Catalyst and Cartographer

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A catalyst is a substance that enables a reaction to proceed at a faster rate or under different conditions, such as a lower temperature, than otherwise possible. Learning is already happening for our students everyday in their lives both inside and outside of school, so our job as educators and leaders is to increase the rate of learning or modify the conditions in which folks can learn. Let’s catalyze learning!

As a cartographer, I’m not pointing someone in a specific direction, but creating the map that helps show the “lay of the land” so they can navigate themselves. In this way, we create the framework for learners to us to guide themselves through their learning path with the appropriate amount of support. And since we are creating a map, I guess there are still some new worlds left to be discovered!

Betting on Myself

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First things first, I’m NOT leaving my job. Not a chance. I’m letting go of a bunch of sites and channels and projects (and an LLC I built as a side hustle)… and it feels great!

Bear with me for a minute. I’m trying to decide on something and you’re part of the plan.

This isn’t going to be a post about leadership or education or design.

This is me getting some thoughts down on “paper” instead of keeping them in my head.

What does betting on myself mean in this instance? Great question.

Short answer: I’m not 100% sure.

Here’s what I know:

  1. I have always loved working and like many other people, spend a lot more hours than I probably should in work mode. However, it has always paid off in the end (or at least I think it has), so I’m not knocking it.
  2. I take to heart the ideal that what you create at a job ultimately belongs to the company you create it for.
  3. I enjoy creating and I’ve got practice at coming up with sustainable processes for it. I spend less than an hour a week on my YouTube and podcast content and I’ve created over 70 episodes and done another 60 or 70 short interviews in the last two years.
  4. I’m not generally emotionally tied to my creations If you told me I had to delete my YouTube channel tomorrow, I wouldn’t be crushed. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t work hard on it or that I’m not proud.
  5. I have boatloads of content released in the wild and even more that’s never seen the light of day.
  6. I do not have the ability or desire to totally go out on my own. Or maybe we all have the ability but I just don’t have the desire.
  7. Stability, relationships, and community gained from a place of regular employment are my jam.
  8. Professionally, I’m happy. I’m in a role that I helped build from the ground up and have support to continue to iterate on the vision.
  9. I like growing and mentoring others- I find it feeds my own growth as well.

So what would it mean to bet on myself?

  1. Create a separate channel for my own content.
  2. Deeply integrate the channel, my blog content, and my social media pages. Use all of this to “try out” content that would eventually become part of one of the few book ideas I’ve got in the works.
  3. Spend a little more time each week on my own content and development.
  4. Spend a little less time “outside of work” on work and be content with what that means for the regular gig.
  5. I need to become much more focused on setting and achieving goals and become a better steward of my time.

The Big Question

Should I bet on myself?

Additional Big Question

If not now… when?

Conference Nibbles and Bites

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I’ve just recently picked up fishing as a new hobby, so please forgive excessive fishing references for a couple weeks.

When you go fishing, the goal is usually pretty self-explanatory.

Catch fish.

However, we rarely set a goal before we head to the water and define what a successful trip will be. There are times when we catch multiple fish, but the outing still doesn’t have that spark. There are times when we get a few nibbles and bites, but land ZERO fish and still have a blast battling it out with some bass (or crappies or jacks or…).

So it would seem that the criteria for success isn’t as simple as it first appears.

I’ve been attending and presenting at edtech conferences for a decade.

I’ve canceled presentations where no one showed up, presented in massive theaters, and decided to turn a presentation with a smaller audience into a conversation mid-stream.

I’ve done zero presentations at a conference and been a listener/learner or put together 8-10 different sessions to fire through with various collaborators.

I’ve learned about machine learning, Marzano, mentoring, Mythbusters, makerspaces, and even some things that don’t start with M.

I’ve been a part of single school conferences and presented on an international stage.

“Okay, we get it. What’s the point?”

With all those experiences under my belt, I still can’t define what makes a conference feel successful with any level of clarity.

Something that conferences, fishing, live concerts, and education at large have in common is that there’s value in the experience that may not fit perfectly into a list of criteria for success.

I’ve also never had to sit down and truly determine what value exists for many of these activities. There is never a shortage of stories of powerful learning and relationships built at the end of most conferences, so it’s rare (read: never) that someone says “rate that conference from 1 to 10 based on the success criteria you laid out before going”.

So what are your criteria for success when traveling to a conference or trade show?

What expectations exist for you to be able to attend?

Does your organization look to collect certain metrics at a show?

Leads scanned at a booth? Meetings taken? Time spent with stakeholders? Presentation attendees? New networking contacts?

Before we hit this next conference season, I’m going to lean in and set-up success criteria and create some expectations for myself.

What about you? What are your nibbles and bites going to be at the next conference you’re attending?

Beginnings – A Man Called Craig

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Sometimes when I feel a little lost or disconnected from the education community I serve, I reflect back on some beginnings.

15 years ago, I began my journey as a professional in education as an Adjunct Faculty member at Indian River State College (then Indian River Community College). I taught in a GED lab for adults looking to provide more opportunities for themselves and young folks who had decided that high school wasn’t the best path forward for them.

While I didn’t realize it at the time, it was a phenomenal and powerful entry point into the world of education. For many people who work in our school systems, the last touch point is the day that students walk out the door for the final time for graduation or to pursue a different path.

I had the privilege of seeing them when they decided they wanted to persevere and start their next chapter.

Their stories were separate parts infinitely complex and incredibly simple. With intertwining personal and professional reasons for coming back to learn, I came to truly respect them all each in their own ways.

There are a few people that I still think about often from those days. One man, we’ll call him Craig, was in his mid-fifties and had spent over 30 years in construction and various trades.

My shift was from 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM each weekday (I worked from 630-430 at a local golf course, but that’s a story for another day). Craig was there everyday between 5:30 and 5:45 PM and was totally focused.

He had equal parts drive and humility. He set a goal for himself each night to complete a certain number of lessons and wouldn’t leave until he hit that mark. Craig asked questions when he was stuck. He willfully sat, learned, and reflected as we went over concepts that many folks would be embarrassed to admit they didn’t know, but Craig had a goal and was going to reach it.

This isn’t about outcomes. It isn’t about the GED that Craig went on to earn.

Even though we see many patterns and ups and downs in our lives as educators, every once in a while we’ve got to re-center ourselves, regardless of role, on the idea that our work truly has impact.

It creates opportunities.

It shapes lives.

It changes the future.

It makes a difference.

YOU make a difference.

Measure What Matters

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What do you measure in your life?

In an interview a few years back, Mitch Resnick talked about the fact that in education, we like to measure what is most easily measured, not what we value most.

This is how we end up with a focus on standardized test results rather than finding ways to assess students on the skills that we know the world needs more of: problem solving, collaboration, and adaptability. Let’s throw in a dash of emotional intelligence for good measure.

Think of how this applies to your own life, whether personally or professionally.

What are you measuring? What quantifiable evidence exists for your growth? Test scores at school, sales numbers at work, and pounds or kilograms on the scale at home?

I’m spending the next couple weeks reflecting on what I need to measure in my own life… what about you?

Writing… or maybe Writing Again

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Back in 2019, I started this page. I had written in other places before and on a few different topics, but this was the first time I invested in my own site to pull it together.

In 2020, I challenged myself to write something (and publish it here) every day for 30 days. Rain or shine. Happy or sad. Busy or bored.

I honestly thought I would last 9 or 10 days and then stop.

But that’s when I discovered something interesting… I loved the process of writing. That might be a bit hyperbolic, but I did find a ton of value in the practice. There aren’t a lot of ways to “practice” communication skills, but writing with the intent to publish it every day definitely checks that box for me.

I wrote about observations. I wrote about education. I wrote about leadership. I wrote about design. I wrote about writing. Some days, I wrote for what felt like hours and created 10 different drafts only to end up with one solid thing to publish. Other days, I wrote an idea in three or four killer sentences in a minute and a half, was happy with it, and published it.

30 days turned in 58 days and then I stopped, not because I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore, but because I knew that I could.

So now, after a year of very little writing, I’m ready to come back. This time, my goal is slightly different. It is to publish something everyday without an end date, but this time with focus. I’ve got about 3 or 4 book ideas floating around and I’m honestly not sure where they are going to land.

Let’s hope some of them land right here…

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