You Have To make The Special Stuff Special

In 2010, I had a really fun job. I was the Instructional Technology Guru at a fairly small elementary school, which, in 2010, meant that when kids got to use technology at school, it was a big exciting deal for them and I was the person with the time and knowledge to make it happen.

At some point that year, one of the best teachers at the school asked me to work on a project with her class for the first time.  Her first graders had been working on some kind of small-group performances or presentations, and she asked if I would take a group at a time to our video studio to record them with our green screen.​

I was really excited to do this.  I could hardly believe our school had a video studio with a green screen to begin with, and I’d really had fun learning how to operate it and coming up with ideas for making it fun and useful with the kids.  Moreover, this was an excellent teacher who always wanted the very best opportunities for her class, and I was thrilled to have the chance to work with them for the first time.

I got everything scheduled, set up, and ready to go.  I knew it was going to be a lot of fun and a big deal to the kids.  I also knew that the particular teacher really held her class to a high level and did a great job of teaching them and encouraging them to get there, so I was very eager to see what they had ready.

​I went to their classroom to get the first group of four kids, introduced myself to them, and we headed out. They could hardly contain themselves. When I got to the door with them, from across the room, the teacher paused what she was doing, stopped me, and gave me the best teaching advice I’ve ever received.

We really had this stuff!

“Doug,” she interrupted, “remember - this is special, and you have to make the special stuff special.”

And she went back to what she was doing with another group, as though she hadn’t dropped a career-altering knowledge bomb.

That advice - “you have to make the special stuff special” - has been transformative for me for all the years since.  How easy would it have been for me to just mechanically record those skits?  “You stand here, you stand here, ok say the lines.  Nope, you messed up.  Let’s do it again.  Sigh.  Frustration.  Ok we’re done.  Send the next group.”  Just doing a special thing wasn’t enough.  I could have turned something those kids were looking forward to into something completely unmemorable for them and just gotten it done like another item on another to-do list.

The special stuff isn’t special unless you make it feel special.

It isn’t enough just to schedule special events, give special awards, or create special opportunities.  The things themselves aren’t special.  The atmosphere, the pomp and circumstance, the extra, the feeling - that’s what makes something unique.  Memorable.  Important.

Special.

One of the saddest school events I’ve ever attended was an awards ceremony.  All the kids who had received all A’s for the first half of the year were being recognized for that great achievement.  There weren’t very many, either.  These kids had really accomplished something rare and had truly stood out.

They’d done something that should have been special.

Their ceremony was in the middle of a school day.  A lot of their families couldn’t come.  It was in the school cafeteria right after lunch.  They each got a certificate and a donut.  Many of their names were mispronounced. The whole thing took less than five minutes.

The special stuff isn’t special unless you make it feel special.

With that pressure upon my shoulders, I broke out all the stops for those first graders that day.  “Before we do this, let me show you everything we have in this amazing studio and how it works.” “Usually just the 5th graders get to come back here, but now you get to.” “Hold the camera.” “Switch the monitor.”  “Press the buttons.”  “Let’s do it one more time and get that last line just right.”  “Come watch it and see what you think.”  “Should we play it for the whole school tomorrow?”
​

And I’ve done my best to keep that same spirit for countless special events ever since.

We all have those days, events, projects, lessons, and moments we hope will be memorable in our classrooms.  They don’t come around all that often.  Back in 2010, it took the best advice I’ve ever received to teach me that those days, events, projects, lessons and moments won’t be special just because they happen.

You have to make the special stuff special.



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