Are you creating "sticky" experiences for your students?

In preparation for a Book Chat that I'll be participating in later this week, I've been knee deep in reading "Weekend Language" by Andy Craig and Dave Yewman.  It's a quick read about "presenting with more stories and less powerpoint!"  Sounds crazy, right?  Ever since leaving the classroom back in 2010, I've been in some kind of role that requires me to present to people.  In addition, I've presented at tons of conferences as well.  And in the majority, if not all of these presentation situations, I've ALWAYS had a power point of some sort.  Sometimes it was Prezi, or Google Slides, Microsoft Sway, or Emaze or good ole' Power Point!  In the beginning, I know that I definitely packed a TON of words on each slide in an attempt to get my audience ALL of the information that I thought they needed.  The more seasoned I become in presenting, I definitely use fewer words on my presentation slides (whichever format it's in), but have never totally abandoned some sort of presentation tool all together.

Alas!!!!!  Weekend Language comes along (a gift from Our Voice Academy) and TOTALLY challenges the belief that you NEED a Power Point to get your point across during a presentation!  The authors challenge you to ditch the Power Point for 30 days and see what happens!  During Our Voice Academy, each of us had to deliver a 5 minute snippet of a key note presentation and use either no slides or VERY minimal slides.  We were challenged to become experts in story telling to get our points across.  One of the sections in Weekend Language talks about the mission and vision of a golf company and how it became more refined after new leadership took over.  They began marketing themselves as "a candy store for golfers!" Everyone can visualize that because we've all had the experience of walking into a candy store and being excited, happy, amazed and sometimes even overwhelmed at all of the colors, sweetness, wonder and choices of being in a candy store!  They go on to discuss what they refer to as "sticky messaging" in which the message becomes "sticky" and everyone is talking about it or repeating it.  Messages like this stick in our brains and even our hearts as we continue on through life because we remember them.  The messages have become stuck!

It got me to thinking about this.....

As educators, are we creating lessons and experiences for our students that make them feel as if they are in a candy store?  Are they amazed, engaged, and filled with wonder at what we are teaching them each and every day?  Are we presenting content in a way that will stick with our students and remain stuck in their minds, not just for a test, but for the rest of their lives? 

I remember being in my 8th grade science class, and Mr. Savaso was teaching us about parasites.  He had this little jingle that he would recite that said, "cook your meat and wash your feet!"  I still to this day, have a visual of him singing that jingle and envisioning the importance of cooking meat thoroughly enough so as to not get sick from some sort of parasite.  Or washing your feet really well after walking around barefoot. 

We rely a lot on technology to teach the content but I challenge you to remember that the technology is ONLY THE TOOL to DELIVER THE CONTENT!!!!  As you are creating your lessons and planning all of the amazing things that you will do with your students, YES, you definitely want to include different web 2.0 tools and apps, etc into your lessons, but remember that it's how YOU present the content and the experiences that YOU create that will make the content stick with your students!  Just because we tell our kids to use some amazing new piece of technology, does not mean that the content will stick.  Remember it's JUST A TOOL!  It's what YOU do with it, that will create the magic and the "stickiness" that will make our students remember the experiences going forward!  Create the feeling of an amazing candy store full of wonder, hope, and sweetness that will have your students remember you, your class, and the content.....forever.