Obligatory Thanksgiving Post

~ Blue Cereal

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“Do you see anything positive in life?”

I was taken aback at the very question, posited in response to a Facebook post I made recently which – all things considered – I didn’t even find to be among my most cynical or worried. Go figure. 

I responded with a few specific things I found very positive in life – any number of amazing individuals, hockey, great literature, well-written history, They Might Be Giants, and Hideaway Pizza among them. The question did nudge me, though, to do this specific post – one I’ve considered and abandoned a few dozen times, and one perhaps a bit cheesy given the looming onset of that one holiday.

But I am thankful, and genuinely so, for a number of things related to public education, blogging, and such. So that the Universe might let me get back to frothily protesting systemic inanity, I’ll confess a few:

I’m thankful for an online community – particularly on edu-Twitter – which leans towards encouraging, funny, insightful, and bold. Social media can be a chaotic, twisted, foreboding domain. The silence and apathy greeting your best efforts can be crippling. 

I am thankful, then, for those who ‘favorite’, and ‘reply’, and re-tweet, and quote. I’m thankful for those who challenge me, those who feed my ego, those who argue with me, and those who simply let me vent. I’m particularly grateful for those who comment on the blog with something other than infected links, ads for sexual services, or home repair contractors in Australia. 

Listing individuals is a doomed course – inevitably I’ll leave out someone very dear to me – but it would be irresponsible not to acknowledge Rob Miller, Rick Cobb, and Claudia Swisher – the Big Legit Three of Oklahoma edu-blogging – who treated me like someone valuable with something useful to say, even when I kinda sucked most weeks and was still working out my ‘voice.’

Well-timed warm-fuzzies from national edu-entities like Starr Sackstein and Peter Greene of Curmudgucation provided ridiculous amounts of joy, and when Diana Ravitch tweeted out the original version of Ms. Bullen’s Data Rich Year to her eleventeen zillion followers, I nearly had to change pants. 

They were just tweets, but seeing my links going out from those accounts – both in-state and out – was crazy validating. At the same time, it pushed me towards considerations of agency and responsibility – like I should try to not veer too far from reality or suck too badly, because people might actually be reading from time to time. 

So I’m thankful for people who treated me like a legit voice at the table even when I was faking it and mostly just needed to work through some anger issues. I’ve since expanded to include obscure historical figures and more potty humor – so… growth. 

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I’m insanely thankful for the #11FF – a semi-contrived community of ‘followers’ who tacitly agree to feign extreme excitement over my approval. A shared inside joke quickly became a real circle of those loved and adored, and whatever good mojo they’ve sent my way, they deserve back a dozen-fold. I have the BEST followers on Twitter – no joke. 

The fact that many of them are smarter, kinder, funnier, and much better looking than I am we have collectively agreed to ignore. 

Tyler Bridges and Lindsey Lipsky were the first two people to win Blue Serial #11FF shirts, and both posed in them, took appropriate pics, and posted them with the sort of enthusiasm I was hoping the concept would garner. They both also happened to look damn good in them, which didn’t hurt. 

Because they set the precedent, the whole thing worked. Later, there were even mugs. See what a little cooperation and ego-tickling can do for the rest of the world?

If we’ve ‘spoken’ regularly on Twitter, I adore you. If I didn’t, we wouldn’t be having ‘those’ conversations. The #11FF thing is fun, but I’m actually a bit of an elitist #@%& in real life. If I bestow valuable minutes upon you, you’re genuinely rare and amazing. Thank you for being such. 

I’m thankful for many of my admins in my ‘real’ job. I have that principal you can go sit with in the morning and confess shortcomings or celebrate triumphs, and who won’t respond in platitudes or policies. I walk away with actual ideas or better challenges, inspired not by a poster on his wall or some Chex Mix and a notepad every May, but by genuine interaction with a brilliant professional.

I’m thankful for those assistant principals who want to know what I think should happen and discuss what’s best for students before blindly submitting to bureaucracy. 

I’m thankful for building secretaries who are fine with that title even though they’re often the most essential elements of the equation. I’m particularly thankful for one who doesn’t like me some days, but who holds the entire system together so that the rest of us can teach and such. 

I’ll take ‘that damn good’ over ‘thinks I’m adorable’ any day. 

I’m thankful for a handful of people up the chain of command who hear me out from time to time when something sets me off. I’m thankful for how often their solutions are better than mine, and because even when I don’t buy into their plans or their approach, they’re clearly founded on the same values and convictions as mine.

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I’m crazy thankful for students who come back or email or Tweet to tell me when something we did in class was helpful for them down the road. My freshmen hate this, because they know every time a former student thanks me for all that document analysis or writing, their lives become more difficult. 

I take sick pleasure in this. Pleasure for which I’m truly thankful.

I’m thankful for how many of my students are genuinely likeable, funny, thoughtful, insightful, challenging, interesting, honest, and wildly gifted – even when so many aren’t that enamored with school or the current system. 

Urging them on towards ownership of their learning and academic excellence is much like trying to drive a nail into concrete using only fresh croissants – they crumble far too easily and the nail doesn’t always move very much, but the buttery fresh goodness and entertaining flakiness keep me from being overly distraught. 

I’m thankful I teach a non-tested subject. I could list that one another dozen times and still not say it enough. 

I’m really, really thankful I teach a non-tested subject.

This last part is particularly cheesy. But if you’re reading this right now – in an email or on the blog – all the way to the end coming up right here, then I am thankful for you. More than all that other stuff I said, actually. 

I mean, don’t tell those other people I’ve been talking about, but I’ve always kinda liked YOU best. We have a… special thing, don’t you think?

Thank you so much for recognizing pathos, pith, and powerful pedagogy when you find it. Your love for me proves your enduring wisdom and insight – qualities far too rare in this broken world. Keep doing what you’re doing, as well as you’re doing it. And thank you for doing it – seriously. 

We’d be lost without you.

Happy Thanksgiving. 

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Let’s Talk About Urinals

~ Blue Cereal

Dark StoreA few years ago, in a fit of enviro-economic greenness, Wal-Mart started this thing where they didn’t turn on the lights or keep their stores tolerably warm or cool. 

Presumably this saved tens of thousands of dollars per location, but that wasn’t the stated motivation for the change. Rather, they were doing it for… ‘the environment’. Not the store environment, it seems, but the larger concept of Mother Earth and her sweaty, dark embrace. 

Needless to say, this approach was tempting for any number of organizations, including the public education institution in which I daily shared wisdom and inspired greatness at that time. We arrived one day to discover that the urinals in the faculty restrooms had been altered. 

For those of you cursed by the cruel combination of biology and social mores which makes it unlikely you’ve enjoyed observing at a urinal firsthand, they look something like this:

Urinals

Although rarely accompanied by printed instructions, common usage patterns suggest four basic steps: approach, prepare, urinate, flush. Handwashing is ideal afterwards, but that’s a different station. 

Now, though, the handle used to flush them had been removed. A very nice, commercial-quality sticker was affixed to the wall between them:

“This Urinal Does Not Require Flushing.”

Tulsa is not the most glorious of consumer meccas, but we do have a few pretty nice retail establishments and a number of malls run by ginormous international conglomerates. Only a few miles from this public education institution is one of the flashiest malls in a several-state area, and they had – a few short years before – remodeled their public restrooms and installed fancy new environmentally cozy urinals. 

Woodland Hills MallI’ll spare you the intimate details, but suffice it to say we all knew damn well what a flushless urinal looked like, and this was not it. Them fancy mall pee-ers were devoid of water, nicely decorated and scented, and had little plastic things that did I-don’t-know-what, but left you feeling modern and fresh and I’ll tell you what. 

This was the same old urinal, and the same old water, but with the flushing handle removed. 

Were further confirmation needed (it wasn’t), it wasn’t unusual for those in the building after hours for various reasons to be in the restroom when the custodian came in to clean. He usually started by pulling out some pliers and using them to flush the urinals we were unable to because of the missing handles.

“This Urinal Does Not Require Flushing.”

It so very much DID, though. It totally did. We just couldn’t. And that’s a very different thing.

Two Buckets

It was a large building, and this particular faculty restroom was located such that it was well-used throughout the day. Fall days. Winter days. Spring Days. Cold days. Warm days. 

People come in early; people stay late. Male people. Urinating people. Lots and lots of urinating people.

Plastic buckets would at least have allowed for greater volume, and been further away during these most essential interactions. As it was, by mid-afternoon even walking into the restroom was… distressing. 

“This Urinal Does Not Require Flushing.”

It took a long, sustained stream (see what I did there?) of complaints and explanations and – I’m almost ashamed to say – photographic supplements, but eventually they had the handles put back on. I’m thankful we won that particular fight, but it’s time and energy and advocating capital I’d rather have spent on something more substantive.

It also made me a Bambi-hating anti-environmentalist afraid of change and accountability or something, but no one came right out and put it that way. The annoyance from my betters was palpable, however. 

Years later, I can’t help but be reminded of the experience every time I see rhetoric slathered on top of the same old systems. It’s usually accompanied by just enough tinkering to lend credence to whatever trendy claims are being put forth, while in reality further handicapping those trying to take care of critical business.

“These may LOOK like multiple choice tests, but they’re carefully designed to measure CRITICAL THINKING!” (That’s not a thing. Multiple guess is multiple guess.)

“We’re moving towards inquiry-driven, standards-based learning!” (OUR Inquiry and OUR standards, of course.)

Yes We Can!

“Our priority is treating every child as an individual with unique strengths and interests!” (As we cram them through the dehumanizing factory model of faux enlightenment curriculum?) 

“I believe my job is to SUPPORT our Teachers, and be an Instructional Leader!” (iPad w/ evaluation rubric alert!)

“This NEXT set of state standards will be the highest expectations for all children ever anywhere in the universal highness of standardized critical thinkingly career readiness global market!” (Need I even?)

“This Urinal Does Not Require Flushing.”

The sentiment may be sincere. Sometimes we just need to cut utility costs, or get off a state naughty list, or qualify for someone’s grant money. Too often, however, selling the rhetoric requires taking steps to make things worse in order to pretend we’re making them better (see ‘Common Core’, ‘No Child Left Behind’, or pretty much anything done by President Snow for the 12 Districts).

Perhaps a better place to start would be to ask those doing the urinating or the educating (I was tempted to ponder that particular analogy further, but opted to go ‘high road’ instead) what they think might be the most helpful. Be honest about goals and motivations of other interested players. Work it out like grown-ups, crazy as that may sound.

The powers-that-be can keep taking off the allegorical handles and posting their little stickers explaining what a wonderful improvement this is, but that doesn’t make it so. We may not be able to prevent such policies, but we’re not going toilet it go unchallenged. 

It’s hard to stop the flow of information once it’s started. We’ll keep leaking our golden insights to anyone who will listen. I may sound like a bladdering idiot (that one was a stretch), but I’m here to inform those in power:

“Urinal-ot of trouble if you don’t listen. Stall if you wish, but you won’t wipe us out. Because we’re teachers. And we’re pissed.”

Flushing is most definitely required. 

Night Custodian

RELATED POST: Unintended Consequences

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Blue Serials (11/22/15)

~ Blue Cereal ~ 3 Comments

Too Many Monitors

Too Many Good Things This Past Week.

I’ve included more than usual, but still left out far too many. So NO SHENANIGANS! Let’s get right to it:

A Sad Look At Human Empathy – Maha Bali, of Reflecting Allowed, offers this very personal, very reasonable, consideration of our ability (or lack thereof) to truly see others as part of the same species as ourselves. I like it for many reasons, but topping the list are (a) she’s horrified by the tone and attitude behind some responses to recent events rather than focused on arguing policy, (b) she highlights the game-changing power of personally knowing people different than ourselves in some way, and (c) she recognizes that interpersonal ugliness stems from human tendencies we must be aware of and fight, not from some people being ‘good’ and others being ‘bad’. At least, that’s how I read her.

Follow @Bali_Maha on the Twitters and read her for yourself – not so that you’ll agree, but so that even when you don’t, you’ll hear her. 

Thoughts On Obstruction & Serious Conversation – Rick Cobb at OKEducationTruths is back, and that means something both evil and idiotic is rearing its head and requires addressing (I originally went with ‘requires stomping and fire’, but that makes him sound so negative – I just think of him as the serious, legit one we turn to when big words are involved). Here Cobb discusses Boren’s sales tax proposal to fund public education (which is NOT the big evil thing), framed by a legislature and state generally hostile towards schools and teachers in general, consistently working to destroy them so they can be labeled failures and replaced by, I dunno, Haliburton Educational Services or something.

*pause*

I, um… I may be extrapolating a bit. Go read his argument for yourself, and double-check to make sure you’re following @okeducation on the Twitters.  #oklaed 

Sitting Still – Tina Lundy, the revered MiddleSchoolStationConductor, reminds us that MANY KIDS NEED TO MOVE AROUND SOMETIMES AND DO STUFF THAT DOESN’T SUCK before they can learn the things we’ve decided are so darned important instead. Are we really gaining ground by taking away the very things research shows help them learn in order to hammer them harder with the things that aren’t working already? I love this blog.

Move around with @TMLunday on the Twitters and read more stuff that doesn’t suck.  #oklaed 

Aliyana’s Mindset Moment – Bill Ferriter at The Tempered Radical reminds us as we argue the relative merits of tests, grades, and other trappings of traditional schooling, not to forget the kids inside the maze. Or at least, he reminded ME. What he’s actually sharing here is the story of one kid and one test and one brief discussion putting grades into perspective.

Sometimes we don’t have to overthrow the system to subvert the dominant paradigm. Sometimes we just have to tweak our approach a tiny little bit to make a better impact. Oh, and there’s a little ‘growth mindset’ thrown in for good measure – and you know I’m all about that.

Grow with Ferriter in the Twittering Fields at @plugusin and let’s expose the Matrix together. Let’s take the red pill. 

The Multiplication Effect – I’ve often poked at Meghan Loyd of For the Love over her stubborn optimism and sometimes bizarre idealism regarding this profession. Don’t tell her this, but I am often SO thankful for the right rainbows and unicorns.

“Keep going. Keep reaching. Keep doing the hard things. Don’t stop. Love kids. Know them. Reach out to them, but remember it’s okay if you don’t reach and impact them all. Maybe you just weren’t the person that they needed at the time. See the good in every kid, and I know sometimes you have to look really hard. Mulitply your circle of influence. Don’t worry about the other stuff, just love your job and love your students. You just might be the only one that truly does.”

Multiply your circle of influence with @MeghanLoyd on the social media platform with the happy looking little bluebird. Bring a tissue.  #oklaed 

There’s A Canyon Divide That’s Hard To Leap For Students After High School – Starr Sackstein at StarrSackstein.com discusses the ‘pedagogical divide’ between the ideal High School approach in which content depends on teacher-student connection and the traditional Post-Secondary approach in which content delivery is the priority and the audien- er… the students, are largely secondary. Sackstein is the most practical, no-b.s. edu-blogger I know who still never seems like she’d rather be throwing heavy objects at someone. 

I don’t get that, but I admire it. 

Be calm and poignant with @MsSackstein on the Twitters. You may not always agree with her, but you can’t help but think differently – and more clearly – because of her. 

Pay Attention

Bonus Post! Even If You’ve Been Scanning & Have Other Stuff To Do Or Aren’t Really Paying Attention – Stop and Check This One Out.

(And I’ll end a sentence w/ a preposition anytime I darn well please.)

Faking Excellence: The Art of Milking Mediocrity for All It’s Worth – Ilana Horn at Teaching/Math/Culture has a rather entertaining offspring who shares her writing from time to time on mom’s blog. In this piece, the younger Horn offers up advice from one student to another on how to get by in school without wasting nearly as much time as the system seems to expect. 

it’s funny, and well-written, and possibly intended as satire (at least, I think that’s how she sold it to mom – but I don’t buy it). But it’s also a pithy window into some of the absurdities and weaknesses of what passes for ‘school’ – traps into which we all fall from time to time. 

Read it because it’s really that good, but don’t be afraid to think about it more than you want to. I think she’s telling us something rather important whether that’s her primary goal or not. 

While you’re at it, go tell mom how well she’s doing with that kid of hers. She’s @tchmathculture while Twittering, and her writing is pretty decent, too. 

That’s it for this week. Thanks for caring enough to support #oklaed and edu-blogging in general. I do have one last request if you’d be so kind…

TODAY, and several times this week, as you go to the posts above or to other edu-blogs or sites you find helpful, encouraging, or challenging – COMMENT ON THEIR POSTS.  I know, I know – you’re busy, and you figure they have ALL these followers, etc., but I’m telling you – specific, positive or thoughtful feedback is too rare and so very powerful and encouraging. If they’ve said or done anything to make you think, or to better your day, tell them. The more precise and constructive, the better.

While your at it, pick one kid a day and do something similar for him or her. The total cost in time and effort is minimal, and you’ll feel better afterwards. 

Eyes Open

An Early Xmas Venti

~ Blue Cereal

Starbucks CupYou read somewhere online that Christians are mad about coffee cups. You already despise a certain breed of religious person, and this seems to fit that profile. You and a hundred others you follow rant about those nuts and their damn cup obsession, eventually blaming them for not doing more for the homeless, for trying to run your life and ruin your relationships, and for that one pastor who molested that boy.

3 days later you realize that at no point have you actually seen or heard anyone mad at a cup (unless you went to the trouble to track it down as part of your outrage over what the hell is wrong with those people). You decide it doesn’t matter because screw them, you’re an enlightened scientific type who refuses to believe crazy things without evidence.

Unless it’s a massive uprising over a coffee cup. That you accept on faith, because… Christians.

Old-Fashioned Xmas

The most popular idealized version of ‘Christmas’ utilized by seasonal TV shows and movies, and aspired to by families who’d like very much to consider themselves ‘traditional’, was birthed in the early 19th century through the writing of Washington Irving and Charles Dickens. 

Christmas trees, colorfully wrapped presents, family festivities and such, weren’t without precedent, but neither were they what normally came to mind every time it snowed in prior centuries. And those songs which seem so timeless now – perhaps even a bit quaint? Few existed before the 1800s. Many of the most popular are less than 100 years old. 

In other words, travesties like “Run, Run Rudolph” or those Jingle Bells Dogs have just as much historical credence as “Angels We Have Heard on High.” 

I know, right?

To further carve the ‘X’ out of ‘X-mas’, non-traditionalists are quick to remind us of the pagan roots of many yuletide traditions – throwing around terms like ‘winter solstice’ to explain why we shouldn’t care whether or not Target uses a glowing plastic baby Jesus in their displays. 

Olive, The Other ReindeerBut knowing the origins of something doesn’t automatically reshape our emotional expectations and ideals. We are not a people known for clinging to our own history, let alone that of the grander human story. Trivia from 2,000 years ago isn’t likely to compel us to give up our caroling, forsake our eggnog, or burn our DVDs of Scrooged, Elf, or the Die Hard Trilogy. 

Our experiences and holiday yearnings aren’t about objective history or Druidic roots. They’re about hopes and feelings and stretching ourselves higher than we usually reach. They’re about redemption and clinging passionately to a faith which seems less and less generally understood with each passing year. 

And yes, for many, they’re about the Baby Jesus and God becoming man to redeem us from our sins. Go ahead, godless and truculent – laugh it up. Your day is com-

Er… I mean, we just wish you could see the true joy of the Reason for the Season! Or something.

I’m not looking to defend an ‘Old Fashioned Christmas’ or to lament the cesspool of humanity that is Black Friday. Spend your holiday with family and feasting, in prayer and meditation, or naked on the couch Netflix-binging – it’s your call. This is ‘Merica!

Xmas Monkey GirlBut I’d respectfully suggest that the aches and fears some have over the ongoing de-Christing of the season may not be proof they are fascists, or oppressors, or Fox News morning show hosts (except the ones who are). It may simply be that they feel like something special is being taken away from them for reasons they don’t entirely understand. 

Imagine that every winter, your homeowners association wants to make sure its members are prepared for the extended cold. Based on calculations you’ve never thought to question, a rep shows up at your door most years with a hot pizza, a pamphlet on staying warm, and around $400 in cash for groceries, electric bills, or unexpected expenses during the freeze. 

One season they change the algorithm – something about family size, income, and who knows what else. That year your rep brings you a frozen pizza, a pamphlet, and $300 to get you through. It’s still appreciated, and it’s not like you rely on it to survive.

The next winter it’s $250. The following year they simply email you a PDF of the pamphlet. Soon there’s no pizza at all, just coupons for Papa Murphy’s. The total resources are still being allocated, but they seem to be going to people who haven’t lived in the neighborhood all that long – people who don’t always follow the unwritten rules of the community. 

You’re still receiving more than you’ve paid in, and more than most neighborhoods do for their people. But as the rep hands you that $200 and the coupons, you feel violated. Taken advantage of. Not because you’re going without; because you’d grown so accustomed to having so much more. 

Now imagine that a small, but angry and vocal, vanload of outsiders show up chanting and ranting about those nasty, hateful people trying to take everything you own and ruin the wonderful block party mentality which prompted the assistance to begin with.

It’s easy to see the absurdity from a distance. Even easier to succumb to fear and frustratiDo You Hear What I Hearon when you’re cold and expected pizza. 

The solution, at least in the allegory, is to find and get to know those new neighbors. Learn their stories. Chances are, given the opportunity, you’d have shared with them anyway. You’re not a bad person – you just… didn’t see it coming. 

And it’s easy to confuse what you’re not being given with what you have and don’t wish to sacrifice. 

‘Less’ looks and feels a whole lot like ‘loss,’ after all.

As to those of you rejoicing every time another Baby Jesus is kicked off the courthouse lawn, keep in mind that feeling first and rationalizing later is hardly exclusive to people of faith. It’s human nature – even for you I-heard-it-from-Neil-deGrasse-Tyson types.  

Linus XmasYou don’t have to accept others’ perceptions, but your blood pressure might go down a bit if you assumed the less-than-worst of those expressing frustration. Sure, it would be nice if reason and research won the day more often, but how many of us choose a spouse, an outfit, or even a restaurant only after a day in the library and a pro/con spreadsheet? We’re simply not that detached from our own perceptions and experiences. 

I’m not sure we’d want to be.

So Eunice wishes people still said ‘Merry Christmas’, and Bob forwards that urban legend about candy canes representing Jesus and his cleansing blood. None of them took part in the Crusades. Very few of them ever sent Falwell money. Most of them have never yelled ugly things at anyone different than themselves. 

And virtually none of them – almost zero – ever gave the tiniest thought to the design on Starbucks coffee cups. 

Happy Holidays soon. And “Merry Christmas” starting in a few weeks as well – but only if it really bugs you. 

 

Blue Serials (11/15/15)

~ Blue Cereal

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Sometimes, children, you have to CHOOSE to believe. That is the nature of this calling. 

Believe In Yourself – Scott Haselwood of Teaching From Here has been a bit more scattered and his posts less elaborate since he began taking… I dunno – whatever classes one takes to get ALL THE DEGREES by Summer 2017. I never cease to be amazed, however, by his determination to stay hopeful, and to question, and to push, and to prod, and to believe that WE CAN DO THIS. He’s either on something or onto something – and you can’t help but believe the latter. If you need help believing, follow him on the Twitters at @TeachFromHere – and tell him you believe as well.  #oklaed

Hello, Year Four – Keen Educator Ashley Stearns is back in the edu-blogosphere, and her voice is both well-timed and welcome. She’s feeling a bit scattered as well (see a theme this time of year?) but wants to assure us – and herself, I assume – that this is OK. It’s OK to be tired. It’s OK to be confused. It’s OK to mess up. Take a breath, get it together, and BELIEVE. I’m glad she’s back. Tweet her at @KeenEducator and tell her you’re glad, too.  #oklaed

How Much You Care – Tom Rademacher on Mr. Rad’s Neighborhood revisits the old line about them not caring how much you know until… blah blah blah. The weird thing is, he makes it meaningful again. Like… I believed it again, and kinda cared. Go read it yourself, then follow @MrTomRad on the Twitters. You will believe. 

The Unexpected Becoming the Norm – George Couros of The Principal of Change discusses the essential role of leadership in education if real learning is going to happen. By way of example, he shows some love to our own Supt. Joy Hofmeister. When was the last time you remember ANYTHING in Oklahoma being cited in a positive way regarding public education? Find Couros on the Twitters at @gcouros and while you’re at it, follow @Joy4OK as well. We think she’s swell. 

Power, Labor, and Compliance in Education Reform: Why We Must Refuse – Yeah, I know… this edition of Blue Serials was in such a happy place, and now I’m wrapping up with a visit back to real world headaches. BUT, this rallying cry from EducationAlchemy to fight principalities and powers and pedagogical wickedness in high places is as much a call to believe as it is an exposè. This piece argues that when a ‘crisis’ demanding more and more control and funding lasts more than a few generations, we should perhaps question the validity of the ’emergency’ – or at least the sincerity of the solutions. Rally with @MornaMcDermott on Twitter to continue the alchemy. 

Regular readers and #11FF know that I’m not particularly cutting edge when it comes to #edtech, but I couldn’t help but be impressed by the latest breakthroughs in classroom and personal technology. The age of the flipped, personalized, responsive, BYOD, differentiated, edu-miraculous personal learning automaton is HERE!

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Go forth and believe, my amazing carbon-based teacher-types. If you do well, you may win a Tums.

You are SO much better than you think you are – and I thank you.