Edict #3: Make an Impact
By: Q. Kendall,
Jr. Infectious Disease Correspondent
To My Awesome Readers,
I gotta tell you, this month has been a real struggle for me to figure out what I could possibly say to you that could matter. What could I say that could impact your life in such a way that your personal world—the things that make up your home, your family, your friends—was better for having read it? As I struggled with the question, the question then became my thesis. If this were the last time I ever got a chance to talk to you (and I sincerely hope it isn’t!), what would I say? What would make an impact?
As if on automatic, my fingertips clicked out on the keyboard, “You guys should go ask Mr. Mistretta about how many different ‘Edict’ columns I have started, sent to him, and scrapped all in a day.” Then I thought, there’s an idea for an edict that could ripple. He wouldn’t mind if I asked you to start a conversation with him that maybe you hadn’t thought to try. Besides, he was the one who got me writing for the iGlobe. What if…
Edict #3a: Find the last name Mistretta in your k-mail, and say hello. He’s one of our two awesome iGlobe teacher sponsors, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he invites you to attend an iGlobe meeting in a return k-mail. In addition to coaching basketball and knowing a thing or two about math (okay, A LOT about math), he is one of the best teachers at K12 because he tells it straight, he doesn’t quit teaching just because you want to quit learning, and when I struggled with something in algebra he was there to help every time without complaint. No, he didn’t pay me to write that, and yes I’m hopeful that this short thank you from me to him makes it into the paper this month. You never know what kind of positive impact a thank you note can have.
By the way, by writing the above edict, did you happen to catch what I just did there: if it gets published, it’s going to make an impact somewhere. Knowing Mr. Mistretta, I know it will be a positive one.
I’m singling out this particular teacher at our school because he had an impact on me. I am absolutely and entirely only writing for the iGlobe this year because he encouraged me to give it a try. When I said nope, he didn’t quit on me. I did okay in Algebra because he made a point of making sure I knew it before sending me on my way. I knew I would hate both algebra and the iGlobe. Turns out…I like them both…the iGlobe a ton, and even algebra begrudgingly.
Nobody get smug.
The idea of how people impact one another each day is interesting. It got me scientifically thinking about how I impact my siblings. I happen to have two brothers and two sisters. I’m the oldest so guess who has gotten to change ALL their diapers at one point or another. Considering I definitely don’t want kids right now, I’m thinking that experience is having an impact on me.
On the other hand, the good news is that the summation of who they are amounts to more than diaper duty. I decided to try an experiment, and I invited my sisters outside to paint and sculpt with me out of the blue.
The effect was immediate. Lizzie, my sister, exploded glee and joy. She’s four years old, and I’m pretty sure a cheerleading scholarship is somewhere in her future. We were outside a lot longer than I expected to be, and I was outside a lot longer than I thought I would want to be. The ongoing impact since then is that she and I both discovered we liked doing art together. Since then, she’s been begging me to make jewelry with her with my ‘sharpy thingies.’ So far, we haven’t for fear of her getting hurt, but I’m betting it is in our future.
See what I did there? I made a move. Movement in someone’s direction can be compared to how molecules move in a gas. The faster those molecules move, the more they bounce around and into each other, and potentially impact.
Therefore,
Edict #3b: You can’t make an impact unless you make a move. Move in someone’s direction, and you can bet it will have some kind of impact.
Here is the last thing I want to say to you before I say ‘see ya next month.’ K12 students don’t really talk to each other much outside of class unless they’ve found a clever way to trade skype information. Yes, it does happen, but rarely. If there was anything that I could change about that, I would. There are a few people that I have met in my classes that I’d really like to know without feeling like a criminal trying to give them my full name and a ‘hint, hint.’ I know the rules about students talking outside of class are there for everyone’s protection, and I appreciate that. I certainly don’t need a cyberstalker in my life. But, on the other hand, I question if the cure of such stringent rules is worse than the disease.
If it were me, I would create a family directory with parent contact information only and list out in it which kids are in that family. Then, if students want to talk to each other, they have to go through their parent’s email information so that the parents are responsible for what happens, and always in the know. Any breaches of politeness could be ‘screen shot’ and potentially sent to the school for severe disciplinary action. How often would that happen? I don’t know.
There, the above is me making another impact before I sign off.
Until next month K12ers, I leave you with this: if we happen to meet one day go ahead and approach me with a smile. I’ll smile right back because before we’ve ever met I know there is going to be something about you I’ll like. You rank with me, and I think your ideas are definitely worth my time. In fact, just for the road, here’s one more edict:
Edict #3c: Sound off in the comments below—make an Impact!