The Innovative Educator’s Top Education Quotes for Teaching Generation Text

Every year I share my top quotes. This year, it is the quotes my co-author Willyn Webb and I have chosen to accompany the chapters in our upcoming book, “Teaching Generation Text.”. These quotes were chosen to entice, motivate and inspire. I hope they will be of value to other innovative educators as well. If you have a quote that you think would work well with a particular chapter, please share.

Introduction "The world we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking." -Albert Einstein

The Texting Teacher "If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn." - Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Estrada

The Texting Learner "Over the past forty years, technology has changed so rapidly that by now kids are blase about its wonders. The unimaginable for us has become their norm." - Dr. Michael Osit

Research Based Instructional Strategies Supported by Cells "We educators stand at a special point in time" - Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock

Cell Phone Enriched Lessons to Engage Learners "...if we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." - John Dewey

The Five Building Blocks for Success with Cell Phones in Education. "You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." - Les Brown

The Texting School Community: Administrators, Guidance Counselors, Parents, Librarians, & Beyond “Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.” -Marian Anderson

Breaking the Ban with a Six Part Plan “Let’s admit the real reason that we ban cell phones is that, given the opportunity to use them, students would vote with their attention, just as adults would ‘vote with their feet’ by leaving the room when a presentation is not compelling.” -Marc Prensky

How to use Teaching Generation Text The more I learn, the more I realize what little I know. -K.C. Freeman

For more of my favorite quotes visit

• My Favorite Quote for 2010
• 20 Education Quotes from 2009
• 10 Education Quotes I Carry With Me - 2008

My Top 20 Education Quotes from 2009

A well formed quote, like a picture, is a great method for painting detailed concepts. Each year I do my best to capture quotes that were impactful to me. Last year I shared these Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me. This year I am sharing another compilation of quotes and concepts I have collected over the past year through reading, events, classes, presentations and workshops. These quotes have been valuable to me and I hope they will be to other innovative educators as well. I don’t recall where I heard most of them (or even if it was me who said some of them), so I cited none of them. Oprah, The Element, Geoff Canada, and Alan November’s BLC conference in Boston were inspirations for several. Feel free to Google if you are trying to locate the source, or leave a comment with a source you know.


1) If we don't take ownership of our digital identity who will?
2) Why is the date of manufacture the most important determinant of how we group kids?
3) Do with. Not for.
4) Treat the world as a place of creation not consumption.
5) Many of the most brilliant and creative people didn't really discover what they could do and who they were until they'd left school and recovered from their education.
6) In the age of information, knowledge stops with paper. Paper is dead. You can't have a conversation with ideas on paper nor can you connect or communicate easily with others who care about those ideas.
7) Old punctuation means “stop” the new punctuation (hyperlink) means keep going.
8) The main thing the web is teaching our kids is the world is more interesting then we were ever told.
9) Because of technology, I have a network of advisors accessible to comment to and advise me at any time.
10) If you don't do something with what you learn you are a selfish twit!
11) Being in your element is when the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together.
12) When we takes notes, rather than keep it to ourselves it makes sense for others to learn from the way we are making meaning and respond and react to it.
13) When you learn something, don't keep it inside. Do something with it. Publish it! Blog it! Tweet it! Discussion Forum it!
14) Education has moved from consuming information for set answers to producing information to engage in conversation.
15) We don’t want a technology gap to become a skills gap to become an achievement gap.
16) Homework is an equity issue. If you don't have parents or guardians and technology available you are at a disadvantage.
17) Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
18) We shouldn't have tech action plans just like we shouldn't have pencil and paper action plans.
19) Never underestimate the vital importance of finding early in life the work that for you is play. This turns possible underachievers into happy warriors.
20) You must connect yourself to connect your students.

I love collecting these quotes and knowing how they’ve affected others. If one of these quotes affects you or if you have a quote that has affected you that you’d like to share please do by commenting on this post.

25 Random Things Innovative Educators Can Do To Enhance Teaching and Learning

While I read Ah, Yes, More About Me? Here Are ‘25 Random Things’ and 25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You and contemplated the efficacy of actually coming up with these things, I realized I’d like to change the assignment slightly. Instead, I did a sort of year in review to summarize 25 random things innovative educators can do to enhance teaching and learning.

Here they are:

First Thing: Collect and save inspirational quotes.
Read: Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me

Second Thing: Develop your personal learning network
Read: 5 Things You Can Do to Begin Developing Your Personal Learning Network

Third Thing: Go paperless.
Read: How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On a Paperless Diet and Do More with Less by Going Paperless

Forth Thing: Take control of your digital footprint
Read: Ideas for Making a Purposeful and Professional Digital Footprint

Fifth Thing: Visit schools known for educating innovatively
Read: Immunization for an Uninteresting Curriculum Found at the iSchool, The Power of 21st Century Teaching and Learning Brought to Life at Bronx Middle School CIS 339’s Open House, You Can Get a Dalton Education at a NYC Public School, Bridging The Digital Divide in NYC, Science Leadership Academy – Lessons Learned, and X's & O's for the OLPC XO - A View from the Classroom.

Sixth Thing: Be aware of ways to keep students safe in the 21st Century.
Read: HOW DO I HELP MY CHILD LEARN TO USE THE INTERNET WISELY? and New Technology Helps Keep Kids Safe on Cell Phones

Seventh Thing: Help your school go 1-to-1
Read: Low Cost Computing Options That Will Enable More Educators to Consider 1-to-1 Environments

Eighth Thing: Tap into your schools best resource – students.
Read: Starting a Student Support Team in Your School, 5 Innovative Ideas for Student Teams that Support 21st Century Teaching & Learning, Partnering with Student Tech Wizards to Provide Professional Development at Schools, and 8th Grader’s Advice for Questions Peers Might Ponder On Their Road to Achieving Success

Ninth Thing: Join A Social Network
Read: Why Every Parent and Teacher Should Learn MySpace and Facebook and A 30-Day Guide To Losing Your Digital as a Second Language (DSL) Accent and YOU'RE NOT TOO OLD FOR FACEBOOK

Tenth Thing: Start your own social network
Read: Social Networking for Innovative Educators and Keep Your Students Connected This Summer with A Social Network

Eleventh Thing: Figure out ways to use technology to connect with English language learners.
Read: 5 Translation Tools That Serve as Fantastic Resources for Students Who Are ELL, Foreign Language, and Struggling Readers

Twelfth Thing: Watch TED Talks for inspiration.
Read: Recommended Viewing for Innovative Educators

Thirteenth Thing: Start a blog.
Read: Why I started a blog and why maybe you should too and Great Way to Find Popular Keywords for Your Blog or Other Published Content

Fourteenth Thing: Lead, don’t follow when it comes to promoting the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.
Read: Reasons to Promote Engaging Technologies Even Though Schools Filter Them

Fifteenth Thing: Consider the power of using cell phones to enhance education. Start with having students use them outside of school if your school does not allow them.
Read: The Value of Using Cell Phones to Enhance Education and Some Concrete Ways to Do So and Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning.

Sixteenth Thing – Think about your 25 Random Things to enhance Teaching and Learning.
Read: Using 25 Random Things to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Seventeenth Thing: Help your students stay organized.
Read: What’s Up? A Hello Friend Student Planner

Eighteenth Thing: Go to targeted conferences that enable you to achieve your learning goals.
Read: EduCon 2.1 - A Conference Worth Attending and The Confratute Virgin's Guide to Success

Nineteenth Thing: Identify mentors
Read: Developing Mentors from Your Personal Learning Network

Twentieth Thing – Get yourself and students published!
Read: Innovative Educators Can Help Students and Themselves Become Published Authors

Twenty First Thing – Enable students to broadcast themselves with audio and video.
Read: IStream, UStream! We ALLScream for UStream! And Podcast from Your Phone

Twenty Second Thing – Learn how you can begin transforming your school into a 2.0 environment.
Read: School 2.0 Transformation Toolkit - A Recommended Resource for Innovative Educators to "Let the conversation begin!"

Twenty Third Thing – Think about ways you can educate innovatively and determine goals for doing so.
Read: Educating Innovatively

Twenty Fourth Thing – Get to know the technology standards and how they align to various content areas.
Read: An ISTE Crosswalk by Six Major Categories

Twenty Fifth Thing – Join the conversation and begin commenting on blogs.
Read: Comments, Responding, Timeliness via Drape's Takes

These are 25 random things I've recommended this year on The Innovative Educator. I hope I've inspired you to pick a random thing or two to try.

Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me

Here are ten 21st Century education quotes that I've heard over the past few years that I liked enough to save in my Blackberry so I could look at, remember, and share. These are ten quotes that have been of value to me and I believe will be of value to other innovative educators as well. If I remember or know where they came from, I've indicated it below.

1-Technology is only technology to those who were born before it.
2-We need to prepare students for THEIR future not OUR past-Ian Jukes, educator and Futurist.
3-Teachers need to stop saying, “Hand it in,” and start saying “Publish It.” Alan November
4-We have moved from “know what” learning to “know where” learning.
5-The largest number of podcasts in education are about Podcasts in education.-Marco Torres.
6-Kids DO want to learn, but schools get in the way.
7-Digital Media enables us to build more stages for our kids to express themselves. - Marco Torres
8-What gets us in trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know that just ain't so. Mark Twain.
9-We need to replicate in the classroom the world in which students are living.
10-If we teach today the way we were taught yesterday we aren't preparing students for today or tomorrow.

A well formed quote, like a picture, is a great method for painting detailed concepts. I love collecting these quotes and knowing how they’ve affected others. If one of these quotes affects you or if there is a quote that has affected you that you’d like to share please do by commenting on this post.