This upcoming Thursday, I’m giving a keynote address and the Minnesota teachers’ union annual conference. The title of my talk is So! How are the adults?
It’s an honor to be asked to speak and I’m looking forward to it. But when they hand you a mic and give you an audience, you’re given also the challenge of saying something worthy of the invite itself. For the most part, my public speaking events are marked by polite suggestions. For some reason, I feel like be a little rowdy. Or boisterous. Sometimes you want to rattle cages.
Here are the themes I think I’ll explore:
1. Opportunities we lose or use everyday to take care of ourselves as individuals or each other as colleagues.
2. Absolutes we should carry in our behavior toward others. There is a right and a wrong to how we work with others.
3. Grounding the experience of working in schools in the reasons we chose this profession in the first place.
I’m feeling the most recalcitrant about item #2. I was in Omaha, NE last week working with administrators and teachers for a couple of days in a series of workshops. We got sort of riled up, in the good way. At one point in our discussion, something became very clear: there’s no excuse and no wiggle room about adults actually making each other’s jobs harder. Period. End of story.
That session propelled me to want to grab my address on Thursday by the ears and really give it a shake.
I have 3 days to prepare my thoughts. I’d love to hear from any of you who might have something to say about the strands I’m considering.
Post new comment