Never Settle….Expect More!

So I saw the above meme online this past week….and it was so counterintuitive to everything I believe and value and live, I was taken aback.

Expect less? Lower the bar? Settle for whatever lands in my lap? NO!

First of all, how much is too much to expect?

Secondly, who is aiming for the “simple things”?

And finally, who is living in the fear of life getting complicated?!

I have news for who ever thought posting the sentiment “expect less” in italics would make it any more persuasive: life gets complicated whether you expect a little or a lot. And if your life doesn’t get complicated, maybe you’re not fully living.

So if your goal in life is to play it safe, this blog post is not for you.

It isn’t expecting too much that makes life complicated! On the contrary, people who expect too little are like speed bumps and pot holes; creating hazards and obstacles, holding up progress.

 

Anyone wanting a better life for their children than they had expects more.

Anyone who wants to right a wrong and set things straight expects more.

Anyone who wants to leave the world a better place than they found it expects more.

And if expecting more makes existence more complicated…CELEBRATE IT! It means you’re pushing the limits and living life to the full.

I’m not settling for whatever crumbs randomly fall from life’s table. I was born to explore and experience and push the boundaries. I was put on this planet to make a difference and make my presence felt. I was given the faculties and fortitude to devour life’s deliciousness, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting every last morsel.

Expect less? I’m offended by the very suggestion. You should be, too. Because anyone pushing platitudes about settling in this life is trying to contain you, not console you.

Don’t let anyone compartmentalize your promise. Blow the lid off of any effort to try. This is YOUR life. YOUR opportunity to leave your mark. YOUR chance to make the most of everything you’ve been given.

Never settle.

Expect more!

12 Ways to Make This Year Your Best! [INFOGRAPHIC]

Here’s to the best year of your career yet! Make it count!

Where’s the Wherewithal to Take Action on the Answers to Ed Tech’s Challenges? [VIDEO 4:16]

Paul Hamilton presents a creative and artistic look at the challenges edtech faces. Created in 2012, we know the answers to the questions he poses:

– What do we want technology to do in schools?

– Does more money equal increased learning?

– If we buy a lot of expensive technology and sometimes use it ineffectively, or dangerously, what does that get us?

– Are we asking the right questions about technology, learning, and schools?

– What world will our students exit school into?

– What skills will they need to be successful?

– Is the way we are using technology now turning our students ‘off’ to the people and the world around them?

We know the answers. Were’s the wherewithal to take action on them?

The Future of Wearable Technology in the Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC]

Technology is progressing at an astonishing rate and none more so than wearable tech. Despite this wearables are still very much a niche product and a buzzword for many but some organisations are already reaping the benefits from their employees using smartwatches, health monitors and even treadmill desks. Devices like this can boost not only wellness but also productivity, job satisfaction and even data security.

#EdTherapy: A New Twitter Chat

Launching Thursday night, September 4, 2014 at 9:00 pm et, join the inaugural #EdTherapy Twitter chat facilitated by three very intelligent, inspiring, reflective education practitioners Matt Mingle, Chris Tienken and Tom Tramaglini. I can’t think of three more qualified “therapists”!

First topic: Assessment

Please join in!

“Big Data Is Not The Panacea For All Education’s Woes” – Big Data Guru

Reposted from the Smart Data Collective:

“With more and more technology and data in the classroom, there is the very real drawback of the teacher’s role becoming much more data-driven and administrative, which I believe already is a major problem.

Great teachers are in their profession because they are passionate about educating our children. They get a buzz from seeing kid’s eyes light up when they understand a new topic and they are passionate about making children flourish in a topic. Unfortunately, those same great teachers are generally less passionate about the fact that now algorithms take over that job and that their role involves (even more) data input and administrative work, even if all of this might ultimately helps pupils to excel.

So big data and technology is probably not going to be the panacea for all of education’s woes. I believe that it is critical that we build the technology alongside the vital role of great teachers and not alienate them through the use of data and analytics. In the end, as with every industry, understanding and applying the data and analytics processes to education will yield positive results and ultimately benefit teachers and students.”

Read More…

The Power of Empathy [VIDEO 2:53]

What is the best way to ease someone’s pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.

Dr Brené Brown is a research professor and best-selling author of “Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead” (Penguin Portfolio, 2013). She has spent the past decade studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame.

Watch Dr Brené Brown’s full talk ‘The Power of Vulnerability’ here.

Half the World’s People Live in Just 6 Countries [INFOGRAPHIC]

As of July, the world’s population is now 7.2 billion. According to U.N. data, half of the people around the globe (3.6 billion) live in just a half-dozen countries. China has the world’s largest population (1.4 billion), followed by India (1.3 billion). The next most-populous nations – the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan – combined have less than 1 billion people.

The demographic future for the U.S. and the world looks very different than the recent past. Growth from 1950 to 2010 was rapid — the global population nearly tripled, and the U.S. population doubled. However, population growth in future decades is projected to be significantly slower and is expected to tilt strongly to the oldest age groups, both globally and in the U.S.

For example, the U.N. projects that during this century, the number of people living to at least age 100 will increase more than 100-fold, from 181,000 in the year 2000 to over 20 million in the year 2100.

Read More…

A Tale of Two Schools, Their Students & The Communities They Bridge

Reposted from the New York Times:

University Heights High School is on St. Anns Avenue in the South Bronx, which is part of the poorest congressional district in America, according to the Census Bureau. Six miles away is the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, with its arched stone entrance and celebrities’ children and $43,000-a-year tuition. Eight years ago, as part of a program called Classroom Connections, students from the schools began exchanging letters, which eventually led to a small group from University Heights visiting Fieldston for a day. “At the time in our school, these were tough street kids,” said Lisa Greenbaum, who has been teaching English literature at University Heights for 10 years. “They walked into Fieldston, and they were just overwhelmed. They couldn’t imagine that this was just minutes from where they lived, and they never even knew about it. One kid ran crying off campus. It made them so disheartened about their own circumstances.”

Over the next eight years, the two schools maintained their connection, groups of students meeting intermittently to talk about race relations, say, or gun violence, or to take a combined field trip to work on a community-garden project in Van Cortlandt Park. They most recently got together in early April to participate in an exercise in “radical empathy,” as it’s called by the group Narrative 4, which facilitates story exchanges between groups from all over the world.

Under the supervision of Narrative 4, the students paired off, one from each school, and shared stories that in some way defined them. When they gathered as a group a few hours later, each student was responsible for telling the other’s story, taking on the persona of his or her partner and telling the story in the first person (“shattering stereotypes by walking in each other’s shoes,” as one of the Narrative 4 facilitators put it).

Read More…

What Americans Want From a ‘Smart’ Home [INFOGRAPHIC]

has released its Smart Home Survey, which was conducted in July by Harris Poll. The results show that 52 percent of the more than 2,000 U.S. adults surveyed feel that having a “smart” home is at least somewhat important to them.

Those who felt that way said they see three main benefits to connecting features and appliances in their home to the Internet. Sixty-two percent of Americans ranked security and home monitoring as the biggest benefit to having a smart home. Another reason is to cut costs (40 percent said) and so is convenience (35 percent said).

Read more here.