#C4C15: Teachers as Technology Trailblazers: Drawing the Line Between Success and Mastery #ASCD15

Kristen Swanson models reflection better than almost anyone else I know.

I find myself trying to rationalize this journey all of the time. But, it isn’t that I need a better answer to why I engage in community the way that I do, but rather it is that I need a better answer to why I need the community at all. 

I think we might need to admit that we NEED the journey because we aren’t satisfied with sitting still. We need the community because those constantly around us aren’t capable of pushing us in the ways that those outside of our immediate sphere of influence can. It isn’t that we can’t be satisfied with family and our “day jobs”. Instead, it is that our family and those around us are enriched by the journey and the larger community. 

It is hard when others can’t see this, but I always come back to the most common question I get whenever I speak about something in which I am passionate: “How do you know all this stuff?” The only answer to that question is by writing and connecting on my blog or reaching out to others and responding to what they have to say. We are pursuing mastery because that is the process of learning. It is all that we know how to do. The moment we stop learning is the moment we become irrelevant. 

Teachers as Technology Trailblazers: Drawing the Line Between Success and Mastery #ASCD15.