We are very pleased to introduce our final keynote speaker of ISTE 2016.
She is a very special classroom educator, near and dear to the heart of ISTE. A third
grade teacher in London, Ontario, Michelle Cordy and her students spend their time in
the classroom devising solutions and overcoming obstacles, while transforming education for
future students. Michelle has accomplished a number of achievements,
including becoming an Apple Distinguished Educator, a Google certified Innovator and
earning a Master's in Education in Mathematics and Science Education.
An applied researcher, Michelle's focus is on mathematics education, technology integration
and the social aspects of the Internet. She engages in classroom based research with partners
from academic institutions, as well as industry partners.
She began teaching in 2001 and has taught grades 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 during her career.
She's also taught in college and university teacher education programs.
All right, let's hear what Michelle has to say about the future of education and learn
what it really means to hack the classroom. We need to show up to our place in education,
the classroom, the schools, the districts, the organization, the company, where we can
make our greatest contribution. And we need to show up to that place and refuse to leave.
And there is no better time or moment than right now, as we're winding down this amazing
experience, to recommit to that place. There is nowhere that I would rather be than with
you right now, except maybe one place... I have to tell you that today is a very special
day for me because I have the pleasure of speaking to you, my friends, but it is also
the last day of school and at this very moment ...
Don't do that! That will be bad for me! At this very moment, literally, in London,
Ontario, Canada, these people are putting on their backpacks and they're going home.
But I'm here today because I've shown up to this place for them. I believe that education
has this tremendous power to teach us about who we are and about our place in the world.
And I want to do that for my students and I know that you do too. And I have a hero
that has inspired me on this journey to do just that, to take students beyond the walls
of the classroom, to take chances and make mistakes. She's also a third grade teacher,
just like me. Maybe she's your hero, too. Yeah!
Don't you want a magic school bus? Yes! And in fact, I wanted a magic school bus, and
on September 10th, 2012, I got my wish. Or the next best thing. In 2012, I secured funding
for a research project to investigate the integration of iPads. And my classroom went
one to one, but be careful what you wish for. Because I was the only one, I couldn't go
across the hall and be like, "Hey, what are you doing with your magic school bus?" I was
a bit of a rogue teacher on my own. So, I read some books about how we as humans
might step onto the Internet and onto that space and connect with other humans, and how
I might help my students to do that. And so I found Howard Rheingold, an elder of the
Internet, one of the first people to step into the digital space and see its potential
for good and for cooperation. I read his book, Net Smart. And as you do, you write on your
blog, so I went directly to my blog and I wrote something quite clever, as you do or
you hope you do. And then I tweeted out: Thanks for writing Net Smart. Seriously helpful.
Your comments would mean the world. And I took this message in a bottle and I
tossed it out into the ocean of the Internet and I hoped for a response, but I didn't actually
think I would get one. I said something, and it spoke back. No Way!
Massive thank you, Howard Rheingold for commenting. Notice the dates? Pretty good Christmas gift.
And moments later, this: That's how it works, Michelle.
Oh boy! Now he was really talking to me. I had made a contribution and I had been acknowledged
for that contribution. I had been seen and I had been heard. Everybody gasp! Gasp! That's
how I felt. I wanted that experience for my students.
Howard Rheingold has become a mentor of mine. And yes, he's come into my classroom through
Connected Learning TV and he's interviewed my students about what they do. In fact, he
would love to come into your classrooms too, and make your students feel like they are
seen and heard. So I had a grand vision of what I wanted to
accomplish with technology. I wanted my students to be seen and heard in the classroom and
beyond. But... thank you for turning on the house
lights, I can see you... I had a problem. I had a grand vision but I had a today problem
and I had a tomorrow problem. And I came to you, I came to my friends, I came to this
community to solve the problem of what I was actually going to do with all those iPads
on Monday. Because, you know, I didn't have anybody that I could turn to in my district.
And they were watching me. They were like, "She got a really big grant. She better do
something cool." And I was like, "I will." So this was my best hack, really, being on
this stage, because when I came to conferences, I only ever wanted to hear from you. I only
wanted to be able to sneak in and hear what you had to say. So today I would like to offer
you the things that I have learned from ISTE and from the educational community.
The first thing I've learned... and you know this and you live it and breathe it every
day... it's about being a connected educator, right? We say this loud and proud all the
time: the importance of being online and helping one another out. But I think we can take it
further. Now there's something very special about this
community. It's like a diamond to me, it's so precious. Coming to ISTE is like putting
on an oxygen mask and breathing in. You feel like you're with your people. Am I right?
Yes! Your people are here. We can clap that out.
What a nice way for your to show appreciation to your other people.
But going home can be tough. It's pathetic. The one on the far left is particularly pathetic,
and that is my very first ISTE, where I felt like I was Cinderella dancing at the ball
and then, bippity boppity boo, I was back on a plane ugly-crying.
Raise your hand if this is your first ISTE. Oh! Don't worry, those are the photos from
other ISTEs, the past three in a row. It gets better. There won't be so much ugly-crying
after this, I promise. But there is something fundamentally special
here that doesn't always exist at home. So how do we bring this energy, this feeling
of breathing in an oxygen mask home? So I asked Howard Rheingold that question.
I said, "Why is it, Howard, that a group of people... one group of people can do something
that another group of similar people cannot?" And he said, "You should read this book, Connected,
by Nicholas Christakis. Nicholas Christakis says three things:
Number one, the shape of the network matters. You see here a bunch of diagrams, of differently
shaped social networks. Number two, we shape our networks.
Number three, our networks shape us. So, it's an interesting thing, this first
point: the shape matters. And in nature, in fact, the shape matters. Let's take two different
substances. Let's take graphite and diamond. You chemistry teachers in the room, you know
this... these are actually made of the same fundamental elements, which is carbon. But
you see, carbon organized as graphite, the particles are bonded together in sheets and
as you drag your pencil across the page, you sheer off a layer of graphite. The properties
that emerge from the way that is structured makes that particular graphite dark and soft.
But the properties that emerge when carbon is bonded together differently and more tightly
yields something that we give much more value to and has completely different properties
that emerge. This helps us understand the idea of why some groups of people are able
to do things that other groups are not. So let's take a random group of dots. Let's
believe that these dots are people: teachers. Let's say they're trying to get a job done,
maybe putting out a fire. And each one of them is running to a water source, scooping
up a pail of water and running to the fire and putting it out. Are they going to be able
to put out that fire? Not really. But let's change the structure. We're not
going to change the component parts, we're just going to change how these people are
bonded together. All of a sudden we have a bucket brigade, a line of people who can pass
the buckets back and forth. Are these people going to be able to get that fire out much
better? Yes. The structure matters. We don't really want to put out fires in education,
though we do. We want to do something different. So what happens when just a few people, instead
of being connected to the teacher on your left and the teacher on your right, what if
we make just a few more connections? What if there's people like you in that network?
What if there are connected educators that reach out to people they don't normally speak
to, that do the good work of introducing your friends. Because when your friends are better
connected, you are better connected. And now we have an amazing thing: a small world.
And it turns out that these small worlds have really unique properties, and ISTE is this
special small world where good ideas pass. In fact, ISTE is many small worlds because
within this group there are the librarians, there are the STEM people, artists, and all
of us are connected and we share ideas in this diamond network. We're a group of people
that is able to do something other groups of similar people are not yet. So go home
and continue to be a connected educator, and build these diamond networks at home, and
then no sad selfies! So, through these small worlds, something
special happens and it's called 6 Degrees. Small worlds, or small world phenomenon says
that we're all connected by approximately six degrees of connection. So, me, I'm connected
to every single person here today. I have a friend who has a friend, who has a friend,
who has a friend, who has a friend, who knows you. And you are connected—look around—to
every single person. So, through these networks, we can push our
ideas forward. We can focus on branding and getting those ideas out there. But whoof!
That's a lot of work. If only there was a more potent, more powerful way for us to spread
our good ideas.There is! These small worlds also have this yummy thing called 3 Degrees.
By three degrees, I have a friend who has a friend, who has a friend. Ideas pass contagiously.
Your political views, whether you have lost or gained weight, your effectiveness at work,
your happiness. People I don't even know have a huge impact on me. We shape our networks,
but our networks shape us. What does that mean for this community?
Though we could put our energy into branding and pushing our ideas through this network,
I think we would actually be better served on two things: the relationships (introducing
friends, making new connections, tightening our network, expanding our network) and the
good work. And then that will naturally flow through these small worlds here and at home,
and those ideas will naturally flow to us. Diamond networks.
That's how it works, Michelle! I get it. That's how it works, Howard Rheingold,
elder of the Internet. So I learned that it's important to be a connected
educator, but we need to go further, we need to bring this home, and we need to expand
and tighten our network. The next thing that I have learned from this
community is our incredible ability and passion to engage and empower. And I think we can
do something even greater than that. We engage with technologies, with our heartfelt
best desire to help students bring out the best learning in the classroom. And we empower.
But is there more? First, before I get to the more, I would like
to show you some examples from my classroom. This first one is Noah and Daniel, and they
are racing toy cars on different surfaces to learn about friction. We've now taken the
class outside and we're looking at how these toy cars run on pavement. Listen for Daniel's
laugh near the end. Check it out. "Hey help me, hold this. Okay. Okay, put it
on the ground. Three, two, one, fire! One hundred and twenty-three. 123 centimeters.
It's 123 centimeters. 1, 2, 3. (laughs). 1, 2, 3 (laughs), 1, 2, 3."
1, 2, 3 and he's like this is hilarious. He's so engaged! Now you may have noticed that
he's wearing a GoPro camera, a point of view camera and it's on a junior chesty, it's mounted
right on his chest. When I take that video home and edit it, and I'm in my quiet home
with my headphones, I can hear his heart beat. So we have this incredible way that we engage
our students and we continue our own engagement as educators. And we in this community do
such an amazing job of adding these layers and all this texture to the classroom and
to schools to engage students. An amazing example of that is Breakout EDU, that brings
us Escape the Classroom. Yeah, you're into that? Checked out the bus this week, and there's
so many things, all the things you're doing to add this texture, this element of engagement
to the classroom. The reason we engage and empower students
is we give them power tools, whether it's a saw, or a soldering iron, or an iPad, or
a Chromebook. We go, hey kid, I'm going to help you use this safely, and I'm going to
help you use this. And they go, really, me? I'm a grade 3 kid. And I go, yeah!
So my students built these really cool bridges with Spheros... well, excuse me, they used
Jinx wood. Can you imagine a bridge built with Spheros? That would be expensive. Sphero
would be like, that' not what we meant for you to do with that product. The teacher would
be like, oh my gosh, that glue gun! Why?!! They didn't do that, they did this instead.
So, check it out. (Video of children playing with the bridges)
So, it's too steep for them, isn't it. Drive them from there? They did it! Oh my gosh!
More power, more power, more power. Okay this one, fix this one. No, use the ...
Do you see what they did? So my idea of that lesson was that we were going to build bridges
and test the drivability with Sphero going desk to desk. And then the space opens up
when you start to engage and empower kids. They're like, "No, Miss Cordy. What we really
want to do is we want to make like a giant marble run of all of them together."
And you're like, cool, let's try that. And so these neat things happen.
In this next clip that I want to show you, my students are becoming empowered because
they're seeing themselves in the curriculum. And they're using technology to explore and
make their thinking visible. Whoa! Look, I found a clue. Everybody take
a picture. Yeah! Not only can our students make their thinking
visible, but I as a classroom teacher can make my thinking visible to my students. So
I can use technology to bring my students into the narrative. Check this out.
Let's have a look at this opening sentence. You have when, which is on Monday. Check.
You say where you went, Ontario. Check. And you say who you went with. Ben, and Jerry,
and you. Also you need an uppercase W for the next sentence: We went to the airport.
So we use technology in all these ways to engage and empower. I'll show you one more
example. I live in London, Ontario, Canada, where it's very hot in the summer and very
cold in the winter. As part of our structures unit, we decided that we would use recycled
Christmas trees to create dens, to create shelter for the kindergarten kids out on the
yard. We documented the building of these, again with a GoPro point of view camera. Here
I assigned a hero of the day that goes around asking kids what their plan is.
Hello, people! What is your plan? What is your plan? We don't know. We're making kind
of like a teepee. That's our plan. Okay, we did not talk this through. We have not made
a plan. Well guys, let's think about it. Is it going
to stand up to the wind? Yeah.
Is it going to keep the kids warm? Yeah, I think so...
Can kindergarteners fit through? Do you think we could get a couple kindies
to test it out? Sure we can!
Can I get my little cousin? Laughing.
Do you guys like it? Yeah! It's squishy and its warm. Laughing.
Hello back there. Back there? Laughing.
You do it, too. You do, or you facilitate things like this in classrooms. And it's amazing
because we open up this space where children can literally see themselves in the curriculum.
Did you catch Coby? Can I get my little cousin? And we help them in school to form this diamond
networks. What I realized is that... I mean I'm a public...
I'm a teacher, a grade 3 teacher full time in a publicly funded system in London, Ontario,
Canada, which means that I have a lot to be accountable to, as I know you do too. I have
a curriculum that I have to follow. I have to be accountable to parents through communication
and report cards. We prepare for provincial testing in the month of May and I have to
get my students ready for doing that testing. But here's the thing: once you've taken care
of those must dos, we can actually open up this really big space where we can do a lot
of really great learning. And I think that's the space that we need to carve out for ourselves
and for each other. And in that space, we can just make stuff. Yeah! Yeah! And we can
just make stuff up! Yeah! We can do that. And I think that's a really kid-friendly way
of saying we can be creative. And you've seen, I'm sure the most popular
Ted Talk, the most viewed Ted Talk of all time: Sir Ken Robinson. And he has this to
say about creativity in schools. That we're educated out of creativity. We believe this
is an issue. But before we were educated out of creativity,
I wonder if first we're educated out of something else. I wonder if we've been educated out
of mindfulness, out of the sense of living in the here and now, and be able to step into
the space and see things in novel and interesting ways.
So I want you now to think of the second most popular Ted Talk of all time. Amy Cuddy's
work, and if you would, would you try something with me, please? Would you stand up and would
you take a moment to throw your hands up above your head in victory? Thank you! Oh, you look...
Yes! You got here! Yes! And you're like, now that I'm up, are you going to make me hold
this? Yes, I am. You could also take this position, and when
you're power posing, Amy Cuddy's research shows that two interesting things happen in
these poses. That is that your testosterone levels go up. That means that you feel like
you are more able to show up. And your testosterone levels not only go up, your cortisol levels
go down. And she found this in saliva samples. Keep holding these great poses.
And the opposite—don't do it now—but the opposite of a powerful pose is a powerless
pose. You hold the power one, but I'll model the powerless pose. When we round in and close
off. And you know what happens in these powerless poses, is our cortisol levels go up and we
feel more stressed, and out testosterone levels go down.
Now, there is some controversy in the psychology research world because people have not been
able to replicate the saliva samples, but the behavioral effect is strong. People who
power pose for two minutes are found to be charismatic in interviews. People who power
pose for two minutes before and interview also report that they are able to bring their
best self forward. Thank you. You're beautiful.
And now you've had a good supercharge, right? Yeah. You're feeling ready to show up and
refuse to leave. So, I want us to make a connection between
power posing and the classroom. What does it mean to... What are the body poses... What
do our bodies tell our mind in a classroom? So, I'll give you a hint. There is a connection
in Amy Cuddy's research between the devices that we use and power posing. So, here's my
first hint to you: the different power poses are reflected in the different devices. Can
you guess what their relationship might be? How about now?
The connection is that if you use a larger device, you're more likely to be in this powerful,
expansive body position. Whereas if you work off of a smaller device, it's very likely
that you tend to round in and fold over. And so I think we have to wonder, as you probably
sat down and took up your devices again, I wonder if you just rolled into a powerless
pose. And if that's the case, what does that mean for how you're feeling about yourself?
What does that mean about your capacity to stand forward and accomplish great things?
A little note back to Dr. Benjamin's talk: There's actually another piece of Amy Cuddy's
research that ties us back to gender. You see, when school age children, in grade one,
were shown pictures of these wooden mannequins, children, seven years old, were more likely
to ascribe a male gender to the power poses, and a female gender to the powerless poses.
And I think in that way I'd like to refer back to Dr. Benjamin's work and say, you know
maybe we need to change the code here on the body language that we ascribe and the gender
that we present each day and in our students. So, I really have been inspired by this idea
of how the body affects the mind in terms of this mindfulness piece. And so I reached
out to a researcher at Western University, where I live. And we wanted to conduct a little
bit of research in this area. You see, there is a tremendous amount of a body of research
in psychology that clearly shows that breathing, and yoga, and posture have an incredible impact
on the mind. But there's very little research, especially in the classroom, to show that
there's any effect on children, until now. So, okay... this is my... the educator in
me really hates definitions because the educator in me is like, "A definition is no shortcut
to learning", but the researcher in me says, "Girl, you've got to define your terms."
So, the first line in our peer reviewed paper is this, and I am going to start with the
definition of mindfulness. So, I'll let you read through that and I'm going to share with
you my study. It sound research-y. I read it in my head
and I'm like, "Contemporary research conceptualizes..." Like did any of you have that same voice that
I just had? Right. The key here is that mindfulness is being
aware of your self in the moment to moment in a non-judgemental, non-reactive way.
So what we did is we had two groups, a control group and a mindfulness group. First we presented
them with S.A.M. S.A.M. is the self assessment Manikin.
On the far left of the screen, you see Sam. He's kind of wiggly, his stomach is exploding,
and he's really excited. He's nervous, he might be scared, and he's wide awake.
On the other side, you have Sam and his eyes are closed, he's very peaceful and calm, he's
almost sleepy. So you say to kids, "Choose the Sam that feels
how you feel right now." The data we're collecting is on their current level of arousal.
And then those two groups... one of those groups, the experimental group did some mindfulness
practices. So we did animal-inspired yoga poses and then we sat quietly and breathed
like a frog. Whereas the control group was engaged in quiet coloring or building Legos
for ten minutes. Just ten minutes. Following that, they did another S.A.M. and
indicated their level of arousal. So I'm going to share with you the results,
but before I show you this graph, please note that a higher score indicates a lower level
of arousal. So the mindfulness group is in dark gray,
and we had significant findings that showed that after only ten minutes, the students
reported that they were less aroused and more calm, whereas the control groups stayed about
the same. So this is the first time in this field that
there has been findings that support in the classroom that only a ten minute intervention
has such positive outcomes. The other research that has been done has
much longer interventions, like weeks, and weeks, and weeks. And, fun news, I just found
out from Dr. Elizabeth Hayden this morning that this paper, this preliminary research
has actually been funded to do more work. So I'm really excited about that and continuing
next year. Thank you. The next thing I want to show you... this
is Ellen Langer's work. So, you're like, "Ten minutes, Cordy, that's still too long." Ellen
Langer wants more action more quickly, and she actually thinks that the mind influences
the body. She's says this: It's not primarily our physical selves that limit us, but rather
our mindset about our physical limits. Ans she's done amazing researcher with seniors,
and with chambermaids, and also with an eye chart to show you that your mindset can change
your body. Let's do one now. Please look at this eye
chart. This is exactly what Dr. Langer did with her participants. She brought them into
a lab and said, "Look at the eye chart. How far down can you see?"
What Ellen Langer realized in this eye chart, is that it tells a story. As you get lower
on the eye chart, it's saying, "Hey, pretty soon you're not going to be able to see very
well." And that mindset we believe. So what she did is she flipped the eye chart
and changed the mindset. Now the story, the "code" as Dr. Benjamin would call it, is that
soon you will be able to see. And while nothing had changed in the anatomy of the eyes of
her participants, guess what? People were able to see things they weren't previously
able to see. Everybody gasp! I know! So it's this amazing thing where there are
different things in society that tell us a story and that story might not be true. I
think an easy way of remembering this is this saying: Real but not true.
You see, something that is real is a story that we tell ourselves or a story that society
tells us that gets in the way of us living our best truth.
What I think Dr. Benjamin would have called this is a code. And we need to rewrite that
code, so that we avoid leaving these stories that send us into a vicious cycle.
But I tell you, we can also tell ourselves stories that are real to us, that become true.
And we can enter into a virtuous cycle as well. For example, this happened to me. This
is a photograph my husband shot while I was away at a conference. And you'll notice that
it's addressed to me, and it says, "Teacher, comma, Applied Researcher. And it says You
are what you decide you are." You see, ten years ago, I realized that I loved the classroom,
but I love research. And nobody was doing both. Not that I knew of. So I'm like I'm
going to do both. I'm an applied researcher. So every single time that I had to fill out
one of those things, like "what is your job?", I'd write teacher, applied researcher. And
one day, I got mail proof! So, you can tell yourself this story, and
you can live it into existence. You can bring your best self forward. I'm now ten years
past that story that was only real to me, and now I have over ten publications to my
name and as you heard, my research is going to continue.
So we can enter into these virtuous cycles where we can breathe our dreams into reality.
That is something I've learned from this community: our incredible ability to engage and empower.
But I think that what we need to focus on next is how do we bring about a greater sense
of mindfulness for ourselves and for our students? And tie back this notion that we've split
body and mind, and bring it back together. The last thing that I've learned from this
community, and I've just been bitten by this bug, is our incredible desire to disrupt,
to transform, to redefine and hack. So much so that I called my blog "Hack the Classroom"
and my husband created me this neon sign. If you look at if for too long, it literally
burns your retinas. I just thought this was the best things. You
know, I really felt the synchronicity with this idea. I really felt like it connected
with me. And don't you just love that feeling of synchronicity?
Like when you and friend say the exact same thing at the exact same moment? Or maybe that
feeling of falling in sync when you're driving, and you notice that the car lights are blinking
on and off, and all of a sudden they come into synch. So let's look at this right now.
Look at these two cars, As you can see, the lights are out of sync. But when they come
into synchronicity, I want you to yell out, "Yes, yes, yes!"
Oh, can we do it again? Yes, yes, yes!
Oh, that was so good! And that feeling of being in sync is a lot
like the feeling of being in love. And I think we need to fall in and out of sync, in and
out of love with our ideas. We need to believe our ideas with the full force of everything
we've got by day, and then by night, we need to go, "Oh, is that really working for me?"
And we need to believe our friend's ideas with our whole hearts by day, but by night
we need to say, "Is that working for you? Is it taking you where you want to go? Are
you making your greatest contribution?" Because if we don't, we risk building up some
rigid dogma that somebody else is going to want to disrupt.
So I have to tell you that actually until I heard Dr. Benjamin's talk, I was falling
a little bit out of love with this idea of hack the classroom. You see, I felt like it
was a little bit adversarial. It was a little bit too aggressive and fight-y. You see, I
was like the "hack it", I'm going to change it. And you know, when somebody refers to
me as a classroom teacher, as a frontline worker, or the work that I do is in the trenches...
that makes me so uncomfortable. I do not like those analogies. Who am I at war with? I tell
you, it's not the kids. It's not. So I wonder if taking on this feeling of disruption
is really serving this community's best interests. I have to say that I'm actually falling a
little bit back in love with hack the classroom, because it represents mastery, creativity
and collaboration. Those three words were three of many gifts in the keynote yesterday.
So, I think we should fall in and out of love with our ideas. I feel that in this community,
it might be best for us to move from disruption to stewardship, because education is not broken
and I'm not here to fix it. It's an ecosystem. Woo! And ecosystems don't break. We need to
be stewards and I think we need to use the ultimate technology of love and care to do
our best work. And don't you think that if we do, it will be more inclusive to people
beyond the ISTE community, beyond EdTech, that will want to join us, instead of feeling
like they're being pushed away. Now, Miss Frizzle, how do I feel about her?
Have I fallen in or out of love? Well, a bit of both. Because I realized that she's a bit
of a rogue teacher, and that she really did act alone. And also, I have some questions
about the safety in her classroom. Seat belts, everyone!
That's right, Arnold, they'll try to destroy us. Destroy us?
This bus in condemned! Take chances! Make mistakes!
Yeah, take chances. Take chances, make mistakes. Yeah, buckle
your seat belts because every single episode, she nearly killed her kids.
And going back to the disruption notion, what happens to the kids in my classroom today?
What happens when I'm trying to disrupt? The thing is that they give up their "being" at
the expense of their "becoming". I give up what they're doing today, and I risk the classroom
space that is so sacred, that I so love to be in. And you know, if you're too much of
a disrupter, you're going to get yourself shut down. I don't know if you've noticed,
but in that video is the gentleman, like the one you see here in the green suit; that's
Miss Frizzle's principal. Oh yea, he's the guy that shuts that thing down. And that does
happen to us, when we take on a little too much angst, and a little too much aggression,
and a little bit too much pushing. I think we risk getting in our own way. And I think
that's why we need to move from this notion of disruption to this more softened, but still
so passionate perspective of stewardship. These are really the things I've learned from
this community. And I'm so grateful to you that you've shared this with me and that I've
been able to listen to you, and that these are the things that I've taken away. These
are the things that I think we might be able to move to in the next days, weeks, months
and even years. You see, fundamentally I believe that all
the pieces exist in education right now for education to work really, really well. We
just need to start putting things together in different ways. And you are the leaders
that are going to do exactly that. So, before I bid you farewell, I hope it's
okay, but I'd really like to say goodbye to my students too.
Goodbye Aisleen and Brooklyn. Goodbye Dennis. I get to teach Dennis and
his little brother Andy next year. And Dennis and Andy, I'm going to continue to be a connected
educator, and I'm going to expand my network, and I'm going to help you do the same.
Goodby Coby. I'm going to continue to engage and empower students, and when I get to teach
your little cousin that was so excited that you wanted so badly to show the den to, when
I get to teach your little cousin, I'm also going to have this really good practice of
mindfulness that just naturally flows into my classroom.
And Spencer, you little hockey playing grom, I'm not going to disrupt your daily school
life. I'm going to be a steward. Goodbye May.
Annekin, I'm going to miss you so much. And I'm going to miss you, too, Logan. Oh
my god, I just had like a flashback of so many Logan moments. Like I think we went through
a whole thing of wipes, like just cleaning up what happens around Logan. I think I might
miss him most though, because you know what? Talk about a story that's real and not true,
there are stories that our students come with that are written in their hearts, that they've
bought into, that school might be telling them, and we need to rewrite those stories
that those kids are packaged with. I can't believe how fast this conference has
gone, and I can't believe how fast this school year has gone.
And you know, I think that we need to play a long game on a short track. And that short
track can be a 45 minute period. It could be a school day. It could be a school year.
It could be a life. And we need to have this long game, this vision of what we want to
achieve in education. And then we need to get our friends to help us with the little
things in between. We have to play a long game on a short track.
And today, as I bid you farewell, as you're packing up to leave, I hope that you recommit
to the place in education where you can make your greatest contribution. You need to recommit
to that place, and it's easy to do it right now. It's easy to do it when we're here, and
you're with your friends, and when you feel seen and heard. But going home can be tough.
Recommit right now and I want you to show up to the place in education where you can
make your greatest contribution, and refuse to leave.
Thank you so much. We're going to grab a picture with you.
Okay. Ready? Right here.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Michelle Cordy, everybody.
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