About a month ago I launched my first ever two day Make Yourself Into A Maker PD. I was nervous and scared as anyone is when you are in charge to lead the way to nudge people to make change for the better.
And at the end of those two days I was on cloud 9.
You can read about it here: Educators Can Make Engaging Learning If You Just Let Them!
This past week I was lucky enough to run another session. And again I was nervous, but in a different way.
What if I don’t bring the same energy?
What if these educators are not as engaged as the first group?
What happens if this or that and all things in between?
I always find it challenging mentally when you repeat a learning opportunity that is on a scale like this workshop that covers two days, pulls educators from their learning spaces, and the pressure to make sure it delivers.
And all I can say after a few days after the workshop is WOW!
These educators blew my mind. They took the learning to a whole new level. I could not have been more impressed than what I witnessed during these two days.
Minor adjustments were made between the workshops to help make things flow better. We had an open PO to allow them to purchase what they needed. We played better music in the work zone. We provided more think time. We adjusted time slots to meet their needs. We had an amazing Show and Tell at the end.
What we kept was providing them time to tap into their ideas and enter the state of flow. We kept the culture and support to help them try new things. We kept the mindset that we can do it!
You can learn all about the workshop on the site. The major goal of the two days was to empower the educators to believe that they can make whatever they want. Through that we infused projects that could impact their classrooms and learning spaces. I believe that if we can empower the educators, then they will go back and empower their students.
Educators must feel supported. They must feel safe to try something new. They must know they are not alone in the work.
The workshop is designed to allow them to get to know one another. They must believe and feel that it is safe to try something new. It was amazing watching them help each other, share ideas, gather feedback, and basically become a support network for one another.
I was going to post all the projects in this post, but have decided to post them as separate posts each day because I believe they need to be highlighted accordingly.
I am excited about education again. After witnessing and experiencing some things recently in education that had me feel crummy about the state of education, these educators in this workshop reminded me that if we simply support them and allow them to do what they know is right all problems in education would be solved. I honestly believe that to my core. It is when we stifle their intelligence and ideas, crush them with negative culture, and drown them in practices that don’t work that the flame starts to burn out. Give educators oxygen and space and let them ignite their flame of passion.
All I can say is THANK YOU!
You know who you are!
AWESOME!!!!!!!
It is empowering to have like-minded educators. Thank you Aaron for your time and allowing this to happen. It would not have happened otherwise.