For three days I’ve been trying to find the right words to capture the moment I experienced this past Monday. Three days to capture the energy; the passion; the enthusiasm; the positivity of the first district professional development day in a long time that actually mattered.
I’m sure if you’re in education and you’re reading this, you know the traditional model for those in-service days: mandated district trainings, uninspired presenters, and supremely disinterested staff. Our team worked to create the antithesis - a meaningful learning opportunity that would serve to not only celebrate our teachers but elevate our students. I was beyond thrilled when I got the ok to pursue the only person I felt could create this transformative experience for our staff: Angela Maiers.
Angela has been an absolute source inspiration for me over the past few years. I’ll never forget watching her TEDxDesMoines talk back in 2011, hanging on every word, as if she was somehow speaking from my heart. It changed my professional life. I connected with her on Twitter, sought out and shared mind-blowing examples of kids changing the world, and stood in awe of her genius. With every subsequent article and blog post she published, I felt even more connected because I share the exact same fundamental belief about the magic and potential of all children. Meeting with Angela face-to-face and speaking with her personally was definitely the highlight of ISTE 2015. She is certainly at the top of my #EduHero list. Coordinating and organizing her visit to Edison was something I had been looking forward to for several years.
I’m sure if you’re in education and you’re reading this, you know the traditional model for those in-service days: mandated district trainings, uninspired presenters, and supremely disinterested staff. Our team worked to create the antithesis - a meaningful learning opportunity that would serve to not only celebrate our teachers but elevate our students. I was beyond thrilled when I got the ok to pursue the only person I felt could create this transformative experience for our staff: Angela Maiers.
Angela has been an absolute source inspiration for me over the past few years. I’ll never forget watching her TEDxDesMoines talk back in 2011, hanging on every word, as if she was somehow speaking from my heart. It changed my professional life. I connected with her on Twitter, sought out and shared mind-blowing examples of kids changing the world, and stood in awe of her genius. With every subsequent article and blog post she published, I felt even more connected because I share the exact same fundamental belief about the magic and potential of all children. Meeting with Angela face-to-face and speaking with her personally was definitely the highlight of ISTE 2015. She is certainly at the top of my #EduHero list. Coordinating and organizing her visit to Edison was something I had been looking forward to for several years.
So there we were, 425 elementary educators gathered together in the high school auditorium. The buzz of the teachers was draped with uncertainty and an unwitting confidence that this PD Day was going to be just another one of those days. After a brief introduction, Angela took the mic, looked the room in the eye, and unequivocally and unapologetically told everyone there that they matter. It was at that point that the energy and emotion in the entire room began to change. It was truly incredible. The change was evident in the eyes, the body language, and all over our district hashtag on Twitter. Teachers started to believe - in Angela; in the message; and in themselves.
Angela continued on to share the perils of the Mattering Gap and how we, as educators, had the ability - the responsibility - of closing it with three crucial components: hope, wellbeing, and engagement. She echoed the words of another #EduHero Rita Pierson by reminding our teachers to secure a student’s heart or you won’t have a shot at their brains. And closed the keynote speech with an impassioned plea for everyone in the room to be somebody’s somebody.
I have been in education for a little over a decade and I have never felt as much passion, energy, and positivity at a district-sponsored event than I did this past Monday as Angela spoke to our elementary staff. This experience gave me significant hope: for our future, for the work, for our teachers, and, most importantly, for our students. I think Angela has given our district new life. All from two simple, yet immensely powerful words: You Matter.
I had two key takeaways from Angela’s presentation that have renewed my spirit and my drive as a disruptor:
- “The moment we use words like ‘just, can’t, if, and only’ not only do we lose...but the world loses.” Inherent in this amazing quote is a mindset shift that has to occur on the part of the adults in education. You aren’t just a teacher. As Gemar Mills says, “You save lives daily.” It’s incredibly important work - a calling that cannot be underestimated, diminished, or taken for granted.
I also believe we all have to make a concerted effort to shift the conversation from asking “why?” to asking “why not?”. From giving reasons something can’t happen to finding potential solutions as to how it can. This is the approach that we owe our children. We owe it to them to take risks, to push the envelope, and to reimagine what education looks like in the modern classroom. But, most importantly, we owe it to students to believe in them. Each and every one of them. - “Our kids change the world because you changed their world.” What we do in the classroom is about people and pedagogy - not programs. I believe part of our reflection each day ought to be how we changed a kid’s world that day. Perhaps it was a smile and a fist-bump, a two-minute conversation in the hallway, a positive phone call home, or a dynamic, personalized learning experience. Erin Klein says, “Every child in your classroom is someone else’s entire world.” Well, if we’re in this game, I would argue those children should be our entire world too. I ask you to ask yourself: How did you make an everlasting positive impact today on your students?
The takeaways of our staff have been incredible. The effects of Angela's message have transcended the high school auditorium that housed us this week. Below are a few examples of how these words have impacted and transformed our teachers and students. I can't wait to see where we go from here.
