Don't stop learning.

This is a lesson not only to students ("kids"), but adults, parents, and especially, teachers. Never, ever, ever...stop learning. Over the past few months, I've learned more while being away from the public school system, than I ever did in college or while teaching. Here's a quick list to some of the new things I've discovered, that we never learned in a class.

1. coworking - "Coworking is cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents. Or, it’s like this: start with a shared office and add cafe culture. Which is the opposite of most modern cafes." - Independents Hall When I started attending events in Philadelphia, I fell in love with the idea of coworking and collaboration. We learn "group work" in school, but it was never this cool!
2. social-networking (or social media) - Stuff like Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Flickr, etc are all types of social media. If you know how to play, social media can teach you anything, and you get to share back! If you're reading this, and not connected to me via the hundreds of other tendrils of my "personal learning network"...why not?
3. charity - After attending Philly's BarCamp, a group of friends (who are a part of my network, btw!) came up with GeeksWhoGive. On our first event, we donated over 1200lbs of food to Philabundance, and had a great time doing it! No matter how good you think your life is, if you're able to read this blog, there's someone that needs your help. 

 And more...
Point is, ever since leaving teaching, and beginning my job at Staples designing, copying, and printing all those teachers' tests and assignments, I've learned so much. It just proves that there's so much out there, and we get tunnel vision sometimes, especially when we've only ever done one type of work. Reach outside your realm of "expertise" (because you're not an expert until you've done it for 10,000 hours), and learn something new!