Make Today Count

One year ago, I came across the following video on Twitter:

I LOVED IT!!  Right after seeing this (I think it was the next day) I saw someone make a tweet and tagged it with #maketodaycount.  I decided my students needed more inspiration on a daily basis.  Next to my door, I decided to mount one of the personal whiteboards from class, wrote an inspirational quote with #maketodaycount underneath it, and took a picture of it with Instagram.  I then posted the picture to Facebook, Twitter and Flikr with the comment "Today's Words of Awesome. #maketodaycount"

I didn't know the impact this board would have.  A security guard told me he made sure that my hallway was the first one he came through in the morning so he could text his wife what the day's quote was; I accidentally repeated one quote (it was a really good one!) and a teacher flipped out on me; a former student created a Pinterest page of my quotes; another former student told me that when she gets up for work she looks for my #maketodaycount quote to get her started; students I don't even have follow me on Instagram so they can keep up on the quotes.  

I wanted to share the slideshow of all of the #maketodaycount quotes from my Flickr account.  Enjoy!

Waiting to be picked

Schools seem to be waiting for a leader. A creative person is who going to step up and say 'I's your turn, I want you to be on my team, I want you to be successful.' Teachers are waiting for that magic bullet, the magical leader who is going to say "Today, we are now going to do something amazing." The problem is these leaders only exist in our heads. These perfect leaders aren't around, aren't where we want them to be. 

We put people on pedestals. We create an image that no leader can possibly live up to and so therefore we are sitting and waiting to be picked.

Steve Jobs made Apple computers amazing. He built a huge computer company around a single person's ideas and he hired people who could carry out his ideas. But where is Apple now that Steve Jobs has passed? And what has Apple really created since Steve Jobs? They've created smaller versions of a great product that they already had, but they're not crushing the market like they used to. Now compare that to Google. Google has brilliant CEOs.  These guys created the company around the central focus that they wanted everyone to have instant access to information and search information was the central focus of everything that they do. But the key to the success of Google is not the people who started it but it's all the thousands of people who are underneath them who just simply run with ideas not waiting for their leaders to tell them 'yes, today is the day to do something amazing.' They  are going to do something amazing on their own every day. If you look at products like Gmail or Google Earth, Google Apps for Education or the Android system any of those products were all created by people who are simply picking themselves to do something great that day.

I think that's what teachers need to start doing. Teachers need to start picking themselves and stop waiting to be picked.

Create your own team:  there's only so many great leaders and there are way more schools then we have great leaders to fill them.  If you don't have a good leader, create a great team within your school.  Go and seek out people to inspire you. Inspire others. Inspire your students. Teach your students how to pick themselves. Teach your students how to create teams of other great students. 

It doesn't take one person doing something great; it takes a whole team of great people to do something well to create a great school.  A group of caring, dedicated teachers can change a entire school on their own. You have to start small and let the greatness spread.  

The real key is don't wait for a leader to pick you.  Go out today and make today count!