The Art of Imperfection

 

Volume 32

March is typically one of the busiest months of the year in EdTech. ​A majority of conferences happen​ (SXSWEdu, MACUL, CUE, NSTA, ASCD, and so many more), and EdTech companies are busy conducting demos and webinars and creating helpful content to ensure they are on any school or district's radar, as purchasing decisions are being made for the following school year this summer.

Although educators may have had spring break, they may now be busy preparing for standardized tests and continue to face ​chronic absenteeism​. Education administrators are doing everything they can to retain, cut, and purchase the right amount of technology and services to ensure a successful 2024-2025 academic year ​within their first year of no ESSER funding​ (known to many as the ESSER cliff). On top of that, administrators begin to look at staffing for the upcoming school year while being faced with a ​continued teacher shortage​.

March plays a critical role in EdTech purchases, and it’s also an opportune time to set yourself up to end the year strong. But the question remains: What do you do when you have too much to do?

I can tell you what you cannot do: Give into any of your perfectionism tendencies. Many studies have concluded that not only are a ​majority of people affected by perfectionism​, but ​it's also on the rise​. It can lead to high levels of anxiety, overall inaction, and ultimately burnout. And especially in this fast-paced month, where it's necessary to do a lot – and quickly – perfectionism can sink even the most confident swimmer.

In my twenties, I learned a valuable lesson about perfectionism that helped me navigate high-intensity times like this, which I'd like to share with you. ⬇️

I have always had a love for creating ceramics. I used to spend hours trying to craft the perfect vase, plate, or bowl, and when it wasn't perfect (which was most times), I'd feel like a failure and stop creating. I expressed my frustration to a good friend, who explained the Japanese concept of ​Wabi Sabi​. She told me that the Japanese liked to keep and even cherished their imperfect pieces of pottery, as they were unique, unlike the sea of identical pottery objects.

This concept of embracing imperfection is beautifully illustrated through a Japanese art called ​Kintsugi​, where broken or imperfect objects are repaired with gold to celebrate their imperfection and illuminate the "flaw" as a unique part of the object's journey that adds to their beauty. (Check out ​this Pinterest collection​ to see it come to life!)

These concepts initially fueled me to keep creating. Although I still wasn't necessarily celebrating my less-than-perfect outputs, I was able to give myself grace and accept that whatever was created represented my journey. Ironically, the more I created, the more I became better.

I challenge you to look back at everything you did in March. While not everything may have unfolded flawlessly, perhaps there's a moment to embrace the beauty in those missteps and press on. When you begin to doubt yourself, lose confidence, and revert to being a perfectionist, remember the art of Kintsugi.

Take care,
Elana

 
 
 

[Free Download] Social Media Conference Checklist

Conference season is upon us! ​This checklist​ lists the many things EdTech brands can do on social media to gain brand awareness, engagement, and sales from every conference they attend.

Made by LCG

​The EdTech Marketer's Planner - Extended Edition​

​​Our first-ever Extended Planner​ was created to help you easily create a marketing and content plan that generates leads. It includes helpful templates, strategies, editable calendars, and more.

P.S.: Our early bird pricing just ended, but you can use the code PLANNER10 at checkout to get a 10% discount (expires March 9).​

[Bonus Education Opportunities]

Funding

  • New Schools is awarding funding for groundbreaking ideas that reimagine the role of educators, empower students with learning differences, or improve literacy and math outcomes.​ Apply by April 3​.

  • The Learning Accelerator is offering $150,000 in flexible grant support for applications for its Exponential Learning Initiative, which seeks to advance the scaling of high-quality, virtually supported approaches to K-12 learning acceleration at the core of learning. ​Apply by May 5​.

Student Contests

  • Get high school students to team up and learn about and use AI tools to design solutions for real-world problems. The top three teams will be flown to Denver to present at ISTELive 24. ​Apply by April 12​.

  • ReadWorks’ Earth Day Illustration Contest is a fun opportunity to get your 2nd - 5th-grade students to celebrate the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)’s birthday! ​Submit entries by April 26th, 2024​.

 

[BONUS]

[Cool science alert] The next ​total solar eclipse​ to visit North America will be April 8, 2024. The duration of totality will be up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds. It's almost double the eclipse duration from the previous 2017 record and has a greater viewing area than was accessible back then. Let us know if you go see it!

 
 

Beyond the Inner Critic

 

Volume 31

Before we say hello to March and longer days (this TikTok trend that counts down the days until 7 p.m. sunsets made me smile), I wanted to take a moment and celebrate our agency’s 7th anniversary. In many religions, 7 is a holy number that symbolizes completion or perfection. And while I’m incredibly proud of our team and everything we’ve accomplished, we are not even close to being complete or perfect. Funny enough, as I look back, I’m the most proud of our imperfect moments and how they helped us innovate the most with our clients and growing team. 

When people congratulated me on LCG’s anniversary, I found myself listening to my inner critic as it whispered thoughts like, “You could be doing more” or “You should be further along in your path.” I bring this up not to discount LCG’s impact in EdTech (which has been HUGE), but I bring this challenging topic up because I know I’m not alone, and perhaps some of my reflections may help some of you. 

I’ve worked hard to become aware of when my critic rears its ugly head, but it doesn’t disappear just because we become aware of it. Over time, I’ve realized that no matter what you accomplish in life, the inner critic has the ultimate power to undermine your happiness. 

Perfection is an impossible ideal. It fuels thoughts that tell you that you are not doing it right. The most important thing that’s helped me in all of the years of hustling to grow an agency in EdTech is that we all do the best we can with the information we have at any specific moment. Repeat this with me – it’s empowering. 

As we near the end of the first quarter, take some time to reflect on everything you did with the information you had. This slight reframing can bring more joy and gratitude into your everyday life in this wonderful world of EdTech.

Take care,
Elana

 
 
 

The EdTech Marketer's 2024 Planner - Extended Edition

Our first-ever Extended Planner was created to help you easily create a marketing and content plan that generates leads. It includes helpful templates, strategies, editable calendars, and more.

Made by LCG
 

[BONUS]

Some of our team just got back from ​Social Media Marketing World​, and one major theme was how to use AI to increase efficiency. Here are some tools we’re excited to try:

Let us know if you try any of these and what you think about them!

 
 

AI, AI, AI (but at what cost?)

 

Volume 30

Wow! We’re officially halfway through the year. 🤯Midway points like this before the back-to-school storm offer a perfect time for reflection. What’s working? What’s not? How well am I pacing towards my goals? Am I prepared for the 2024-2025 academic school year to begin? 

Although this line of thinking can be very practical and logistical, I personally like to weave in elements of gratitude and compassion as I reflect. This helps me not overly obsess about the things that didn’t get done or didn’t work and focus on the bigger picture. I mean, how truly lucky are we that we get to work in an industry as impactful as EdTech? Although it certainly has its challenges, I can’t think of another place I’d like to roll up my sleeves and do great work. Educators and students need our help more than ever. 

Perhaps I’m more grateful than normal because of ISTE’s annual conference, which just concluded in Denver. This was my 14th ISTE, and seeing all of the educators and EdTech brands I’ve collaborated with over the years still gives me goosebumps. We get to collaborate and learn from some of the most inspiring and innovative people you will ever meet. 

How fortunate we are was so obvious as LCG hosted our 5th annual party at ISTE. Feeling the support, kindness, and humor of so many folks in education continues to fuel me to do even more in EdTech. This is true for educators as well. Many tell me that after spending time at ISTE with other innovative educators, they felt more recharged and ready to tackle another school year.

For those of you who didn’t get to attend ISTE, many EdTech trends that we saw at the start of the year continued to stay in the forefront. Although there continues to be a huge amount of attention centered around AI, I’ve noticed a welcomed shift. More and more people are asking critical questions about why and to what end AI is being used. Data privacy, standards alignment, and intentional integration into learning popped up more and more. AI sessions that just catered towards prompt engineering and what I call “shiny object syndrome tech” were met with educator critique. Emerging extended reality technology also seems to be here to stay, with more XR/VR companies exhibiting. It’s still early days, but I’m intrigued by the promise of the technology, as more companies begin to provide curricula aligned to standards. Robots were also all over ISTE, and a closing keynote featured a ballet dancer who loves to program robots to dance with.

Some of our team had the opportunity to visit the Molly Brown House Museum while in Denver, and I can’t think of a more inspiring person to end this letter with than Margaret Brown. She was known as a heroine of the Titanic and a philanthropist. She famously said, “It makes no difference to me where I go. I am ready to go anywhere I am needed.” Thank you to all of you who continue to go where you are needed to help improve education. 

Take care,
Elana

 
 
 

The EdTech Marketer's 2024 Planner - Extended Edition

Our first-ever Extended Planner was created to help you easily create a marketing and content plan that generates leads. It includes helpful templates, strategies, editable calendars, and more. P.S.: Our early bird pricing just ended, but you can use the code PLANNER10 at checkout to get a 10% discount (expires March 9).

Made by LCG
 
 
 

One of My Favorite Days of the Year

 
Giving Tuesday

Volume 30

Today marks one of my favorite days of the year, Giving Tuesday. I love it because it provides an opportunity to pause amidst the holiday gift-giving and give to your favorite charity or cause. LCG has always had a passion for improving education, but two years ago, we took it even further and created the LCG Foundation to support U.S. K-12 educators financially. We respect educators above anything else, and it broke our hearts to learn that most grants available to educators were time-consuming, restricted, inequitable, and didn't meet the ever-changing needs of educators.

A teacher we talked to reflected, "It's a shame that teachers have to beg, steal, borrow, and write grants. We all know we should receive funding for everything we do with students."

To date, the LCG Foundation has partnered with corporations to give over $375,000 to K-12 educators, and our Foundation has directly given over $85,000 to educators and education organizations supporting educators. And today, we've announced our continued partnership with Meta to distribute grants to Chicago educators on Giving Tuesday.

Despite this giving, it'll never be enough and always bittersweet. We experienced this firsthand when we helped clear $51,000 of items off educators' lists during Teacher Appreciation Week.

We all know the K-12 system is broken, and I'm not naive enough to believe that a small foundation giving grants to less than 1% of U.S. teachers will transform this system. However, I do hope our small, incremental efforts can inspire others over time. James Clear, in Atomic Habits, said it best, "All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger."

This Giving Tuesday, we urge you to find ways to give to educators. You can support educators by:

Take care,
Elana

 
 
 

​Teacher Appreciation Gift Guide​

Looking for the perfect gift for educators during the holiday season? Our team has spent decades listening to educators, and we’d like to share some of our wisdom with you. Hint: It’s not a mug. ;)

Made by LCG
"educator voices," with some text bubbles
 
 

Some of the top comments:

  • It should also include observing each other.

  • Administrators shouldn't be the only ones giving feedback.

  • The evaluator should stop by the teachers' classrooms more than once.

  • We need to remove student standardized test scores from teacher feedback.

  • Assets-based instead of deficit-based- the same way we should be assessing our learners.

 

[BONUS]

Our team saw this tweet this week and had to investigate some of these tools. Have you tried any?

Some of the tools mentioned:

Don't miss this cool list of Chrome extensions created for educators by an educator.