Sometimes Good Enough has to be Good Enough

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Personal 0 Comment

Do you ever settle for “good enough”? On the surface, it sounds bad. It sounds like you aren’t giving your all. Particularly in education when we have mantras like “Whatever it takes”, “All means all” and “no child left behind”. These are daunting phrases meant to evoke seriousness and urgency. As educators, we have a sacred duty to serve children and we take the responsibility very seriously. Our work isn’t trivial. Still, the truth is, the truth that we don’t talk about often enough in education and other vocations is that to be successful and thrive, we have to accept that for some things and some tasks good enough is good enough.

As an educator, you never are done. If you devote 80 hours a week to your job, you can still find things to work on, improve on, or tweak. We all have limits and depending on your personality or time of life, those limits differ for different folks. My 14 years as a classroom teacher taught me that there would never be enough time to do everything the way I wanted. I made choices. It meant that some days, heaven forbid, my students did a worksheet. Sometimes in PE, I just let them play. Sometimes I spent hours planning a PBL experience knowing that it would allow me time in the future given there might be less planning once the project got started.

I currently have 3 beautiful grandchildren who live near me and I want to spend time with them and they want me to spend time with them too. I have the luxury of some flexibility in my day. If they ask me to go for a walk, I’ll work to make that happen. I also will take time for myself as well. They won’t be at this amazing age for long. I’m not wasting this time. It means I have to be very intentional about my work. Prioritizing things makes me more productive for my job. I’m more focused and energized and produce high-quality work. And yet there are times when I make choices to say “good enough”.

Generative AI has helped me with this. Design work can get to “good enough” more quickly, allowing me to spend time making it way better than good enough in the same amount of time. Other times, it’s getting me to a place of good enough faster and I can spend time doing other things. Sometimes those “other things” are not work-related.

My job is still an endless list of tasks and time that could be spent making everything better just like my days as a classroom teacher. As much as I like my job, it does not define me. I know what matters to me. I’m proud of my work and am grateful for my years of service and opportunity. But with so many things competing for my time and attention, I have to make choices on how I spend my time and place my attention. Over 13 years ago I wrote about this idea and it remains for me an important concept and belief. I write this knowing many struggle with the very idea of calling something “good enough”. I don’t suggest it’s easy to say it, particularly if you’re worried about what others might think. If you’re happy to work endless hours or feel you have no choice, I would ask you to consider your end goal and recognize your limitations. We all have limited time and energy and should have clear priorities.

The Hats I Wear

Posted by Dean Shareski on in ALP, GenerativeAI, gratitude, Leadership, workshops 0 Comment

This past week I wore many hats for many different purposes all within our work in the Metro Vancouver/Fraser Valley region. With each of these “hats,” I learned and grew. Here’s how:

🎓 Consultant: This role is one I’m learning more about and feel more comfortable with every group I work with. Listening is a big part of this work. I work to resist jumping in when it’s important for those I’m serving to do most of the talking. With so many wise and experienced leaders, they don’t need me for much but look to me for confirmation and insights on their planning to really excel. Timely support and critical friend best describe this work.

🎓 Facilitator: Having 12 districts in a room with slightly different configurations requires a fine balance between structure and time. Much of the feedback we received suggested these teams often don’t get concentrated time to work together but we worked to provide the right amount of time, sprinkled with new learning that was used to spur them on. Constantly reading the room and making adjustments defines success in this role.

🎓 Teacher: I’m excited to be teaching again this semester. It’s been 4 years since I last taught a class. This semester I’m teaching EC&I 832 at the University of Regina. I’m specifically excited to explore the role of Generative AI in my work and my students. I shared some of my initial thoughts in both my syllabus and in our conversations. Being able to practice many of the ideas and beliefs I share in my day job makes this so rewarding.

🎓 Documentarian: I was privileged to spend Thursday working in West Vancouver Schools alongside with Cari Wilson who organized a beautiful morning with visits to 4 schools and 4 amazing teachers. We’re working on capturing their early learning around #genai and they all delivered thoughtful and insightful reflections that I hope to use to create some compelling short videos. Having the right questions and letting people share the things that matter to them helps push this into something people want to watch.

🎓 Presenter: I bookended my week with this role. This is the role I have the most experience in and feel most comfortable with. I opened the week with the operations team from Surrey Schools (School District #36 Surrey)#36 Surrey) and ended the week with high school teachers from Frank Hurt Secondary and Fraserview Secondary Schools. Both groups brought different dynamics and curiosities to the conversation but particularly with the high school teachers I felt and saw full engagement.

It was a nice way to finish a long week of work with this thank you from principal David Baldasso who used ChatGPT to help write this:

I would be remiss if I didn’t say a specific thank you to Adam Garry who has helped me fine-tune some of these “hats” as well as Alec Couros for supporting me in my work at the U of R.

From Book to Podcast in Minutes: My First Experience with Google Notebook

Posted by Dean Shareski on in GenerativeAI, joy, Video 0 Comment

Like all the big players in tech, Google is working to gain market share in education based on its AI tool kit. Recently I’ve been showing this clip in presentations about things to come.

This was 4 months ago. Unlike tech innovations of the recent past where you might see a demo and then maybe 2 years later you could try it, this is moving uber fast.

Today, I played with Google’s Notebook, followed Alec Couros’s suggestion, and uploaded a copy of my book. I also added my blog. Within minutes it created this 9-minute audio podcast of my book.

While there is still much more to explore and understand about this tool, just this feature itself is fascinating. Uploading a copy of my book and website makes me the perfect person to critique the content and I have to say if I had had this when my book was first released I likely would have used this to promote it. These 9 minutes do an amazing job of summarizing my book in a way that is engaging and easily consumable. I did look into the privacy policy and as it stands now, they are not using this to train their AI models. That said, I don’t fully trust that. I never wrote my book to make a bunch of money so I’m less worried about copyright.

More to come…..

When Should Writing Be Hard?

Posted by Dean Shareski on in GenerativeAI, writing 0 Comment

My current immersion into the world of AI and specifically Generative AI (GenAI) is at the same time exciting, fascinating and also mentally exhausting because you can’t embrace the possibilities without acknowledging the risks. As I say every time I’m working with others, holding these competing ideas in your head at the same time is not easy and in fact, goes against our natural survival instinct to see the world in binary terms.

I feel like I’ve done a good job surrounding myself with diverse opinions and experts in this area and at the same time have to remove myself from thinking too deeply at times because it’s extremely taxing mentally. Whether it’s politics, climate change or other major societal issues, it’s hard to live in 2024. No one can escape and most of us are trying to figure out what it means to be a good citizen and a flourishing, happy human.

Today I’m asking myself when should writing be hard? The promise of GenAI is often that it makes writing easier and even better. Whether it’s to spell check or fix your grammar or even to write an entire book, AI can perform all these tasks. For those who are objectively poor writers and don’t enjoy writing, it might be a lifesaver. Even those of us who write as part of our job and are good at it, it can be extremely useful. Like almost any new skill, writing is really hard. As a grandparent, I watch my granddaughter struggling to read, and my grandsons struggling to learn to skate and ride a bike, all these life skills are at one time hard and productive struggle is part of learning. As parents and teachers, we know this. Part of our job is not to eliminate the struggle but to embrace it and help them either during or perhaps after that it’s a good thing.

Today I’m writing this without any use of GenAI for the content but are using the spell and grammar checks. Given the title of this post, that seems like the correct choice. The issue I have is determining when the struggle is important. I think there are certain times when struggle is important. I’m going to write what I believe they are and then I’m going to see what a GPT might suggest they are. First here are my first attempts at when I believe writing should be hard:

  • When you’re learning to write. This is most obvious for early writers to understand the basics like sentence structure but it extends as you develop more skills and are working to use writing for different purposes like narrative, persuasive and creative writing.
  • When you’re trying to understand your thinking. A topic like this is one I need to understand deeply for myself. While GenAI could tell me what to think, I need to own this. I often use the example of school district mission statements. They do not vary all that much from district to district but you have to be able to make it your own. The reason you “reinvent the wheel” is to get your own wheel. Sometimes the result of the thinking doesn’t necessarily turn into good writing but the feelings and thoughts you put into trying to write your family member a heart-felt card force reflection and can conjure up feelings and ideas that may be latent or forgotten.
  • When your writing matters. Many writings don’t matter that much. An email to your boss or a conference description matters, but if it’s just about communicating information and emotion isn’t a big part of it or you’re not heavily invested then GenAI can be a time saver. But if you want to be sure that something has the right tone and feel, it probably should be hard. That doesn’t say you can’t use GenAi but probably only to make slight edits.
  • When a topic is complex and nuanced. Similar to my second point, the difference here may not be in your thinking but in your lack of understanding or appreciation of a nuanced or complex topic. This exact post is a prime example. Writing forces you to research or deep dive into ideas that push your thinking. While you could just read about it, writing helps to synthesize ideas or simply reveals how challenging some topics might be.

Here’s what ChatGPT said:

  • Deep Personal Reflection: When writing requires personal introspection or emotional depth, like journaling, memoirs, or sensitive communication, the human experience is irreplaceable. AI-generated text might lack the authenticity or nuance of personal reflection.
  • Developing Critical Thinking: For tasks meant to challenge or build analytical skills, such as academic essays or problem-solving exercises, it’s important to engage in the mental process fully. Relying on AI shortcuts the opportunity to refine reasoning or logical argumentation.
  • Creative Integrity: When originality and creative expression are the essence of the work—like poetry, fiction, or artwork—AI can limit the authenticity or risk compromising the writer’s unique voice.
  • Mastering Writing Skills: Writing is a skill that improves with practice. When learning to craft persuasive arguments, structure content, or develop style, it’s important to struggle through the process. Using AI too early in these stages can impede long-term growth.

So we aren’t a million miles off. I didn’t include the creative integrity idea. Good catch.

As I work with more and more districts this question as well as many related others are ones that everyone has to wrestle with. I feel like I should respond to the other question which is, “When Should Writing Be Easy?” This was hard enough to write. I’ll save that one for another day. As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

My 2024-25 Back to School Speech

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Classrooms, joy, Leadership 0 Comment

I realize that depending on where you live, you’ve been back to school for a while. For my oldest granddaughter, this is her first day of 2nd grade in a brand new school. I’m thinking about her today. But I’m also thinking about her teachers. I want them to be ready, excited, and equipped to give Harriet a great start and a great year.

Several years ago, I wrote a Back to School Speech that was written in response to many of the bad speeches I had heard. It got quite a bit of response including a district that created a video from it. I wanted to rewrite it with a slightly different feel but a similar tone. I used ChatGPT to provide some of the reframing to include some of the new challenges of burnout and anxiety that many teachers and students face. This one, like my previous speech is written as a Superintendent or School leader:

Good morning, everyone,

I know the start of a school year can be overwhelming, with endless tasks ahead of you and so many responsibilities pulling you in different directions. But before you dive into your preparations, I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts with you.

First, I hope you truly had a chance to rest and recharge over the summer. In today’s world, our work has only become more complex and demanding. The pressures on you as educators are immense, from meeting curriculum standards to addressing the diverse needs of each student in your care. It’s no small task, and that’s why it’s so important to prioritize your well-being. You cannot pour from an empty cup.

As we begin this school year, I want to remind you that taking care of yourself is not only necessary but critical. Lean on us—your leadership team. We are here to support you, and we will hold you accountable for balancing your passion for your work with your health and happiness. You don’t have to do it all alone. Let us help you when things feel overwhelming. We also expect you to hold us accountable. When we are asking for unreasonable things, you need to let us know. While we have the greatest faith in your ability, we sometimes ask too much. As a system we’ve not done a great job at making your job better. While we know it’s always going to be hard, we want you to thrive and we will examine everything that’s not working towards that goal and together we want to improve it. We won’t tell you to “do yoga” as a solution. That’s a bandaid at best.

Yes, teaching is increasingly complex, and the world outside our classrooms is more chaotic than ever. But never forget: what you do here goes beyond any curriculum or academic standard. The role you play in shaping minds, hearts, and lives is perhaps one of the most significant ways we can all make the world a better place. Your influence extends far beyond the walls of your classroom. Remember that the little things you do every day—the kind word, the encouragement, the patience—those are the things that change lives. While we’re good at measuring achievement as described by test scores and grades, we want to continue to consider curiosity, well-being and belonging as even more important. I realize that can sound like a platitude but as leaders we need to work with you to make that a thing.

You’ve done this before. You’ve succeeded before. When the days feel long, remember that this school year is not a sprint, but a marathon. Pace yourself. Celebrate the small victories along the way and take time to reflect on the great work you’ve done in the past. My friend Joe Sanfelippo says “Start and end each day with joy.” Share your learning—both your successes and your challenges—with your colleagues. Cut yourself some slack when things don’t go as planned because none of us are perfect, but we are always growing. While we all are striving for the very best all the time, sometimes “good enough” is “good enough“.

So, as we embark on this new journey together, know that you have a community behind you, cheering you on. Go help your students to learn, smile, and belong. Ask hard questions, try new things, and share your experiences. And above all, find joy in the process. It’s not only okay to have fun, it’s essential.

This year is your year. We’ve got your back.

(Image by MidJourney)