A Year in Books 2014

January 1, 2015Leave a comment

Looking back on what I read in 2014 was like flipping through a photo album of memories and mindsets. This year my books reflect the challenges I faced, creative outlets I embraced, my desire to lead well, and a totally new life stage.

Below are some notes of the ideas that resonated with me…

Challenges

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High & Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In: Both of these helped me to design and initiate some crucial conversations, view negotiations in a new (less frightening) light, and gain confidence in my ability to work through critical, high stress moments without burning bridges or getting “emotional”.

The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup: Guide for navigating the tricky waters of startup negotiations and tough topics like equity, founder’s roles, and growth.

The Innovator’s Dilemma: Reminder that none of the big companies are bulletproof and sometimes you can fail precisely because you do everything “right”. There are times when you actually shouldn’t listen to the customer and times when you should pursue smaller markets over larger ones.

David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants: Don’t assume things are always what they appear. Challenge perceptions when things look like they are stacked against the underdog. Adversity can be an advantage.

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character: The qualities that matter most in our children have less to do with test scores and IQ and more to do with soft skills such as: grit, curiosity, conscientiousness and optimism. Early trauma in childhood has lasting effects, but adversity can be overcome. Soft skills aren’t fluff–they matter.

Existing character education programs have no statistically relevant impact. Building soft skills and character are not t-shirt campaigns or assembly topics, they must be woven into the culture of the school and the community.

Parents want to protect, but children do need to experience and overcome adversity to develop grit.

Here is a discussion guide to go along with this book.

Creative Outlets

Creativity, Inc: The power of the “brain trust”, empowering employees, and creating a culture where creativity can flourish and we can be our best selves. Anyone in an organization should be able, and encouraged, to talk to anyone. Don’t get so busy trying to avoid errors that you don’t do anything. Managers should make others feel able to take risks. Look for the unseen before leading.

The Sketchnote Workbook: I really discovered Sketchnoting this year and have integrated it into almost everything, from my to do list practices, to my meeting synopsis. I have always enjoyed drawing, but now my drawing has an everyday purpose.

Recently I have ventured into applying this concept in the digital workspace and working with students to express their thinking in this way. I even tried it out during a keynote. Looking forward to presenting on this topic at TCEA in February.

HTML & CSS: Design & Build Websites

JavaScript & JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development Jon Duckett produces technical reference books that I actually want to read. Thank you. I am working my way back through these to make sure I understand how these programming building blocks all connect. Looking forward to continued growth in 2015 as I learn to do some front-end type programming in the future.

These are a nice companion to the Skillcrush Courses, Code Academy, and Udemy courses I have been working through.

Show Your Work: Meeting Austin Kleon was definitely a highlight of this year! His deceptively simple concepts have inspired me and become a part of the message I share with others. Finding your scenius. Embrace being an amateur. Share something small every day. Show people what is really going on behind the scenes. Do what you do best and link to the rest.

This little masterpiece is on my desk to remind me of all these bits of wisdom.

Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career & Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, & Sharpen Your Creative Mind: I think I started these two last year, but revisited this year. Lots of helpful hints on productivity, workflow, habit creation, creativity, goal setting, and career planning. I also love their size and design–wouldn’t expect anything less from 99u of course.

Leadership

The Year Without Pants: Unique perspective and lessons learned here on entrepreneurship, what work really looks like (especially at a tech company), building team culture, and communication. The enjoyable narrative and anecdotes made me feel like I was learning right alongside Scott.

Turn the Ship Around: One simple change David Marquet made on the USS Santa Fe that stuck with me was implementing the phrase “I intend to…” This would be another fantastic addition to school leadership’s reading list where a shift from leader follower to leader leader could spark some major cultural changes that are long overdue.

Leaders Eat Last: When leaders are willing to “eat last” they are rewarded with extremely loyal employees who will rally behind their leader and make their vision a reality. The politics, self-interest, and drama of the typical workplace are a far cry from the circle of safety, as Sinek refers to it, which fosters trust and collaboration.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business: Anyone who has tried to kick a bad habit knows, it isn’t as simple as it seems. However, once you know how habits work you can begin to control them. Duhigg explains the habit loop, a the three step process for how our brain deals with and forms habits, made up of cues, routines, and rewards.

Here are 10 Things I Learned From the Power of Habit

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens: I became a true book nerd this year. Not only did I attend Danah’s book talk during SXSW, but I also joined a Voxer group book study of It’s Complicated. The Voxer group was a powerful way to go through the book. My ideas were challenged and I could wrestle with the meat of this topic with smarties from a variety of diverse backgrounds.

I put this under leadership with the thought that educational leaders should really dive into this book, along with parents, teachers, and anyone who interacts with children and young adults today (so pretty much everyone). The title is very fitting.

The Girl’s Guide to Being Boss: Without Being a B****: This one grabbed me at Half Price Books. I fell for the cover and title…like click bait. I was curious, but didn’t have high expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Filled with informative and sometimes amusing stories of female bosses and how to handle leadership with grace. Finding the balance between pushover and dictator is tricky. Reminded me of some of Tina Fey’s lessons in Bossypants and Sheryl Sandberg’s movement to get rid of the word bossy.

The Advantage: A healthy workplace culture trumps everything. Makes sense. When I think about the stories I hear and the things I have experienced in different work settings, focusing on the organizational health (similar to the concepts in Leader’s Eat Last) will repay employers ten fold with productive, content, and empowered employees. Doesn’t this all start with soft skills?

I even read two fiction ones…

Atlas Shrugged: no comment…not sure why I read this. I guess I felt like I should.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: intriguing mystery novel that I stumbled upon at a library sale.

New Life Stage

Restless | Babywise | The Happiest Baby on the Block | Secrets of The Baby Whisperer

(And a bunch of other ones I skimmed…)

I read a bunch of baby books in preparation for my first kiddo’s arrival this summer. While I am glad I had the information and a couple reference books, nothing could have prepared me for the realities of becoming a parent for the first time.

Spoiler alert–there is nothing like it!

Picture of a Path with Text "The 20 Mile March"

The 20 Mile March Part I

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014Leave a comment

Great By Choice

Great by Choice, by Jim Collins, delves into the question: What does it take for a company to thrive in times of uncertainty and chaos? The book got me thinking about a lot of things (he is good at that). One key concept Collins introduced continues to gnaw at me, even months later. I see it at play seemingly everywhere–the idea of the 20 mile march.

More Than A Philosophy

The 20 mile march is about “fanatic discipline” as Collins refers to it. It is about getting up every day and taking the little, non-exciting, but very necessary, steps towards attainable goals. It is about doing so with fierce consistency and unwavering determination. Collins explains, “the 20 Mile March is more than a philosophy. It is about having concrete, clear, intelligent, and rigorously pursued performance mechanisms that keep you on track.”

Amundsen & Scott

One of the stories Collins uses to model the elements of the 20 mile march is that of Roald Amundsen & Robert Falcon Scott and their contrasting journeys in 1910 to be the first to reach the South Pole. Amundsen and his team trekked between 15-20 miles each day no matter the conditions. When Amundsen’s team encouraged him to go further on days when weather was ideal, Amundsen would say no, knowing the importance of rest and recuperation for the team and the overall journey. In contrast, Scott pushed his team to the brink of exhaustion (and eventually over the edge) going farther on days when conditions were good and wallowing in his tent on stormy days, complaining in his journal about their misfortunes. The story details and comparison are quite incredible. If you want to read more, here are a couple places suggested to me by others:

Captain Scott by Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford

20 Miles Not Just For Business

As I read about Amundsen & Scott, I kept thinking about all the ways the story applied, not only to the business world, but to my pursuit of goals in edtech, education, writing, learning, exercising, eating well, relationships, and a whole bunch of other stuff. In each case I was still searching for an easy button, a shortcut, the secret–to make it all work. Well, here is the secret–there is no secret. All those things we seek to improve, from our classroom culture and technology integration practices to our exercise consistency and depth of relationships, they are all going to take a commitment to 20 mile marching. Things that are worthwhile take a while.

The Next Questions

Once I came to terms with the myth of the shortcut, the next logical question became: How could I plan and execute a 20 mile march to make it to my equivalent of the South Pole(s)? And secondly: How could I help educators make it to their South Pole(s)? Lucky for me, Collins specifically outlines 7 elements to the 20 mile march that I found strikingly applicable to educational goals. I think this post is long enough for now… so, I’ll going to stop here and pick up next time with the 7 elements.

Nurturing a Culture of Thinking Reflection Activity

Nurturing a Culture of Thinking From the Start

August 27, 2014August 27, 2014Leave a comment

Visible Thinking is about helping students become better thinkers. The way our students think and their disposition towards thinking, are each greatly influenced by the culture of our schools and classrooms. When thinking is valued and protected, students and teachers will come to realize that real learning is not about facts, but about the exploration of ideas*.

Ron Ritchhart identified eight forces that impact the culture of thinking, each with the power to stifle or promote thoughtful learning. Below are Ritchhart’s Cultural Forces, his commentary, and some of my thoughts mixed in there.

8 Cultural Forces

1. Time: Allow students time to explore ideas and time to respond to questions asked. Don’t forget about the second wait time students need in order to reflect after a response is given.

2. Opportunities: Create purposeful activities to explore ideas. Implement learning design that promotes inquiry. Students can’t deepen their thinking if they are only given shallow requests.

3. Structures & Routines: Use Thinking Routines, patterns of conversation, and other tools to make student thinking visible. Over time, these routines can become engrained habits that will stay with students for a lifetime of learning.

4. Language: Use a language of thinking and reflection with your students. Ideas like metacognition and wait time could be explained to your students (no matter their age).

5. Modeling: Model who you are as a thinker to your students. Share, discuss, and make your own thought process visible.

6. Interactions & Relationships: Create a safe place for thinking and sharing, through collaborative inquiry and continual reaffirmation of the value of thinking.

7. Physical Environment: Arrange the space to facilitate thoughtful interactions. The way a room is set up can say a lot to our students about whose ideas are valued.

8. Expectations: Share clear expectations for the level of thought required for a learning activity. Keep the priority on thinking and learning, not on regurgitating information and completing work.

I believe it is important to reflect on these forces as they apply to the culture we create in our classrooms, schools, boardrooms, presentations, and any interactions we have with “learners”. I created the reflection activity to help myself and the educators I work with, as we strive to nurture a culture of thinking. I spent some time trying out the activity and ended up with some changes I’d like to implement in every single category.

A culture of thinking doesn’t develop spontaneously. It takes intentionality. I hope this reflection activity will encourage my teachers to experiment with, and be mindful of, the forces that impact student thinking.

Sidenotes:

Ron Ritchhart’s newest book, Creating Cultures of Thinking, is due out in 2015

*This is a paraphrasing of a quote from Rosamaria Díaz-Vélez, professor in the online Making Thinking Visible Course- Fall 2013

A Year in Learning

December 31, 2013January 1, 20141 Comment

New Year’s Eve is typically a time to reflect on and celebrate a year gone by with movie like memories of all the events, milestones, and growth wrapped up in those 365 days. When I was little, my biggest priority was building our New Year’s fort, a labyrinth of serpentine methodically tied and taped across every piece of furniture in our living room. Some years the celebration was more about letting go of the past and looking forward to something new, a fresh chance to fulfill those resolutions and promises. And then, let’s be honest, some years I was mostly concerned with my New Year’s date prospects.

With a pretty firmed up date/husband to free my mind from any potential social anxieties, I can reflect with a fair amount of clarity going into tonight and the approaching new year. Thinking about this past year amongst the glow of our lingering Christmas lights, I’m struck by how much my reignited love of learning, especially reading, has impacted me this year. I have always loved good books and learning new things, but nothing compares to the voracious, almost binge-like appetite of a learner on a mission. The last time I felt this way about a pile of books was when I discovered author, Marguerite Henry, and ate up her equine-centric novels as fast as I could check them out of our elementary school library.

I believe the comparison has been made before between binge TV consumption and binge learning and considering how the engagement level differs so much between our media industries and our education system. Essentially–why can’t kids gobble up calculus like a season of Breaking Bad?

It isn’t just education though. The last book on my reading list of 2013 was Death By Meeting, by Paul Lencioni. One of Lencioni’s characters in this leadership fable asks a team of executives the question, “Would you rather be at a movie or in a meeting?” Although the executives are at first baffled by the seemingly ridiculous question, as the story progresses they come to understand that it is the role of conflict and context which lead to stimulating engagement in both media and in their meetings. (You’ll have to read it to understand their application a little more.)

Maybe for me the intrigue has come from the conflict of becoming a bit of an accidental entrepreneur, thrust into a role I never anticipated, but passionately love and want to do well. The gap between all the things I wanted….more like needed to know at the beginning of this year and what I knew at that moment catapulted me back to the land of learning–the only place where I could fill the gap.

Book by book, article by article, conversation by conversation, even tweet by tweet… my perceptions were challenged, my thinking deepened, and my understanding cultivated on a variety of topics and subtopics I wanted to master.

The books I read this year remind me of where I started and how much learning is possible in a year. Armed with a little more knowledge than last year, the idea might finally be sinking in that I can more than adequately fulfill the role I have been given at work. It may take me a couple more books on “work life balance” to get the hang of that though. Frankly I am quite grateful there is more I have to learn. I recognize now how boring life would be if I ever knew everything worth learning.

My Year in Books from goodreads

I had grand intentions of writing a post about each of these books, but in the spirit of reality not resolutions I recognize a quick, stream of consciousness bite of what I took away will have to do. Feel free to reach out if you have questions about any of them, I’d be glad to do a deeper dive on any.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Be Proactive 2. Being with the End in Mind 3. Put First Things First 4. Think Win Win 5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood 6. Synergize 7. Sharpen the Saw (another reminder to rest and renew) Not to give it all away but you could read this in the table of contents.

Every Good Endeavor

Helped me put in perspective my work and the bigger picture..as in the much bigger picture. To quote my Instagram post about this. “Margins filled with notes. Possibly most relevant and “slap in the face” (in a good way) book I’ve read in a while.”

Start

Very motivational. I was very pumped up about starting and going and doing and being awesome. I need constant reminders about punching fear in the face, so this was very helpful on that front. The difference between finding your purpose and living with purpose. The power of reaching out to someone who is further down the road than you—and not being afraid to ask for advice (on the flip side doing the same for others). Continuing to develop.

Purple Cow

What it means to be remarkable. What a waste of time anything less than this is for a company. Find a way to standout. Filled with useful case studies relating to marketing and product development. Why are there so few remarkable products? Because there is so much fear associated with trying something different and standing out.

Good to Great

This one really needs it’s own post but…Level five leadership (I think I will need to re-read this section at least once a year), first who (meaning get the right people on the bus) then what, be realistic about your situation (no vanity metrics), hedgehog concept—keep it simple and stay focused on your core mission (many good anecdotes on companies that lost sight of this and failed or struggled as a result of leaving their core competency). Discipline—which I think connects well to the 20 mile march Collins brings up in Great by Choice.

The Lean Startup

Measure what matters.
No vanity metrics
Listen to real people not what you think they think.
Iterate
Experimental outlook on things
Fail early and fail often

The Dip

Nothing worthwhile is easy to do. Know when to quit and when to stick with it. Know when you are on a cliff and when you are just in the dip. The dip is rough, but that is why there are so few people on the other side.

Entreleadership

Know what you stand for and stick with it. Interviewing is more than a one step process and the choices you make when building a team are make or break it type of decisions. Don’t sanction incompetence. So much more..this one gets another post too. I even have a sketch of an infographic for it somewhere.

Drive

Challenged preconceived notions on what motivates people. Made me think about how I am motivated and how I can motivate those on my team. Discovered my desire for autonomy and impact over compensation and praise (not that those aren’t good too if my boss is reading this).

Rework

Just because conventional management theory or everyone else have always done things a certain way doesn’t mean it is the best or most efficient way of doing things. “Rockstar environments develop out of trust, autonomy, and responsibility.” Culture is the by product of consistent behavior. Hire managers of one.

Strengths Based Leadership

The value of knowing your own strengths and those around you can help created a differentiated approach to leadership. Just like the kiddos in my classroom didn’t all need the same thing, each member of my team doesn’t need the same things. Approaching conversations and delegation opportunities with this in mind can clear up a lot of typical workplace challenges and misunderstandings and set up the members of your team for success.

User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development

Still a lot to learn on this front. However, I learned how to communicate better with programmers, understand the roles of the team and the processes for efficient agile work, write user stories, edit user stories, refactor user stories, and have a better overall understanding of what the Agile practice looks like not just in theory, but in real software development projects.

Freakanomics

Interesting look at why people do what they do, how people are motivated and the relationship of economics and incentives. Economic lessons told through stories—the only way I will probably digest them with interest.

Lean In

I like to ask myself the question Cheryl asks—What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Then I try to push myself to do that. I also hold on to the idea of women not taking their foot off the pedal when it comes to their careers. I can’t remember if that was in the book or in a talk I heard from her, but it sticks in my mind as an applicable and very often true metaphor. This book has initiated lots of relevant conversations amongst our EdTechWomen Austin group too.

Great By Choice

Another post needed for this one too. What can I say, Jim Collins rules. What you choose to do in the good times can make or break you in the times of challenge and uncertainty. 20 mile march (I can arguably apply this concept to anything—try me). Fire bullets then cannonballs (experimental mindset).

Margin

Use a calendar for everything.
Build in real margin to your days so there is room to live and be present.
Dr. saw stay at home moms and CEOs with similar stress levels.

Predictably Irrational

Dan Ariely challenges the idea that we make decisions based on rational thought processes and uncovers the hidden forces behind our decisions, told through researched stories that demonstrate the concepts in easy to apply ways. The cost of zero cost-why we often pay too much when we pay zero. The cost of social norms-we are happy to do things but things change when we are paid to do them. Understanding procrastination- this part had lots of interesting potential applications to preventative health and spending. Keeping options open- why options distract us. The power of expectations and price. Character and honesty.

Crossing the Chasm

Must differentiate your marketing based on the segment you are marketing to. Helped characterize and better understand different stages of new technology lifecycle in an early start-up. Deepened understanding of early adopters vs. early majority (pragmatists) something I had heard over and over before but not really thought specifically about. Whole product concept.

Bossy Pants

This was my attempt at listening to something fun and light—which it definitely was. But I was surprised by the nuggets of wisdom that are woven throughout, especially on females in male dominated fields, leadership, and teamwork.

The Smartest Kids in the World

Excellent take on the US ed system vs. several of the top international education systems like Finland, Poland and South Korea. Observations point to the US lacking a culture of achievement and seriousness towards education at a level that these other countries do. Children buy into the promise of education in these countries and parents focus on the important stuff. She also points out that we don’t start at the beginning with teacher preparation and make the process towards becoming a teacher more rigorous and selective (e.g. Finland only accepts top students to teacher preparation programs at top universities— it is much more like getting into medical school). I really simplified her case–she builds it and lets you make your own conclusions.

Startup Life

Practical practices for implementing boundaries for work and non-work. More support for true unplugging vacations that I hope to take someday and validating the impact of rest time increasing efficiency (something I know but have trouble practicing). Lots of relationship advice although much was from the perspective of the male as the entrepreneur—in their defense they really tried to include some diversity in gender and story.

The Intelligent Entrepreneur

Learned a lot about the principles and practices of HBS (Harvard Business School) and followed the story of 3 graduates of the 1990s and their roller coaster rides of starting, saving, and selling their startup companies. Especially enjoyed the interviews at the end with the three graduates and their insights on what worked and what didn’t. Reinforced value of one’s network as highly correlated to success and increase opportunities. Value of developing the right team, thinking big, thinking new, perseverance and resiliency (sounds like a lot of soft skills to me).

Death By Meeting

Understand the value of conflict and context in meetings. Practical implementation of the Daily Check In (I prefer Huddle), Weekly Tactical (Game Plan), Monthly Strategic (and Adhoc Strategic), and Quarterly Offsite. Told through a leadership fable that I thought was both authentic and applicable. Would be great to share with a team of folks seeking to be more effective with their meeting time and process.

I can’t wait to get started on my 2014 list. What will your year of learning look like?

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

August 31, 2013September 2, 2013Leave a comment

If you’d rather listen

There is something about the smell of fresh school supplies and a new school year that elicits emotions reminiscent of the ones I feel around New Year’s. Despite the fact I am no longer tied to a contract derived from school dates, I still feel a tangible energy around this time every year. There is a sense of newness, optimism, a fresh perspective, an opportunity to try something different, a chance to make a change.

Competing Sentiment

However, as anyone who has ever failed to keep a New Year’s resolution knows, there is a dark side to the new hope, fresh desires, and wild optimism. A competing emotion comes to fester and rain on our proverbial “parades” almost as if it was just waiting for us to take the first steps towards some new, uncharted territory.

Fear

Fear–this is the voice that says all the types of things below & I am sure many others.

You aren’t experienced enough. You are too young or too old. What will people think? You don’t want to rock the boat. You don’t have enough time. Things have always been done this way. You don’t know (insert specific skill or topic). Your degree isn’t relevant to this. You don’t have what they have. What you do doesn’t really matter. You don’t have what it takes.

And one of the worst: What can I really do anyway? Usually accompanied by the very dangerous: I am just a… teacher, mother, PTA president…etc.

A Question

Sheryl Sandberg would ask us at this point: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? I love the way this question takes my mind through a zip-line of possibilities now.

Pushing Through

I spend a lot of time working with educators and technology, encouraging folks to move past some of the fears associated with the combination. So, to avoid becoming the cross-country coach that sits in his/her lounge chair popping Doritos while the team runs six miles, I started to think about what happened in my own life when I pushed past the stuff I was afraid of.

I knew from experience (and the consensus of several authors) that fear hates the light, fear hates community, and it loses much of its power when I just put it out there. With this in mind, I decided to make a list.

The List

On the left side of my paper I titled a column: Fear. I wrote down all the specific instances I remembered being afraid in chronological order. Then I thought back to what happened. I labeled this side: Outcomes. So I asked myself, “Self, did the things things that you were so afraid of at that moment in time even happen? Did you get fired? Eaten alive by your students? Ostracized forever from your social network? Kicked off the stage during your first keynote? Laughed out of your training session or something of the likes?”

The answer to every question ended up being–NO and actually, I found the exact opposite to be true. Almost without exception, the major fears in my life, when pushed through by force or choice, became some of the clearest reasons for success or at least forward momentum, giving me the ability to complete the next project or endeavor that came my way.

Further Affirmation

Then, as if to reaffirm that what I stumbled on wasn’t a coincidence–I rediscovered it all over again. I was meeting with a friend and relaying some of my history and journey in edtech. The pattern resurfaced, each position, project, or request made of me seemed way out of my reach at the time. But, on the other side of fear and the fray there was growth, there was experience and perseverance, endurance and revelation–there was change. And it was overwhelmingly, statistically positive.

As I look again at the big fears I pushed (or got pulled) through, the only thing they really have in common is how sweet the other side was. These decisions, these fears–now overcome, are the building blocks of my life, my career, and even my marriage. These pieces fit together in a way I would have never envisioned.

Surprise Yourself

I never thought that young first year teacher who shed tears about connecting her computer to the interactive white board would set up and troubleshoot at least a thousand of these in a couple years. I certainly never thought this right-brained child would be reading and secretly enjoying a book about Agile programming practices and know how to send command lines to reboot servers. I didn’t think tech was in my skill set, yet somehow this past spring, I slipped through the cracks and my ISTE presentation was accepted.

The more I work with my educators across the state, the more I hear a consistent voice come out. “Tracy, I’ve always been afraid of technology, but today you gave me hope.” So, maybe I am an Edtech evangelist–ill take it–but I really think it is just about putting our fears in the light and letting folks know they aren’t alone in these thoughts. Fear doesn’t discriminate based on age, experience, or anything else.

What will you do?

What is it this year that you want to try in your classroom, but are afraid might not work out? What is the worst that can happen if it doesn’t? Put it down on paper, make a Taxedo, a painting or a Phoster. Doesn’t it almost seem silly once you put it out there? Fear seems so much louder in our minds.

Pretty sure we aren’t going to see the change we want in our classrooms, schools, boardrooms, workplaces, and lives if we don’t take a chance, if we don’t take a risk, if we don’t push through the fear.

Ask yourself: What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Then call out a friend and ask them the same. I’m pretty sure you will like what’s on the other side.