What would happen if we gave kids one hour a week to work on anything they wanted? Would you expect to find a classroom completely out of control? Or worse, a classroom, where students choose to do as little as possible for that one hour? What if I told you, that if you gave your students an hour a week to pursue what they’re interested in, your classroom would be transformed into a room full of passion-driven learning? That you’d find what Hugh McDonald, one of four teachers behind "Genius Hour Manifesto," found when he started genius hour in his classroom: "The learning atmosphere felt amazing. I could walk down the hall and ask Gallit [a fellow teacher] a question and return to see them all still on task, questioning, driving their own learning, and having fun being curious. It was an amazing feeling as a teacher to see your students excited about learning." Denise Krebbs, a middle school teacher also behind "Genius Hour Manifesto", highlights her students’ reflections after they have completed their genius hour projects. During a three-hour block of genius hour, one of Mrs. Krebbs’ students, Jason, built a city out of cardboard, paper and toy cars, complete with an airport, mall and even a Sears! Jason explains why genius hour works, "Genius hour is important because it allows us to learn in our own way. My advice to new genius hour students would be to plan ahead and be ready on time." What will your students learn when they are following their passion?

The heart of education is an education of the heart. The root of the word "courage" is the Latin word "cor," meaning "heart." The English word "core" comes from the same Latin root. So at its core, effective teaching is about developing courage. As the world changes at an ever-accelerating pace, leaving some of us experiencing Future Shock, one act of courage that is essential for all teachers to make is to admit that we don’t know it all, and that this is becoming more so every day. As Pat Hensley, a teacher and instructor with Furman University, so eloquently explains in her blog Successful Teaching, "It also takes courage to know that I don’t know everything. It is alright if I learn some new things from my students. It is alright to even let my students know that I don’t know everything. It takes courage to learn new things and open up to possible failures. My students will learn that I am making an effort to learn and they will also learn from me how I handle the results." Students can be our greatest teachers. But, like Pat says, it takes courage to know that we don’t know everything and that is one of the most important parts of teaching. The courage to keep learning with an open mind and heart is what teaching is about. As teachers, we don’t have to have all the answers, we just have to be open to learning in our own classrooms. Mary Bieglow, a teacher and blogger for the National Science Teachers Association, wrote in her post "What Teachers Can Learn From Students" that by being open to not knowing all the right answers or questions, she got more out of her students. "After a unit test, [a student] looked very dejected. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied, ‘I know a lot about this, but you asked the wrong questions.’ That stopped me in my tracks. I was the teacher—the one supposed to have all of the questions and answers … She was right—for her I didn’t ask enough of the right questions. She taught me the value of providing a variety of ways for students to share what they know and can do." The heart of teaching is the teaching of the heart. In order to teach, we need courage to overcome our fear of admitting that we don’t know it all. Consider and reflect on the following statements of courage. We must have the courage to… ask brave and genius questions learn new, complex things and relish in the journey of the unknown and yet to be discovered yield trust and control to students by listening, honoring, and recognizing their unique contributions. engage in discussions that challenge our deepest convictions and ignite our hidden passions play with purpose and passion know YOU MATTER!

I recently spoke with Nicholas Provenzano and Timothy Gwynn on #Nerdycast and Hooked! on BAM Radio Network. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.   Nicholas and Timothy are passionate teachers so I loved speaking with them about the importance of  letting students know their contribution is valued. "If we do not secure their hearts, we do not have a shot at their brains." Nicholas and Tim asked me to introduce the work I do with You Matter. I explained it is, like teaching, a labor of love. "The root word of passion …  is to suffer. To be willing to suffer through any challenge because the work that you’re doing and the pledge that people are making to you and you’re making back to them is so sacred there is nothing that breaks it. It’s that binding and that’s what we need to cultivate in our classrooms." Students need to know they matter; the need to know that one matters is in our DNA-it’s that important. Last year we asked a half  million kids, "What would you pledge yourself to?" and "What would make you run to school?" It boiled down to twelve things, such as "I want to be noticed, I want you to smile at me, I want you to say my name." The need to hear one’s own name is why two hundred million people are sending Tweets everyday, because someone’s noticing them. "My job is to teach, not to be their friend." Nicholas said that he’ll often hear teachers in the faculty room say that they are not their students’ friend. I responded: "Anybody who teaches pledges to change lives … give me a year of your life and I promise you that you will walk out of here better, stronger, smarter, more confident, more beautiful. So anybody who does that kind of work would never ever pledge that they want to be your friend because there’s no way that you can grow without the appropriate conditions and feedback. Cultivating genius is a really difficult endeavor." For fellow teachers, I’d love to hear from you and start a conversation about the following questions: What kind of pledge do we make to our students when we begin the school year or even every class? Do you think that you can be your students’ friend and teacher? How do you make your students feel that they matter? How do you make your students feel noticed everyday? In every class?

When we teach history, it usually focuses on a geographical area; students learn US History, European History, Russian History, Canadian History, etc. Most schools offer World History as well, but tend to skim through major events around the world over the course of several centuries. Thus, students of US History study the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, and then World War II, usually while taking little note of the troubles of the Weimar Republic and rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the rise of fascism in Italy, the Spanish Civil War, or the second Sino-Japanese War. The Linetime App shows users the course of modern history on a timeline. Users can drill down into each century, decade or year. The app is populated with content from the Library of Congress’ American Memory and findingDulcinea’s On This Day, and Wikipedia entries are used to fill in gaps. The app helps students look at history in a way that textbooks never could.  With the right content, the LineTime App has the potential to enable students to see what was happening all over the world in a particular decade, year, month or day. The app’s search function also enables students to trace history through a single word. Search on "earthquakes," "assassination" or "treaty" and you’ll find a list of every entry in the app that contains those words. Students can then tab through these entries and see history through yet another lens. Watch this video to see LineTime 1.5 in action!

I will be presenting next week at the 4th Annual Iowa 1:1 Institute (I11I). The conference will be held on Thursday, April 4, 2013 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Administrators, teachers, media specialists, technology staff, and other educators are all encouraged to attend. In a "mini-keynote" titled "What Happens When a Million Kids Share Their Genius With the World?,  I’ll be previewing the Quest2Matter, which launches on April 15. This is a five-week initiative to spread the "You Matter" message to millions of students and inspire them to act to change our world.  Also, I’ll be co-presenting for the first time with my new colleague, Mark Moran of Dulcinea Media, publisher of findingDulcinea and SweetSearch. Mark has been working with me on Choose2Matter and we are  co-authoring a book on digital literacy that is approaching a publication date. Our presentation is on "Digital Literacy: Lessons for Leaders and Learners." We’ll be examining the reasons students lack adequate online research skills, the habitudes of genius web researchers, and discussing how all learners should learn from other people online. This conference is near and dear to my heart, because it’s in my backyard and hosted by some of my closest colleagues. At the first Iowa 1:1 in 2010, I had the privilege of giving the opening keynote, and I led the "Web 2.0 Smackdown" the past two years. I’m looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new passion-driven educators!

The group behind the Bammy Awards announced today plans for its second annual awards ceremony, to be held in Washington DC on September 21. At a time when politicians, philanthropists and members of the media are lining up to criticize educators, the Bammys launched last year to honor them. The Bammys are presented by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences, comprised of 211 influential education leaders and organizations, The Academy accepts nominations in dozens of categories, such as superintendent, teacher, school nurse and education journalist, and brings together the entire education community to recognize the honorees at a red-carpet, black-tie awards event. The Academy has started accepting nominations today at www.bammyawards.org.

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Anthony Salcito, Vice President - Worldwide Education at Microsoft, for his Daily Edventures. Click here for the full interview and Anthony’s post about it, or watch the video, below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-aFhd30Og

This is a guest post by Jessica Parsons, a teacher with the Habitudes. "[People] love to wonder and that is the seed of science. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson Ok, so I’m not trying to overdo it by using Emerson quotes each time I guest post, but they summarize the topic so perfectly!  My 7th grade life science classes began a current event research project connecting personal topics of interest to any aspect in the Life Science curriculum. But some students didn’t know where to begin.  This alerted me to the need to discuss what drives science or scientific research — curiosity and pursuit of the unknown!  Angela Maiers emphasizes the importance of curiosity and the skills of questioning in Habitudes, Chapter 3. When students are learning "how to do school," they seem to forget how to ask their own questions and continue their sense of wonder. A few years ago, I introduced a classroom learning project, called iWonder, adapted from Alan November’s Digital Learning Farm. It worked well during lectures (which I try to keep brief)  for encouraging students to ask curiosity questions and to find reputable, reliable answers. Instead of me responding to their questions, one student would act as the researcher by looking up questions on the iPad, while a peer recorded the answers in our class iWonder notebook.  The students enjoyed looking back at what other students would ask and find. But that is just the starting point! In cultivating curiosity and scientific inquiry, I felt it was important for students to understand the levels of questions in relation to higher-order thinking. Edna Sackson (What Ed Said) shares this anecdote: "When Isidore Rabi, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, was asked why he became a scientist, he replied that his mother unknowingly influenced this development. Instead of asking the typical question, "What did you do in school today," she would ask, "What good questions did you ask?" By being intentional, I wondered if I could develop my students’ skills of asking good questions. I turned to the conversations and resources in Classroom Habitudes, Chapter 3: Lesson 3 to encourage "thinking like Einstein." Angela Maiers notes that students tend to put the importance on answers versus the skill of questioning (something they learned in school, perhaps?). We first discussed increasing the level of difficulty by observing the verbs used in Costa’s Leveled Questions. Then, to offer a chance for guided practice, I asked students to design their own quiz questions using Costa’s House of Questions as prompts. We would often make note of which level the questions would fit into while evaluating lab questions, quiz questions and homework.  Most recently, I displayed the "Genius Questions" on the Smart Board and asked students to write genius questions about the circulatory system. This started each class in a great conversation as we conjectured what would happen if…the veins had no valves? or the systemic and pulmonary pathways went in the opposite direction? or we had an open versus a closed circulatory system?  I look forward to continuing the conversation with Lesson 4: Asking the right questions at the right time as well as reflecting on their habits as curious learners!

I am blessed to receive many emails from my readers around the world. One of the more interesting notes recently came from Andy Vasily, who teachers Physical Education at the Nanjing International School in China and blogs at PYPPEWithAndy (PYP = Primary Years Program). Andy wanted to create a PE-focused model of the 7 Habitudes. I asked Andy to send me a guest blog; this is his response: "A lot of my research and work of late has been focused on finding a better way to teach PE. I have been downloading a number of Kindle books in order to find research that is relevant to a new model of instruction I am trying to create and test out. This often requires me to go outside the realm of PE in order to find excellent ideas or models that I can then transfer over to the arena of physical education. As I read Angela’s book the ‘Classroom Habitudes’, I realized that much of what she writes about is immediately applicable in PE. Revolutionizing education, especially as we move forward in the 21st century, can only be made possible if we put greater emphasis on the development of the whole child. Subject area boundary lines should be blurred and enduring concepts such as Angela’s 7 Habitudes should be embedded within all of the learning experiences that we have our students engage in. As a PE practitioner with over 15 years of experience, I believe it to be critical to initiate change now. Giving our students a clear, concise, and consistent way of describing and defining success is paramount within any PE program and this often means that we must teach outside the box of sport. We must foster and build upon our students’ abilities to think critically, to find problems/obstacles, and to overcome these challenges. Arming students with the skills necessary to conquer adversity is what being successful in sport is all about. More importantly, teaching the skills necessary to overcome adversity not only helps our students in PE and in sport, but better prepares them for life, both in and out of school. If this isn’t our ultimate aim as educators, I am not sure what is! The teaching of the 7 Habitudes is such a natural fit, not only with PE, but within any subject that we teach. I am excited to take forward what I have learned in Angela’s book and will share this journey on my own website that I regularly blog on here.

  EDIT: Peter was deeply impacted by the tragedy in Boston yesterday; his business is there, and his twin brother Paul was close to the explosion and shaken up. See the bottom of the post for the brilliant poster that Peter created in response to the tragedy, and share it with your students and loved ones, and indeed everyone. Last week I have the privilege of speaking with Peter Reynolds, award-winning author of The North Star, The Dot and Ish. As an elementary school teacher, I adored Peter’s work and was thrilled to make a personal connection to him a few years ago. Peter’s company, Fablevision, and Choose2Matter came together last September 15 to celebrate Dot Day, with the combined theme of "Make Your Mark Matter." On the Hangout, we discussed the connection between the key messages of the Dot - bravery and the importance of making a mark - and the Quest2Matter. As Peter says, a DOT is really the beginning of so many things, and when it comes to Choosing 2 Matter, it all begins with finding the courage to just GET STARTED - to starting small, dreaming big, and DOING. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9vgc2UWEsc    

At a time when what it means to be a teacher is being defined by everyone except teachers, we need to remind ourselves of these two undeniable words: Teachers matter. After the tragedy in Newtown, CT, I published what became my most-read blog post ever; it generated so much traffic that my blog server crashed several times. Teachers all over the world wanted to know how they were going to address their students on Monday morning; what would teachers say, how would they act, would they show their own fears? My prescription was quite simple: you will teach. As I wrote, "Thank God for teachers. Thank God you know what to do. Thank God you do what you do." This week, teachers once again were called to help children cope with a tragedy in New England, as a bomb blast took the life of an 8 year-old boy and two young women at the Boston Marathon. I didn’t feel the need to republish my post, because I know that teachers would know what to do: they would teach. Teachers don’t just do what they do in moments of global tragedy; they do it every day, helping students deal with whatever problems, big or small, are holding them back. Our partner, findingDulcinea, presents some real-life examples in this post on the importance of great educators, and some famous examples in this post on how teachers empower students by expecting more of them. Last week I spoke at the iPad Summit in Atlanta, GA. I knew I would be facing 1,200 educators who were struggling with what it means to be a teacher at a time when our profession is under attack from all sides. My job was to inject them with a passion for teaching, and tips for re-creating passion in their students. Jen Carey did a terrific job live blogging my talk. The night before, I put my head on the pillow and began to form my final thoughts about my presentation. A thought came to me; even though I am no longer in the classroom and don’t have to worry about politicians or standardized test scores or helicopter parents, my job is far from easy. I travel more than I should, I battle the same intransigence that teachers encounter, and there are times I wonder why I do what I do. Laying in bed well past my bedtime, I decided to lay that on the line the next day: I, too, suffer from self-doubt about whether I am in the right profession and whether I can continue with it. I, too, deal with frustrating people, who fight for their own limitations, every single day. But unlike the 1,200 educators who were looking only at me for insight and wisdom, I had a much better vantage point: I was looking out at 1,200 educators, and finding inspiration in every single one of them. I told them that, as difficult as things could be from one day to the next, I knew I had all of them walking alongside me, and with them I could not fail. After my presentation, a young man approached me and said, "This is my first year of teaching. I had pretty much made up my mind that this would be also be my last year of teaching. I now realize that teachers matter, and there is no way I’m giving up a job that matters." Teachers matter.  

  Photo Credit:Jônatas Cunha  http://www.flickr.com/people/jonycunha/  "If we cannot see the possibility, we cannot achieve the outcome. Imagination is our mind’s eye and gives us the capacity to jump from present facts to future possibilities. Our capacity to dream, hope, and plan for the future is influenced and impacted by the control and understanding of imagination’s remarkable power." - Chapter Two, Imagination, from Classroom Habitudes: Teaching Habits and Attitudes for 21st Century Learning

Most books have one shot at success. If they don’t have strong initial sales, typically they are relegated to obscurity forever. However, we published the Classroom Habitudes nearly five years ago, and it is getting more attention now than ever. Years ago, I was thrilled whenever a teacher told me her or she was reading it. These days, I hear nearly every day of an entire school, district or even province full of teachers reading the book. Several schools told me they have modeled entire programs around the book. For example, Melissa Storms and Dave Neese are leading a Habitudes book study with middle school teachers in the Lakota Middle School in Washington. I’ve also been thrilled to be invited to keynote many "tech" conferences by presenting the Habitudes. This Thursday afternoon, I’ll be presenting, on behalf of edWeb.net,  a webinar titled, "Classroom Habitudes: Teaching 21st Century Skills to Brains Wired in the Digital Age." The webinar is presented as part of a community devoted to the Brain and Learning, one of my favorite subjects. Please join us!  

Mimi and Eunice, CC-BY-SA Nina Paley Near the beginning of my "You Matter" presentation, I say, "This is not an ego thing - it’s a DNA thing. Human beings were created for significance, and the most dangerous feeling they can have is the feeling that they don’t matter." What did I mean? Simply that the need to feel we matter is something we’re all born with, and that feeling as though we don’t matter is a dangerous condition. How dangerous? Numerous research studies show that the feeling that we matter is associated with academic success, healthy self-esteem and self-confidence, and many other factors that contribute to emotional and mental health. The absence of a feeling that we matter is associated with a parade of horribles. This is why I often say that your goal should not be to seek success; it should be to seek significance. For more, reading "The Science of Mattering" on Choose2Matter.org. Please consider making a small donation to support Choose2Matter on Indiegogo!

After 14 years in the classroom, I became a consultant, speaker and author. I gave up my own classroom to dedicate my life to making it easier for other teachers to work effectively in theirs. At the root of everything I do is a profound respect and appreciation for teachers and the challenges they face. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, here are my five favorite posts on why teachers matter: Teachers Matter 12 Things Kids Want from Their Teachers There is No Lesson Plan for Tragedy - Teachers, You KNOW What to Do The Courage to Teach Celebrating Teachers - A Collection of Online Resources

    For more than a year now, we’ve been working to launch Choose2Matter, a global movement whose mission is to challenge people to solve problems that break their hearts. Everything that we have accomplished to date has been done through perspiration and inspiration of a few committed volunteers. We’ve recently been blessed with offers of help from many people who want to become part of this mission, so we’ve put together this page on our website which describes ways in which you can become involved. We will be updating the page frequently so please check it several times over the next few weeks. We have some urgent, short-term needs that require very little time, and some longer-term needs for which we need people who want to become passionately involved. Below I listed some of our short-term needs; the longer-term opportunities can be found on our website. Fundraising Everything we’ve accomplished thus far has been done with funds from our own pockets or through pro bono efforts of our marvelous partners. We have resisted offers from companies that want to become co-branded partners of Choose2Matter, as it must remain independent of undue corporate influence. We want the bulk of our funding to come from small donations from individuals. Please help us create Choose2Matter by making a small donation to our fundraising page, and asking others to do so. Ambassador Program Nothing is more effective than in-person outreach. We invite educators to become Choose2Matter ambassadors who present our movement wherever they have the opportunity to do so - whether one-on-one with another educator, at a school assembly, at a local conference, or to local news media. If you would like to join our team, please email Mark Moran at MarkMoranMES@Gmail.com Encourage Students in Your School to Enter the Quest2Matter The Quest2Matter is the first embodiment of Choose2Matter. It is an initiative that invites students to submit completed Quests or well-developed ideas to solve a problem. We hope to encourage a large number of students to participate in the Quest to validate our belief that today’s youth form the most compassionate generation this world has ever known. Please encourage your students to participate in the Quest2Matter by submitting a quest. Social Media Outreach Please LIKE our Facebook page and ask Facebook friends to do the same. Please follow us on Twitter and encourage your Twitter followers to do the same.

  Gimme Mo Team (with Twitter handles) Monique Coleman Cynthia Hass Brooke Sassman Opal Vadhan At the Student Voice Summit in NYC on April 13, I had the pleasure of speaking with the Gimme Mo’ team, a community that encourages young people to talk about issues they face. Youth of today are blessed to count Monique, Cynthia, Brooke and Opal as role models for, and leaders of, their generation. These young women live their genius each day. They are passionate, confident, and tremendously supportive of one another and other young people. We discussed how to empower young students to believe in themselves and their dreams. The Gimme Mo’ team believes you can do anything you set your mind to, because "ifs" and "buts" don’t exist. They encourage everyone to lead by example, by being the best "you" that you can be, each and every day. Support the leaders of tomorrow by making a small donation to The Quest2Matter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XJ12EffdI

Do you wish there was an app to collaborate with other teachers, communicate with parents, or engage your students? In need of a new website for your school or class? Have you identified a pressing need in your district that you think new software could address? On the weekend of June 1 & 2, 100 top developers, brought together by Dwolla, will meet in Des Moines to help students, educators, and administrators build the software, app, or website that will address a challenge found in their school. All you have to do is teach Dwolla about the challenge. If selected, you’ll have 36-hours and a team of developers to create the kind of software, website, or app that will not only solve your challenge, but the challenge for potentially thousands of others. Winning teams will split a minimum $4,000 prize! This "hackathon" is free and requires no technical experience. To learn more head to: http://hacktoschool.com/ More: Lt. Governor video: http://youtu.be/QPHcZImuP7Q Blog post: http://blog.dwolla.com/hack-to-school Website: www.hacktoschool.com Registration: http://hacktoschool.eventbrite.com Call for Challenges form: https://dwolla.wufoo.com/forms/r7p5w3/

One of the many reasons that we encourage schools to promote authentic learning - that is, where students take on real-life problems and solve them the way that employees of a company would - is because the world is changing too quickly than any curriculum. How many schools still include Powerpoint lessons at the core of their "technology" classes? In promoting Choose2Matter, I’ve had to stretch my thinking about effective presentation today when promoting a multi-layered message and a call-to-action to a time-stressed audience. I attended EdCampPhilly this weekend, and, as is always the case with EdCamps, I learned an awful lot of useful information. For instance, the brilliant librarian Elissa Malespina told me about Smore, a site that makes it easy to create and share digital flyers. It is very flexible, enabling you to "build" your flyer one section at a time and embed links, audio and video. I used Smore to create this flyer, which tells the story of the Quest2Matter and how to participate in it better than any tool we’ve previously used. After a short learning curve, I found it very easy and intuitive to use. Please let me know what you think of the flyer, and also please share it with everyone you know! Thank you, Angela    

We are thrilled to announce that The Academy of Education Arts & Sciences has announced it will award the first Student Initiative Bammy Award to a student that participates in the Quest2Matter. The award will be presented during the black-tie Bammy Awards on September 21 in Washington, D.C. The Bammy Awards is an event to not only honor our educators, but also offer our support as members of the educational community to one another. The idea behind the Bammy Awards is "to help reverse the negative national narrative that dominates the education field" and celebrate the extraordinary work of fellow educators. The Quest2Matter gives students the opportunity to express their passions in meaningful ways.  Students are willing to lead the change we need to see in this world and we are so proud that we will celebrate our students’ passions by honoring their efforts of one of them at this year’s Bammy Awards.  We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate students’ achievements and are honored to be working with the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.

This is a guest post from Jana Scott Lindsay, an educator and learner in Saskatoon, Canada. This is a cross-post from her blog, Driving Me to Think. Photo Credit   Why is it that we are often our own greatest obstacle to overcome? I love being a dreamer.  Of imagining a world of possibilities that will shape and guide me. So then, what does it mean to dream big … I mean really? I hear these words all the time… and yet I am not sure if I really understand what they mean. Or is it I don’t value enough my own desires to actualize them? That is exactly what it was … until now. This new year I have taken more than one step into uncharted territory. Going back to school as a full time student after twenty years was no small feat. No small challenge but in many respects offered the incentive to really dream big. I have long been looking for a passion that could rival both being a teacher as well as mother and wife.  I knew that while I could utterly feel fulfilled in these roles I really felt I owed it to who I am to explore who I hope to become.  Envisioning the future isn’t only for the young, but probably most especially, for the young at heart. Here is where the footsteps of my quest have taken me… I have found my passion in one of the most unlikeliest of places. I can’t give myself any more credit that the simple fact that I stumbled upon it.  Hiding in the shadows of my existence, it has become a part of me without me even knowing it was happening.  I have been immersed in this culture and life for years now, but only recently could I see it calling to me with fresh eyes. I know that to dream big is to follow in the direction I am being led. My passion is the martial art of Muay Thai. The word Muay is derived from the Sanskrit Mavya which means "to bind together". Those simple words completely encompass how I feel when I am training. I am bound to the learning in a way I never thought was possible.  The confidence I feel is only matched by the competence I gain from each new training session.  It consumes many of my waking thoughts and, for the first time, I revel in knowing that this learning is a part of who I am.  It has empowered me as a learner and given me a focus that compliments every other aspect of my life.  Muay Thai has been an amazing teacher … combining humility, assurance, skill, tenacity, and intelligence as part of the curriculum.  My own teachers, each and every kru (sensei), continue to offer me the challenge I need to grow in my skill, understanding, and learning.  Most importantly, they instil in me the confidence to continue on. I have never looked back and now truly understand what passion and fire feels like as it burns inside of me. I know that my journey has only just begun … mastery may very well be a minute speck in the far distance, but with discipline and passion as my compass, I know I am headed in the right direction.  Someday mastery might very well intersect my future. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." ~Bruce Lee And so continues my passion and desire to learn…

No one knew quite what to expect from the first-ever Bammy Awards, presented by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences to educators, last September. The Executive Producer, Errol St. Clair Smith, set modest expectations and delivered well beyond our wildest dreams, leaving us wanting for more. So are the Bammys people resting on their laurels, and merely pushing the "repeat" button this year? Not by a longshot. This year, the Bammys will honor someone even more integral to the education system - a student. We are thrilled that the Academy is partnering with Choose2Matter to bestow the first Student Initiative Bammy Award on a student that participates in the Quest2Matter. While other organizations give awards to students, the Bammys once again breaks new ground by creating a major student award to be presented at a black-tie, red-carpet "adult" ceremony. It’s a powerful recognition that students are the reason we all do what we do, and Choose2Matter could not be happier to be working with the Academy to make it happen. What are the Bammys? It’s an awards shows that honors members throughout the entire education community. So who can better explain it than members of the community? Lisa Nielsen, who blogs as The Innovative Educator, writes, "Envision a world that values education like it values entertainment….The Bammy Awards were created to help reverse the negative national narrative that dominates the education field." Peter DeWitt, in a column for EdWeek, "Why Should Educators Pay Attention to the Bammys?, noted that in recent years, "education has felt more like a battleground than a place to educate and inspire students…. The Bammy Awards want more for teachers and administrators. The awards are meant to focus on everything that it is good about education, and we all know that there is a great deal of good in education." Tom Whitby, who was part of a group to receive the Outstanding Education Blogger Award, noted that the Bammys often awards educators who receive little notice elsewhere. As he writes, "the very people who connected educators look to as the contributors of ideas to the global discussion on education are not recognized by their own peers. They have to fight in their own districts for the same things we all fight for." A skeptic-turned-convert is Karen Seddon, who wrote on her Tuesdays With Karen blog about how her initial skepticism for the event turned quickly to delight: "I think this is one of the greatest gifts to the teaching profession because we want to build our teachers up, not burden them….The Bammy Awards are the coolest Teacher Appreciation event I have ever seen." Similar sentiments came from Dr. Spike Cook, who wrote, "I applaud the Academy for having the determination to roll out the red carpet for the people who are most dedicated to the future of society - educators!" Dr. Cook credited John Merrow, one of the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award, with "one of the best lines of the night…‘Ask students how are you intelligent, not how intelligent are you?’" Consistent with this plea that educators recognize the different types of student genius, the Quest2Matter gives students the opportunity to express their passions in their own unique way. Choose2Matter is so proud to partner with the Bammy Awards and looks forward to an enduring partnership that powerfully recognizes the unique genius of students.

Choose2Matter is a call action that invites you to ACCEPT that you matter, to ACCELERATE the message that everyone matters, and to ACT to solve problems that break your heart. How do you ACCELERATE the message - how do you let other people know they matter? You take a multi-layered approach that I discuss in my latest column in the Huffington Post: You See Them You Listen Earnestly You Ask Meaningful Questions You Believe They Can You Dwell in Possibility You Celebrate Them You Do Small Things With Great Love You Show Up You Choose2Matter Read more about each of these points in my column, "People Know They Matter When…"

Two weeks ago, I pitched Choose2Matter and the Quest2Matter to a room full of passionate educators at EdCampPhilly. Justin Staub, social studies teacher at Downingtown S.T.E.M. Academy, reacted enthusiastically. A few hours later, he sent me a pitch for me to present a two-day Choose2Matter event to his sophomore class to end the school year. As in, two weeks away. This led to two days that I will never forget. Justin is blessed with the support of a "can-do" headmaster in Art Campbell and a Superintendent, Larry Musoline who trusts the judgment of his staff. By Monday night, we had approvals and were planning the event. Because today’s students respond best when they are active participants, on Wednesday, I Skyped with a dozen enthusiastic students to plan. Nevertheless, we arrived to find students slumped and scattered around the auditorium, mostly near the back. I explained to the students that when I ask first-graders if they think they can change the world, the response is nearly always unanimously, emphatically,"YES." I then asked their estimation of what percentage of them would respond in the same way. The answer? Two percent. Six of the 300 students believed they could change the world. I then told the students that they mattered, and that they were geniuses and the world needed their contributions.  Many of them sat up and began to take notice. I then read words of inspiration from members of the business community and our partners in the innovation community on Twitter, and we had three innovators Skype with advice and wisdom. We played the video of a Ted Talk by a 13yo Kenyan boy who used a car battery and old flashlights to harmlessly stop lions from killing his livestock. The students then disbursed to begin working on their world changing projects. Two hours later, they were already presenting their initial ideas. That evening, one group Tweeted that it was collaborating at Chipotle at 10 pm and didn’t want to go home. The following morning, several students Tweeted that they couldn’t wait to go to school. When we kicked off the second day, the students filled the first few rows of the auditorium and listened with rapt attention. By the end of the second day, at least ten companies had been formed, with names, logos, mission statements, websites and launch videos. For each group, we arranged connections with several mentors who were experts in the topic area: Students interested in animal rights were connected with a zoo; others interested in cancer research were introduced to a prominent cancer researchers; a group dedicated to suicide prevention was supported by the Executive Director of "You Matter, Don’t Quit," a suicide awareness effort headed by famed actress Mariel Hemingway. These students - 98% of whom did not believe they could change the world just the morning before - began to Tweet phrases such as: "It’s amazing, wonderful and overwhelming how quickly this came together, and I’m grateful to be a part of it." "I have never been prouder to be a student at STEM than I have these past two days." "Very excited to take this project further. Thank you for showing us the change we can make." "It’s unbelievable how much a group of teenagers can do."  At the closing session, Justin asked the students to stand if they believed they could change the world. A photo of the response: To see the two days "play out" in full on Twitter, YouTube and other online media, check out the Storify we made. Do I need to explain further why these were two days I’ll never forget? Lesson Learned: when kids say they want to change the world, LISTEN! Next year, we will scale Choose2Matter into tens of thousands of schools around the world. Will your school be a part of it? Will your students begin to believe that they CAN change the world? Post note: even after I published this post, it just kept getting better; a large group of students gathered at a home, late on a Friday night on the last day of school, to explain what these two days meant to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJHdU0ZgT-A