I have never found comfort in the way of things. And though I sometimes wonder if it’s a fatal flaw, I can’t seem to help myself, and I follow a different path. And whether it is really a flaw, possibly hubris, or simply a restless spirit, when I set out on my journey three years ago with Project 180, I did so with the idea of changing, bettering the state of education. That was my “True North,” but when I set out out, I pointed south, and I’ve been going south ever since. Maybe my compass is broken.

Along the way, I have shared my journey, “publishing” my classroom and my earnest attempts to find my way as I seek to better the educational experience for my students, which I then believed-and still believe–necessitated “doing different.”

And so to do different, to turn ed upside I had to turn myself upside down, so I could get myself right side up.

For a time, I thought of myself as a turtle, thinking that if I turned myself upside down, I would eventually get back on my feet. That’s the discomfort I needed, the discomfort education needed. Of course, seeking discomfort creates no easy path, but in the “hard going,” I learned lessons, finding myself stuck in a perpetual cycle (180 degrees at a time) of doing, reflecting, and doing my best to do better. And in that I found my mantra: Do. Reflect. Do Better. And this has become my way, a ceaseless quest for better. This is my journey.

Over the past three years, others have come to know my journey. Some see some value in what I share. Some think I am crazy. And some think I am just wrong, that I toy with things better left alone, for they have worked for generations. And it is then…I head south again, for that is the “comfortable thinking” that cast me out in the first place.

Though I have come to find my journey less lonely as I have been connected to and inspired by other like-minded folk out here on the frontier, it is still a lonesome thing to do different. And sometimes in my more-lonely, less-resolved moments, I find myself hitting my compass against my leg to set it right again, but it always points south. Someday, I’ll find North. Someday.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will experience…

…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.

…completing our “Written Requests” and “Me Maps”

…reflecting in our Journey Journals.

…discussing “Why with Sy”

…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Thursday, all. 2 hour snow delay for us. Please get here, Spring.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.