3 Pieces of Advice

I recently stumbled across this video featuring Scott Bourne.  He is a photographer in Nevada.   I don't know tons about him other than that he has been to know to create some controversy here and there.  In any case, at about 5:38 in this interview about photography he gives some advise that hit me as being very relevant to education.



1.  Figure out exactly what you want to do.

• Are you showing up to school every day because you love teaching and this is what you WANT to do or are you coming here because this is something you can do? 

2.  Don't worry about new, worry about you!  Personalize it.

• When's the last time you came up with a brand new idea for a lesson or a project?  Mostly likely, anything you've done has already been done somewhere before - and that's OK.  That's why best-practices are called best-practices!  Talk to your friends and colleagues - what are they doing that works?  The 21 C is open-source.  No more secrets!  Let's start taking advantage of the years of experience that surround us.  Find the piece of yourself that makes your lessons you.  By putting a piece of yourself into what you teach every day,  you'll personalize your classes, give new life to your lessons, and make connections with your students.

3.  Don't allow yourself to be a commodity.

•  Don't allow your work to be treated as though it could be done the same by someone else.  Take yourself seriously.  Take your students seriously.  If you care about what you are doing, keep an open mind, learn new things, and be the BEST at what you do.  Being the best means taking chances, making mistakes, and doing it all over again until you get right.  Set an example that demonstrates fearlessness, a willingness to learn from your failures, stick to your guns, and accept your limitations.  Expect more from yourself than the outline provided by the text book.  
• Commoditization leads to MEDIOCRITY.  Don't allow your students to allow their work to be treated as though it could done the same by someone else.  Think differentiation, skills based learning, and process.  Is it really about memorizing facts and content - or is it about problem-solving, analysis, evaluation, and creation?