Quote-A-Day: Day 219

Crafting meaningful #feedback might not be easy, but the alternative simply makes things more difficult. #QuoteADay #Day219 #edchat #edu

What makes something meaningful?  Is it the amount of time put into something?  The effort?  The relevance?

There might not necessarily be one good answer here, but one thing is clear: The more meaningful something is, the better the chance that it will make a difference in someone’s life.

So, let’s talk a bit about feedback.

Which of the following takes more time to craft?

“Great job, Jimmy.”

Or,

“Jimmy, you explained the events of the Battle of Antietam with accuracy.  I wondered how these events in the battle served as a strategic victory (if not a “real” one) for the Union.  What can you share about this?”

Now, which one is going to be more worthwhile to Jimmy?

Despite the fact that the second comment requires more time and brainpower to craft, it means much and more to the student receiving it.

A “Good Work” or a number (like “90%”) means very little to a student.  It doesn’t provide anything for students to think about, though it may certainly provide something to worry about.  Feedback without purpose is simply a waste of space, and a waste of time.

So, the question arises, “How do I make sure my feedback is always meaningful?”

Try taking these two steps:

1.        Before providing an assignment, assessment, or discussion starter, ask yourself, “Can I provide meaningful feedback on this?”  If the answer is no, then toss it for something else.

2.       Give yourself enough time to delve deeply into what students are saying, writing, creating, or sharing.  If we have too much on our plates, the time factor may make it harder for us to provide meaningful feedback.  No one will decry fewer measures of learning as long as the measures that are used truly get to the heart of what needs to be learned.

Just because you provide feedback, doesn’t mean it truly “means” anything to your learners.  Always make sure that the feedback you share can be acted upon by those that receive it.

Quote-A-Day: Day 218

Depending on others isn't a #weakness. It's #wisdom. #QuoteADay #Day218 #edchat #edu #ASCDL2L

I’m not sure where, or how, the idea of relying on other people started to be seen as a weakness (or a negative).

To me, it doesn’t make any sense.

Is it because if we rely on others, then that might mean we can’t do things ourselves?  Or, is it more along the lines of the fact that we’re simply uncomfortable asking for help?

Whatever the reason, relying on others is a necessity, and should be considered a sign of strength and wisdom, and not one of weakness.

After all, no one person can do everything.  If we aren’t willing to let others take some of the burden off our shoulders, then how will we ever be able to stand tall enough to truly see what is going on?

Leaders and learners both need to reflect regularly.  And, to do that effectively, we need to be able to take the time to think clearly and deeply.

If we’re so inundated with action steps that we don’t have the time to think, then we can never reflect, and along those lines, never become as great as we’re capable of being.

Therefore, we need to rely on others, and be able to delegate to those who can do things just as well as us, if not better.

There is never anything wrong with admitting that we aren’t the best at everything.  But, there is something wrong with assuming that we are the “be all and end all.”  Everybody needs a little help sometimes.

Quote-A-Day: Day 217

Ask first. Act second. #QuoteADay #Day217 #edchat #edu #ActWithPurpose #edcampldr #ASCDL2L

An action without a question is like baking a cake without first knowing what flavors people like.  The data you don’t have could have major implications for the way things turn out.

Except in the most severe scenarios (and realistically, even in those situations), there is always time to ask a question.

And that question can make all the difference between a positive change, and one that you thought would be positive but wasn’t received as such.

As leaders, we all have to make decisions.  However, sometimes that desire to be a decision-maker (not for ourselves, but because we believe our community needs it) prevents us from remembering to be a question-asker. 

And that’s a bad thing.

So, how can you make sure that you ask before you act?  You can take these two very simple steps.

First, when faced with a decision that needs to be made, use the twenty-four hour rule.  Stop and think about it for a full day.  Have you asked enough questions about the situation to feel as if you can come up with an appropriate course of action?  If not, make sure you continue your queries.  But what if you don’t have twenty-four hours?  Then use the twenty-four second rule.  Give yourself half a minute to ask those around you the most important questions you can think of.  In dire situations, those thirty seconds can help you collect enough information to do what’s right.

Second, build a culture of questioning.  Your school, district, or organization has the opportunity to be a pillar of curiosity, if you let it.  By building an interest in questioning the world around us, we not only help cultivate curious members of society, we also showcase the importance of collecting information before we speak or act.  The easiest way to do this is to be a question asker yourself and help your staff move in that direction as well.  Questions are easy to ask, when everyone is asking them.

Truthfully, in order to make appropriate decisions we have to at first understand the questions that need to be asked.  Chances are, if we ask the right questions, then our decisions will be more relevant for those that we serve.

Quote-A-Day: Day 216

If you spend all your time worrying about what's wrong, you'll never appreciate what's right. #QuoteADay #Day216 #edchat #satchat #edcampldr

Life is too short to always be worried about what isn't working.

The minute something doesn't work out, we immediately focus on the bad, rather than taking a breath, and considering the things that are actually working in our lives.

Human nature seems to make us "sweat the small stuff," and because of that, we always hyper-focus on the mistakes and miss the learning that accompanied it.

This is dangerous, as we tend to be role models for the younger learners in our lives.  If they see us jammed up on what isn't working, they'll do the same, and we'll then wonder why they can't get past the experiences that were negative in their lives.

We need to make sure that we're always keyed in to the good things that are going on; we need to welcome the bad too, knowing that we can learn from these experiences and make ourselves better.

The only way for us to make the most of our time on this world is to quit worrying about what's wrong, and start appreciating what's right.

Quote-A-Day: Day 215

#Failure is never a bad thing, unless you fail to learn anything from it. #QuoteADay #Day215 #edchat #edu #ASCDL2L #FailForward

Failure is something to be strived for.  We know that when we fail, it means that we're taking the next step towards future success.

In fact, failure is a necessity.  We can't get to an end result we want without making a number of mistakes along the way.

Success without failure isn't true success.  It's pure coincidence.

There is a situation when failure is a bad thing, however.  That's when, for whatever reason, we fail to learn anything from our failure.

Failing is all about learning, and if we don't learn anything from the mistakes we make, then we're apt to make the same mistakes over and over again.

And there is nothing good about that.

To see the positives of failure, we have to reflect on how and why we've failed, and make the necessary changes to get even closer to success.

In this way, we can truly fail forward, using our past experiences to propel us to where we want to be.

Quote-A-Day: Day 214

It's necessary to always reflect on the past, as it gives us #perspective for the present. #QuoteADay #Day214 #edchat #edu #Remember

My youngest daughter had her baby naming today.  In the Jewish religion, this is a ceremony where a child (usually a girl) is given a Hebrew name.  It is a joyous celebration,and one that is both happy (for the child being named) and bittersweet (since the child is named after a relative, or relatives, who passed).

My daughter was named after two wonderful women on my wife's side: her great-great grandmother, and her great-grandmother (Hebrew names usually are composed of two parts).  My daughter's great-grandmother (my wife's grandmother) was an amazing woman.  Since both my grandmothers had passed before I reached the age of five, I hadn't really known the love of a grandmother.  My wife's grandmother adopted me as her own, and I miss her greatly.  While I never had the opportunity to meet my wife's great-grandmother, I hear that she was an amazing person as well.

Reflecting on the lives that others have lived often helps us to better understand the lives that we are living now.  I can only hope that we can raise my daughter to be as amazing as these two women were.  Hopefully, when we think of her Hebrew name, we'll recall how special her relatives were, and by that nature, it will remind us (and our daughter, as she gets older) to honor them with the qualities and characteristics they exhibited so well.

Being connected to our past is one of the best ways for us to succeed in the present.  When we say that the past is in the past, we are forgetting that a large part of who we are is due to who people were before us.

So, while "what's done is done" we should never forget that what we did (and those we knew) can be reflected on to help us lead more effectively today and tomorrow.

Quote-A-Day: Day 213

Working together actually means that you actually have to do some work together. #QuoteADay #Day213 #Collaborate #Construct #edchat #edu

We tend to say we’re more collaborative than we really are, and we also tend to believe collaboration is less intense than it needs to be.

To truly be collaborative, we can’t just chat together.  Nor can we simply plan together.  We actually have to take action together.

One of the challenges that I face, particularly when I consider my involvement with social media, is that I haven’t found a great way to be collaborative through these forums.  They’ve been tremendously helpful for me in building connections, and I’m so thankful for expertise and perspective I’ve been able to gain through these tools (in particular, through Twitter).

But, I’ll also say that I haven’t yet found a great way to collaborate utilizing them.  I tend to talk quite a bit and hear others talking quite a bit, and often there are great ideas floating around, but I’ve only been able to seize a few of them.  I’ve co-written an article through the power of social media and I’ve also built a great science-based chat with a colleague that all started through Twitter. 

So, I ask the question: Am I doing something wrong?

Or, is this fairly common?

A quick note: Social media has allowed me to be even more social (a potential problem, I admit), and I’ve built my learning as well as made some excellent friends.  That being said, I feel like I’ve cultivated a tremendous PLN (Professional Learning Network), but not a PCN (Professional Collaborative Network).

And I would like to.  Because, as much as I welcome the learning that has taken place, I’m left itching to apply what I’ve learned not just with the people I know via face-to-face interactions, but with those I know virtually.

One of the challenges that I see (please let me know if you’ve learned how to overcome this), is that true collaboration is extremely difficult until you’ve actually met (and by “met” I mean face-to-face) the person you hope to collaborate with.  Both social media collaborations I mentioned above happened, and continue, in large part because we met and got to know each other beyond the virtual realm.

Let’s think carefully before we consider ourselves collaborators or believe we’re truly “working together.”  Remember that in order for this to happen, we actually have to do work, together.

I’m curious what you all think about this, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.