A Piece of My Mind my ideas, thoughts, experiences, and lessons learned in education

There are times when you have to be dead straight honest about who you are and what you do. Right? But, there are always ways to word things to be more inviting. Consider this lesson in advertising:

Photo Credit: Me - sorry for the fuzziness

In northern Arkansas, I passed this little gem of a business. They provide elderly boarding. Seriously. I’ve heard of dog boarding, and I’ve heard of retirement homes. Instead, these folks decide to just put their cards out there on the table. A-1 Boarding for the Elderly. Yep, you too can drop grandma off on your way out of town for vacation. She will find her own clean kennel replete with fresh water, three meals a day, and maybe even some play time in the fenced in area out back with the other elderly. Sweet.

So, my question for you today is this: In your work to help educators grow through better instructional methods, can you use language and a demeanor that is more inviting and less scary?

We all know technology use engages kids. We also know that technology use can enhance learning in many instances. We can even argue that technology use is a necessity for our students of today to learn to be comfortable in the world facing them outside of the school building.

This little beauty is from the mountains in Oklahoma. It causes me to chuckle every time I pass it on my way to fly fish in Beavers Bend State Park. I keep thinking, “Who cares and what’s the strategy here?” Basically, it is a small storage place in the middle of nowhere trying to find friends on Facebook. I guess they have to find them somewhere.

Photo Credit: me

So, my question for today is this: Can anyone really argue that we HAVE to integrate technology into everything just to say we integrate technology at the expense of good teaching/learning? Use technology. Just use it when it is appropriate.

Photo Credit: me

You’ve all heard of Dairy Queen, right? You know, nearly 6,000 stores in more than a dozen countries and most of them in Texas (Yes, I put TX after “countries” on purpose. You know how us Texans are.). $2.5 billion dollars in revenue each year. Quite a successful chain that you can buy franchises to be a part of. Or, not.

Have you heard about Daisy Queen? Or what about Dairy DeQueen? Didn’t think so. These DQ wannabes are just that: wannabes. While they might be good in their own right, they prefer to attempt to confuse customers enough to bring them in the door based on the reputation of others who have worked very hard to be a success. Taking shortcuts.

So my questions to you are these: Are you straight up about your offerings in your classroom when you are sharing it with others? Or, do you instead ride on the backs of others to get credibility? In other words, do you practice what you preach?

Photo Credit: Les_Stockton

Shooting across the northern part of Arkansas on our way to a full day of fly fishing in the Norfork River, I passed a business just off the highway. The reason I know it was a business is because it had a giant sign out front grabbing your attention and letting you know it. It had the name of the company in huge letters: MOWERS. Then, beneath the sign was a lot full of mowers….hidden within the confines of three foot tall grass and weeds.

So, my question to you is this: Do you practice what you preach?

Photo Credit: me

Over the next several posts I am going to share with you my collection of wonderings that came to mind while wandering the backroads of Arkansas and Oklahoma during our family vacation this summer. They were things that caught my attention and gave me immediate pause as to how the apparent lesson can be applied to education and what many of us do as teachers, presenters, and leaders.

For the record, I chose the photo of my son’s Border Collie (Jesse) because these dogs are everything many of us aspire to be: intelligent, methodical, fun loving, hard working, devoted, and dedicated. Well, I aspire to be those things, at least.