Uplift: Celebrating Some Positives
Finding Time to Appreciate the Good
In my experiences in both my personal and professional life, I sense a lot of time is given to complaining and expressing frustrations, worries, and disappointments. Now, there is certainly a place to vent, and being heard can do us a lot of good. However, I think we can also benefit from sharing successes.
I want to hear from you — What has been going well? What have you succeeded in?
In education, some innovative thinkers are pushing to focus on uplift: paying attention to what students do well to encourage flow and thus allow for creative exploration. Celebrating each other's successes makes everyone feel better. Paul Magnuson discussed how working in a team and doing well can generate this good feeling and argued that by focusing on what students do well, assessments can be used to figure out what’s next rather than compare students to a rubric.
I will be a bit self-indulgent and share three moments of uplift.
The Sublime and the Nothern Lights
First, I saw the Northern Lights. I am unsure when or how this became important, but it did. Last year, my partner and I traveled to Iceland, and while there was plenty of beauty there, we did not see the lights.
Earlier this month, we were in Norway. The trip was filled with beauty and good food, and we met many very nice and kind locals. Norway is a majestic place, and we saw the Northern Lights.
The photos make them look brighter, yet they are still incredible to behold. Seeing them was splendid.
Sandcastle
I have joined a group of educators on an initiative called Sandcastle. In short, this is an opportunity for teachers to work on professional development that is right for them. The group provides some structure, but most of all, support from other people interested in education.
It has been exciting to see educators who deeply care about their students and their craft embark on projects individually crafted to grow professionally. The group has responded really well, and most participants have made remarkable progress—so much so that we are planning a second cohort.
As part of this initiative, I am working on a project of my own that explores how schools can best support new international students in developing a sense of belonging.
Curing Crime
I am the team leader at Curing Crime, my main Substack project, and we got incredible recognition. David Webb’s most wonderful All About Psychology said the following:
In the past month, we not only reached 100 subscribers but also climbed to 140. It brings me great joy that readers are finding our articles interesting and valuable.
If you think you may be interested, we would love for you to subscribe.
Do not forget to comment and share your successes! It is important to lift each other. I would love to highlight some of them in a future newsletter.
Last but not least: