This week I finished up the Spring semester at both colleges at which I am lucky enough to get to share my knowledge about reading strategies, the fine science of navigating the maze that is a college textbook, English vocabulary, and, well, life in general. It has been my pleasure and privilege to facilitate the growth and learning of each and every mind that has taken seat in my lectures.

Teaching at the collegiate level, I gotta say, is so.much.fun. Not only do I get to use large quantities of sarcasm, wit, and profanity (well placed, and appropriately dropped, of course), I have found that the potential level of impact I have is much more profound than I had expected. What I’m doing makes a difference- a memorable one- and not just because I threw out a few hip hop lyrics into the mix a time or two (play to your audience people).

My students are adults and while there will be many professors they forget, there will also be many they remember. I sincerely hope that I am one of the latter.

To that end, when it came time to choose a novel for study, I selected a book that I felt would support their overall learning experience and lives. I chose “Drive,” by Daniel Pink, which is a book about human motivation and what, well, drives us to do what we do. In response to the reading I asked students to work through a series of exercises related to the book and the toolkit it contains and consider what it was they felt to be their current reality, their priorities, their goals, and their motivation.

As a final project- students were to summarize this new understanding of their purpose in one sentence, their sentence. A statement that says who they are, what they represent, or who they want to be.

I could not be more pleased with the results. Honestly. My heart is swelled with pride, my eyes brimming with tears, my inner wannabe cheerleader is shaking her pom-poms saying “yes you CAN!”

Take the next four and half minutes, would you please, and see what they created. Share it. Spread it. Make your own and share that. Ask yourself, “what’s my sentence?”

Click HERE to view.

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