innovatED
  • Home
  • Contact
  • About the Author

innovated

It's About the People

10/5/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Several years ago, I was honored to give the commencement address at my alma mater. In preparing to address the attendees, I was struck with a sense of responsibility I had not previously considered to be associated with such a speech. I realized that I had been given the opportunity and responsibility to put the period at the end of a 13-year long educational upbringing. 

After considering all the important points, the challenging remarks, and motivational stories I could share, I lifted my head from desk and began to reflect on my time in the classroom as a student and on the remarks made at my graduation. My college basketball coach, Morris Michalski spoke at my high school graduation. I do not remember everything about it, but I have always remembered that he challenged us to hold on to the relationships we had, and to value the people in our lives. 

In my address, I shared that many of the most important lessons we learn in school are never assessed on a high stakes test.  They are not written in a text book, and they don't show up on our college applications. The lasting lessons (outside of a few academic components that really matter to us individually) are the ones associated with relationships with people. I can't recall many homework assignments I completed. I can't even remember many of the awards I won or the basketball games I played in. However, ask me who mattered and what people influenced my life during that time, and I don't even have to think. I regurgitate their name, the exact moment I knew that person cared about me or I cared about him/her, and I can probably tell you how we still keep in contact today. It may be a fellow classmate, a teacher, a coach, a mentor, a youth pastor, a neighborhood friend, a sibling, or a parent. My education, though standards aligned and research-based, was substantial and impactful because of the influence other people had on my life.

If you are in a position to interact with young people (and really, everyone is), remember that you have been blessed with an immense opportunity to make a difference in someone's life. I had high math scores because I was blessed with the genetic disposition to process numbers efficiently, but I have experienced success in life as a direct result of the impact other people have had on my life. I am forever thankful that my parents and my church exposed me to a vast array of individuals that still impact my life in meaningful ways. My challenge is to find someone and share the blessings that have been given to me.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Michael Stone

    Click here to read about the blog's author.

    My Links
    Volkswagen eLabs
    PEF Innovation Hub
    devX PD

    My Books

    Keynotes

    Cleveland Rotary Club
    Innovating Education Through Community Partners

    NEA Foundation The Promise of Public Ed
    Leveraging Teacher Leadership to Increase STEM Education

    US Senate Briefing
    The Need for a National Organizing Body of Digital Fabrication

    NACCE California Symposium
    Scaling Innovation through Partnerships

    Volkswagen eLab Ribbon Cutting
    Why Digital Fabrication can't be an Option

    NSTA STEM Leadership
    Developing, Incubating, and Implementing Public/Private Partnerships that Matter

    Chattanooga Fab Institute
    Revolutionizing Learning through Digital Fabrication

    HCDE Future Ready Institute Launch
    Developing PBL Units with Business Partners

    STEM Fellows Celebration
    Community Partnerships for Teacher Leadership

    TSIN Summit
    Scaling Innovation in Schools

    Remake Learning Days
    Dig Fab in the Community

    America Achieves
    Public/Private Partnerships Panel

    DigiFabCon Chicago
    Digital Fabrication in the Modern Classroom 

    Redesign for Student Success (San Diego)
    Scaling Innovation through Digital Fabrication

    GE Leadership Summit
    Leveraging Innovative Technologies for Learning
    ​
    Texas Open Innovation 

    Emerging Innovations in Education

    Indiana University
    Authentic PBL

    FFT Leading & Learning
    Boston, MA

    Connecting Global Ed

    ​reMake Education Summit
    Keynote

     National Governor's Asc.
    Coding with Governors

    US Dept of Education
    Round Table with Secretary John King

    TSIN Summit
    K-12 Pathways for CS

    Google Headquarters
    Ed Foo
    ​
    NASA Headquarters

    K-12 Education Panel
    ​​
    White House
    Reducing the Racial Gap in Computing

    Boston Museum of Science
    Teaching with Toys

    US Dept of Education
    MSP CS Proposition
    Tweets by @CoachStone12

    Archives

    October 2018
    December 2017
    April 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    July 2014
    April 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from IntelFreePress, Nina Matthews Photography, me_chris, 401(K) 2013, Guilherme Nicholas, .v1ctor Casale.
  • Home
  • Contact
  • About the Author