Lead. Learn. Change. podcast host David Reynolds reflects on the stories and lessons lifted from the first six episodes, sharing a couple of his own stories as well. David draws on his experiences as a classroom teacher, school administrator, grant writer and his work in professional development to encourage educators to recognize the value of their work and the potential they have to improve the lives of others. For any listener who is not an educator, please consider saying “thank you” to a teacher, coach, or mentor who made a difference in your life. David serves as the point person for the Impact Project at the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), one of the largest independent educator organizations in the United States. David has been happily married to his college sweetheart since 1981, and their only child is well on his way to becoming a physician. David and Debbie also have a wonderful daughter-in-law who is an amazing cook. David has bungee jumped, is a professionally amateur photographer, worked at KFC for one day, and occasionally threatens to write all of his business emails in haiku. Other amazing facts will be divulged over time.
H.O.M.E. is where the heart is (0:56)
Ebenezer Scrooge and public speaking (4:04)
Mr. Glenn, a bit of blood, and a second chance (5:10)
Thank a teacher! (12:38)
Joe’s success on the court (14:04)
Serving others (18:45)
Speaker 1: What matters most in learning? The challenge, the thrill, the benefits, interacting with other people or something else entirely? What is the connection between leading and learning? Does change drive learning or does learning drive change? What's more important, teaching or learning? Is everyone a leader, a learner, a teacher? Want answers? Listen in, as we address these intriguing issues through commentary and with guests who share their thinking and tell us their stories. Lead, learn, change.
HOME on the Podcast Cover Art for this installment of Lead, Learn, Change, stands for Host on Mike Episode. It's also intended to remind us that home is where the heart is. Where is your heart, your passion? What do you care about? What do you want to change? Who would you like to join you? That's where your heart is. That's your home. That is where you start the leading, the learning and the changing. Start at home, start with you, bond the others together. Make a difference.
Welcome to HOME, a Host on Mike Episode of Lead, Learn, Change. This podcast is only a few months old and we've already benefited greatly from the wisdom of our outstanding guests. I am David Reynolds, and I'd like to share a few thoughts with you, mostly in connection with what I have learned from a Hannah, Scott, Angelica, Howard, and Vilada. I believe, I know that the lessons they have picked up during their lives and careers absolutely apply to my work and to your work, whatever that work happens to be. When I talked with Scott and Vilada, both of them really emphasize the role that our own focus and efforts play in our work.
And they both discussed how we can use our natural talents and interests and passion to create clarity around our purpose so that we can make great things happen for others, which is exactly what Scott honed in on, when he talked about the difference between self-help and helping others. Vilada emphasized really strongly, the opportunities that we all have every day to make a difference in other's lives. She's actually doing that on the world stage with world leaders, setting political strategy, and she does this by adhering to her personal philosophy of choosing to be a Victor instead of a victim, and to opt for better over bitter. Scott's laser focus on being creative on purpose for a purpose to help others and Vilada's decision to never let a setback determine her trajectory, apply to my work and to your work, whatever we do, we can help others.
We can choose better in every situation. And in my view, one of the most high impact actions we can take is to convey this same approach to those with whom we interact. We do have opportunities every single day to make a difference. In one of the chapters of my upcoming book, I write about one's sphere of influence, regardless of the scope and reach is influence nonetheless. And you can, and you do make a difference. This is where teachers come in, making a difference. I have zero doubt that you can quickly recall the name of a teacher and the accompanying details of a profound learning experience or situation. I know I can think of a few. I think back for example, to fifth grade and my teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, she actually agreed to allow me to play Ebenezer Scrooge in the class performance during the Christmas season.
I was certain then, and I am more certain now that I was quite horrible in my role and I've never really acted since, yet somehow, just standing up in front of people and talking was a very significant milestone. I had always been terrified of doing that before that year and then that changed. Maybe if there's any shred of quality in these podcasts, I have Elizabeth Smith and or Charles Dickens to thank. I also remember Mrs. Barbara J. Fisher, a high school teacher who taught me everything I ever learned about photography. I learned how to create prints in a dark room, develop film, dabbled in special effects, and just have a different perspective, realizing that you could actually alter perception through the use of a lens and some filters. Of course, that's another topic altogether that also applies to every aspect of life. Also in high school, Tom Glenn, my industrial arts instructor, played a huge role in my learning and set me on a path that I'm still on today.
For those of you who are too young to remember those classes in high school, industrial arts means woodworking and drafting and basic electricity, machine shop and that sort of thing. Of course, drafting has given way to CAD or computer-aided drawing, but it was a mechanical drawing back then. I still use virtually everything I learned in Mr. Glen's class. One particular incident stands out, although it's not your typical learning experience. Let me preface this story by saying that I have had two accidents while woodworking, two in my lifetime. That's two more than that my goal, of course, but as neither incident was life-threatening, I'm willing to share this story with you today. Keep in mind, I've been working in woodworking environments since 1976. I still regularly design, rework and build furniture. I have a few projects underway right now. So two injuries for me and a grand total of zero for my students with the notable exception of Kevin B, and that was very minor.
But since there was blood involved, I think it counts. Two injuries in over 40 years, anyway, it was 11th grade. And the first of my two accidents was about to occur. Please note, both of these accidents were my own fault, so they weren't really accidents in the truest sense of the word as they were completely preventable, completely. I was working on a turning on a lathe and I was in the rough stages where the piece of wood is spinning at high speeds, while being supported by a spindle on the left and right ends. You position a tool rest to be within fractions of an inch of the front edge of the rotating spindle or a block of wood and a sharp chisel, a gouge or a ski or something like that, is moving back and forth across the tool rest to slowly chip off the edges of the piece of wood to turn it into it cylinder. While engaged in wood turning, the lathe operator periodically turns off the machine and waits for the spindle to come to a stop, to check the progress of the work.
And depending on the length of the stock, sometimes you move the tool rest left and right to maintain a consistent diameter across the length of the piece. Under no circumstances, should the lathe operator touch with his or her hand, the turning wood. I knew this, you know where this is going, don't you? Of course, you do. So moving on, as the spinning piece of wood was decelerating, I became impatient and I decided to get a headstart so that as soon as it stopped turning, I would be able to feel it for imperfections and where I needed to work next. So I hovered my hand right over the turning piece. I got too close, my left index finger was bumped by one edge of the wood, grabbed and brought down in between the tool rest and the turning wood very quickly. Needless to say, that hurt.
Of course, my reflexes kicked in and I quickly jerked my hand up and back towards myself and in doing so there was significant damage done to the tip of my finger. I looked at my finger and I have to admit I was a gast, but it wasn't really about the blood pouring from it. I was actually mortified that I would have to tell Mr. Glenn, what I had done. Mr. Glenn was helping another student as I approached him. And I think he probably saw the absence of color in my face. So he stopped the conversation and he turned to see me with one hand cupped under the other hand, catching the steady flow of red liquid. And he simply asked, "What did you do?" I explained and took the full blame, naturally. The subsequent visit to the doctor's office, which if you can believe I walked to from the school, it was right next door, included another interesting anecdote, but I'm not going to share that here today.
The point was, Mr. Glenn had taught me better. He helped me when I needed it. And he did not restrict me from completing my work when I returned to school. I finished each of the turnings and to this day, more than four decades later, my dad, when sitting at his desk, uses that chair that I made as part of that project. Mr. Glenn, and his response to my poor choice made a difference. And he allowed me to keep moving forward instead of viewing that gross error in my judgment as an insurmountable mistake. Students, learners of all ages need that type of protection from adverse consequences for what initially seems to be failure. In a safe learning environment, a wise teacher, like my friend, Phillip Brown, who assigned grades of either A, B or not yet, makes a huge difference for a student.
The goal of a learning and teaching exchange is for the student, the learner to be successful. The target should always be for every single student to grow and progress, learn, and ably demonstrate what he or she has learned. My thinking on this approach was, and is greatly influenced by the work of the late Dr. Phil Schlechty, that's spelled S-C-H-L-E-C-H-T-Y. If you're interested in reading some of his work, I encourage you to start with Working on the Work or Creating Great Schools or Engaging Students.
These are outstanding starting points if you want to wrap your head around why we should look at students as the most important customers that we serve in schools, why teachers should be viewed as leaders and administrators as leaders of leaders. And why engagement is essential to learning. Our research at the Professional Association of Georgia Educators or PAGE, where I now work, also affirms these same notions and supports the idea that creating the social and emotional conditions for learning is critical for engagement. Vilada and Scott clearly understand these concepts, even if we didn't all describe them using the exact same terminology.
Hannah Tally and Howard Mallets also highlighted the importance of personal responsibility and good decision-making and choices. And they did so in a way that really addressed the individual student. Hannah shared a story that parallel my experience with Mr. Glenn and my learning from Phil Schlechty, in that we both have intersected with people in our lives that turned on a light for us with regard to how we should do our work. Hannah was truly inspired by the authenticity of a leader that she heard speak, and she shifted the way that she interacted with her students thereafter and ever since. Howard shared a real moving story about a time when he had a conversation with a student, a student whose response prompted Howard to reflect even more deeply on the way he interacted with the young people that he serves. Both of these teachers, one public school and one private school, one from Georgia, and one from New Jersey, make it really clear how extremely important it is for students to have teachers who engage with students in ways that really matter.
To me, these stories simply highlight the truth of the statement, teachers matter. I'm sure you have a story about a teacher who made a difference in your life. Maybe it was a coach in sports, or maybe it was through private lessons or a family member, your mom, or your dad or someone else. Maybe it was an employer or a colleague. I'm not sure, but I know that teachers pop up in all sorts of places. People who choose to pursue this calling as a career and invest incredible amounts of emotional energy and time into creating the best learning experiences for dozens and hundreds and sometimes thousands of students, have an amazing aggregate impact on our culture. I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to thank a leader, a teacher like Hannah or Howard, or a coach like Scott or a colleague like Vilada.
Take the time to say thank you for a lesson that they've taught you. It will be time well spent. When I was teaching at a middle school, I served as a volunteer assistant coach for the boys' basketball team. We had a seventh grade team and an eighth grade team. Sure, the goal was to win games, but there's a lot more wrapped up inside team sports and coaching than wins and losses. There really are a lot of life lessons embedded in the daily practice, strategy, sportsmanship and cooperation of a game. Very few players who make the roster at the age of 12 or 13, end up playing in high school, fewer move on to college and even smaller sliver move on to the pros. So it's important to leverage coaching opportunities to their fullest. The head coach was a guy named Jeff and he and I agreed after tryouts to keep a certain eighth grader, I call him Joe, on the team.
Joe had never played organized ball before, would probably not play organized ball in a truly competitive environment again. And he did not possess Michael [Jordanesc 00:14:22] talents, but Joe had heart. He tried harder and pushed himself harder and wanted to learn and be a true team player more than anybody else we saw on tryouts. He absolutely did improve during the season, but he didn't really move up, so to speak, in relation to other guys on the team. But his attitude never changed. Always positive, always optimistic. We played two schedules, a seventh grade to eighth grade schedule. Before one seventh grade game, where both head coaches knew what the outcome would be, we were going to clobber the opposition and it was not going to be pretty. Jeff spoke with the other coach and asked if Joe could play, even though he was an eighth grader, there were many good reasons all the way around for this to happen, so it did.
Joe started the game. The first time he'd ever done that. And he even launched an at the buzzer half court shot to end the first half and he nailed it. And that moment was clearly one of the happiest of Joe's school experience. If Jeff did not know Joe's skillsets so well and if the other coach didn't appreciate the idea behind the request to step outside the normal rules and instead play to the spirit of the game, Joe would have never even had the chance to make that memory. I've heard my share of relatives who are reliving their four seconds of glory on the grid iron, diamond or stage and their school-age years. And now Joe has a story with which he can regale his friends and family. We still won the game. I have no idea what the score was, but I'm sure Joe knows.
And I know that the intangible asset of confidence increased exponentially for Joe that day, knowing the student and acting accordingly, it can create a life enriching experience. This is definitely the way that we make the greatest impact on people who we come alongside. Working with someone, sharing a meal, listening, especially listening, goes a long way toward catching a glimpse of what inspires, motivates and drives others. Anytime that we can align ourselves with people with similar principles and core values, even if our perspectives and our approaches are wildly different and we strive to help each other achieve a mutual aim, we should do so. Remember, it's not self-help, that's the most important it's helping others. Teachers do this all the time with many, many students who bring all sorts of issues, backgrounds, interests, dreams, and challenges to the classroom. And it goes both ways. Sometimes the teacher becomes a student.
I have a former student with whom I recently reconnected, who has a riveting life story. If he's willing to share that story with us in a future episode, you'll see why he made such an impression upon me, even when he was a 14 year old student in my class. The point for me is that had I not talked with him then, I would have never known about his background and knowing it really led me to think about other students thereafter. Howard said in his interview that when a student does something out of line or out of character, instead of getting angry, get curious. What a great idea, learning more about those we serve can make a huge difference.
Our other guest on Lead, Learn, Change was Angelica Riano. Her story can be heard in episodes two and three. While I'm certain you will or did find her story highly interesting and inspirational, to me, it was the way Angelica has used all of her experiences to craft her individual style of teaching and leading that leapt out. There has been great change in our cultural and political landscape during our nation's history. And right now, today is no different. And tomorrow it's also going to be the same, change is inevitable. We can complain about change. We can say the change is great, or we can study it. We can stand back and watch it happen. We can be swept along by it, or we can actually influence it. Great teachers do this all the time. Great teachers influence the future, one student, one interaction at a time. When I heard Angelica say that she's sometimes asked what she thinks about immigration, her response was so insightful.
In a nutshell, she said, and this is not verbatim, "I'm in the place that I am in. I am serving those who are in the same time and place with me and it's my responsibility and my obligation to do my absolute best to help each of those people achieve their absolute best." That's a great way to sum up the underlying premise behind the Lead, Learn, Change podcast. Change is a given. We can make the best of that change and we may be able to direct it. We can lead and we must learn in order to lead. And we have to learn about others and their perspectives and the why behind their what, how come they do what they do? We have to decide when we look at our own work and how we spend the currency of our lives, our time, who our work is intended to benefit.
And what is the benefit that we're looking for? Seth Godin poses these questions all the time. And they're extremely valid. If you are a teacher, stop and think, who is this work for? What is it for? The who is always an individual. Think about the Joe's that you serve. The what may be far more than the content or the skill. We've got to be clear about both. What do we know about Joe and all of the other whos that we work with and what is it that we need them to know, understand and be able to do? That's a lot to think about and the answer and how we each move forward with our answers can have a major impact for many people. We all have the opportunity to lead. We all have a platform from which to lead. We can all be teachers and learners, and we can all make a change.
I'm grateful for the guests that have contributed their time and their insights thus far. And I look forward to those who will do so in the future. I'm also grateful for the teachers that I've had from whom I've learned so much, whether it's Mr. Glenn or Ms. Fisher or Mr. Decency, who referred to me when he signed my high school yearbook as the George Mikan of the Intellectual Fastbreak, a hilarious [Barb 00:20:51] I have never forgotten. Look it up if you need some context. Or Dr. Raymond Cravens or Dr. Allie McGill or others, whom I have not yet met or may never meet. When wisdom is shared, it's a wonderful gift, with whom can you share some wisdom today? Who can you help? Think about your work, what's it for? What change do you want to see happen because of your work?
Who can you influence to make the answers to the other two questions a reality? Who can you serve, whose life could you help improve? When I recorded the first pass of this host on Mike Episode and listened to that draft, it sounded more like someone reading an obituary than anything else. So I redid it. I decided that you most assuredly did not need a spoken version of my resume, instead [inaudible 00:21:41] a story or two here and there might resonate and help you realize how valuable your work is and can be, your work matters. And if you are a teacher, your work matters in a most profound way. Thank you for all the work that you do.
Thanks for listening today. Podcast Cover Art is from Unsplash, by photographer, Simon Matzinger with the view of Altmunster am Traunsee, Austria, and the soundtrack is Sweet Adrenaline by Delicate Beats. You can reach podcast host David Reynolds at leadlearnchange@icloud.com. Follow us on Instagram at Lead.Learn.Change, and check out LinkedIn for podcast related posts. Find the Lead. Learn. Change. podcast on your search engine, iTunes, Google Podcasts, myTuner, or other listening app. Leave a rating, write a review, subscribe and share with others. In the meantime, go lead, go learn, go make a change, go.