The Power of Voxer Book Studies

The Power of Voxer Book Studies

The summer of 2016 has been a blessed one for me. First and foremost, my wife and I are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. I have been able to spend a lot of time with the my bride and the kids. Professionally, I have entered into the dissertation phase of my doctoral program in addition to participating in countless hours of learning through Voxer, which is one of my addictions. One particular Voxer book study that has taken my learning to a whole new level has been on the book Kids Deserve It. The authors, Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome, reach all educators where they are with this extraordinary piece of work. It will reignite your fire for education if feel as though you have “hit a brick wall” in your career.

There was a lot of dialogue in this group concerning Chapter 5, Make That Phone Call. The following quote stuck with me:

Because there’s power in a single phone call. We have the ability to brighten a day or fill a heart with hope simply by picking up the phone. The power of a phone call is real, profound, and important because voice connects people in a way email does not.

As a teacher and then Dean of Students, I have made tons of phone calls to parents for a long list of positive and negative reasons. This book study made me reflect on my approach with the phone calls that need to be made. This is integral to the school-family and school-community connection and bond. Even though it’s summer, school is not in session, and I am transitioning into a different role this upcoming year (future blog post coming about this role), I couldn’t get my mind off of making an “out of the blue phone call” in order to put something to use immediately after reading portions of this book.

For the past week, my mind has periodically thought about the summer progress of a particular student that I have had at school for the past 2 years. I have built a strong and productive relationship with the student’s parents. The student has had a rough time in middle school, as has many kids during the middle school years.  I decided that I would call the parents during the summer just to encourage the parents and student and focusing on the positives that I have witnessed from the student. I was not expecting the response that I received from the parents. When I called, they informed me that it was ironic that I called on this particular day to check up on the student. The student had experienced some significant issues several hours before my call, and they were in the middle of working through those issues. They were impressed, happy, and emotional about the call, stating that a teacher had never called during the summer to check on their student, especially not to encourage them and their child during a rough patch. By the end of the conversation, the parents asked me to have my wife and I meet them out for dinner in the near future.

One Simple, Amazing Phone Call is the section heading from where the above quote is located in the book. That sums up this phone call. It is truly amazing that a book study on Voxer can lead to the following sequence:

1. Educators from across the country are pushing each other’s thinking about chapters in a book; not to mention that the authors of the book are involved in the chat.
2. Educators use reflections from the dialogue to implement or reinvigorate one small thing to their practice.
3. Something powerful happens as a result of implementation

This is exactly what I experienced.