- 500 miles of driving separate my cousin from me. She and I have grown closer in our adult years in terms of other means of measurement. We intentionally exchange parenting stories, book ideas (mainly for our elementary-aged sons), and teaching experiences because high school sophomores and college law students offer many lessons for their instructors. I grew up in rural Minnesota, and she cut her teeth in suburban Chicago. Recently, my appreciation for her influence on my life has become more palpable because our most recent visit to her house reintroduced me to sparkling water. I don’t think I had consumed one of these beverages in 20 years, but it became more attractive this summer as I seek substitutes for pop. A recent sale on this product at our local grocery store prompted my husband to say, “That’s because it’s horrible; no one buys it.” At a different point in my life, I would have agreed, but I suddenly have this acquired affinity for the bubbly water. In applying this concept to my professional life, it made me think more about the nature of what drives change. New ideas “find us” when we forage new places and people for them.
- I would be hard-pressed to find something I value in my personal or personal life that wasn’t initially foreign to me. While I certainly embrace many core beliefs of my upbringing and early training as a teacher, a multitude of practices in my current classroom have arisen due to “outside” influences. To the outside eye, my implementation of these ideas seems bizarre. Standards-based grading, use of primary documents, and the combination of refining these, engaging students through technology, loosening our textbook’s grip on us, and incorporating a class Twitter account were mileposts of the past three years. I’ve tracked some of these changes in past blog posts, and – while a leap of faith always accompanies innovation for me – the key is in the ideas’ origins.
- My cousin exposed me to a new drink. Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal led me to standards-based grading. A MnCHE workshop taught me how to use primary documents in instruction and assessment. Thinking Historically by Stephane Levasque (“delivered” to me by a trusted member of my Twitter PLN) is one outside source driving my mind this summer. Technology workshops in our district, from EdCamps, and a GAFE Summit have introduced tech tools. I have new ideas to explore from my husband’s AP training. This week I joined a group of Minnesota teachers on Voxer that has opened more windows for ideas. My MnCHE colleagues’ presentations at a recent workshop added to my unofficial to-do list for the next four weeks just as various tweets I read lead me down paths to consider. It makes my head spin to take inventory of these, but it makes me smile too.
- People and ideas enter our lives on a regular basis. How can we embrace them better? How can we look for irregular ways to change our actions? Unless a teacher is entirely content with student results or wants to dismiss a responsibility in influencing these, it seems ridiculous to be idle. It reminds me of this passage from the television series The West Wing: “Take This Sabbath Day” quotation. Find something or someone new to influence you as you embark on your 2014-15 adventure. Figure out how to make it yours so that you vault student performance to new levels.
Sparkling Water Stash
