The answer: EDUCATION. Education is constantly on my mind--and I love it.
I can't get enough of talking about it.
In the past week,
- I had a great Google Hangout On Air with Dan Spencer (Twitter: @runfardvs) about a conference I'll be attending in April; I'll be leading one session, actually, so we thought a short interview might help attendees decide on which facilitator they'd like to see. We had agreed to about ten minutes of conversation. After it went on for about fifteen, Dan started apologizing for running long. Truth be told, I could have talked for an hour on the topic and I would have been more than happy.
- I had an excellent email exchange with a colleague as we debated the values of helping a boy an hour and a half away when we had students struggling with similar issues right in our own district. Is it fair or right to spend the energy providing help to this student when so many in our own community could use the help and resources? Plus, was going to any extreme for this student just a publicity grab, something to promote our own community when most likely not befriending this student long-term? Great questions. No right answers. Just good conversation. To find out more, I linked in the news story. Feel free to leave your thoughts as a comment on the blog.
- #MichEd allowed educators from every piece of The Mitten to get together and talk about what makes our schools great. Every Wednesday, the people of #MichEd make me think, reflect, and change. It's a phenomenal hour to connect statewide and grow as an educator. Educator, parent, student, administrator--join it on Wednesday at 8P.
- A parent in the district posted an article to Facebook regarding education and the importance of failing. I couldn't help but comment on how valuable I think failure is and how badly I think we, as a whole national educational system, promote it. It could be the start to a bigger conversation--and, as you might guess, I'd be up for that. Below is the article that got the thoughts rolling.
- I had pedagogical conversations with my students, too. As a matter of fact, I want them to be thinking about the educational moves they're making in class. What do they think about having an audience for their major works in class? What do they think about using projects for a major portion of their assessment? What do they think about having so much choice in the classroom? The conversations, even with these, teenagers are phenomenal--and they lead me to be a better teacher.
I love to talk. And I love to talk passionately. So, when one passion (education) meets another passion (talking/thinking), I'm in a very good place.
And that's where I am right now in my profession--A VERY GOOD PLACE.
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