Presenter: Rodd Lucier
Location: Komoka, Ontario, Canada
@thecleversheep
Presentation Title: Are You For Real?
Presentation Description: 
Are you in search of opportunities to make authentic connections with students and teachers? Why not surround yourself with prompts to remind you of compelling stories? Learn how aptly chosen artifacts, deliberately placed, can promote story-telling and relationship-building. Play along and consider how you willing you are to be ‘real’ with your fellow learners.
Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
Blog: The Clever Sheep
Unplug’d: unplugd.ca
Rodd thank you for sharing your story. I love the pieces of wood and all the artifacts in your space. I’ve always done this informally with my students — my desk is covered in toys and adoptees which brings the students to my space to play and share in my story and I love it.
I’ve spent most of the past three years away from work due to one serious illness after another and I truly miss my kids, but without that time I would not have discovered the wonderful world of blogs and Twitter and through them other educators like you. Sometimes I’m so excited about going back to work because of things my PLN share, that I don’t think I can wait until I really get well.
Thank you for being an incredible part of my PLN (whether you knew it or not)and thanks again for sharing!
Lori
Hi Rodd … What a risk taker you are … to attempt to tell a story in one take! However, your story was simply amazing and captivating. Those, like me, who have read “The Clever Sheep” blog, the UnPlug’d resources, or your thought-provoking tweets (from a distance), appreciated getting a “real” peek at your office. However, your story impacted me because, as your title suggests, you shared a “behind the scenes” look at you as a professional educator and family man.
Like your students, I was so impressed with your driftwood examples and the powerful metaphor you used to tie each piece to a type of student. As a father whose son’s stopped to investigate dandelions during their first soccer games, I can relate so well to the picture of your soccer champ. Your words resonate when you talk about the importance of building relationships and you, sir, have done that with your commitment to education and willingness to share.
On behalf of the many educators that you have inspired, I thank you.
Take care & keep smiling 🙂 Brian
Thanks, Rodd, for sharing your story. In particular I loved your description of the “personal archeology” mobiles. As you said, these personal stories help our students build relationships with us, and as a result, they might do more for us. Which of course, and most importantly means, they end up doing more for themselves.
Recently I’ve shared stories with my students that include some of the people I met at unplug’d. I smile days later, after hearing my students refer to these folks in a lesson as “Mrs. D’s friend…” Sometimes they learn more from the story than we imaged.
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