Model the Learning

The following is my talk from the BIT17 Ignite session on November 9. The automated slide deck is here : 20 slides, 15 seconds each, for 5 minutes total. What a thrill! We’ve been asked to speak tonight to share our passions. There’s a lot that I’m passionate about - I’ve always got too many things on the go! So instead, I’m going to take a slightly different approach, and share WHY I’m passionate. Have you ever learned a new word, and then all of a sudden, you start seeing or hearing that word everywhere? You swear you’ve never heard it before, but suddenly it’s in the news, in the book you’re reading, or in a conversation? At the end of the summer, for me, it wasn’t just a new word that seemed to be popping up everywhere, it was a new question . I saw it in tweets, I saw it in blogs, I saw it in the books I was reading. And that question, was WHY. WHY? Such a little word, but such a big question! And it’s one I started asking myself. Why am I here? Not in t...

I'm currently reading Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action, by Simon Sinek.  It was a book I picked up at the beginning of the summer when my position this fall was still unknown. After a year as the Renewed Math Strategy Co-ordinator for my board, I was set to rebound back into the classroom. However, there was still a possibility of my board bringing me back as a co-ordinator (which is what ended up happening). Regardless of my position as a teacher or co-ordinator, I was hoping this book could help me lead learning, be it with students or with colleagues. I'm about half way through it now, and giving serious thought to my WHY. What drives me? What makes me want to push myself? Why did I choose this as a career? Through what lens am I viewing my role(s)?  Why find my WHY? According to Sinek, if I want to motivate, if I want to be trusted, and if I want to make a difference, I have to be authentic to my WHY . The more clarity I can brin...