Every Thanksgiving, I write a post of gratitude for someone or some group that has influenced my educational life. I've written about teachers, administrators, group fitness instructors, and even the school supply cabinet (find those links at the bottom of this post). This year, I'd like to express my gratitude for an organization that first changed my classroom, the influenced my colleagues, and finally changed my career. This year, I am incredibly thankful for Learning and the Brain.
When I got that flyer in 2018, I knew this was something special. From the fact that every presenter was a heavyweight to the extra event that you could attend at the MIT brain scan lab as part of the conference, I was amazed. When I asked my administration to send me, I was in full-scale begging mode. And since I usually didn't want to go anywhere for PD, they knew this conference must be special too. That year, I learned from a variety of researchers and psychologists and educators about creativity, talent, innovation, and the role of neurodivergence. I ate it up and presented once or twice in GRACE faculty meetings about what I had learned.
That year was my gateway drug, but my addiction to the science of learning started in 2019. I can't pinpoint exactly why that year was special. Perhaps the theme or the combination of keynote speakers or the flow of the session choices I made played a role,
. . . but I suspect it was because that year I first met John Almarode.
If you don't know John Almarode's work, please stop reading right now and put his name into YouTube. Come back after you get a sense of this delightful, passionate, and energetic man. Just reading his books won't do it; you have to see him in his bow tie, watch him bounce around a stage, and hear his lovely Virginia drawl to get the full picture. I quickly developed a non-romantic crush and then found him on Twitter and badgered him into becoming my friend. Every year at the conference, he knows what things I will find amusing and turns to make eye contact with me at just the right moments. He is a treasure and someone I reach out to for advice and prayer and encouragement. I could not be more grateful for his kindness.
Speaking of Twitter, Learning and the Brain has a presence there. When a colleague asked me a question I didn't know the answer to, I sometimes asked @learningandtheb if "it" knew of any research on the subject. Once, I asked something complicated on behalf of a former student and got the reply, "That's too long of answer for Twitter. I'll send you my email address." This is when I got connected with Andrew Watson, who moderates their social media accounts, among the dozens of other things he does. (If you don't know Andrew's work, please allow me to highly recommend all three of his books, but especially the one called Learning Begins. It did more to change my lesson planning than any book I've read in the last decade because understanding how working memory overload impacts learning made me look at my practice very differently.) When he replied to my email, he didn't just send me an answer; he sent links to all of the relevant research on my question. He offered more help whenever I needed it. We finally met, masked and distanced though we were, at the 2021 conference. Since then, he has been a source of wisdom and encouragement and has walked with me through the process of applying to and presenting at conferences. He even spent an hour on a zoom call with one of my 1st grade teacher friends when I couldn't help her with a big problem she was having post pandemic. I could not be more grateful for his generosity.
David Daniel will likely not see this post as he spends little time online and none on social media. Until last year's conference, I had only known him from a distance, seeing him introduce people and giving a keynote address as well as a couple of emails after I sent him a thank you note. When I went to introduce myself to him last year, he stopped me and said, "I know who you are." We had a nice chat. After an email thread with John and Andrew, David said he wanted to call and give me some advice. (This was, by the way, the first phone call I ever got on a cell phone, so he'll always be special for that.) We talked about the direction of my changing career, and he gave me excellent things to think about. When I saw him a few months ago, he said, "John will give you the practical details. I was speaking to your soul." That's how he talks, and that's how he is. David is fun and quirky, but he takes the work of education very seriously. Give him a few minutes, and he will cut right to the heart of a conversation and change the way you view it. I could not be more grateful for his wisdom.
Kelly Williams chooses the speakers for Learning and the Brain conferences. I have met him only once, but when I decided I wanted to apply, this was the man I contacted. We had a lovely phone conversation, in which he asked me to send him a proposal for a session. When he accepted it, I cried and then texted my friends and posted about it on Facebook. Everyone knew this was "the big one" and celebrated with me. I could not be more grateful for his willingness to take a chance on me.
Thank you to everyone in the world of Learning and the Brain, especially the unnamed person who mailed the flyer to my school mailbox. You have changed me as a teacher, as a learner, and as a person.
------------------------------------------------
Links to prior Thanksgiving posts are listed below because I'm still thankful for those people too.
No comments:
Post a Comment