Spread the #edjoy

One of my favorite Twitter chats is #sunchat. It never fails to motivate me for the upcoming week. Even when conversations revolve around potentially depressing topics, like the move towards more standardization and high stakes testing, ultimately I still feel hopeful. There are just too many thoughtful people out there fighting for what is right in education. 

Two weeks ago was no exception. The initial question asked us to discuss the ways we help struggling colleagues. A thread evolved regarding the need to laugh. Perhaps, some of us wondered, the time had come to establish a new hashtag: #edjoy? Yes, we decided. It was. In order to articulate the need for this hashtag, a number of people helped create the Joy in Education Manifesto.

Lets face it, teaching is a tough, high-stress job, especially in the current climate when so many educators feel besieged. It is easy to forget to laugh with our students and colleagues, to chuckle when things go off the rails, to emphasize joy. 

#Edjoy is about reconnecting with what attracted us to teaching in the first place: the desire to keep learning while helping others reach their potential. #Edjoy is about reasserting ourselves in the conversation regarding what empowered learning looks like. #Edjoy is about reminding ourselves that it's one thing for those on the outside to enumerate the shortcomings in our education system, but quite another to dedicate oneself to offering solutions from within.

In short, #Edjoy is about educators sharing what they love about their profession and, in so doing, providing uplift for themselves and others.

So what's the upshot, you might be wondering? What am I supposed to do with this hashtag? There are ideas for a more organized, concerted effort at making #edjoy known. One possibility: a daily #edjoy tweet challenge for the month of November (the month of giving thanks). Another possibility: an #edjoy flash mob at some arranged day and time. Maybe we could even get the hashtag to trend.

For now, however, the point is to USE IT! Spread the #edjoy.

**Thanks for reading. If you would like be part of future action, tweet me at @sglass771 or leave your twitter handle as a comment below or list your twitter handle on the #edjoy activists list on the 2nd page of the Joy in Education Manifesto.

Writing Requires Craftsmanship

What's the problem with this building?

No craftsmanship!

It's strictly utilitarian with no sense of style or attention to detail. It’s built quickly. It’s built cheaply. It’s architecture that nobody cares about. With your writing, you don’t want to build ugly strip malls.

How can you insure that you are not building an ugly strip mall? How can you insure that you are building something meaningful?

Craftsmanship!

When you apply craftsmanship to anything that you are making, you are saying to yourself that what you are building matters--to you and, possibly, others. Craftsmanship requires dedication to, and thoughtful execution of, a plan. With regards to writing, this means:

Slow down: consider what you are saying and how you are saying it. You must reread your work. If you don’t understand what you are saying or are unmoved, your reader will feel the same way. Take time to consider language and sentence construction. At some point, you must be detailed oriented. Little mistakes with commas and apostrophes sneak by the best writers. Perfection is quite possibly unattainable. Still, clarity is key.

Be organized: As mentioned above, you should have a plan and you should stick to it, while allowing for flexibility. The point of writing is to follow ideas. You might find a new direction as you write. If it appears worthwhile, follow it. At the same time, go into a piece of writing with a clear, step-by-step understanding of what you want to build.

Be specific: Move past what is easily known, especially by you. It’s one thing to say “society is corrupt.” It’s another thing to say, “here’s an example of how corruption undermines the relationships upon which society is built.” And then write about something that is taking or has taken place. This is also crucial for the way you start. Make an honest attempt to open with something that gets you and your reader interested.



Writing well is tough. Somewhere along the way, I heard somebody compare writing to conducting an orchestra. Both are among the most difficult activities to pull off because the writer has so much to attend to: the ideas, the organization, the sentence level decisions. But it is also incredibly important to be able to communicate this way. You must want to be successful. You must want to build something worthwhile.