Today, I attended the excellent 80s themed HB Tech Fest, put on by the Huntington Beach Union High School District. The keynote by Amy Burvall was thought-provoking; I also attended an excellent session by Moss Pike on design thinking (I thought I knew what it was, but I was wrong; I am definitely going to be learning more about it in the near future) and an equally excellent session on PopcornMaker, where Dan Bennett introduced me to a web web tool that allows the user to annotate videos by adding text, other videos, links, interactive maps and other content. I had never heard of it, but now that I know it exists, I plan to make extensive use of it.
However, the session that made the most immediate impact on me was the one led by David Theriault. All of the morning sessions addressed different chapters of Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon; David’s was on Chapter 3, Share Something Small Every Day. As I read the chapter, I took down some notes. I realized that I have had this blog for over a year, but haven’t really posted as much as I should have.
Kleon (who was generous enough to join a Google Hangout and talk to all of us) addresses two of the main reasons I haven’t posted frequently: lack of time and fear of imperfection. He also points out that if you make sharing a habit, you can determine what is really important to you by noticing the patterns in what you share. Perfection isn’t really crucial; in fact, it may not even be desirable. We often learn more from our failures instead of from our successes. So, my new goal (aside from reading the rest of the book) is to do a daily blog post. I don’t promise they’ll all be perfect, but I am going to try and share what I am doing with my students, the teachers I support, and my personal learning. Here’s hoping that what I post will be helpful, entertaining, and mom-approved.
You and Crystal win the award for fastest reflection. I was bummed our session was cut short, but there was some great learning going on in there thanks to some heart-felt shares. Thanks for being there Nancy, you made the day extra special.
Thank you, David. That means a lot. I would have liked our session to go longer as well,but I’m happy I finally got to attend something you were leading. Here’s to more in the future!