no one in our district talked about developing themselves through social media. He gave us permission to seek out greatness even if no one supported our movement. He gave us permission to teach 50% academics and 50% life. He is a game changer. I want to be a game changer. It's so refreshing to hear that someone that amazing (super high testing scores in a very low SES population) is simply copying his favorite ideas from other people. When I meet someone so great, I tend to immediately throw myself into this other category of "not good enough." I was on a personal high on Friday from co-leading a Math Workshop PD. My teammate and I had gotten some great feedback that had us ...