I find myself thinking of birdfeedingviewing, african dwarf frogs, neighbors, giant stairway pianos, and kairos quite often. A seemingly random list of topics…yes. But all five of these do actually relate to one another…and they do so in a unique way which has spurred my metacognitive thinking this school year.
The edu180atl project is the vehicle which has introduced me to this fact: birds, frogs, neighbors, pianos, and kairos mean a lot to certain people. Separately, these items have had enough of an effect on one person’s day — these items were such a source of inspiration — that individuals chose to write a blog post about their own learning and share it with the world on the edu180atl site.
While part of the mission of this project is “to connect learners across disciplines,” I never expected that so many individual posts would have such a powerful impact on my own thinking. Certainly, some posts affect me more than others, yet there have been a very good number which have rattled my thinking and reverberated for a while, causing me to reflect and remember many voices and stories of learning in my daily work and life.
Take today, for example. I do not know Deb Ellis. I learned from her post that she is the mother of two boys who attend High Meadows School and coaches swimming to little kids through a company called Turtle Tots Swimming. Before today, I had never heard of High Meadows or Turtle Tots. Yet her edu180atl post is something that I’ll think about for a while.
I have a hard time with the word “amazing.” I find that it’s a word I use a lot more than I would like. My friend David Jakes is exactly right in his talking-writing-thinking about the fact that “words matter.” And, according to his post, *amazing* is a word that…matters.
So, as I read Deb’s edu180atl post today, I remembered David’s words and read in the spirit of David’s talking-writing-thinking. Words do matter. Stories do matter. Voices do matter.
Today, Deb’s story of learning is one that mattered to me. She reminds me to be mindful of the impact of my words.
Toward Wide-Awakeness 