Volume 29
I’ve been spending time in a hospital supporting one of my family members who unexpectedly fell ill. One day, while driving to the hospital, a flood of “shoulds” overcame me and brought me to tears. Suddenly, I was back in the hospital with my dad, remembering all the hospital moments I had with him as “shoulds.” I should have been a better advocate for him, I should have asked better questions, I should have spent more time, I should’ve known this or that…the list was endless.
I share this story because I know that October in education can also be full of “shoulds.” The month is known informally as “Shocktober” or “Rocktober” because teachers and admins either have things in place and are “rocking along,” or they’re “shocked” because things are not going as planned. There's high pressure to get things on track, which can fuel anxiety, burnout, and, yes... "shoulds." If you’re an educator, there’s a chance that you’ve experienced quite a bit of “shoulds” during this month. Veteran and new educators continue to struggle to motivate or engage their students. Some educators are blaming themselves and reflecting on what they “should” have done instead.
In EdTech, it’s also a very busy time of year. School is in full swing, so customer support and usage are up. At the same time, there are only two months left in the year to meet 2023 goals and plan for 2024. On top of all of that, unexpected challenges and projects seem to happen this month more than others. It can be chaotic, and I personally have had many conversations with team members about the power of learning through challenges instead of defaulting to “shoulds.”
The hard truth is no matter how many “shoulds” we put ourselves through, it won’t change anything. In fact, dwelling on the “shoulds” can just make things worse. So let’s give ourselves grace, and instead of blaming ourselves, reflect on everything we’re dealing with and maybe even pat ourselves on the back by acknowledging that we got through challenges the best we could.
The EdTech Marketer’s Planner
Our most popular download is out! Use this free planner to reach your brand awareness, engagement, leads, and revenue goals for 2024.
Marketing & Community
B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 - Content Marketing Institute
Social Media Scorecard Templates to Keep Your C-Suite Informed - Sprout Social
Community Data Mastery: How To Find The Data To Prove Your ROI - Feverbee
Exploitation is never a feature - How to People
Education
What Does a School Principal Do? An Explainer - Education Week
The FACTS Cycle for Prompt Engineering - John Spencer
Mistakes I Used to Make in Digital Accessibility—and How to Fix Them - Edutopia
Outdated Data on Chronic Absenteeism is Slowing Pandemic School Recovery - The 74
[Free Guide] PreK-12 Pilot and Procurement Cycle - RYE Consulting
Bonus resource: ISTE Research Study: Transforming Teacher Education
Some of the responses that made us laugh:
New pilot coming soon.
It’s raining. No recess.
Five dollars for Jeans.
Your Observation is TODAY.
You are moving classrooms.
No supply teacher available.
Your prep is canceled.
Director, Higher Education Communications - Whiteboard Advisors
Development Manager - ReadWorks
Online Tutor - Remind
Director of Product - News Literacy Project
Account Executive - CB&A
Designer, Leader Experiences - National Center on Education and the Economy
Manager of Technical Consultants - Follett School Solutions
K-12 Account Executive - Hire Education
Social Media Content Creator - CodeHS
Manager, Social Media - CodePath
Sales Development Representative - TalkingPoints
Associate Account Manager - Swivl
Sales Development Representative - KickUp, Inc.
Marketing Design Lead - Class Dojo
Product Manager - Reporting and Insights - BrainPOP
Follow Jeff Patterson on LinkedIn for more EdTech job openings.
[BONUS]
Our team at LCG wanted to dress up to celebrate Halloween, so our teammate Ariella walked us through how to use Zoom filters for the first time. The results:
Happy Halloween!