Digital Learning

Education technology is a field for those who consider themselves patient optimists.

Justin Reich

I’m willing to bet that you have a favorite recipe, specifically, a favorite dessert. And any time you get to have it, you’re excited.

Really excited.

So excited that you can’t wait until you get to put every scrumptious morsel in your mouth.

Go ahead, take a second and think about that cake you get for your birthday every year. You can picture it in your head, can’t you?

You can see every detail, every crumb, every swirl in the icing. You know EXACTLY how it’s going to taste as soon as it hits your tongue.

You know the outcome you want but you’re not there yet.

The same is true for many things we try to achieve in life. Personally, I’m working hard to get into the best health of my life.

I can see the end goal but MAN is it taking a long time to get there.

But with every workout, every meal, every good decision, I get a little closer to my goal.

This is exactly how it is in educational technology. We know what we want to happen. We can see it.

We have a vision in our heads that we can’t get out.

But, there are many obstacles to overcome and many minds to be changed and persuaded. There are many conversations to be had and minds to change about what is possible with technology in education.

But, we can’t ever forget that the tech isn’t what brings change.

It’s the people. People like you and me, working hard every day to improve education for our students.

The people who go above and beyond.

Thanks for being one of those people. You are the world changers.

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash

In the fall of 2014, I entered the classroom as a student teacher, ready to complete my final semester before becoming an actual teacher.

To say that I was nervous would be the understatement of the century. How was this going to go? How would I do? Would I “pass” this final course on my path to becoming a teacher?

Being the self-centered jerk that I can very often be, I was only concerned with myself. I had forgotten something important.

I had forgotten that I wasn’t the only one entering the room for a new experience that day.

There were 150-ish students who I would interact with over the next twelve weeks in varying ways. Some of them I would very soon teach, some I would work with as their regular classroom teacher, my mentor, taught.

What began that fall was an adventure none of us will forget.

The following fall, I got the privilege to teach many of those same students, along with some new ones, as I began my career in that same school.

We became the crash test dummies for everything educational technology and crazy math.

Of course, very often we were just silly.

And teachers, I hope you all know that’s 100% fine sometimes.

We grew together over that first year, then they went on to new adventures. I would see them from time to time in the hallways or as they would drop by my room or office.

Today is their last day as students. Tomorrow, they walk across the stage on a sunny Saturday morning along the hallowed grounds of their high school football field.

Tomorrow, they transition into the next phase of their lives. They’ll leave me and the vast majority of their other teachers behind. Many of them will likely not have a second thought about me and that’s ok.

I can only hope that, during our brief time together, I was able to make a positive impact.

Because they most certainly made an impact on me.

They are and always will be my first students. I am forever grateful that they bought into the madness, hopped on the bus, and came along for the ride of our lives.

Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end

Semisonic

This is the end of one journey for them and the beginning of another.

As it is for me. This is the first group of my students I will say goodbye to as their former teacher. Three more classes will come through who I taught before moving out of the classroom into a district-wide position.

I will miss them all and will always question, “did I do enough?”

Time will tell, but from the responses I’ve gotten so far from some of them, I think I’ve done alright by them.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo by Keith Luke on Unsplash

I’ve watched this video of 1,000 musicians performing “Learn to Fly” countless times. I’ve even used it to open presentations and professional learning sessions to convey the power of being connected to a group.

While that video is almost six years old, the lessons are still relevant to our time (also, it’s just a great video that will have you rocking along with the group and yes, the Foo Fighters totally responded).

The Rockin’ 100 has gone on to create several other videos that are well worth the watch. Again, these videos are important not because of the musicianship displayed (pretty great) nor the songs chosen (also pretty great) but for the sheet demonstration of a group of people saying, “we can do this if we do it together.”

Since March 2020, we’ve all had some things that we weren’t able to do together. Actually, unless you just wanted to throw caution to the wind, there wasn’t much we could do together as a large group.

My hope is that in the coming months, we all have a better appreciation for the experience of gathering together in all its varied forms. Whether it’s a concert, a play, a graduation ceremony, or just a big family reunion, there is power in connecting with others in person.

Of course, I’m a big fan of connecting remotely but that’s because I’m an introvert and in-person = fear and doom. But I’m slowly getting over that mostly due to the forced isolationism of the past 15 months.

We’re all in this together. We’ve always been part of a connected world, long before the Internet became a part of our daily lives and we had phones attached at our hips everywhere we went. Connectedness is a part of the human experience. It’s what makes us better.

When we all look out for each other, we make the world a better place, even if it’s just our own small part of the world. Our families, our friends, our acquaintances, they all make up our part of the larger world and they all have influence over our decisions.

Marcus Aurelius said, “What is not good for the beehive, cannot be good for the bees,” and we can draw the conclusion that what is good for the beehive is good for the bees. We do not exist in a bubble that has no effect on others, contrary to what many conspiracy theorists and random jackasses might have you believe.

We’re all in this together. This is our world. Our one home. This “pale blue dot” is the only home we’ll ever know.

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash