#BeTheONE

Each and every day we are given an amazing gift - the opportunity to pour into the life on someone else. We get to wake up, choose our attitude, and decide upon how we want to approach the course of events and people that await us. We are afforded the opportunity to make the difference in the life of someone else. To show them someone believes in them and their potential to be great.

#BeTheONE was born from the idea that each one of us has this incredible opportunity to intentionally pour joy, hope, strength, motivation, and wonder into the lives of countless individuals. We must be willing to accept that challenge every day in the work you do - whether you are an educator, coach, pastor, doctor, fast food worker, store clerk, student, business man/woman, or police officer.

Every one of us has someone in our lives that was our ONE - the one that believed in us, pushed us, influenced us, and asked us to go beyond what we thought was possible. That ONE person left a lasting impression on our lives and who we are today. Their actions proved we meant something to them and they took the time to mentor us, to tutor us, and to guide us.

Today, and every day, you have the chance to #BeTheONE in someone's life. To show them you believe in them and their dreams. To help them realize they can be greater than they may have ever imagined or believed. For educators, this opportunity should not be taken lightly. You may be the one person in their life that believes, that encourages, and strengthens them. You might be the only consistent in their life. Grasp firmly to this opportunity, helping to shape the future of the world around us. Be the light during the darkness and spread love.

Will you join me in this movement - this opportunity to #BeTheONE

To learn more about #BeTheONE - visit my #BeTheONE Blog

The Brain that Works...

I was fortunate enough to work on a team that recently hosted the 1st Annual ELIcon - Excellence in Leadership & Instruction Conference in Green Bay, WI. While I was busy with logistics, coordination, and customer service, I was able to enjoy our keynote speakers and walk away with a few thoughts and reflections. One in particular continues to resonate with me - Dr. Skip Downing, founder and owner of On-Course Workshop. His workshops are dedicated to helping colleges improve student success and retention. Although our conference was aimed toward Higher Education, there is a notion that Dr. Downing shared that carries true throughout all levels of education and life.

"The Brain that Works is the Brain that Learns!"

Nine simple words that can carry such weight with educators across any realm. For far too long, classrooms have been repositories of information in which teachers spit out knowledge and asks students to regurgitate what was supposed to be learned. The brain has never been asked to work harder than to simply recall. As waves of teachers begin to abandon teaching to the test and take a stance against standardized testing, schools find themselves at a cross-roads: to continue to encourage teaching the way its been done, well forever, or to adopt new teaching practices that encourages the brain to work.

Enter Active Learning Environments...perhaps known by many other names, active learning environments grant students the opportunity to explore, tinker, question, converse, build, and learn by actively seeking answers to questions unknown. Teachers become facilitators of learning, constructing environments that encourage growth through failure. How is it that any teacher can create an active learning environments? By fostering these three ingredients; Connections, Curiosity, and Collaboration.

Every student wants to feel important to someone - to feel like they matter and can be successful. Every students needs to be influenced and motivated to work harder. When teachers attempt to make connections with students they begin to build a bridge between the impossible and possible. As connections are made and grow, only then can teachers push students to unimaginable heights. Only then do students feel comfortable in taking risks, in failing.

After the connection is established, teachers can begin to give students the freedom to be curious. To explore into the unknown by finding creative ways to solve problems, present solutions, and share ideas with classmates. Teachers must be willing to model an environment of curiosity themselves. Either by flipping their classroom, providing pre-class work, or simply allowing students to teach, teachers will open the door to spark student interest. Once you've gotten to know your students and their strengths, you can help build off them by encouraging students to use them more often.

Finally, every student is going to need to collaborate and communicate with others in the fast-paced world. Teachers that use an active learning environment will not only encourage, but intentionally build collaborative opportunities into what they do. Think, Pair, Share topics, case-studies, or group challenge problems are great ways for students to share their thinking process and collaborative efforts with classmates.

No matter how you think of learning today, we must recognize that the brain needs to work in order to learn. Teachers need to find creative ways in which students feel comfortable controlling their own learning. Failure is an option and we need to help them understand how to persevere and grow through learning. Active learning gives teachers the ability and students the opportunity to put their brains to work!

Connecting with your Learners

In preparing for an upcoming conference on Student Engagement, I struggled to identify 3 -5 strategies that would help increase student engagement in any classroom. The struggle was not in coming up with the strategies - I could list 20 - 30 if needed. My struggle existed in that creating and using activities alone will not necessarily increase student engagement. Don't get me wrong, engagement activities can definitely be worth the time and effort you put into them. However, wouldn't making meaningful connections with learners go a lot further?

To illustrate this point, allow me to ask you the following questions. Who was the most memorable teacher you've ever had? Keeping this teacher in mind, what are three adjectives you would use to describe him/her that made them memorable? Odds are, the three words you chose have very little to do with your grade in that class, the subject he/she taught, or the age of that teacher. I'm more willing to bet that your three words describe the rapport he/she had with you, the connection you made with him/her, and how he/she treated you as an individual!

If this is true, shouldn't more focus be placed on how to create and sustain meaningful connections with learners? Isn't it in the best interest of each learner to understand how he/she best learns, what's going on in his/her life, and to know how we can help each one be successful in his/her endeavors?

American Journalist Chris Hedges puts it this way. "We've bought into the idea that education is about training and 'success,' defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death."

If we believe in Mr. Hedges statement, the question becomes how do we teach compassion in our classrooms? Ironically, the answer is quite simple - WE MODEL IT! We must not only recognize that each learner is an individual, we must harness their potential by engaging them in conversation that allow us to get to know them. What are their hobbies, what are their goals for your class, what is their weekend like, and how do they prefer to learn are only a small sample of questions we should consider. While this effort may take some time on your part, isn't that time more valuable than just diving into your content? How else will you be able to help each learner individually if you don't know who they are?

Aristotle once said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." We have an opportunity to reshape how we teach - will you take the opportunity to become the most memorable teacher your students ever had?

Can You Ride a Bicycle?

I'm going to venture a guess that all of you reading this have learned to ride a bike. Countless hours and multiple attempts went into learning how to balance your weight, how to shift the handle bars, and how to brace yourself for the fall. And while hopefully we all learned through these failures to persist and keep plugging away, we may not have been aware of the neurological connections we were making.

The phrase 'it's just like riding a bike' took on a new meaning for today after viewing the video below, AND attempting to ride this bike myself.




You can only imagine how trying to ride this bike myself has completely changed my perspective on CHANGE! While I've always been aware that change is easier for some and more difficult for others, I never made the connection in the relationship between your brain and change. As individuals, we have taken years to master our craft or expertise. Yet, some leaders want us to change our thought process or actions over night. What they may not realize is that our brains are wired in such a way that we struggle to understand the change and how this will improve what we are doing.

Where this video really hit home for me is though the interactions I might have with students. We all have the opportunity to work with and mentor learners that have a wide variety of backgrounds.Many learners come with predisposed notions and beliefs about themselves. Whether it be parents, previous teachers, or friends, learners have been 'hard-wired' to navigate life according to these beliefs. As educators, we are not only tasked to teach them content, but also perhaps help them to 're-learn' who they are and what they are capable of.

And what the movie proved to me is that I must be patient in my working with learners. While I may want to move fast and have accepted changes, some learners have some 'un-wiring' to do to learn. My role is to continue to be supportive of them, their efforts, and the growth they are making. Each learner deserves the time they need to grow - after all growth is movement forward no matter how big or small.

I recently started reading 'The Leadership Challenge' by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Although I'm a mere thirty pages in so far and very inspired to learn more about The Five Practices to Exemplary Leadership - Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. These five practices must shape how we continue to evolve what education is really about. We cannot impact the brain without first impacting the heart.

Each one of us is capable of impacting our learners. Continue to inspire and model the way in what you do and how you interact with your learners. Help them to unlock the potential that exists within themselves. And remember that many already learned how to 'ride their bike!'

Yes Waiting to Happen

The dog days of summer are upon us. High school sports practices are in full swing. College dorms are beginning to fill up. School supplies rule the entrances to our favorite stores. Children are restless with anticipation of the first day of school. Across college campuses, faculty and staff begin to prepare for the new semester. Regardless of what level of education you teach at, your preparation and planning have surely started prior to your first official day back! As the new school starts, we must all be reminded how pivotal of a role we play in our communities, our schools, our students' lives, and our very own futures.

Over the last several days my college has kicked off the new semester with our 'Success 1st Summit' fall in-service. Our college president talked about having purpose, potential, and play as keys to staying motivated at work. Our keynote speaker, Genyne Edwards, JD, gave an excellent message about the key to charting a vision of persistence "starts with YOU - you are the one you've been waiting for!" Through this time, I've sat back and pondered how can anyone working in education prepare for the new school year? What message do we all need to hear?

For some reason, my mind keeps coming back to one main theme - CONNECTIONS! As human beings, we long to be connected to others...our teachers, our colleagues, our friends...we desire to know that we matter in the lives of others. Education is no different - perhaps connections are even far more important!

Working at a technical college, our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of skills. Yet, the students that succeed and persist to graduate will all tell you they had a mentor that believed in them and their potential to succeed. Each and every graduate was connected to someone at the college that pushed them, encouraged them, believed in them, and dared them to be great!

Here's my challenge to anyone working in education as you start the new year. Ask yourself what are you going to do to connect with students? What are you going to do to support the student that doesn't believe in themselves? How can you encourage the doubter? How will you be their yes waiting to happen?

As author and speaker Angela Maiers so passionately believes, "You Matter". Every student needs to not only believe they matter, they must feel like they matter to someone. You have the potential to help a student believe they matter...are you up for the challenge?

Why Are Connections so Important

While trolling through Twitter recently, I stumbled across a Tweet that described classroom management as 'more class and less management!' I couldn't help but think to myself the power this simple statement possessed. While we might think today's students need more management, what they really need are more people to believe in them and their dreams! As Tom Hierck puts it, "we need to stop talking about students by their deficits."

It becomes rather easy to shine our light on misbehavior, achievement gaps, and learning deficits in our classrooms. The struggle to balance instruction with empathy and class is real. However, when you enter a classroom that places the emphasis on connections, you can feel the positive energy in the air. Why is it that students thrive in a classroom in which their teacher genuinely cares? How is it that students from a variety of backgrounds and educational predispositions can grow leaps and bounds in  a room with more class? It's my opinion that it all boils down to one simple concept - CONNECTIONS!

Today's teacher encounters students with a wide range of baggage - emotional, socioeconomic, relational, stress, anxiety, and many more. Yet, the best classroom teachers find a way to make each and every student feel welcome and encouraged to learn. However, in order to do so, these teachers have found a way to make a connection with their students, thus knowing how to motivate and encourage each and every student in their class.

While it's not an easy feat to accomplish, the greatest teachers work valiantly to ensure that every student sees his/her value. These teachers know their likes and dislikes, their triggers, their happy places, and what they are doing this coming weekend. Great teachers find a way to look past the blatantly obvious deficits and choose to focus on the positive that each child can provide to the class. It's not easy! It is necessary to foster a classroom that places less on emphasis on getting it right and more emphasis on continuous growth and learning.

Sometimes, teachers are the only light of hope for students. We might be the one person that believes in them and knows that they are capable of great things. We must be willing to look past mistakes and blemishes and focus on what is possible. Teachers must not be afraid of daring students to go beyond whatever what was once thought of as impossible.

Each and every student needs a teacher that believes in him/her. Someone that tells them it's okay to make a mistake, you can do it, and I believe in you. Take the time to make connections with your students, putting relationships ahead of curriculum, putting students before standards. You want to see your students be successful - then focus on the connections you are making with them!

4-C's of Learning

Recently, I have been doing a great deal of reflecting on what it means to learn - not just for students but for professionals as well. While many will admit that 'learning never stops', few will actively seek out opportunities to grow and learn. Unfortunately, the skills of the 20th century, along with the learning styles of old, will not motivate a learner to change old habits, nor support creativity and innovation. A radical change in what learning means and why, when, where, and how learning is done needs to occur. To fail to see that a change is needed is to fail all learners at all levels.

Through my own reflection and studying the likes of Daniel Pink (Motivation), Howard Gardner (5 Minds for the Future), and Jason Bretzmann (Personalized PD), I have come to develop what I call The 4-C's of Learning: Connections, Customization, Curiosity, and Collaboration. As I continue to explore the implications the 4-C's could have on learning, I feel that is an excellent time to share what I have so far, reflect on the process, and gather feedback from all types of learners!

CONNECTIONS: The late Aristotle is quoted as saying, "Educating the mind without educating the Heart is no education at all." This fundamental belief is what I feel should be the root of all learning experiences. As I see it, connections consist of two main elements - connections to people and connections to content. The ability to connect with people provides an opportunity to look into one's heart. I am a firm believer that we cannot teach WHAT if we do not know the WHY behind a learner. To understand the why takes time and effort - an effort to get to know someone's character, values, goals, and ambitions. Whether the connection is Educator-Student, Educator-Educator, Manager-Employee, we must be willing to look deeper than the surface to help learners develop a strong foundation for the learning process.

When talking about connecting to the content, we strive to find purpose in what we are learning. Daniel Pink defines purpose as "the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves." Our individual purpose and passions lie within our hearts. The more passionate about a topic we are, the more inclined we are to find a solution on our own. Unfortunately, much of education today (both formal and professional development) uses a 'one size fits all' approach. If we are to truly move education forward, we must encourage and design opportunities for learners to be creative and innovative. This means we must be adapt at thinking outside the box and designing learning opportunities that are individualized.

CUSTOMIZED: Perhaps the most difficult C to understand, customized learning helps to put the control of learning in the learners hands. In order to relinquish the ownership however, a deep and last connection needs to have been developed. To help a learner understand how learning can be applied to a variety of areas in their life, educators need to know what the learners purpose and passion are! Daniel Pink refers to this element as autonomy, "the urge to direct our own learning." When given more control over directing your own learning, a learner tends to become more motivated to see the learning process through to the end.

In traditional learning settings, I see this phenomena taking place in giving learners choices in how to display learning has occurred - what I like to call "Letting Your Students Drive".  In giving learners options related to displaying what they have learned, you give them ownership in developing a product they are proud of and willing to share with others. Likewise, you provide student an opportunity to use any number of the talents the posses.

In his book 'Personalized PD', Jason Bretzmann talks about Honor Professionalism. "These people know what they are doing. It's why they were hired, and why they are still here. They probably know what they need next." Why is it that institutions feel the need to dictate and hand-cuff educators in their own learning and development? When we let go of the reins and hand over the ownership. learning becomes a behavior, not a barrier!

CURIOSITY: After providing a framework to create lasting connections and customized learning experiences, educators will find it much easier to spark curiosity in their learners - curiosity to learn beyond a text book, curiosity to be creative and innovative, and curiosity to know how to search for answers when they don't know what they are looking for. Far too often, educators get in the way of curiosity and stifle any ingenuity that may be brewing. The more we can sit back and provide learners the opportunity to drive their learning, the more ownership they take for what is learned, particularly from failure. 

Encouraging learning through failure requires reflection. Reflection allows learners to identify where they started and where they hope their goals will take them. High quality reflection encourages learners to identify pieces of the puzzle along the journey that might need to be modified or changed all together. Without reflection, learners are often doomed to repeat history. When learners are able to identify historical blunders, they become inclined to look outside the box and think differently than those before them.

COLLABORATION: The world around us continues to evolve and change as we know it. For the 2015-2016 school year, the Green Bay (WI) School District become a majority minority school - 51% of the students are of a minority! This trend will only continue to rise. Educators must be prepared to teach all students about the diverse work force they will encounter, preparing them to work with people from all walks of life. In providing a framework to show that everyone has worth, educators must strategically plan for group activities that support this initiative. In doing so, educators also prepare learners for the difficult situations and conversations they will undoubtedly encounter.

Professionals must also understand the value collaboration plays in their own learning process. Too often, we feel the need to try and reinvent the wheel, or apply as many band aides to a problem as possible, guessing which solution worked the best. We need to harness the potential of collaboration and be willing to share what we tried, what worked, and what failed. All of education needs to understand that WE is more important than ME and learners are OURS not mine!

As I continue to reflect on my own learning through this adventure, I am encouraged by the many educators that are already practicing the 4-C's in their own lives. As we continue to forge ahead into the world of the unknown, educators will be forced to teach differently, think differently, and lead differently.

I welcome and look forward to any feedback, comments, and/or suggestions anyone might have. This truly is an adventure that WE are all embarking on together!

Cliff Goodacre - cliffgoodacre@gmail.com