Generous Teaching

Unusual results require unusual actions

November 16, 2025

If you want something not a lot of people get, you have to do things not a lot of people do.

If people look at you strangely for the things you do, you may well be on the right track.

Or not…

But of course you can’t know unless you try.

Let everyone else do what is normal; they are running millions of experiments for you that you are welcome to observe and learn from.

While they’re doing that, you may as well run some experiments of your own.

What remarkable result do you want to create in the world?

And what is the thing you will do that people will ‘remark’ upon? (Whether they are being judgy or not in their remarks doesn’t matter- it still fits the definition of remarkable!)

Dare to do things vastly differently and you will have a life vastly different to anyone else.

Generous words

November 13, 2025

A generous word from a stranger is nice.

A generous word from an authority figure is better; ever notice how they have a way of really sticking?

When we’re young it’s a parent, a teacher or principal.

It holds the same weight as something coming from anyone in a lab coat.

Here’s two generous comments that completely stuck with me:

“You’re on the cusp of something!”

“It’s not a matter of whether or not you’ll succeed, but if you’re ready for it”

We have so much power with what we say (seemingly in passing) to those we lead. Have a couple at the ready and be free in how you share them.

You never know what’ll stick for life.

(AKA, you’re a bit of a wizard aren’t you!)

Honour the ‘or’.

November 7, 2025

Here’s a belief we should be actively fostering in our younger generation:

If something hasn’t been done before it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It Just means it hasn’t been done before.

We can be forgiven for thinking that if something hasn’t happened so far then it won’t at all. After all, we use the past as evidence for what will happen right?

Sometimes.

And other times unprecedented things occur. Sometimes completely new things happen. Massive discoveries are made.

Breakthroughs are breakthroughs because they are breaking through what was once thought impossible.

The past does not equal the future. It might be the same as it was…

…or it might be vastly different.

We must honour the ‘or’.

We owe it to the younger generation to keep the door open to new possibilities.

We must take seriously the way in which our language might infer things that limit others.

If something hasn’t been done before it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It Just means it hasn’t been done before.

What is a teachers job?

November 6, 2025

Teachers are the ultimate Swiss army knives. They have a very practical job to do that also requires them to pour their personality and heart into the work. They’re a lot like actors in that sense.

At a minimum, as teachers we must plant the seeds of doubt.

Not the bad kind of doubt either- the generous kind.

We have to plant seeds that begin to pick apart the destructive narratives that can form in our kids’ heads. You know the ones:

Other people can, but I can’t.

I’m not good enough.

I shouldn’t take up space.

I’m dumb.

I’m too loud.

Yes- at a minimum our job is to day by day plant seeds. Seeds that say these stories belong in the trash of the fiction section of a library that’s at a dump.

An outstanding teacher? Well, they don’t stop at planting these seeds.

They not only remove these stories by creating doubt in them, but they create empowering alternatives.

They give mountains of evidence, anecdotes, experiences and unquestionable proof that they can have it all.

Create doubt to collapse that which disempowers and build a ocean of evidence that tells them the truth:

You can do anything.

Poke the box

November 1, 2025

Poke the box- or how I learned to green screen.

Seth Godin has a great little book called ‘Poke the box’.

It’s about learning through experimentation. A box has a big red button- what happens it I press it? How about if I press it twice or five times really quickly?

This idea that we’re life long learners is an important one- but what does that actually look like? Watching the discovery channel? Binging youtube videos? Generally being curious?

I suppose yes, all of these.

And I think it’s about experimentation. It’s poking the box. Sure you might watch some youtube videos about the box, but you really just gotta prod the thing.

This is how I learned to green screen. I had to learn about lighting, distance, shutter speed, iso, frame rate, keying, colouring… in other words a lot of prodding.

I’m not super good at it now- but I know more than I did and can do more than I could.

Even though I know this from experience, I still find myself afraid to experiment. Maybe it comes down to stakes (or at least perceived stakes, which is all they ever are)

If I fail to green screen well, I don’t lose a lot; I can just try again. But if I start a new business on the other hand… well!

But what if we could treat the business like the green screen?

What is it to adopt an attitude of experimentation in all that we do?

To try without the need for perfection but to try toward knowing more than before.

That’s success in my book.

The Gene Wilder one

October 31, 2025

Abundance is magnetic.

My favourite people ooze a sense that there is more than enough of everything:

More than enough time, more than enough resources, more than enough opportunities, more than enough love- everything!

Abundance is the best.

And if the sentiment of “if you believe something is true, then so it is”- abundance is at our finger tips at any moment.

We always have a choice to orient ourselves to abundance. To communicate effectively with those we lead and love that there is more than enough. That the world is bountiful and it’s opportunities are awaiting you.

We don’t have to go out and change things to make this so. To quote Gene Wilder as the chocolate maker, “if you want to view paradise simply look around and view it.”

Go on, be one of my favourite people.

View the paradise around you.

I’m a model

October 29, 2025

I’m a model.

Although people don’t take my picture for money and I’ve never been on a runway- I’m modeling everyday.

You’re a model too and it’s the greatest honour for us all.

Teachers especially are models. And anyone in a leadership position; guiding or teaching souls who are seeking growth.

Whether we like it or not, our behaviour is teaching people the way to be. I’ve always hated the phrase, “Do as I say not as I do”. I really hope people only ever use that as a joke.

We can tell people what to do all we want but our biggest tool for passing on knowledge is the behaviour we model.

It’s not for me to tell you what to model- I think it’s enough to know that we are always modeling to those we lead. We can pretty much guarantee that your attitude and behaviour around certain things will be passed onto them.

Do you model optimism or pessimism?

How do you greet your students and what does that tell them about the world?

How do you react when something goes wrong?

What do you model when you’re tired?

Do you model gratitude or complaining?

Abundance or scarcity?

The classroom is our runway and we have choices to make at every turn.

What will you model today?

We remember things we enjoy

October 27, 2025

For something to light an audience up it has to light you up first.

I think the same with my students; If I want them to get excited about something, then by golly I better be excited about it first.

We have to find our way in. It may not be immediately obvious, but there is always a way to bring it to life for you. If actors can do it each night in the same show hundreds of times, then so can you.

In an interview, Andrew Scott mentioned the lines he has no trouble remembering are the ones he has fun saying.

Those flying colourful insults and hilarious punch lines.

Actors never forget those lines.

So to help him learn lines he’s looking for the delight in all of them.

It’s the same with all our work.

Find the pleasure in all of it, plug into it and help others find it for them too.

Words are gifts.

October 21, 2025

Yes they’re free to give but that have oceans of value.

At high school I wanted more than anything to be an actor. At that point it felt unknown and unreachable. One day my drama teacher gave me a gift in a few words.

She said, “It’s not a matter of IF you’ll be an actor- but are you ready to be an actor?”.

With her language she created possibility. Using the words “are you ready” assumed that me being an actor was a given. The unknown was my readiness at this point- something I have within my power.

What a gift.

Another memory I have was feeling like my work was going nowhere and I felt like giving up. To me it felt like the end.

My mum said to me “You’re on the cusp”.

Being on the “cusp” is a world away from being at the “end”.

What a gift.

I have a friend who has the habit of using the word “and” where most would say “but”.

It seems insignificant, right? Well playwrights and actors will tell you that “and” and “but” are different planets.

“You’re doing great but you could work on this.”

Vs.

“You’re doing great and you could work on this.”

Words are gifts we can give people anytime we choose.

It’s all music

October 15, 2025

When we’re working well together we’re in “harmony.”

When things move us they “strike a chord.”

When they deeply make sense to us they “resonate.”

Things that work perfectly are “singing” and when they’re running smoothly they’re “humming.”

Music is both emotional and systematic. The best things are.

Sure we can do our work- or we can make music.

I know which I choose to play.

JUSTIN ROGERS

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