For this post to make any sense, you'll need to watch this video first. Go ahead, I think it's worth the four minutes.
I remember the exact moment I first watched this little gem from Hank Green of Vlogbrothers fame. I was sitting in a lime green wing-back chair in Union Station during the lunch break of day 1 of the HECC conference. I'd just finished eating the first ever REAL SANDWICH I've ever received in one of those normally lack-luster boxed lunches you get when you attend such conferences. Was it the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life? Hardly, but it was one glorious, transcendent, totally unexpected thing: gluten free. Having been actually, medically necessarily gluten-free since I was two, I'm very used one of two outcomes in a mass boxed lunch situation like this: 1. No idea what gluten-free is or 2. The same lunch everyone else got, minus the sandwich plus an extra apple or bag of chips. This was neither of those things. This was a pretty basic turkey and cheese with lettuce and tomato. But. It. Was. On. Real. Bread. That I could eat! AND there was a slice of flourless chocolate cake. I mean, come on!!
So I was both happy and full and then I watched this video and was struck with a question: what would it be like if our students had moments of such unbridled excitement and enthusiasm in our classrooms? What kind of space would we need to build? What kind of culture would be need to nurture? Really good questions. Not sure that I have really good answers. Yet.
Need more excitement in your life? Here's my new favorite video:
