As so often happens when I am reading a book or participating in a Twitter chat, my mind begins to reflect on what I am learning. One evening, when participating in @plearnchat, I was humbled to know I would receive the book, “How to Personalize Learning” by Barbara Bray @bbray27 and Kathleen McClaskey – @khmmc (2017). When the book arrived yesterday, I was thrilled to crack open the cover and begin a learning journey. This coupled with joining the conversation in #sunchat about social media caused me to reflect about our learners.

During twenty-six years of being a principal I observed many classrooms. During my last year I tried my best to meet my goal of visiting every classroom each day – if only for a few minutes. It was my favorite part of the day! What I realized this morning, during my reflection, was that classrooms that were based on learners having intrinsic motivation to succeed were filled with happiness, joy and laughter. This is not to say that when the focus was extrinsic motivation these emotions weren’t observed; just not with the same intensity or frequency. If you believe this to be true, what increased value does intrinsic motivation hold? Are you curious enough about days being filled with positive emotions that you would like to walk from classroom to classroom in your building to see if this is true?

The concept of #observeme (graphic below) would encourage educators to visit each other and begin these types of conversations. Focus on what the learners are doing. I would add to observe the faces of learners and what is heard as the teacher weaves his/her magic.

Educators can learn the most from collaborating with each other as they are the true experts.