Using 30 second video reflections has become one of my favourite ways to share on Twitter. There are a few reasons why I see this as powerful: It forces you to focus on what you are wanting to share because of the 30 second time limit. You become more conscientious of what you are going to share because you know that anyone in the world can see it. The ability to hear voices and see faces, brings a certain amount of “humanity” to see who is behind the tweet. It is a very powerful reflection tool, and this quote resonates through this process: This past weekend, I worked with a group of administrators from the “Texas Association of Secondary School Principals”, focusing both on their learning and leadership. It was a tremendous opportunity for me to not only share my learning, but to learn from them as well. I truly believe that the more connected we become, the smarter we all are. We can all learn from each other, no matter our experience or expertise. One of the people who attended, was Dr. Kenneth Gay. He is just an awesome person, and he shared his own fear of “jumping in”, and that he wanted to learn more. So trying to help him see the opportunities, while understanding his own reluctance, we did a video reflection together, side-by-side. Check it out below: I’m with my friend Kenneth who is signing up to Twitter and is a principal at #TASSP16ELR http://pic.twitter.com/qS2LedOKdY — George Couros (@gcouros) June 18, 2016 Sometimes the best way to model the power of certain learning opportunities, is to do them together. And I appreciated this comment from Cindy Kirby. @gcouros excellent teaching strategy…walk the path, side by side — Cindy Kirby (@CindyKirby05) June 18, 2016 What was awesome, was as the weekend went on, Kenneth saw the power of connecting through this medium, and ventured out to share on his own. Here is my reflection #tassp16elr2 http://pic.twitter.com/ld7JfunhEb — Dr. Kenneth Gay (@DrKennethGay) June 19, 2016 Throughout this weekend, as with any learning opportunity, there are people at all different levels in the room. What is important is not that they are learn the same thing, but that they learn. As stated in “The Innovator’s Mindset“, Effective leadership in education is not about moving everyone from one standardized point to the next but moving individuals from their point “A” to their point ”B.” What is imperative though is that that movement from point “A” to “B” is always the choice of the learner. Sometimes standing in front and sharing ideas is one way to create this movement, but as Cindy stated, sometimes the best way to learn, is to do it “side-by-side”.

I never wanted to be a teacher.

I loved school and enjoyed my time there, but my passion was always in sports and coaching. Teaching was a pathway to that love.  In fact, in one of my interviews, I was reluctantly hired because the principal thought I was more interested in coaching than I was teaching.

He was right.

And although I stopped coaching soon after, I started to referee basketball and that became a love for me.  Teaching was my job, but sports were my passion.

In my career now, I connect with people that had known they wanted to be a teacher early on in their childhood.  Their fire was sparked at an early age, but I was never that person.

But then you cross paths people that change your perspective, and some of the leaders that I have encountered in the last ten years or so, saw something in me that I never did.  They found a spark and fanned it into a flame, and gave me the tools to continue to let it burn.  This is why the topic of “leadership” is so important to me.  Those leaders are the reason I am writing today and more passionate about education than I have been any other field in my life.

Yet some of those same people that had that passion from an early age have lost it, and to be honest, it is because of leadership (or lack there of).  I never think that people intentionally try to kill a fire inside of us, but little things that they become unaware of, turn teaching into a “job” for some people, and it no longer becomes a “calling”.  Bottom line, it is a job.  But great leadership can make a job seem like something so much bigger.

So many blog posts and articles talk about “what’s missing” from education, and I rarely see this as an educator problem, but a lack of leadership.  Now if you are reading this and you are thinking “Yeah…my leaders have sucked my love of teaching away”, you need to understand that leadership is about influence, not position.  You can have that same influence on your colleagues, no matter what your job is.

The beautiful think about teaching is that our legacy is defined in what we give and empower others to do, not only in what we do ourselves.  If leadership is truly about how you influence others, isn’t every person in education, in some way, a leader?  Whether you influence kindergarten students, principals, or teachers, you could be the person that sparks and flames that fire in others.  You could also be the person that douses the flame.

As many educators in North America, look to recharge and learn over the summer, remember that you are, and can continue to be, the one that fans that flame in others.  Legacy as an educator and leader, will always be in what you give and empower in others.

from Connected Principals http://ift.tt/29w5RXh