I have recently become a podcast addict. I use the app Podcast Addict which just feeds my hobby. Yes, I now call it a hobby. It’s feeding my mind in a way that books used to {pre-kid days}. I still read, but not with the voracity that I used to. Now, I can fill my brain with quality words and ideas all while scrubbing my dishes or working on my design work. It’s another way to boost my creativity and inspire me.
I have a few podcasts that I’ve really begun to love, but in an effort to avoid getting in a rut listening to the same four podcasts, I began exploring other options. I began with Creative Mornings and speaker Seth Godin.
Friends, are you trying to make a dent in the world? Are you trying to do work that matters? Work that fulfills you? Then watch the videos linked below now. I realize they are marketing and design focused, but these matter to you as a parent, an educator, a human being who is wanting to create or encourage the children in the world or yourself to create.
As I began listening, these two quotes from Seth Godin in these talks struck a me deep in my soul – and not in a good way:
“…What they [industrialists] needed from workers were people willing to sit still for 10 hours, use a number 2 pencil, and follow instructions.”
“We were trained from the time we were three to ‘Do what we were told’“.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that. I don’t want that for my son. I don’t want that for our classrooms. I don’t want that for teachers teaching. I might have lofty goals to #takebacktheclassroom and #takebacklearning but I believe our teachers and students have the right to learn in creativity-fostering, safe environments. It’s why we believe in Maker Spaces so much here at Brain Brigade. It’s what we live, think, breathe, feel, make, do. We help other teachers build Maker Spaces in their classrooms. We help homeschoolers build Maker Spaces at home. We make at home in our spare time and encourage our children and family members to ask, think, question, explore and more.
Watch & listen to Seth Godin here and then listen closely to his Q&A, and then if you can’t get enough, check him out on this podcast station. While in the Q&A a person asks a question specific to education at 16:50. LISTEN to it. {Here’s the manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams he refers to}.
“Create an environment where not only is it safe to fail, but it is required to fail.” Seth Godin
Are you doing that for your students? Are you allowing them to fail? That is what a Maker Space is all about. Students must fail. They must take risks. And our job as educators is to create an environment that is safe for our students to fail. That’s it. It’s why we do what we do.
It’s how we’re taking back our classrooms. It’s how we’re exchanging those number two pencils for hands on learning. It’s how we’re breaking the mold and how we want to help you break that mold in your own classroom and world.
What’s keeping you from scary work? What might get you fired? Run out of town? Encourage you to take risks? If you don’t know where to start, then contact us using the form listed on the About Us page. We want you to you be confident in changing your classroom and changing your world.
