To My Beloved Community at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School and The Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation:
You inspire me.
Your inquiry. (You’re inquiry.)
Your innovation. (You’re innovation.)
Your impact. (You’re impact.)
They inspire me, and you inspire me. And so I challenge you.
What is your “mold?” What is your idea bubbling forward and exploding out from/to your inquiry and innovation and impact?
I challenge you to spend as long as it takes to watch “The Year in Ideas: TED Talks in 2014.” (And if you are “older,” please consider starting with the TEDx below from Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein: “It’s Not Too Late to Make a Difference.”)
The talks themselves are incredible, instructive, and educational. I learned quite a bit from watching them all myself. They are full of content. They model remarkable skills. They are stories from innovators nurtured.
But that’s not why I share them here and challenge you.
I share them with you and use them to catalyze a challenge that you are already engaged in. More than most schools, our school is designed for us to find our mold and make a difference, whether defined through an inquiry, an innovation, or an impact…or perhaps at the intersection of all three.
We have our courses. We have our co-curriculars. We also gloriously have our (i)Project. We have our (i)Diploma. We have MoVe talks. We have #MVIFI. We have our R&D teams.
Yes, more than most, we live in a system that encourages us and supports us to be just like the people on that stage in the TED and TEDx talks.
What will your talk be about? What actions and pursuits will provide the meat and potatoes for your talk?
I cannot wait to listen and learn from you!
And please let me know how I can help, join in, participate, celebrate, provoke, applaud, provide feedback, nourish, spur, support, and challenge you even more.
Thank you for all you do to inspire and challenge me daily. I am grateful and humbled at being a part of this beloved community. I am thankful to be a #Transformer alongside you.
On to 2015!
Sincerely,
Bo Adams
Parent, Colleague & Chief Learning and Innovation Officer
it's about learning 
Bo,
I am so grateful to spend my time in a community of such incredible thinkers, empathizers, supporters, innovators, and doers. Your post reflects how I feel about working at MVPS, and also challenges me to refocus on the “rocks” as opposed to the “sand” – what do I unequivocally believe in as an educator? What can I do in the different realms of my work to achieve this on a daily basis? I’m going to start by reflecting on the questions in your post and creating my own scheduling paradigm. I am also looking at the TED Year in Ideas and thinking about how we might continue to nurture a constant hunger for self-discovery in our students (and ourselves!) and leverage that process to pursue varying levels of inquiry, innovation, and impact.
Thank you for a beautiful 2014 – can’t wait to see what the next year holds!
Bo, what a wonderful post showing such pride and care for your school family! I also share your sentiments as I have been blessed to work at MVPS this year. I look forward to continuing my work and hope very much that we can cross paths more often despite being on separate campuses! As an administrator and school leader, we don’t get the chance to immerse ourselves in the classroom daily, and I am considering my time in the classroom a gift and an opportunity to inquire and innovate for the greatest impact for children and the learning community. I’d love to share with you! Come and see! And by the way, I know I am not alone in saying that all that you say about your beloved MVPS community is given back to you with the same amount of care. Keep being the inspiration and catalyst you are!
Reblogged this on Design Think Learn.
I have been thinking along these lines this week. What is my ultimate contribution? What does my future hold? For the first time ever, I feel confident I am in the right place to grow and learn so I can answer these questions. A starting place of inquiry is around the question, “Why does a school needed a creative director?” What is the value add? How would I even define what a creative director’s role would be in another school environment? I hope that my next MoVe talk will be around the role of creativity, edu visioneering, and the difference this can make in school 3.0. Thoughts?
Why does a school need a creative director?
Because schools should be hubs of creativity, but most are not. Because we are designed in the image of a “Creator” and therefore we were meant to be creative, too. Who is calling each of us to create with the talents we’ve been given, for the benefit of others?
You, boss.
Reblogged this on Innovation Diploma and commented:
First published on It’s About Learning, Dec. 27, 2014.