Explore new ideas from beyond your classroom, school, or district.
It's so easy to get wrapped up in our day-to-day jobs that we don't make time for the exploration of new ideas. But from a professional growth standpoint, learning from people outside of our own industry may be just what we need to breath new life into our day-to-day jobs.
As our CEO, Eileen Murphy, always says, "It's time to think courageously about how we can improve learning on scale." Every one of the 55 million students in the K-12 education system deserves that. To get there, we may need to look to other industries for inspiration. In fact, this idea was the catalyst behind our new Education + Entrepreneurship newsletter.
In the classroom, we encourage students to keep an open mind and to learn from peers who hold diverse opinions. Imagine the solutions we could develop for our students by exploring new ideas from a variety of sectors, from entrepreneurship, to design, to the arts.
A good place to start is by signing up for non-education newsletters. Here are five must-read newsletters that will inspire and encourage you.
- The Heretic - This semi-daily email written by Pascal Finette, entrepreneurship chair at Singularity University, features quick, 3-minute reads on topics ranging from focusing on problems that are worth solving to what it takes to change a company culture. What instructional leader can't relate to these ideas?
- UXDesign Weekly - We talk a lot at ThinkCERCA about being hyper-focused on the needs of our users: instructional leaders, teachers, and students. This philosophy extends beyond our literacy platform and into everything we do as a company. Instructional leaders can approach their jobs in a very similar way by being hyper-focused on the needs of teachers, students, and parents. This newsletter aggregates interesting articles from the user-experience world into one weekly email. A recent article they featured discussed approaching "feedback with a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset."
- Austin Kleon's Weekly Newsletter - "Every week I send out a list of 10 things I think are worth sharing — new art, writing, and interesting links straight to your inbox," says writer and artist Austin Kleon. Kleon's newsletter contains a mix of articles that can be applied to one's professional as well personal life. Ideas range from keeping a commonplace book to advice for a more creative, productive day.
- Seth Godin - For decades, Seth Godin has been a go-to source for entrepreneurs and marketers alike. A big proponent of authenticity, Godin tells it like it is. He's published 18 books on marketing best practices, innovation, and much more. His posts are quick reads that can easily be applied to other fields. Take, for example, Godin's thoughts on "showing up."
- Community.is - A self-proclaimed newsletter "for anyone who puts people at the center of their work," reads like it was designed with an educator in mind. Each newsletter features one short, medium, and long read, depending on how much time to invest at the moment. Last week's short read, a quote from civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson, was surprisingly applicable to education: "[Technology won't] replace offline work, offline organizing, or offline relationships, but enhance them and allow for more connection, a deeper connection, and a more sustained connection." We couldn't agree more. While ThinkCERCA is a web-based literacy platform, we strongly believe that the role of technology is to keep humans at the center of instruction.
Happy reading :)
Elizabeth Riley Boyer is an experienced journalist, digital content strategist, and operations manager. Prior to joining ThinkCERCA, she was part of the founding team at Impact Engine, Chicago’s first social impact investment fund and accelerator. As Impact Engine’s Director of Operations & Communications, Elizabeth oversaw the company’s overall processes, day-to-day planning and finances, curriculum development, marketing strategy, and community outreach.
Elizabeth also spent three years at Chicago magazine, most recently as its Digital Engagement Editor, where she managed the organization’s social media and reader engagement initiatives. Elizabeth also works as a freelance content strategist, writer, and communications consultant. Her recent writings on impact entrepreneurship have been featured by the Huffington Post and Crain’s Chicago Business.
In 2007, Elizabeth helped open a private school for underprivileged children while volunteering for a nonprofit organization in the Dominican Republic. This experience inspired her to quit a paper-pushing job at an insurance brokerage firm to pursue a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Elizabeth also holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.