My day began with a one hundred and sixty mile drive to Kalamazoo to present at the Middle Elementary and Middle School Principals Association (MEMPSA) annual conference. I was invited by my principal, Mark Morawski, to co-present a breakout session focused on project based learning. I’m always happy to talk about the amazing work our students do, so the drive flew by.
Upon arrival I was, however, disappointed to discover that I had missed the keynote by George Couros but I was lucky enough to be able to catch the last ten minutes of one of his breakout sessions. George shared a personal story about a time when he was very vulnerable and flustered in front of an audience. It was so refreshing to know that even my educational heroes have those moments too! In that moment George Couros became more fallible, more human and more approachable to me. I was so pleased that he chose to share it because the ultimate message was powerful: We need to make the positives so loud, that the negatives are almost impossible to hear. In just ten minutes I had my greatest take away from the conference!
Shortly after our session ended I jumped back in the car to make the three hour drive back to Detroit to attend an Engag(ed) Exchange event centered around design thinking and empathy within the education space. I was so happy to reconnect with some amazing educators that I haven’t seen in a while and also thrilled to make some new connections. The evening was launched with an amazing performance of Lost Voices by two students from the EMU Poetry Society. Nicholas Provenzano was the master of ceremonies and introduced us to Deborah Parizek of the Henry Ford Learning Institute, Shelley Danner of Challenge Detroit and Cornetta Lane from One Detroit Credit Union. Each presenter shared their stories about design thinking and I was most inspired by Daniel B, a student of the College for Creative Studies who even shared his grandma with us!
I heard so many stories today that inspired, uplifted and fascinated me. They reminded me of the need for us to share our own stories. We need to share our stories with our students to remind them we are human too. By sharing snippets from our daily lives, our fears, our failings our frustrations we are telling our students that we trust them, that we are fallible, that we are approachable. It’s also important for us to share our stories with our peers and colleagues. We need to share our successes, our epic fails, our struggles and our ambitions, for it is in the sharing that we build empathy and meaningful relationships.
I was also reminded of the need to LISTEN to stories. Our students are very adept at revealing only the parts of themselves that they want us to see, and sometimes they do not reveal their best selves. But if we begin to truly tune into their stories, not just the assignments they write but the snippets of their pain points or happy places that they consciously or inadvertently share with us, then we can begin to see their best selves. The courageous kid, the hardworking kid, the persistent kid will be revealed and we can come to know them. Knowing fosters appreciation, appreciation fosters relationships, relationships foster trust and trust fosters connection. When we connect, we learn and grow together.
My crazy hectic wonderful day is coming to an end but my commitment to share stories and hear stories is refreshed. What stories did you share today? What stories did you hear today?
