Inspiration Despite Exhaustion

After spending the last three days attending/participating in EduCon 2.3 at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA my body is screaming for sleep and my mind is buzzing with ideas.  The staff and students plan for a year for this three day learning "revival" which pulls an attendance of over 600 face to face educators and countless more virtual participants.  The conference was alive with techno-geeks, speakers of edu-ease, and plenty of "idea people".  Unlike other education/tech conferences, EduCon focuses on the conversations that take place as part of a natural evolution when people who are passionate about kids get together.  Some of the mantras that emerged from EduCon 2.3 included:

What motivates kids?
How do we inspire innovation?
What do our students care about?
How do we create learning spaces that inspire creativity?
How do we fail gracefully - and assure others that it's okay to do just that?

But, the question I am now confronted with is:  What do I do now?

How will I inspire others?
How will I model courage, risk-taking, and graceful failure?
How will I embrace innovation and make it my goal?
How will I push a bit harder to create a safe environment where teachers and students will be willing to push themselves?

The Wordle below - compiled by Dave Warlick - is a collection of all of the tweets from the first two days of EduCon 2.3. Upon close review - we have our work cut out for us, but we have all left EduCon - inspired to do the great work!