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The thoughtful/reflective effort it took to write this has made this one of the most powerful things I've done for professional development as a teacher.

I really wanted to post a little timeline. Earlier I actually started typing a comment suggesting that perhaps Da Vinci used the same model for both paintings, then erased it rather than posting it… I forced myself to 'bite my tongue'. The fact is that I am not used to letting students take ownership of their learning in this way. I want to 'teach' them… isn't that my job? But if I had put that "perhaps Da Vinci used the same model" post in after the 5th or 6th comment, would the other comments have followed?

Jessica Hagy uses graphs to make sense of our world. She is deft at finding hidden truths in places we all look at, but are blind to.

The goal of education is to enrich the lives of students while producing articulate, expressive thinkers and lifelong learners, that are socially responsible, resilient, and active citizens of the world.

News editors and journalists don't give our wonderful students enough credit and enough accolades! We spend hours telling students how much they are valued and appreciated in schools, then they go into the 'real world' where they are portrayed so poorly by mass media.

So if I were to make the post title into a statement it would be: Rather than a Digital Native/Digital Immigrant dichotomy, students have a wide spectrum of digital competence positively correlating to their digital exposure.

This post will be printed in a Grade 8 Language Arts Text by Pearson Education. "Who did you help today?" It is simple. It inspires empathy. It shows what we truly value… and I look forward to the day when my daughters 'favorite part of the day' is also the answer to 'who did you help today'.

We need financial support, visionary leaders, moral compasses, inspiring role models, enriching professional development, and meaningful collaboration. We also need minimally restricted content and unlimited access… these are all building blocks that 'increase the frequency of guiding coincidences'… these are the things that inspire us, fuel us, connect us, and allow us to see the potential in ourselves and each other. We truly can 'Be the change we want to see in the world.'

A great student-created video to show students.

The task was simple: Have your advisory pick an issue in the school and then create a video that promotes awareness of the problem and/or a solution to the problem.

I think this group of future teachers really understood my point that education is changing and our teaching needs to change too!