Greetings from the Lou

Happy Tuesday, on Wednesday! I’ve spent the last few days in St. Louis at the EdPlus Innovate Conference, where I gave a keynote, hosted four workshops, gave a morning “drive time” pep talk, did two book signing sessions, and sat for four podcast interviews. (Special shout out to Hunter, Cohen, and Oliver, who I believe are the youngest podcast hosts in the country, and to podcast interviewer Chloe from Lindenwood University, who was one of the most present, attentive listeners and conversationalists I’ve ever met!)

More on my content next week. As Debussy reportedly observed, the music is the spaces between the notes, and this week there were learning riches for me in between the scheduled events. I had truly wonderful (especially after the workshop I co-hosted with Taylor on OSL’s Wonderful Fitness) conversations with dozens of conference attendees – thank you to Crystal and friends who kept showing up to OSL events, keep an eye on your inbox for grand slam badges arriving soon! – and EdPlus CEO Chris Gaines, Barnes & Noble ambassador of books Meaghan Harned, Marissa Geyer from Discovery Ed, hotel A/V ace Albert, and many others, each of whom had an amazing life story that informed the observations and insights they shared (that phrase reminded me of Kati and Tracy, sorry too many to name in these paragraphs, I’ll have to write more later!)… I agreed to provide a couple professional development programs and I may even write a curriculum to help a band of rowdy fifth graders figure out the United Nations.

(Note: those fifth graders are important, and they will have some work to do, because as I saw during my run [see below] and heard from Terrence and Lottie, St. Louis is also racially segregated and the real estate lines and Cardinals’ uniforms aren’t the only things that have people rightly seeing red.)

The busy schedule made some people wonder why I also: ran 14 miles from the host hotel at the airport through town to the Gateway Arch; went to the top of said arch and learned about everything from history, trade, architecture, and rosy boa snakes, courtesy of Jonah, the ranger who hangs out at the top of the arch when he’s not working as a herpetologist for the St. Louis zoo; played pinball, listened to punk rock, and ate Korean food at The Silver Ballroom; made a late night run to Donut Drive-In; sought out a Malaysian chef’s “love letter to his childhood”; spent time getting to know Lyft drivers Karim, Curtis, the other Curtis, Barraka, Willard, Lottie, Nia, Mustafa, and Ron; had about the most fun a person can have eating a sandwich at the Balkan Treat Box; hung out after hours for toasted ravioli with conference organizers Jonathan, Sherri, Kennedy, Christine, and fellow keynote speakers Taylor, Stephanie, and Roy; ate two orders at Ted Drewes; ate a whole pizza at Anthonino’s; listened to the Black and White band at the National Blues Museum; watched the St. Louis Blues beat the Seattle Kraken; and walked a couple miles from the game to sneak into Clementine’s two minutes before closing for a double scoop of gooey butter cake and maple bourbon ice cream with candied pecans.

I did these things, and curated some of them in the new and improved Open-Source Learning community (links and formal invitation coming next week!), because I am the apex predator of lead learning. I have a voracious appetite for life and learning, form and function, myth and fact, 500 tons of pressure on a tiny window at the top of a 630-foot high parabola whose only reason for existence is to symbolize an idea, and food as an expression of connection and love. I guess I buried the lede, because this is really what Open-Source Learning is all about. This energy is what I want to share. We are all aware of what’s going wrong in the world, and we aren’t going to fix it – or even survive it – by being passive. To be sure, the stuff I just listed is on the light side of tourism and life, but each represents a deep rabbit hole of humanity and wonder. Pointing my phone camera at a patch of snow under my feet and asking questions about how I observed my surroundings and what I saw proved to be a teachable moment; every breath you take (like the breaths I taught educators about in the OSL Physical Fitness workshop) can serve as a reflection, an opportunity, and a model for how the people and information we encounter every day can enrich our understanding of the world and our place in it.

I taught a lot in the last few days, and I learned even more. Thank you EdPlus and the wonderful people of St. Louis.

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Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

What I’m Reading –

At the conference this week I pointed out more than a few times that we don’t live or work in a vacuum. Our culture, our government, and our digital tools are moving the needle, and we have an obligation to move that needle too. During the year I lived in New Mexico and taught teachers at New Mexico Highlands University, I got to know the people and the schools that Dana Salvador describes in After All This – but what really resonates now is that Ms. Salvador is describing the dynamic in every classroom, everywhere:

“After twenty-five years as a teacher, I should know better than to enter into an escalated conversation with a middle school student. He stared coolly ahead as I slipped into lecture mode about his lack of motivation. Then he snapped, ‘Get the fuck out of my face.’ I told my sister, ‘If I’m shot tomorrow, I know which student it will be.’”

What I’m Reading (in my earbuds) –

On the plane today I’ll continue listening to Yuval Noah Harari’s NEXUS. At the conference I talked about the myth of a free information market – I don’t think more information necessarily leads to more truth or wisdom. In his opening chapters, Harari pointed out that humans have used information not to accurately map reality, but to connect with each other, and that we have created an “intersubjective reality” in which abstract ideas like corporate brands, currencies, and even different ideas about God exist in millions of minds. On my way to St. Louis I left off where Harari discussed how the printing press amplified an international witch hunt – but people didn’t buy first edition Copernicus (!). I’m curious to know what Harari will have to say about AI and Meta abandoning fact-checking…

What (Else) I’m Listening to –

The food at Balkan Treat Box was uh-mazing – that BREAD! – but it was the people that really made the experience. Anton made sure to tell me just how to hold the Döner with my thumbs so that it wouldn’t fall apart and I would have “music in my mouth.” I listened to Anton. As I followed his directions, the music continued – and… well, just have a quick listen to Max Pashm, Lulu Valse, or the Bulgarian Chicks and try to stay mad at anything.

Quote I’m pondering —

I ran away from home. I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States of America, because of that terror of discrimination, that horrible beast which paralyzes one's very soul and body.
– Josephine Baker
Man, I love coming home. St. Louis is actually hard to capture.
-Chingy

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