Yesterday, I shared Simon Sinek’s company rules. I got really great feedback from my friend Audrey – a fabulous teacher in Yokohama. Of her own teaching and classroom environment, Audrey described her ‘rules’:
As for me and my own teaching, “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy, and look for connections” always works! ~ Audrey Brown
On Twitter I follow @sethsaid – a tweeter who tweets Seth Godin quotes (ahhh…music to my ears!). This morning’s tweet, I turned into the picture above (thanks also to Creative Commons and Shankar Shiv for the photo). I liked it for it’s simplicity (the quote and the photo) and it also made me think of my response to Audrey’s comment:
I love your ideas Audrey! I think all teachers could come up with a pretty cool list for themselves – and then to see what the kids come up with….wouldn’t it be interesting to make your own list as a teacher but not show the kids and then a couple of months into the year, show them Simon’s example and ask them what they think the list would look like for their class. It would be interesting to compare. As teachers, we would know that if they said “Have the right answer, always look good, listen to the teacher” that we might have some work to do. That sounds like the best sort of ‘appraisal system’ I have heard of: comparing if what we say we do and believe in actually matches what we really do.
A little random and wordy but I think you get the idea – do we practice what we preach?
Then comes in Seth.
Can we present who we are and our position on education in eight words or less? Audrey can (with a little tweaking of ‘look for connections’ to ‘make connections’) and as someone who has seen her in action, I can attest that hanging her sign in the window would be an authentic reflection of her practice as a teacher. Now I just have to figure out my position! What’s yours?
sonya terborg 
Fun! But Sonya, of course you must know that I have stolen my position from Ms. Frizzle of the Magic School bus! It is an amalgamation of two of her most quoted lines, “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy” with “Look for connections.”
The “make mistakes” part is probably my most revered part of this quote and something that I hope I convey positively to my students in the way I teach. I remember going to a particular classical concert in Japan that catered to a young audience. At the end of the concert, children could ask the conductor questions. One child asked, “Do you ever make mistakes?” to which he answered: “I always make mistakes and I made some today.” He then explained how his orchestra works with and around his mistakes. It was a very powerful message and I always start the school year sharing this story with my students.
I missed the MSB connection – clearly I need to read some more Frizzle! I love your conductor story. Perhaps if we (teachers collectively) reinforce this more, the kids might start to believe us!