Joyful Jubilant Learning

K12 Online Conference 2007

Halfway through the K12 Online Conference, I would be remiss if I did not share this link and tease you with some opportunities for learning.

With sessions like:

Learn to Blog: Blog to Learn

“Collaborative Concept Mapping - Breaking the Bounds of Location and Time… for $0.00 per Seat”

IInitiating and Sustaining Conversations: Assessment and Evaluation in the Age of Networked Learning

The web site is rich with links to media in multiple formats, a wiki, the base site is a blog.

Very well done... something we can learn from!

Enjoy!

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Steve Sherlock writes his 2 cent views on life from Franklin, MA. He explores the "good experience", "life long learning" and life in general, after handling the "before you blog" list his wonderful wife Dolores  provides him. Together they are enjoying the empty nest while their daughters are away at college.

The Study of Talent Creation

I find that October has delivered a study hall to me that I have often visited, but am newly enamored of: It is fascinating for me, and in my work-world of creating the aloha workplace, it is always timely. If there were a sign on the study hall door, it would say,

Creating Talent in Management and Leadership

A major catalyst in my stepping through that study hall door again, was my attending the Great Manager Program done by Gallup University this past Thursday and Friday. Within that program I was able to better understand my own talents as they are ranked from 1 through 34 in Donald Clifton's ground-breaking StrengthsFinder assessment. (More on this is within our JJL Project called Learn to Lead with Your Strengths).

While there, our Gallup coach showed me this issue of Fortune Magazine, featuring a special leadership report called How To Be A Great Leader. If the study of talent creation in management and leadership is something of interest to you, I highly recommend you click through to the Fortune archive and check out the links offered there (the print copy of the magazine was only to be displayed in newsstands through to October 8th).

On Managing with Aloha Coaching today, I explore one article in particular that zoomed into Kākou (inclusiveness), our value of the month: Kākou-Teaming could be the Talent Creation strategy we are looking for. An excerpt:

The current issue of Fortune Magazine highlights teaming as one of 9 to-do suggestions offered in an article by Geoff Colvin called, How top companies breed stars; The world's best companies realize that no matter what business they're in, their real business is building leaders. Here's how the champs do it.

Fortune has teamed with Hewitt, the world's largest human resources outsourcing and consulting firm, and RBL Group, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development, to conduct new research into the ways companies around the world are developing leaders and which are doing it best. ... These companies operate in every kind of industry and are based all over the world. But what's most striking are traits they share - specifically, nine practices that combine to create world-class leadership development.

1. Invest Time and Money
2. Identify Promising Leaders Early
3. Choose Assignments Strategically
4. Develop Leaders Within Their Current Jobs
5. Be Passionate About Feedback and Support
6. Develop Teams, Not Just Individuals
7. Exert Leadership Through Inspiration
8. Encourage Leaders To Be Active In Their Communities
9. Make Leadership Development Part of the Culture

Workplace demographics are changing, and the grooming of new talent is a hot topic everywhere. Even if you snagged a copy of this issue from the newsstand, I highly encourage you to check out the Fortune archives for more that did not make it to print. There is even an online quiz you can take, Are you a good leader?

I know that I will be in the study hall for a while if you want to talk story about it!
~ Rosa Say

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What sign is on the Study Hall doorway of other JJLers? Hmmm... Also in October thus far:

• The Beauty in Learning: JJL in Year Two, our community query: What do you want to learn more about?
  
• Learning to make it personal: the environment and you, by Joanna Young
• Law of Magnetism: Who You Are is Who You Attract, by Phil Gerbyshak

Making A Difference: A 5-Point Plan of Action

As of this weekend, our JJL September 2007 Forum draws to a close.

Or does it?

In September, we set our sights on these questions:

How has your learning already made a difference, or how do you know it will? What is the difference you are learning to make, and what are you doing to make it happen?

We received a variety of answers, and I have a challenge for you. Think of getting started with this as your JJL Weekend Project:

You have read much on what others think about making a difference. Others have shared their stories of learning, and their tales of doing. Now...
What will be the story you start to write for YOUR life today?

In one word, my challenge to you is HO‘OHANA. Weave in whatever inspirations you gained here over the last month into a plan of action whereby you can work with purpose, working directly on the difference you hope to make.

Most of my learning (and perhaps I’m not alone in this!) has not been from books, nor courses, but from Life itself.  Events that paint a picture.  Failures that teach me what not to do next time.  Successes that teach what works.  Conversations that  help me ‘join the dots’ and nurture new ideas. —Pete Aldin, the Great Circle Coach, in Anxiety Writes the Script

To the left, you will see that the Make A Difference compilation page link will remain parked under our Recurring Features heading. Here is a possible 5-Point Plan of JJL Action for you.

1. Choose a post or combination of them which truly resonated with you. In your heart, mind, and soul you know they called out to you because you can do what was spoken of or dreamed of: You know you can make it real. You know it will make a difference for you to make a personal resolution and follow through. If it makes a difference for others too, all the better, but you know you need to start with you first, and as Greg had said, BE the change.

2. Get specific: With that post as your catalyst, write a vision for where you will be with your intention-turned-action a year from now. What will be your best possible outcome? Articulate what it will look like, sound like, and feel like for you. Eventually I hope you will toot sweetly, but for now, tell yourself.

3. Plan concrete actions: Brainstorm a list of possible actions you can take to arrive at your vision step by step, action by action. Then, give yourself a time table and pattern to follow with diligence, perhaps weekly (maximum effect) monthly (also good in theming – like Joanna does with her writing ingredients, and as I do with values) or quarterly (can be best when you enroll a team in your plan, but individually you are better off with weekly or monthly patterns).

4. Now go back to the post which inspired you, and Enroll us in your goals. Jump into the conversation there and get the author to mentor you. We keep our comments open here, and no matter how far these posts drop into the archives, the author who had penned that post gets an immediate email notification when any comment is made.

Connect with them. Subscribe to the RSS feeds or email alerts on their own blogs, for chances are you will find strong connections there to whatever they may have written about here. Notice that I purposely coached you in 1.,2., and 3. to do your own draft first: that prep is important if you are to raise the level of conversation with your chosen mentor, and not simply agree with them – this is your plan, not theirs. They are here to help support and coach you.

5. Now Do it. Work your plan, and Make your difference. Keep your plan ever present in mind so you can be alert to possible High Quality Interactions that connect with it. Then next September, when our forum rolls around again, grab our invitation to post and take the next step – share your lessons learned, and you will inspire; you be the next mentor. You’ll be ready to make bigger differences in waves that enlarge your circle of influence, becoming the pebble that creates the ripples in the pond.

How Smiles and Thank Yous Make a Difference

Take a look at the image on the left - how do you feel when you see it?   Better still, how do you feel when you caused that big grin?

In my role as a business leader, I believe I'm making a difference when my teammates smile a lot, and when they use the two most beautiful words in the English language - "Thank You".     That may seem too simple for some, but it's not for me. 

While getting desired business results is a worthy goal and I certainly get a lot of satisfaction from that, I'm looking for something more - a work environment where all involved thrive, truly enjoy their work, and find fulfillment from it.

I measure that by smiles and thank yous. When I'm up in front of a group of teammates and I talk about putting "more cowbell" into the business while showing the absolutely hilarious SNL video, or breaking out into song to praise another group for achieving a milestone, you bet I'm shooting for smiles as well as point making.  Joy is infectious, and can inject a palpable energy into what in other circumstances could be a rote and boring business task or process.

If a teammate goes out of their way to thank me for listening to their concerns, or for praising them, or for offering good advice, I know I've made a difference with that person.

These are little moments that can often be missed, ignored or quickly forgotten because of the  pressures and distractions that can occur in a fast-paced business environment.  But I've really tried to discipline myself to notice and appreciate them, for I've come to rely upon that feedback as to whether or not I'm hitting my target.

That target of teammate job satisfaction has only increased in importance to me as my career has progressed, because I have seen time and time again what it produces - real business success.   This has been a great learning experience for me.

To put it another way, to me those smiles and thank yous have become a true "leading indicator" of those tangible and measurable bottom line results that can be found on a balance sheet or an income statement.

And this difference making is personally rewarding, because I simply love what I do and I would like nothing more to have all my teammates feel the same way.

Try to generate a few of these smiley faces in the workplace and you'll see what I mean.  Oh, and maybe you'll smile a lot more yourself!

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Terry Starbucker is an operations executive for a service company who lives in Connecticut, loves business trips to the Rocky Mountain west, and posts his musings and observations about "the optimistic side of the daily grind" in Ramblings from a Glass Half Full. 

Learning to Teach with Humility

If humility is greatness, great teaching is teaching with humility.

Developing humble hearts does not come naturally, quickly, easily or automatically. Humility requires discipline. Humility starts at the bottom. It is a position that is always situated underneath, supportive. To parent with humility means that we support our children, get underneath them, stabilize them. It does not mean that we support anything they want to do; that is neglecting the shepherd role of parenting. A healthy marriage demands humility! Again, it's the supportive positioning of each mate.

In education, I have come to learn these things:

• Humility is neither understood or admired in many cultures. Having spent eleven years in Asia I came to understand the significance of "saving face." When this was not possible, some did the "honorable" thing of committing suicide.
• We appreciate seeing it in others but rarely seek it for ourselves. We don't want to pay the price associated to developing this discipline. Humbling ourselves before our students or colleagues - that's courageous!
• Humility is not the result of having a low self-esteem. Remember the Reagan story? That simple act of humility communicated strength of character. Actually, the teacher who teaches with humility demonstrates strength and inner security.
• Humility starts at the bottom. Giving up (you fill in the word) for the sake of another is most difficult. Helping others succeed, being supportive of others efforts, demonstrates humility. Humble teachers pay a great price to see their children succeed.
• Teaching with humility demonstrates a heart of gratitude.

About Robert E. Lee, Douglas Southall Freeman writes:

Of humility and submission was born a spirit of self-denial that prepared him for the hardships of the war and, still more, for the dark destitution that followed it. This self-denial was, in some sense, the spiritual counterpart of the social self-control his mother had inculcated in his boyhood days, and it grew in power throughout his life. He loved the luxury that wealth commanded. Had he been as rich as his Grandfather Carter, he would have lived in a style as hospitable. Fine horses and handsome clothes and lavish entertainments would have been his; Arlington would have been adorned, and his daughters would have enjoyed travel and the richest comfort. But Arlington was confiscated, its treasures were scattered, each stage of his sacrifice for the South brought him lower and lower in fortune until he was living in a borrowed tenant house and his wife was husbanding the scraps from a pair of trousers a farmer's wife had made for him. His own misfortunes typified the fate of the Confederacy and of its adherents. Through it all, his spirit of self-denial met every demand upon it, and even after he went to Washington College and had an income on which he could live easily, he continued to deny himself as an example to his people. Had his life been epitomized in one sentence of the Book he read so often, it would have been in the words, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." And if one, only one, of all the myriad incidents of his stirring life had to be selected to typify its message, as a man, to the young Americans who stood in hushed awe that rainy October morning as their parents wept at the passing of the Southern Arthur, who would hesitate in selecting that incident? It occurred in Northern Virginia, probably on his last visit there. A young mother brought her baby to him to be blessed. He took the infant in his arms and looked at it and then at her and slowly said, "Teach him he must deny himself."

Did you notice the last sentence where teach and deny are connected?

~ Dean Boyer

Learning From Mistakes the Half-Full Way: A 4 Step Approach

As someone who is always trying to "deal with the literal world in a positive way", I have come to really appreciate the mistakes I've made (and there have been plenty).   

Now I'm sure your reaction to that is - "appreciate mistakes??" Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

In my half-full world, the ability to take positive things out of the errors I make is critical to making my life's journey a fulfilling one (and, in a more "ground level" way, my business career a successful one).  I've found that there are four important steps I need to make to leverage those mistakes properly:

1. Acknowledgment
2. Correction
3. Learning
4. Rear View Mirror

Let's take a closer look at these steps - first, there's acknowledgment.   The simple admission, to others and most importantly to yourself, that you made a mistake.

I remember back in 1999 and 2000 when I thought I was the best stock day trader in the world. I had an E-trade account and was wheeling and dealing like a Wall Street pro - or so I thought.   When the tech bubble burst around that time I refused to believe I had erred by taking so many positions in risky dot-com companies.   I didn't bail out in time because I didn't acknowledge my mistake. I was too proud to admit that day trading was something I shouldn't be doing. I learned a valuable lesson from this - you have to have the self-awareness to know when you've made an error.

Next comes correction.   After you've admitted a mistake it needs to be fixed.   This one is most important in my business world.   We provide a service, and sometimes we don't get it right the first time.   We have to quickly respond and get the customer happy.   There's a great silver lining to this, one that really contributes to the ultimate benefit of errors - it's a documented fact that a customer who had a bad experience but it was fixed to their satisfaction is much more likely to be a loyal customer than someone who never had a problem.   

Talk about making lemonade out of lemons!  So once you know you've gone wrong, correct it as soon as you can.

Then there's the learning that comes from mistakes.   This always reminds me of that great saying "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" by George Santayana.  The lessons I've taken from my errors have been without a doubt the most valuable learnings of my life.

The biggest mistake I've made in my career, for example, was to decide to make a cross-country move to work for someone I was just not compatible with from a leader/manager standpoint.   I've written in my blog about how I had to pull myself out of that situation to get my "mojo" back, but the other thing I took away from it were two great lessons -  I was never going to put myself in that kind of work situation again, and better still, because of the mistake I now knew exactly the kind of leader I wanted to be and the kind of business environment I wanted to be in.

Yes, we have to learn from those mistakes we make, or we will indeed repeat them.

Lastly, while we need to take the time to reflect on the lessons from our mistakes, once that is done and we've absorbed the learning, we must let the mistake itself go, or what I call "put it in the rear view mirror".  Why?  because if we don't we can become paralyzed because of the fear of making another mistake.  This isn't the easiest thing to do sometimes - there have been occasions for me where I would be poised to do something and all of a sudden the memory of a past error (and its consequences) would flash in my head, and I would hesitate.   Most of the time I can stifle it, but there are still occasions when I can't.

But I try to learn from that too - it's a constant and consistent desire that keeps driving me forward.  I need to learn. I HAVE to learn.

I hope that this 4-step approach that's come from my life experiences can help you with your learning too, and as you use them, be joyful, jubilant and brave!

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Terry Starbucker is an operations executive for a service company who lives in Connecticut, loves business trips to the Rocky Mountain west, and posts his musings and observations about "the optimistic side of the daily grind" in Ramblings from a Glass Half Full. 

Simplify and celebrate!

Complicated living, busyness, is an enemy wherever it goes and against whatever it touches. But, there is another enemy...envy. I can be overly conscious of the excellence in my colleagues and friends that I begin to envy them. And, when that happens, I lose my contentment. Ponder these two quotes:

"Envying others devours us most of all." (Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered." (Aeschylus)

So, I am challenged! If I am to live and grow more deeply, I must reorder my private world, step out of the traffic, slow the pace AND stop the envy. I wish others could help me with this - but, it's my own journey. I can't help you either - it's your journey. I do not believe it is possible to become a person of depth without dealing with this discipline.

What do I need to unlearn? My initial answer is "everything!" But, to make it more practical and manageable, I will seek to unlearn:

• the many ways I complicate my life by consciously approaching my schedule, tasks, accomplishments and commitments with simplicity
• envy of others by deliberately celebrating the excellence in others and in myself

Teachers, we're almost to the middle of August. In North America, some are starting school now and others in a couple of weeks. As you approach this new year, simplify everything you do. Scrutinize your rules and simplify them. Evaluate your plans and lessons and simplify them. Celebrate your colleagues' excellence by noting specific examples and telling them what you see.

I think this enough for today, don't you? As I said, these decisions and disciplines will never be realized automatically, naturally, easily or quickly. But, we can take at least one step today!

~ Dean Boyer

UnLearn Trying to Motivate: Speak to Teach

Although I know they mean it as a compliment, it has always made me a bit uncomfortable when people call me a “motivational speaker.” It’s not the speaking, for that I love, and speaking to an audience is one of my most favorite things to do.

The discomfort stems from my belief that motivation is an inside job; one person may be able to inspire another, connecting them with their own inner spirit (to me, inspire = in spirit), however, everyone must motivate themselves toward the action that will make a difference for them. I do not believe you can “motivate” someone who is not self-motivated.

I have just begun to read The Difference Maker, Making Your Attitude your Greatest Asset by John C. Maxwell (thank you Dean!), and in the second paragraph of the very first page he writes,

“I do a lot of professional speaking. Each year I communicate at live events to 250,000 people. And I do believe in motivating others. However, I don’t think of myself as a motivational speaker. That may seem like a technicality, but here’s the difference: A motivational speaker makes you feel good, but the next day you’re not sure why. A motivational teacher also makes you feel good, but the next day you possess something that will actually help you.” ~ John C. Maxwell

I like that.

I know we have several readers who aspire to be speakers, or already are (including most of our contributing authors). When you speak, what are you teaching, giving every person in the audience something that “will actually help” them the next day or in the very next moment? Do you move them toward affirming action? In my speeches, I have said, “This is what I ask you to do; …” and I must make sure that before I say that, I have given my audience something which has taught them how.

What do you learn from your audience when you speak? Can you gauge where you leave them, so that your next speech does a better job with effective teaching?

In the spirit of Dean’s August challenge for us, unlearn trying to motivate: Speak to teach, and teach well. I can definitely improve with this, and it’s going on my list!
~ Rosa Say

From the JJL Archives: Tim Draayer, author of Live Your Best Life, had previously reviewed The Difference Maker for us in A Love Affair with Books 2007 this past March: A Management Problem, The Difference Maker.

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Post author Rosa Say speaks on topics that are part of her work’s mission, helping others live, work, manage and lead with aloha. She coaches online within her Value your Month, Value your Life program at Managing with Aloha Coaching. Add it to your feed reader!

Learning to Teach by Slowing the Pace

There is nothing like depth to make us dissatisfied with shallowness. Through the month of August, I hope that each of us will decide to become deeper people and acquire and implement the disciplines necessary. Specifically, as educators prepare for a new year, it is my desire that we become in character and live out in our teaching the depths we desire for us and our students, staff and parents.

One of the first things people who are growing deeply do is prioritize their lives around what is most important which often involves with the process of simplifying and uncluttering. Remember, it is our tendency to complicate not simplify. To chose simplicity is the harder choice and will require continual diligence.

The decision for simplicity is a prerequisite for the next decision, silence and solitude. In the business of education, which is an ultimate people business, there is no time for silence let alone solitude. The teacher will not find it at school. Therefore, to take this step will take planning. Perhaps the weekend will offer a time for silence and solitude. I have found that even when I find the time, it is extremely difficult to silence my heart and mind. Perhaps this is an indication that I desperately need it.

Taking this decision seriously has required me to take personal days to be away from home and office. I have encouraged my staff to consider using personal days for this retreat. My longest time was when my oldest son went to college. I flew to the Big Island to be with him during his first week; he really did not need me at all. So, I used each day to work through some of these decisions and disciplines being discussed. This was eleven years ago and I am still working on them! Whatever you need to do to find silence and solitude, do it!

The discipline to make this happen is slowing the pace. The more disciplined you are with your pace of life, the greater the benefits of times of silence and solitude. Teachers, slow the pace of the day with your students. Utilize simple organization strategies to help students make transitions. One of the benefits of some block schedules is this very issue. With a typical seven or eight period day, students are having to quickly transition seven to nine times in six to seven hours! No wonder we have adults who don't know how to relax!

A well-known college professor encourages his students to read less and think more; this means, read less material before reflecting on it. For him, he reads one or two pages and then writes summary thoughts and reflections at the top of the pages. He finds that he actually saves time because he has no need to reread material.

This week, decide to schedule time for silence and solitude. Discipline yourself by slowing the pace. Teachers, build into your lesson plans time for students to reflect and think. Don't expect to succeed right away. Just keep at it! The rewards will be innumerable!

Learning to Teach Simply

First, I must decide to develop intimacy by learning to live deeply and by unlearning habits of selfishness and superficiality. I must spend much less time and energy pursuing bigger and better when it interferes with growing and living deeply.

Next, I must decide to live simply by unlearning the habits associated to unnecessary complication. No one complicates my life - only I do! And everything around me works against attempts to reorder my life when I decide to live in simplicity.

Our culture says, "Enough is never enough! Relaxing the tension is not an option!" Why have we chosen to live our lives with an "intolerable scramble of panting feverishness" (Thomas Kelly)?

I saw this most dramatically when my family and I lived in Asia. Students in Chinese schools spent the day in school followed by night school until late at night. To them, this pace of life was honoring to their families. About the time our Asian adventure began, Time magazine focused an edition on life's stress causes. The top three were crowds, noise and pace of life. When I read this, I laughed and laughed. My family and I were trying to learn a new culture, language, lifestyle, climate...we were stressed out! We were living in a culture of crowds, noise and trying to keep up to a fast pace of life! What was comforting to the nationals was not comforting to us.This tendency to complicate life is not cultural, though. And, it is not limited to special occupations. Sadly, this prevailing thought can also be found in the classroom.  Children are already stressed and being pushed more and more.

So, how do teachers learn to simplify their teaching, to teach simply? The first step is a decision followed by discipline to apply.

• Decision: reorder life/lessons around what is truly important
• Discipline: simplicity and contentment

In education, what is truly important? Students! Students! Students! There is a great difference between teaching subjects and teaching students. When students are most important, lessons are suited to their aptitudes and interests. Lessons are engaging and encourage exploration. Simply said, the teacher sets the table with a simple meal and encourages the children to eat!

As you look forward to this new year, consider carefully how to reorder your life and lessons around your students. Simplify! And, teach your students the joy of contentment by your words and actions. I am not suggesting that you settle for anything less but that you embrace every minute and process and accomplishment for what it is rather than pointing out what it is not.

Learning to Teach Intimately

Personal Note: My wife and I returned from a short vacation today; if you are in the Pacific Northwest, check out Alderbrook Resort. It is wonderful in every way! It is our favorite place to retreat. And, thank you for sharing your encouraging concerns for our son. He has to wear a heart monitor for a month. Perhaps the doctors will know more after more evaluation.

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Since 1996, I have read through a small book which has served to realign my thoughts and intentions as I enter a new school year. When it was originally published, there were four decisions and disciplines to be made and enacted; now there are more. Each has so much to say about "unlearning", which is the focus for the August Rapid Fire Learning segment. And, as I recently wrote, I want to dedicate some of my thoughts to educators preparing for a new school year.

In a synopsis form, here are the focuses:

INTIMACY: Deepening Our Lives
SIMPLICITY: Uncluttering Our Minds
SILENCE and SOLITUDE: Slowing Our Pace
SURRENDER: Releasing Our Grip
PRAYER: Calling Out
HUMILITY: Bowing Low
SELF CONTROL: Holding Back
SACRIFICE: Giving Over

Some of these might resonate with you as they do with me. Having studied them for the past decade, I find myself needing to restart again, for the 11th time! This time, in addition to the decision and discipline associated with each, I want to consider if there is anything I need to unlearn. Perhaps I would have made more progress in each if I had unlearned some things.

Teaching with Aloha is a very intimate process. For it to be true teaching, not mind to mind but heart to heart, there must be intimacy. Wikipedia defines "intimacy" in this way:

Intimacy is linked with feelings of closeness, safety, trust and transparency among partners in a collaborative relationship. For intimacy to be sustainable and nourishing it also requires trust, transparency and rituals of connection. It is possible to compete over intimacy but that is likely to be self-defeating. Intimacy requires empathy - the ability to stand in the other's shoes.

Oh, for teachers who provide closeness, safety, trust and wise transparency! Yahoo! to you who truly connect with your students' lives, in and out of the classroom! Thank you for being empathetic with your students and their families; thank you for every attempt you make to stand in your students' shoes. Another way of defining intimacy is with "into-me-see".

For this relationship to become possible, I have found that the teacher must make a decision to personally live at the deepest level possible. Our schools don't need more talented teachers or creative administrators. What our schools need today are deep people! Richard Foster said, "Superficiality is the curse of our age!" It is also the curse of education. I realize we might not reach every student or family but may the potential limitations never keep us from courageously living, teaching and administering from depth of life!

What must I unlearn for this intimacy to develop and be expressed? This year, I believe I must unlearn living for myself. I must unlearn myopia! As I enter this new year, may my focus be on living as deeply as I possibly can and sharing myself as intimately as possible.

Perhaps you are reading this and thinking, "My goodness, this is heavy stuff!" Well, I am passionate about developing the hearts of educators. I believe it is a matter of life and death! Every person has had influential teachers. Adolf Hitler, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham and Bill Gates had teachers who influenced them. Who will our children become? Someone said, you can count the seeds in an apple but you can't count the apples in a seed! May every lesson you present this year be a seed which produces the richest fruit!