Edu Change & Student Advocacy

     Anyone in education should know that it’s hard work. In addition to the expectations, demands, versatility and creativity, there is supreme emotional strength needed to survive and be successful.      We’ve all heard over and over since our youth things about ‘hard work,’ ‘early bird gets the worm,’ and more. Like in all professions, there are those that deliver and those that don’t. In some ways, it’s really that simple.      What teachers and educators need to learn is to be a ‘hustler.’ That’s right. Learning and winning with students is a game. Those that learn to play the game, and play it well, will rise above any adversity thrown at them by government bureaucracies, students, parents, colleagues or other.      Again, educators need to become ‘hustlers.’ This doesn’t have to be the negative street connotation, but rather about those that learn that all systems can be mastered, legally and ethically, to...

     It might be hard to find something that has transformed the world more in the last decade than social media. Indeed, governments, corporations, organizations and social movements have been formed, or even transformed, through effective use and implementation of social media.      In education, as usual, we have been slow to understand and ultimately embrace effective uses of social media. Maybe it’s the word social that scares us from the beginning. We are all very aware of the negative activity, topics or images on social media. Indeed, it’s very reminiscent of the early concerns about the internet.      When the web was first available to the public, we heard lots of concerns related to everything from personal security to pornography. And even though those issues were and are real, we also soon realized the potential positive power of the Internet to transform business and economics, shopping, travel, communication and mo...