Reach and Connect

The skyscrapers of New York City remind us to reach. Like those skyscrapers, connected colleagues' voices can rise high. Joined together we can envision new vistas, see new possibilities, and celebrate positivity. 

Each Monday on Twitter, #CelebrateMonday asks us to showcase the positives. To open dialogue on positivity, Dan McCabe and I will lead the #NYEDChat moderators in a conversation with our connected "edufriends" on Monday, May 2, 2016 at 8 pm EST.

NYEDChat Moderators :

Bill Brennan, Victoria Day, Blanca Duarte, Dan McCabe, Lisa Meade, Starr Sackstein, Dennis Schug, Tony Sinanis, Carol Varsalona

Connected Educator Guest Moderators:

Bobby Dodd, Sean Gaillard, Reed Gillespie, Phil Griffin, Neil Gupta, Jon Harper, 
Jennifer Hogan, Eoin Lenihan, Craig Vroom, Jennifer Williams

While the above connected educators are Positivity Champions, I recognize that there are so many more I come in contact with on social media who have a growth mindset. On behalf of the NYEDChat team I send out this invitation to join the conversation, Positive People Do More, to all who champion the "positives" across the globe. 

NYEDChat, as the voice of New York State educators, reaches beyond our state boundaries to connect with others on timely topics in education. Please join me at #NYEDChat on #CelebrateMonday May 2, 2016 for an epic conversation. The question document below is ready for your perusal. 

Ready to rock the Twittersphere as we discuss how to end the year with a strong finish, right up to the #lastbell, as Jennifer Hogan says. 

Don't forget to #CelebrateMonday today. 

Question to Ponder: 

What might you do differently to create a positive environment that celebrates the journey toward success? 

No Need for Perfection

Open a fashion magazine to see the fabulous trends for the spring. Look at the new car ads. Today, in my AOL mail, a notice said "Resources for Perfect Projects." The pursuit of perfection still exists in media as evidenced by the above email ad but being free from flaws and defects is unrealistic. Holly Mueller sent out a tweet this week inviting us to write for Spiritual Journey Thursday with the topic being Let's Get Real-No Need to Be Perfect! 

While the world of media may still promote the perfect image, in the educational world of connected colleagues, perfection is not the norm. These educators provide steps for students to interact in a culture of trust and positivity with the goal of striving to be the best one can be. A growth mindset honors the process by which each learner develops. Missteps, imperfections, and failure occur along the way but they are are just bumps in the road. Reflection leads learners to accept the detours and continue the journey onward. All is accomplished without perfection being the end goal. The image below was created to remind us that the pathway to success does not depend on attaining perfection. 

We need to take a second look at the world today to release a spirit of positivity. Seeing life as a series of steps on a journey of development is the path toward academic, personal, and spiritual growth. As the instructors in the yoga studio say, "There is no need to be perfect. Do your best." 

Not all the blooms on the branch blossom at once. They wait until they are ready. When their color pops, their beauty graces the neighborhood. Each one is different and unique. In comparison, the learners in our classrooms open the petals at different times. We appreciate their springtime growth as part of the journey of life. Nature creates a flow of life that awakens the earth. It exists not as perfection but an example of the acceptance of what is. 

Philippians 3:12 states, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Let's Get Real. There is No Need to Be Perfect!  

Listen to the song below that exemplifies this thought.

Now please visit Spiritual Journey Thursday created and hosted by Holly Mueller.

Celebrating This Week: Resiliency in the Face of Failure

Part 1 Celebration:

I have been been reflecting on the growth mindset this week to focus on how positive thoughts can affect change. Each day brought me closer to creating a visual image that expressed my idea. Yesterday, Leadership Day 2014, I started tweeting the image that I created with a free digital photo and PicMonkey. I was rather pleased with the combined photo and quote that I created and decided that I will use this in future professional development workshops designed for teachers and leaders. 

Perhaps this will be your mantra or a Words To Live By poster 

for your classroom? 

One Twitter colleague tweeted me that this will grace her office wall. You can imagine how special I felt that she considered this worthy enough for her learning space. 

I created this image to turn the table on failure. My advice for the week (that I am attempting to live by) is to accept the act of failing as a positive step for future growth. Although I do not have a specific classroom of students, the teachers and leaders that I present to make me acutely aware that we need to help students embrace learning as a messy process where failure is acceptable. We also need to celebrate the act of reflection and make it the go to action for stopping, pausing, and moving forward. 

Part 2 Celebration:

This morning on #satchat there was a very lively conversation about embracing failure. Of course, this topic provided the opportunity to interject my own thoughts, especially the image I created. During the #satchat conversation, I had many sidebar exchanges that were stimulating, insightful, and provided "food for thought."

Below is an example of a conversation I had with 

a Twitter colleague, Joe Sanfellippo. 

Joe Sanfelippo ‏@Joesanfelippofc  50m

Do you know a kid that fails a level in a video game & gives up? I don't either. That environment of safe 4 them. Need 2 extend it #satchat

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Carol Varsalona ‏@cvarsalona  7m

@Joesanfelippofc Being transfixed & perseverant when in front of screen must be transferred over to classrm. We need to find way. #satchat

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Joe Sanfelippo ‏@Joesanfelippofc  17s

@cvarsalona Agreed. I think it has a lot to do w/ ownership of the process. Kids want 2 do better & like the progression in that environment.

Then, the video clip of Rocky Balboa's inspiration speech to his son was sent out to all. 
.

Video Viewing

Failing Safe! SparkyTeaching

Finally, Salome Thomas-El (@Principal _EL) twitted, "Building resilient kids is not teaching them to be successful...It's teaching them how to respond when not successful." Isn't that what it is all about? Celebrate all the events, big or small, and give encouragement when failure is evident. Teach the learner to reflect upon the misses and allow those experience to give rise to a new beginning. The spirit of resiliency will give the learner the opportunity to shake the dust off and try again. 

I am celebrating the connections, reflective moments, and opportunity to write this week. When I encounter my missed step I am going to be reminded that failure with reflective action is a steppingstone to success. 

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This week you can read the blog posts of the writers who Celebrate this week with Ruth Ayres @ ruth ayres writes.

We need to reflect upon the small moments of our week because those are the times that help us grow as learners.

The Teacher As An Awakener

An interesting quote by Robert Frost passed through the Twitter and Pinterest networks recently that started me thinking about the role of the educator in this time of challenge and change.  

"I am not a teacher, but an awakener." 

Focusing on the underlined word in the quote solidified an image of whom an awakener might be. Although I have not found the context for Frost's statement, I propose that an awakener is a reflective, passionate practitioner, observer of life and relationships, who ignites his/her surroundings; creates interest in topics through collaborative discourse; invites others to explore, question, and discover additional avenues to learning. With clarity of vision, an awakener sees limitless possibilities and with a growth mindset fosters a spirit of positivity. He/she impacts learning through critical thinking, collaborative moves, and active engagement, influencing the development of a change-focused culture.  

To support my thinking, I created the visual above. Coupling this image with Stronge's statement about the teacher being the "most influential school-related force in student achievement," solidified my notion that the educator is the awakener, the essential change agent of learning environments. In various studies, teachers have been recognized as facilitators and guides on students' journeys. With their expertise they provide the scaffolds necessary for students to become problem solvers, synthesizers of information, and independent learners, able to deal positively with 21st century issues. As reflective practitioners, teachers are pivotal forces, helping students become better at what they need to know and be able to do to meet the rigors of the Information Age and Common Core State Standards. Teachers awaken the mind and senses to embrace learning in innovative ways.

These awakeners are visible in classrooms as modelers of learning, in PLCs as collegial collaborators, and in online conversations and training sessions as thinkers and learners. They listen intently, collaborate, and strategically plan how to use their new knowledge to impact teaching and learning. They are the front line instructors who create passion-filled learning spaces supported by a belief in the "I Can Do This" message. Positivity guides these teachers, awakeners of learning, as they support students in becoming critical thinkers of the Information Age.

With the national concern to accelerate all learners' growth an urgent matter, classrooms need to be facilitated by awakeners. Through collaboration, reflection on past practices, and shifts in thinking, literacy landscapes can be redesigned to provide vigorous, high quality learning opportunities for students. The potential is there to energize education through active awakenings. It is the noticings, wonderings, and discoveries that will propel us forward as we, instructional leaders, continue to be the awakeners of learning.

“Students learn only from teachers who are themselves in the process of learning." 

J.McCall 

As a 

Learner - Awakener - Change Agent

Be Positive Poster created by Team 1, Beaumont, Metzak, Naggar, Plattner @ Silas Wood Sixth Grade Center, SHUFSD, 2014