Real failure would be stopping. Completely. No work, no output, no input, no consumption. - NWM Personalized Learning Summit Success We’ve been preparing for the summit for a few months now. They did it! It was such a pleasure to see students have the opportunity to gather together and share what they know with each other. The event was busy, like festival where you know you are always missing something and you just have to choose where to be and commit to it. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, our bus driver was wonderful, Karen Lieberman, Kim McKellar and handful of CBL, Branching Out and Alt-Path students joined in on the fun. About 100 students from seven different schools came together for the first time. It doesn’t get much better than being a part of building a community of engaged, happy, independent learners.
Ben T. Matchstick came in during lunch to talk about his progress creating Pin Box 3000 with his business partner Pete Talbot. He spoke about the path he has traveled in creating this cardboard, gravity powered, pinball machine. I was there for some of his early explorations as they often appeared at Langdon Street Cafe when I moved to Montpelier ten years ago. From then to now - he’s manufacturing thousands of these games for people all over the world. The road to this kind of success, he says, has not been and never will be a straight line. There are always ups and downs (for those of you at Conor’s exhibition you’ll recall that he shared the same sentiment) and that when you have a big dream, you are going to encounter a big obstacle. There seems to be consistency in highs and lows both improving over time. Pretty soon your low point was your previous high point. Your ability to reach that dream despite adversity depends on many factors, but perseverance is certainly one of them. Observations from the learning summit on Friday:
Circle Back Let me remind you how this experience was a great demonstration of the circle of courage. I observed a great balance of the four points, belonging, independence, mastery, and generosity, at the summit. I keep coming back to this wisdom and find it showing up in many places. Recently, I started a course where I will be learning how to foster resilience and create trauma informed school communities. The circle of courage is there too. A balance between these four things is essential for growth, as growth requires being brave enough to try something new. I remind you of this in case you find yourself stuck. Ask yourself these kinds of questions: Have I really dug in and learned more about this topic? Have I reached out to others and found a community of people that care about this too? Have I reflected on my needs and advocated for them? Have I given back? Shared my learning experience with others?
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