Planting Seeds of Hope

---

I was greatly reminded about the importance of relationships in the work that we do, and that we never know the impact we may have on our student's lives. As the graphic above suggests no student is ever going to come back and tell you that some test changed their life...it just ain't going to happen. Heck, there were points in my career that I wondered if I was even making a difference in my student's lives; I would spend long hours prepping what I thought would be an AMAZING lesson, only to find it fall flat. I would wonder if my students even cared about the time and attention to details I was pouring into designing these learning experiences for them. It was quite frustrating, but I had to remind myself that relationships are the foundation for building and empowering students to take risks and reach their potential.

"The three most important words in education are relationships, relationships, relationships. Without them, we have nothing." - George Couros

A couple weeks ago, I was caught off guard when I received a Facebook Message from a former student of mine; I got a notification that said "Hey Mr. Jenkins! How have you been?" At first, I was wondering, wow this student actually wants to still talk to me; Jenkins is WINNING. I totally forgot that we had even added each-other to Facebook after he had graduated, and frankly I wasn't sure if he had gotten anything out of my classes or not. He was the type that seemed to have other things on his mind other than school.

I remember helping him think through his project in our entrepreneurship class, and he wanted to do something in music; the goal of the project was to start a business that could potentially make money, with the only other criteria of this new business venture being legal. I told him that even if the business failed, he would learn so much through the process of trying to start his own company. I'm not sure if he liked my answer because I was challenging him to take risk and venture into the unknown. I think what magnified the problem was that the music industry was radically changing due to advancements in technology, and the fact that the music industry in Hilo, Hawaii was not and is not fully developed; most of the questions and where to begin were not readily available to him; he was forced to put together a plan, and he did enough to pass the class.

Back to the FB Message from my former student, I asked him how he was doing and that I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him. He went on to say "Thank you for everything you did for me. You taught me a lot and you kept it REAL...Because of you, I now OWN my own music studio and I am making money at something I LOVE doing". I was completely BLOWN AWAY! This was a great reminder for me that relationships are crucial, and you NEVER know the impact you will make in someone's life. We as educators plant seeds of hope, and in time something beautiful will grow from it.

#InnovatorsMindset #GeorgeCouros #IMMOOC #reflections #relationships #plantingseeds