How Did You Do That So Quickly?

Image credit: Future Shape

A couple of weeks ago my friend Ken Shelton gave me a call and we ended up having one of those long conversations that ranged all over the place for an hour. Part of our conversation drifted to the importance of continuously trying new things. A question that I'm often asked and one that anyone who does tech PD often hears is, " how did you do that so quickly." A similar question is, "how do you figure this out so quickly?" The answer to both questions has the same root. I spend a lot of time trying new apps and websites. The more apps and resources that I try the more similarities I find between them which in turn allows me to figure out how they work relatively quickly.

I'm not telling you to go out and spend hours trying new apps every day. But make it a habit to try one or two new apps or websites every week. The benefit of doing this is that slowly but surely you will find it takes less time to figure out new apps and websites. You'll also be building a play book of resources that you can draw from when you're planning your lessons. As Ken said to me, "how do coaches figure out which plays go into their play books? They try lots of things in practice and use the ones that work best in each situation."