14. ―It will strike them in
some place that is not
the mind and glow
there till the time
comes for them to
comprehend it‖
Review of The little
Prince
Antoine de Saint-
Exupery
15. Warning:
This goal is an exercise in sincerity
Find someone in your online personal learning network or from your
local area who is doing some exceptional and inspiring work in
education. Choose someone who seems to be very passionate about
making a difference for authentic reasons – someone who is ‗real‘.
This person is modest and doesn‘t try to attract attention but
would appreciate some validation or recognition.
Write a blog article about this person and the work he/she is
doing. Add your own personal insight into why his/her work is
important. You can also say how this person has made a difference
to your own work, attitude or feelings about education. If you can‘t
manage a blog article you can make a big difference in small ways
by giving someone positive feedback, paying a compliment, or
lending a helping hand for no reason other than to care.
16. ― Chance favours the connected mind‖
Steven Johnson
Think about how we can help our students shine.
Consider attitude, rapport-building, and creative activities that
help students shine.
How about helping shy students or creating positive classroom
dynamics, solving bullying issues?
How can we get students to discover, recognise and express their
talents in positive ways that build self-esteem?
Try out your new ideas, link to other useful ideas you find, or
share things you‘ve already done to help students shine.
I find myself naturally ‗helping others shine‘ in my own work as I‘m
always inspired by what I see around me and I love to show
appreciation in one way or another. It‘s a powerful way of
communicating with others and of strengthening community ties –
not to mention sharing values and insights.
17. Don‘t define success incorrectly
―One of the primary tasks of parents is to find an environment
in which their child shines‖.
Put differently, we should worry less about creating goals for
our children and more about finding environments where they
will experience successes and acceptance.
―A shining place‖ has three important components. First, it
should be a good match to a child‘s talents and interests—a
place that they show skill and a desire to improve.
Second, the ―shining place‖ should provide challenges and
opportunities to grow by overcoming these challenges. My wife
(and co-director of our summer camp) often stresses
―confidence comes from competence‖.
The final component of a ―shining place‖ is community and
acceptance. This component is often neglected as parents
consider activities for their children. ‖
Psychology Today
18. Illustration of ‗shining‘ places through music
Tell me baby: what‘s your story
Where you come from
And where you wanna go this time
19. Trying to shine in the wrong places with the wrong people?
I‘m a
dancer, singe
r, model and
actress
Like I was
pretty big in
Memphis
I just like
being me
What the
hell, you
know I came
here in the
early 90s..
In six months
to a year I‘m
gonna be huge
I wanna play
music for
my life….
20. Trying to shine in the wrong places with the wrong people?
They come from every state to find
Some dreams were meant to be declined
Tell the man what did you have in mind
What have you come to do
No turning water into wine
No learning while you're in the line
I'll take you to the broken sign
You see the lights are blue
At first they are
ridiculed and made to
look silly as in all of
those cheap ‘talent’
shows. Then each
individual finds a
place and we have
synergy and
excitement.
21. When you help others shine you validate
potential……
Potential is more important than ‗actuality‘
Potential can seem more elusive if you don‘t
know how to find it.
The best way is to shine a warm light and
coax it out.
According to Vygotsky, the zone of proximal
development is "the distance between the actual
developmental level as determined by independent
problem solving and the level of potential development
as determined through problem solving under adult
guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers."
Parents and teachers can foster learning by providing
educational opportunities that lie within a child's zone
of proximal development.
22. Blogging is a very powerful way
to ‗speak to potential‘.
Some of my articles have resonated with educators to
such an extent that they‘ve taken up blogging or
online teaching after reading something from my
articles. Not only that, but their potential sky-
rocketed into inspirational ‗actuality‘.
They knew they could do what I was doing and they
went ahead and did it.
Some of these readers of my blogs are amongst my
close colleagues today ….and so it goes on……
We use our Edugoal communities and online
Educational communities to appreciate potential,
connect and then feed this inspiration back into our
classrooms.
23. Help them shine: Friday
This webinar and presentation is based on The 30
Goals challenge movement created by Shelly Terrell.
Reflective blogging: Saturday
My next webinar will focus on collaborative
journalling through blogging as a powerful form of
professional development.
I‘m using ‗Zen and the act of Teaching‘ By Davis
Deubelbeiss as our inspiration.
David is giving away free copies of his ebook to
those who attend the webinar.
Multi-media blogging 4
parents, teacher & students: Saturday
My Final Spring blog webinar will study creative
blogging environments through best use of brain-
friendly multi-media for learner empowerment.
24. Final acknowledgements:
Who is currently making a difference to my work?.
Three people with whom I‘ve worked closely with
recently are Jason. R. Levine, Dr. Nellie Deutsch and
Shelly Terrell.
Jason has been a longterm colleague and inspiration
since I met him in 2011.
The full Edugoal network, my own online networks,
and WiziQ colleagues past and present continue to
make a difference, and last but not least, The
wonderful educational blogoshere out there and the
teaching English page on facebook which encourages
bloggers and ‗sees‘ their potential.
Are you ready to
create your own
digital’ footprint?