Inspirational Read: "From Dyslexia to CEO: How my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur"

Found the following aritcle written by Brett Kopf via Zite : 

"From Dyslexia to CEO: How my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur"

In my York ICT class, we explore many technology tools that help enhance both the learning of students and teachers in our 21st century classrooms. One of the tools we looked at was, Remind101, a one way messaging service that sends text messages to students/parents to do exactly what the product name suggests, "remind"! It is a great tool to remind students of upcoming events, tests dates and other simple reminders. The one-way messaging means that a generic/anoymous number sends the text message, once the teacher registers an account. The student/parent cannot reply back to the message as it is a computer generated number.

The other day, I was browsing through articles on Zite and "how my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur" part of the headline totally caught my attention. When I opened the link to the article I realized that the CEO was the creator and founder of Remind101! This aritcle shows how one's disabilities or struggles does not prevent one from acheiveing success. Brett Kopf was able to create a product to help others who have similar struggles as him (forgetting things! - sometimes not by choice). Check the article out - it is truly an inspirational read! 

Inspirational Find - Real-life "King's Speech"

This past week, Melissa, a friend of mine, posted this video on her social feed via Upworthy. This emotional video documents the journey of a young boy in the UK who finds a voice in front of an audience through his teacher's explicit practice of differentiated instruction.... headphones and music! Just like the movie, starring Colin Firth in "King's Speech", this young boy masters public speaking by putting on headphones and having the music playing! This video is a great example of the importance of differentiated instruction in the classroom and the profound impact of what happens when one CARES.

Inspirational Find : The First 20 Hours- Josh Kaufman

In my newest inspirational TED talk find, Josh Kaufman argues that it does not take 10,000 hours to learn something new and he demonstrates with his goal to master the ukulele! This talk is worth 20 minutes of your time, as Kaufman's musical performance itself is worth the watch, but his performance is evidence to his argument. In my current York ICT AQ class, I'm constantly learning new ways to integrate technology as a tool for 21st century learning. New learning sometimes is frustrating, but it is no reason to give up!! Kaufman finds "fear" as the most common factor of why people are reluctant to learn something new.

As an advocate for life-long learning, we should embrace the challenges and frustration that comes with acquiring new knowledge. Kaufman provides a great message to teachers, with a new learning process comes "fear" and "frustration". Let's provide strategies and tools for students to understand "it's ok" to have these emotions and encourage life-long learning.

*Came across this inspirational find through an article posted on TNW via Zite.