Sunday, April 21, 2019

#PodPeeks: Educational Duct Tape

I've not featured a podcast in awhile and do I have a good one for you today!!! I love listening to podcasts especially learning while I'm driving. Now that spring soccer season has begun, I have hour and half long practices twice a week. Perfect opportunity to listen to even more!

A new-er addition to my podcast rotation is Educational Duct Tape by Jake Miller (@JakeMillerTech). You may know him for his #EduGIF's (I'm in the hard-G club). I've been following him for quite awhile. I also find it super cool that he is also from Ohio! He's relatively new to podcasting, with just 16 podcasts published to date, but once he joins your rotation, you won't want to miss future ones. The combination of his soapbox moments, his humor, his all-start line up of guests, and just his way of sharing is incredibly relatable and fun. 

Obviously, I'd recommend all of the episodes, but I know how precious time is, so, if you are only going to go check out ONE, I recommend Episode 10 with Matt Miller. I'll be honest - I was super impressed to hear who his guest was, but what really took me by storm was Jake's "soapbox" moment on this episode. Jake takes a few minutes at the beginning of each episode to highlight/share something that has been impactful to him in some way. This episode, he shared about "adjacent possible theory" by Stuart Kauffman, and I was BLOWN away! Yes, yes, yes a million times! I immediately shared it with my curriculum director and she was just as taken with it. I love when I share something that speaks to me and know it makes a difference to others.

Ross meeting
The adjacent possible theory Jake shared completely altered our small group meeting later in the week ... to the point, I found out later, that the meeting was completely altered and  the adjacent possible theory became the focus. Becky - our curriculum director - "blamed" me. (I'll own that!) She played Jake's soapbox moment during our meeting and I kid you not, it seemed to impact everyone. I snapped this picture of our meeting and Tweeted it out so Jake would also know how much of an impact he made on us.


The adjacent possible theory is a simple and powerful way to explain how things are made possible, but not until you have the experiences you had yesterday. On a large scale, my district couldn't have dreamt of being what we are today without all the teachers, students, administrators, and parents that have come before ... each day, each idea, each initiative, and so on. On a smaller scale, I wouldn't be the educator I am today without having done the student teaching I did, teaching at St Michael's my first year, teaching 5th grade for 7 years, teaching 7th & 8th grade for 7 years, and our district being awarded the grant that enabled us to go 1:1 with Chromebooks. 

To better help explain, we also watched the following video "WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson" which also helps to explain/support the idea behind adjacent possible ... 



Each time I listen to Jake's Educational Duct Tape, or listen to other podcasts, or read blogs/articles, I learn something. Something that challenges me, or encourages me, or allows me to move down a path maybe I wouldn't have prior. Each time, I find a new adjacent possible. I urge you now, go and listen. And then find out ...

... what will be YOUR adjacent possible?

You can find his podcast just about anywhere and his website for show notes is http://jakemiller.net/eduducttape/

Looking for other recommendations? Check out the list of other podcasts I've featured by clicking on the #PodPeeks label to the right. (Or click HERE.)

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