Newsletter Volume 4

2021. That feels so good to say. I don’t know about you, but Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb" has stuck with me. It's made me reflect on the challenges we face as a nation, as well as in education. “We still have a hill to climb,” she said and I know that the journey up that hill won’t be easy. This month, many educators returned to classrooms full of uncertainty (and if we’re keeping it real) a healthy dose of anxiety. Educators, parents, and students need our help more than ever. “Our efforts are unfinished” to say the least.

As we climb this hill, many of us carry intense grief. I personally can’t escape the loss of my father due to COVID. Many of us have lost so much, but as Amanda mentions in her poem, “as we grieved we grew."

We grow but we never forget. When people label 2021 as a "reset," it's triggering for me. A reset implies starting over, and that’s not what's happening. We’re building on what we’ve learned and what we will never forget. We owe that much to those we have lost and the hurdles we have yet to overcome.

While I don’t have all of the answers on how we will make it through all of this, I do know something about bravery. Faced with the most uncertain and challenging time of most of our lives, educators, parents, and students have all risen to the challenge. They rethought their entire way of working and learning, changed how schools run, prioritized what matters most, and even worked tirelessly to reach the most unreachable child.

This January, I’m seeing hope emerge more than ever. We just have to be “brave enough to see it and brave enough to be it.”

Be brave

P.S. Here’s a lesson plan from PBS to discuss Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb” and an excerpt from the entire poem for you to enjoy:

“We will rebuild, reconcile and recover

and every known nook of our nation and

every corner called our country,

our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,

battered and beautiful

When day comes we step out of the shade,

aflame and unafraid

The new dawn blooms as we free it

For there is always light,

if only we're brave enough to see it

If only we're brave enough to be it.”

Community-Building Workshops

It’s no secret that our team is passionate about building communities in education. In fact, we’ve built some of the biggest communities in education. Our new three-part workshop series provides a solid foundation of the theory and growth tactics, while leading you through the process of creating a community strategy framework. Reach out -- We plan to only take a few clients in each quarter in 2021.

EdTech Marketer's Q2 2021 Planner

A month has already passed in 2021! Did you create valuable, timely, and relevant content for your audience? If not, take a second to download this free planner. It includes events, holidays, famous birthdays, and conferences aligned with education and learning for every month in 2021.