We are on summer break July 13-23 - be back online the end of the month!
A Message from Walter
Two Years In and What a Journey It's Been!
June 30, 2024, I finished up fourteen years with ASCD. I couldn't support the direction ISTE leadership was taking the organization post-merger, and I bowed out gracefully once I saw that I could not stop the shutdown of our affiliates, emerging leaders, and other programs which I had managed and grown over the years. One week and one day later, I'd had enough of retirement and launched The Worthy Educator on July 8, 2024.
The last two years have been a revelation, largely because I had no plan going into this. I simply knew educators were hurting and I wanted to be there for them. So, from the get-go, we paid attention to and followed the energy of the professionals who showed up. Initially, there were lots of meetings and events to plant our flag in the sand and call for colleagues to come. The outpouring was affirming, not only from familiar faces, but from all the new people that came out of the woodwork. It's true, you learn who your friends are in these moments, as those motivated by self-interest quietly slipped away, but the energy from those who showed up and stayed was invigorating, as the identity of the community came into focus defined by their presence: mid-to-late career education professionals.
With the start of 2025, the energy of community members led us to more prominent advocacy work, from our Transforming Education panels to our Town Halls, igniting a push to create user-friendly resources in support of educators advocating for the profession. We developed everything from action items and an alerts newsletter to a robust media kit and a one-of-a-kind microcredential, all under our newly coined EDInfluencers banner. All of this was unplanned and unscripted. As the community expressed their needs and interests, we were there to respond.
This time last summer, it was clear Worthy Educators were telling us that all the good work we were doing around advocacy needed to culminate in a more formal mapping out of a way forward, and the identification of Roadmap 2029...then 2030....now 2031....propelled us forward. To be fair, synthesizing the voices, ideas and experiences of hundreds of people over time into one cohesive guide for the profession has so many layers of nuanced detail and sophistication, the timeline kept pushing back as we adjusted to new input from everyone involved. That's fine; we were in no rush. We wanted to get this right. After all, who else was championing this work fully centered on practitioners in schools and classrooms living the reality of education today? Not the defenders of the status quo. Not the big money interests. Not the players trying to win at their own game. We were proud to amplify the voices of those doing the actual work promoting what's best for children. The Roadmap is subtitled "Education Transformed," which will become a bandwagon slogan for those organizations pivoting to try and make money off of the movement. It's all they know how to do...
Where does the energy take us next? Only time will tell. As we head into year three, we are proud of all the ways we have demonstrated impact without chasing after money, power or political favor. We are confident of the work we are doing, and we hope that it serves as a model for friends and colleagues crafting their own educator legacies. We can't do this alone, and at some point, I hope to watch others lead the way forward as I move on to other important considerations. Life is too short, and I don't want to miss any of it!
To all of you fully engaged in The Worthy Educator, the path forward continues. For those of you taking notice this summer, there's plenty of room, energy and opportunities for all of you to join us.
Here's to more great things ahead!
