Author Archives: David Truss

a quick look back

A quick look back

I was playing around with scheduling posts late Thursday night. I had already planned to share Missing out – The Art of Miscommunication as my Friday post, when I decided to write and share Harnessing the Power and Potential of Social Media to Build Learning Communities #CDNedtech19 as a resource for the round table discussion I was running at the conference Friday afternoon. So, I thought the ‘Missing out‘ post could be today’s Daily-Ink. However, I made a mistake and ended up publishing them both yesterday morning. So, today I thought I’d take a look back and share some of the more popular posts so far:

  1. Asking your kids the right questions  A question like this is so much more powerful than, ‘What did you do at school today?’, or ‘What did you get on your test?’, or ‘Did you have fun?’ Simply asking the question, “Who did you help today?” tells a kid what you value.
  2. Good enough is good enough, now share it! At school, I watch perfectionism crush students. It completely overwhelms and debilitates them. It’s sad to see highly capable students buried under the weight of something not being good enough to hand in, when while it may not be their best work it actually is good enough.
  3. Some kids… Some kids are hard to like. They don’t want to make an effort to connect. They are defiant. They don’t want your approval, or maybe they do, but they sabotage their own efforts because that don’t believe they’ll get your approval even if they try.
  4. 3 ways that people are digitally evil I’m a huge fan of Twitter. I think it is a tool that has a challenging entry point, but with a little help and advice, it can be a powerful place to learn and build a great PLN. It can also be used for evil.
  5. Update on routines For me daily blogging is a powerful learning tool. I get to reflect on my learning and on life. And I enjoy the process of being creative, rather than passively watching TV or sports. Here are a few things that have made this sustainable for me… 
  6. Flawed message I’ve seen this post a few times now and while it has a message that will get a lot of ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ on social media, it completely misses the points it should want to make. Here are my 2 biggest issues with the post…
  7. The Vampire Rule for Email So like a vampire at the front door, I can’t enter (with email) if I have something to share that is not initiated (and therefore invited in) by my staff.
  8. “Start off hard” But what’s the purpose or intention of ‘going in hard’? What is it that is being achieved? Is it a need to manage behaviour? Is it control of the class? Is it that you need to assert dominance?
  9. I got this It was mayhem. I saw a sea of arms, flailing, splashing, and colliding, despite my instructions to ‘stay right’, and not to flip turn with so many people in each lane. This was crazy, what did I get myself into? I can’t do this!

This final post I’m sharing isn’t as popular as the ones above, but it is something I enjoyed writing, and I think it has an important message:

10. Ideas on a Spectrum The world seems so bipolar right now! Topics that used to be on an ideological or political spectrum have become dichotomies.

I’ve enjoyed writing daily since mid July. My routines (see #5 above) have made it a habit that is sustainable and much less like work. To be honest, I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at the stats, and it was nice to look at them for this post. While I don’t have a huge audience, and I am writing primarily for myself, it does feel good to know there is an audience out there. And with that, I would like to thank you for taking the time to join me, even if just occasionally, on my daily writing journey.

Missing out – The Art of Miscommunication

I believe that most miscommunication results from being out of context, out of place, or our of time.

Examples:

Context – Someone uses acronyms with people that are not familiar with them.

Place – Someone gives their boss marching orders.

Time  – Someone explains something everyone already found out about.

I think that a lot of news outlets intentionally focus on, or omit information from, one of these areas in order to entice, excite, anger, and/or engage viewers and readers.

While being ‘out of’ one of these makes for a great plot for a comedy, it is not ideal when we want to be fully informed, or if we want our team, or our customers, or our students to be fully informed.

The next time you are frustrated, ask yourself what you are missing out on?

 

Anatomy of a Tweet

Harnessing the Power and Potential of Social Media to Build Learning Communities #CDNedtech19

I’ve been invited to host a Round Table Breakout Session at the 10th Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit today, titled; “Harnessing the Power and Potential of Social Media to Build Learning Communities.” The invitation was born out of a Podcast I did with conference organizer Robert Martellacci @MindShareLearn, where we discussed my free ebook, Twitter EDU.


You can get the book here:

FREE on Apple, the iTunes version is available here.

FREE on Barnes & Noble, the NOOK version is available here.

Download the FREE ePub version now from Smashwords: (You might need to open this in your web browser, if you came here via mobile Twitter: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/776978 )

What I’ll share below are resources to support the conversation, and hopefully this can also be a resource to come back to later, after the discussion.

For those interested in tweeting during the discussion, please use both of these hashtags: #CDNedtech19 and #TwitterEDU

Advice from Dave Sands @dhsands: (If you are playing along, follow the people I share tweets from!)

DHSands Twitter Advice

My True Story Of Connectedness about my network being better than Google:

Here is a short link to the video: 2di.me/connectedstory.

Here is a Twitter Moment I shared where I asked, “What’s the best advice that you have to share with someone that’s new to Twitter?”

Best Twitter Advice for Twitter Newbies

Short link: 2di.me/advice

Discussion Points/Questions

Hardest part of Twitter

“The hardest part of Twitter is that it does not have a friendly entry point.”

What are the challenges of engaging on social media?

—–

Bill Ferriter @plugusin “My goal in social media spaces isn’t to “have a bigger audience.” My goal is to find people who challenge my practice.” (Link to tweet)

What are you looking for from your social media network? 

“Geography used to confine and limit our networks, and now we can connect to people from around the world.”

What excites you about the possibilities of being a networked/connected learner? 

Twitter is a river

“Think of Twitter as a river of information that streams by, not a pool of information that you collect.”

How do you manage the stream of information ‘coming at you’ in today’s digitally connected world? 

See ‘Drinking from the fire hose‘.

drinking from a fire hose

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Additional Twitter Advice

Cross-Posted on my Pair-a-Dimes Blog.

Gas in my tank

Yesterday evening was the Inquiry Hub Open House.

Here is a snippet from the ‘Cold Open’ that started the event, a song written by one of our students.

I wrote about the rehearsal and shared it here.

My day started with my meditation at 5:30am and getting to work by 7:20. I got home after the event at just before 10pm. I should have been exhausted, but the event was so rejuvenating! I came home and had a late night 2nd dinner, and was asleep just after 11pm. That should be a wipeout kind of day.

It wasn’t.

Watching our students showcase their school and their passion projects was wonderful. The enthusiasm was contagious. The night filled my gas tank. Sometimes we need events like this to pump some fuel into us, and get us off ‘E’. I’m ready to cruise through the craziness of the month ahead.

Artist

A Place to Dream, Create, and Learn

Imagine a school where you are given time every day to Dream, Create, and Learn.

I’m writing this Tuesday evening before our annual Open House and publishing it on the morning of the event. I popped in earlier in day to see how things were going. The teacher who has worked with the students the most on this event has Tuesdays off. Another teacher is working with students on displays in the hallways, a third teacher is popping his head into the gym periodically to see how things are going and if he can help. A former student is working with a crew to get the sound up and running, and our show director is setting up the order of entrances and exits to ensure mic hand-offs go as planned. I was invited back at 2:30pm to see the final run-though. I arrive at the end of the ‘cold open’ musical performance and stand next to another former student, who ran the open for the last two years. He speaks first, “This will be the best Open yet.” The song finishes and I ask our student director? Did you write that song? “A group of us did.”

I watch the rehearsal and there are issues with sound, and a video not working properly. I am not worried about this. Last year Alvin Law did a presentation at our school and he told me that he’s presented to large corporations with massive budgets and he was never treated as well by a sound crew, or had a sound system work so perfectly, as he did at our school. I would have thought he was just being polite had he not repeatedly emphasized this, even when we were saying goodbye at his car. My sound crew know that their job is to be invisible… unnoticed because sound is never an issue. I know that they are students and it might not be as perfect as that, even if the last 3 shows were.

I only had two suggestions: First, a pair of presenters did not have a strong ending to their talk, so I suggested they present what’s coming up next; Second, one of our Grade 12’s starts with a personal story then gets lost in a list of things she accomplished. I suggested she remember to go back to storytelling and share why that list of things are important to her. Our show director has a lot more to say. She is as in control of this rehearsal as any teacher could be. She is critical, for example: “That was really good except your timing drifted off,” she says to the guitarist and piano player. She is encouraging, “I like the way you two play off of each other.” And most importantly, she is respected by the performers and presenters, and they know and understand that she has their best interest in mind.

A student designed the advertising.


Two students are working together on thematic ads for Instagram:

Coder Chef Artist

The Foods class have created custom deserts. All the clubs have representatives to share what they’re doing. Freshly created student work is on display on our walls. This isn’t just an open house, it’s a showcase. It is an opportunity for students to present to an authentic audience, by students who love the fact that they don’t just sit in classes all day. A presentation by students that get to design part of their day. They get to throw themselves fully into running and presenting at an even like this… they get to Dream, Create, and Learn as part of their school day.

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I’ve written about Inquiry Hub Secondary a few times before, most recently in March, on my Pair-a-Dimes Blog. Here is information for educators.

3 sides to every story

It was my sister many years ago who said this to me the first time, but I’ve heard it many times since. There are 3 sides to every story: The first person’s perspective, the second person’s perspective, and somewhere in between there is the Truth.

We all want to feel that our experience is the Truth, but in reality we can’t always see where the other person is coming from. Relationships often have perceived truths that limit us from seeing the full Truth that lies in the middle. Our bias doesn’t have to come from malice, it can come from innocent ignorance. But when we see the bigger Truth, when we are reflecting back on a conversation, we can sometimes see our own flaws in perspective if we are honest with ourselves.

When this happens, we need to decide if it is more important to come back with the new Truth (or at least our perspective of it), or is it more important to concede that our truth was wrong, and think about how holding on to that truth affected the other person? Because even at this new juncture there might still be 3 sides to the story. Pause and reflect again. Maybe the relationship is more important than the Truth?

What becomes of us?

What becomes of an idea unshared? Where do interesting and insightful thoughts go to die? Do they collect in a forgotten part of your brain, or do they just fade away? Can ideas be retrieved and revitalized?

What becomes of a ‘Thank You’ unshared? Does the appreciation diminish, or just the showing of gratitude? Might you be less thankful, having not had the opportunity to make that connection with the person or the kind gesture? Is it too late or can you still express your thanks?

What becomes of feelings of love unshared? Might you feel empty, feel unfilled, or feel less loved? Will the connection be as strong later on? Is it worth your trying to share again?

What becomes of your next mistake? Is it the beginning of a failure, or the launching point of a lesson, a new idea, a different approach? Will the mistake define you, or will your resilience strengthen you?

What becomes of missed opportunities? Do they spur you to seize the next moment, or do they convince you that your misfortune will repeat itself again? Can you create a new opportunity, now?

We decide what we become. We decide how to act, how to react, and how we feel about the choices we make. We can become victims of circumstance, or designers of our own reality. Be bold, be brave, believe in yourself.

Doing the math when trying to do better

If you are dealing with machinery, there comes a point where the cost of more efficiency or productivity can become too exorbitant to justify improvement. But is this true in the same way for tweaking social systems?

Making a car go 10% faster, or making it 10% more efficient on gas or battery life can prove to be too expensive to be worthwhile. It can be a simple cost/benefit equation. But what about improving teamwork or relationships?

What’s the price of a team not working well, but not trying to make it better? What’s the price of poor communication continuing without working to improve communication channels and clarity? What’s the price of maintaining unfairness, inequality, or injustice?

When does the cost of positive social change become inefficient?

If you ask me, unlike the simple math when dealing with machinery, we can’t do the math in improving social change until we’ve done more to make things right. The costs we can’t tolerate here sit on the extremes. They are the costs of ignorance, hate, and blame. They are also the costs of retaliation, shaming, and sweeping generalizations.

What is the cost of social change for good? My simple math tells me the effort is worth the price we need to pay. Because the value we get always exceeds the price we pay, when we are striving to make the world a better place.

Update on routines

This has been my healthiest year in about 20 years. I’m physically fit, with better definition than I’ve had in about 15 years, my cardio is great, and I’m hovering around my weight during my university years – 30 years ago. (I was close to 25 pounds heavier just 18 months ago).

Beyond that, I’ve meditated at least 10 minutes daily, I’ve averaged more than 4 workouts weekly, and I’ve listened to about 20 audio books since the start of the year. One of my goals this year was to read or write for at least 30 minutes daily. I was doing alright with this goal, mostly listening to books while working out, and on commutes. Since July I’ve been blogging daily, and I’ve really loved doing this.

I shared how I’v made daily blogging easy, but I have a few updates that I think can help others. I shared this quote in my post, ‘Why blog daily‘:

“For years, I’ve been explaining to people that daily blogging is an extraordinarily useful habit. Even if no one reads your blog, the act of writing it is clarifying, motivating and (eventually) fun.“ ~Seth Godin

For me daily blogging is a powerful learning tool. I get to reflect on my learning and on life. And I enjoy the process of being creative, rather than passively watching TV or sports.

Here are a few things that have made this sustainable for me:

1. I have a great home gym. Many people spend as much time commuting to and from a gym in a week as I spend working out for 4-5 days.

2. I seldom do more than 20 minutes of cardio. 5 minute warm up, 10 minutes hard, 5 minute warm down. I know a lot of people that will do at least 45 minutes on a treadmill. As I age, I want to keep my cardio up and also protect my joints from over-exertion. My workouts are about 1/2 to 1/3 the time of others, if you include my lack of a commute to the gym.

3. Voice to text memos. Inspiration hits me at odd moments. In 20 seconds I can record a blog post idea on my iPhone by telling Siri to make a note. Example: ‘Make a note’, ‘What do you want it to say?’, ‘Update on routines with ideas like voice to text and using Pixabay.’

4. Pixabay for amazing royalty and attribution free images. I used to use memes for images to go with my blog, and sometimes still do, but finding a good (and appropriate) one became too slow. I find great images to go with my blog very quickly on Pixabay.

5. I get most or all of my blog posts done before bed. I am enjoying writing a lot, and I’m taking longer to write, but my morning time is fixed, and unlike today, a Saturday afternoon, all my posts are scheduled between 6:30 and 8:30 am – still playing with a ‘best time’. Basically the schedule means I’m done blogging before work starts. Other than 20 seconds of inspiration as described in #3 above, my blogging and exercise are completely done between 6pm and 6am. Having clear parameters is important.

6. I don’t waste my time with TV or sports. I mentioned this already, but I know many people that spend more time on entertainment during the work week than I spend on exercise, meditation, blogging, and social media in a full week.

7. I monitor my social media time. My blog auto posts to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and when I go to these tools, I am looking to learn and converse with my digital friends and colleagues. I don’t really spend a lot of time surfing, and I use the Apple Screen Time monitor to keep me honest.

8. I’ve temporarily given up archery. I started this hobby a few years ago, but one session is a minimum of an hour and a half including my commute. I’ll get back into it, but for now, my other goals are a priority and you can’t always do everything you want to do.

That’s my update. Basically, blogging, audio books, and working out are entertainment for me. I enjoy this time, and I prioritize my personal time to make them work. I hope that whatever you prioritize, you make time for as well!

A conversation about culture

I had a great conversation last night with colleagues, Principals and Vice Principals, at our Professional Development Dinner. We broke into table groups based on the books we had read, or in my case listened to. Culture Code is a great book, and one that I listened to while on my treadmill this summer. I really enjoy audio books but this is one that I wish I had a hard copy of. It is filled with gems of ideas, but I didn’t bookmark them and it is too hard to go back in an audio book to find specific sections unless they were bookmarked.

Luckily for me, the book was just a launching point to a great conversation. I tried to summarize some key ideas at the end of the talk and this was what I came up with. I’ll start with a quote Bryan shared with us, (I’m not sure of the source):

“You have to belong to a place before you can transform it.”

We talked about the challenge of coming into a place as a new leader and how people need to feel safe before they are willing to trust and work with you. Until you build a relationship it is challenging to meaningfully lead and offer up your strengths. We also discussed 5 other ideas that we thought were really important:
  1. Agency – We all want to have agency and feel empowered. If we don’t help to give others agency, they won’t feel valued.
  2. Listen! Be present – Give people your full attention. This is especially important when someone comes to you with something that is urgent to them, even if you don’t think it is urgent.
  3. Listen! Rather than solve – Don’t try to fix or share a similar example. Coming from a teacher background, we all want to help fix the situation, we all have experiences that are relatable, but we should start by truly listening and recognizing that it is better to be heard than to be related to. 
  4. Show vulnerability (as a colleague and a leader). Be willing to say ’sorry’ and to let your staff know that you don’t know everything. 
  5. Willingness to go to the hard places. It’s not enough to gloss over things and hope they go away, or to make decisions because they are popular. 
 
Final thoughts:
Culture doesn’t develop on its own, and if it does, it’s probably not the culture you want. Building a good culture can be a slow process and yet destroying a good culture can happen very quickly. We had a great conversation at our table and I am glad that I work with an amazing group of leaders who have made these kinds of conversations part of our learning culture.