Middle/High School – Page 6 – iLearn Technology

Prodigy: Virtual world of math

December 18, 2014January 9, 2015Kelly Tenkely6 Comments4480 views

What it is: Prodigy is a fantastic way to differentiate math in your classroom. Prodigy is a game-like fantasy world where students engage in math along their adventures. Prodigy is a virtual world where students can play together with classmates. In the virtual world, students are wizards who learn magic and spells to defeat over 100 monsters. To learn a new spell or add powers (or adopt pets), students must complete different math challenges. As students play the game, they will learn over 300 math skills in 1st-8th grade. Prodigy is adaptive, so it constantly adjusts to challenge them and keep them learning at their own pace. Gaps are automatically identified and the math challenges scaffold accordingly. As a teacher, you can get real-time feedback on the skills students have been working on and identify challenges at a glance.

How to integrate Prodigy into your classroom: Prodigy is aligned to the Common Core Math standards and has over 300 math skills for students to master. It moves beyond simple number sense and also covers geometry, spatial sense, probability, and other crucial skills. Because Prodigy is aligned to the Common Core, it is easy to navigate. The teacher dashboard is really intuitive, you can get in and have your class signed up and ready to roll in no time! From the teacher dashboard, you can use the assessment feature to diagnose where students are, and align math content to what you are teaching in class. In a 1:1 classroom setting, where each child has their own device, using Prodigy in your math class is a no brainer. Kids will love it! If you don’t have the luxury of a 1:1 environment, but you do have classroom computers, your kids can still benefit from Prodigy. Use Prodigy as a math center and in the course of a week, make sure that all of your students have the opportunity to filter through to practice the skills they have learned that week.

My guess is, if your students are like ours, that just being exposed to Prodigy in class will have your kids asking, “can we play this at home?” Umm, yes! I love when they get so into learning that they want to carry on all on their own. This is one of those games that they will want to come back to voluntarily!

Tips: Prodigy is completely free for you to use as an educator with your students. All of the educational skills and teacher features are completely free with no time limits that some sites have. The only thing that Prodigy charges for are kids’ game features where families can purchase special wands, hats, robes, etc.

Curious about how we use technology at Anastasis? You do not want to miss our conference in February! Registration is now open!

Apple joining Hour of Code and offering free workshops! #edtech

December 4, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3451 views

Today Apple announced that it will be joining code.org’s “Hour of Code” movement by hosting a free one-hour introduction to the basics of computer programming at Apple stores on December 11. During Computer Science Education week (December 8-14th) they will be hosting other workshops.

As a part of the Computer Science Education week, Apple will be hosting designers and engineers in select cities around the world. Pretty awesome! Contact your local Apple store to find out exact details of what your store has planned for the week.

Students at Anastasis Academy have started into an inquiry block about “How We Express Ourselves;” Hour of Code is coming perfectly timed as students can learn about how people express themselves through code.

Apple is also offering free resources for learning to code that you can get started with today. They’ve created a collection of helpful apps, books, podcasts, and iTunes U courses that will get your students coding in no time!

You (the teacher) don’t have to be an expert at coding to introduce your students to it. In fact, it is kind of fun if you are learning and discovering coding together…definitely a bonding experience! Truly, please don’t stay away from spending at least an hour during the Hour of Code just because you don’t feel like you know anything. Explore together and let your students get excited about coding and about teaching you something new as you go. The resources Apple has listed are a fantastic way to get started. Join the Hour of Code yourself for additional information and support here.

I love that coding can hit every level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. It obviously allows students the opportunity to create something digital, but it also causes them to apply concepts/skills/math, analyze and evaluate code and what it is used for, and can help build knowledge and understanding in code and in a variety of subjects that the code is related to. Pretty great when that happens!

Want to continue your own learning about learning? Join us for the 5-Sigma Edu Conference. There is even a session on coding in the curriculum! It is going to be awesome and as an added benefit, you get to see how classes at Anastasis Academy run. Can’t wait to meet you there!

Psst! This is the #CyberMonday Sale Not to Miss! Pass it on!

December 1, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2676 views

It is pretty much UNHEARD of to get such an amazing discount on a conference. This is one opportunity for connecting with thought leaders and educators around the world that you don’t want to miss! Looking forward to seeing you all here in February!

#FutureReady starts with Metanoia: doing life together in the journey to change one’s mind

November 20, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2851 views

Every morning Anastasis Academy students start with a mile walk. Together. We don’t walk by class, or by age. We walk together in community. Sometimes (when the weather is nicer) whole families join us, dogs included. It is a great way to start off the day. Directly following the walk, our students come together for a morning meeting. We call it “Metanoia” which is an ancient Greek word meaning: the journey to change one’s mind. Again, we do this as a community, not separated by age, grade, or class. They all sit together. Sometimes we bring in guest speakers, sometimes we watch a video together, and sometimes different staff members lead Metanoia. We share stories and take time to do life together. We do a lot of awesome things at Anastasis, but the Metanoia time together in the morning is among the most awesome.

The Metanoia tends to be tied up with the current inquiry block. This block, our students have been intentional about being thankful. Having an attitude of gratitude every day as part of our How We Express Ourselves inquiry block. Early in the week, we had @thewesroberts as our guest speaker. He gave each student a quarter and challenged them to multiply it and then give it away. Wes talked to the kids about the power they have to make an impact on each other’s lives and on our community. Incidentally as Wes was talking to our students, one of my friends lost their house and dogs in a fire. Devastating. I mentioned this to some of the Anastasis staff and before I knew it, our students had determined that they were going to multiply the quarters they were given to help my friend. Wow.

Today during Metanoia, @lancefinkbeiner called up students to the front one at a time and then asked the other students to say something that they appreciated about the student at the front. As a community, our kids told each other why they matter. This was a neat exercise, but what made it extra special was the way that kids of all ages gave input. They know each other. It matters not if they are the same age, or if they are in the same class. They know each other well enough that they can speak to what they appreciate about in each other. The love and grace that they offered each other through their comments was outstanding. “I like the way that you are friends with everyone.” “You are so creative!” “You include people.” “You have a great heart.” “You are really funny.” It was seriously so much awesome. Every student got to hear what others appreciated about them. Happiness.

So much of the time when we talk about education we focus on policy, politics, technology integration, curriculum. I’m learning that the most important thing is often the one that no one talks about. Community. Doing life together. Our kids are really good at thinking deeply, they are creative and innovative, they are incredibly articulate, they are confident, they are smart. I’m convinced that none of this would look the way that it does if we hadn’t been so intentional about building up our community. When kids feel supported by others; when they know that kids who are older and younger than they are care about them; when they can be vulnerable together, this is what leads to all of the rest being possible.

Many of my friends have been having discussions about #FutureReady. I think #FutureReady starts with Metanoia, doing life together in the journey to change one’s mind.

Want to see first hand what makes Anastasis such an awesome place to learn? Join us for 5 Sigma in February!

Post-it Plus: Digitize your Post-it Notes and take brainstorming with you!

November 18, 2014Kelly Tenkely2 Comments15256 views

What it is: Post-it Notes are among my very favorite office supplies. I use them for brainstorming, my calendar, to jot down reminders, and to collect the brilliant ideas that happen in the middle of the night. At Anastasis, we use Post It Notes constantly to help organize brainstorm sessions and lines of inquiry during an inquiry block. As you might imagine, we use TONS of Post-it Notes during any given week! They are hard not to love, brightly colored squares just waiting to collect brilliance and post it for the world to see. Recently, I stumbled on an app, Post-it Plus, that takes my love of sticky notes to a whole new level! Post-it Plus is an app that lets you snap pictures of a Post-it note brainstorm session, and then arrange, refine, and organize the notes on a virtual board. The newly organized digital board can then be shared out. Students can capture 50 Post-it notes at a time and collect and combine ideas from multiple categories. Notes can be organized on a grid, or free form any way that you would like. Boards can be shared via email, PowerPoint, Excel, Dropbox, by PDF, etc. After the work has been shared, anyone can help contribute and arrange the notes to create a great idea! The app is free and optimized for iOS 8.

How to integrate Post-it Plus in your classroom: Post-it Plus is a great way for students to capture their brainstorms and group work so that they can take it with them.

Collaboratively brainstorm with your class or explore some different lines of inquiry and record each new thought on a sticky note. Students can then take a picture of the group on their iOS devices and arrange and group in a way that best makes sense to them. Now all of your students can manipulate the sticky notes individually and bring their learning with them.

As students are writing (either creative or informational), they can write each new idea or paragraph on a different sticky note. Then they can arrange their notes and take a picture. As they create different arrangements, they can use the digital version to compare with the original to make decisions about the flow of their writing.

Teach young students? Write down the different parts of a story (beginning, middle, supporting details, end) on several sticky notes. Students can snap a picture of the notes and practice sequencing the story. Each student has the digital version, so each can practice ordering and you can quickly assess their understanding.

Post-it Plus could also be used for phonics work. Write phonemes on individual sticky notes and ask students to take pictures of each phoneme with the app. Then call out words that students can create with their phonemes in the app.

Post-it Plus is also fantastic for students learning math processes (order of operations anyone?) and algebraic thinking. Write each part of an equation down and students can manipulate the digital sticky notes to show process.

Students can also use Post-it Plus to categorize and organize ideas and events in history, science, government, etc. How We Got to Now anyone? 🙂

Tips: I can’t tell you how many conferences I’ve been to that we used Sticky notes to brainstorm ideas. Post-it Plus makes it easy to take that thinking and learning with you in a very practical form that you can interact with later! Speaking of conferences, the 5 Sigma Edu Conference is a great one to test out this app!

StackUp: Get professional development credit for Twitter edchats

November 13, 2014November 13, 2014Kelly Tenkely1 Comment13024 views

What it is: StackUp is a really neat new web app that automatically scores online reading and learning. As you work online, StackUp captures data through the free web app and plugin which can be used on Mac and Windows (iOS and Android coming soon). When active, StackUp captures and attributes a score time that is spent anywhere online. It then categorizes it into 60 different subject areas including: news, finance, engineering, fashion, technology, sports, and online classes. StackUp is a metric that can offer insight into the commitment and study of a certain field.

How to integrate StackUp into the classroom: In the increasing digital landscape of the world (and classrooms) it is important to offer the opportunity for students to research and direct their own learning. StackUp offers students a way to share the commitment of learning with teachers and other stake holders. So often, we think about time spent online as “wasted” because, let’s face it, there can be lots of moments of wasted time online. But, the Internet is also a rich landscape for learning and continued learning in areas of passion. StackUp is a way for students to offer proof of this time spent learning so that teachers can appreciate and offer credit for that learning. Often classrooms have certain parameters and reading expectations for students. What if instead, we offered kids the ability to spend time researching, reading, and exploring things that they are passionate about…and then offer credit for it! StackUp could be the catalyst for more independent learning opportunities and studies within areas of passion. One of the things that I find holds teachers back from allowing this type of reading, is the inability to measure whether a student has really spent time on task.

I’ve often lamented about how I wish that the time spent in online education chats and reading educational blogs, articles, and whitepapers counted as professional development and credit hours. Seriously, I rack up the hours and it is always time well spent. As an administrator, I would happily accept a StackUp record of the time that my teachers engage in online material and offer credit and professional development hours for that time. I’ve gotten more out of the connections, chats, and learning that I’ve done with all of you online, than most of the required professional development. This could be transformational for helping tell the story of the learning that we do independently.

Imagine “Stacking” up the learning from a young age in areas of passion, and continue throughout their lifetime giving students another way to distinguish themselves. Tools like StackUp could start to change the landscape of learning and how we decide who the “experts” are. Hint: it isn’t always the person with the most letters behind their name.

Tips: Worried that one of your students might be able to cheat the system and simply open a webpage and walk away? No need to worry! StackUp is built on a patent-pending software system that can detect the difference between a student who just opens a webpage versus the student who is actually engaged.

StackUp doesn’t always have to run in the background and record every single move you or your students make online, it allows users to turn it on or off at any time and delete time spent on a website or in any category…you know, for those of us who spend an embarrassing amount of time on Pinterest. 🙂

Want to really amp up your professional development with the best education conference you’ve ever been to? Join us for the 5 Sigma Edu Conference!

How We Got to Now: 6 Innovations That Made the Modern World

November 5, 2014Kelly Tenkely2 Comments39455 views

At Anastasis Academy, we are in the middle of the inquiry block “Where We Are in Place and Time.” During this block our students are exploring orientation in place and time, personal histories, explorations and migrations of humankind, and the relationships between the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations from local and global perspectives. Serendipitously, Steven Johnson’s new book “How We Got to Now” just came out along with a PBS documentary. The timing could not have been better!! Steven looks at 6 innovations that made the modern world. In his telling about these 6 innovations, he demonstrates the inquiry approach in really brilliant ways. The interdisciplinary nature of this series is fantastic! I’ve been reading “How We Got to Now” (I highly recommend it!) and the students have been watching the new PBS documentary series by the same name as part of the inquiry unit. In addition to the book and documentary series, PBS has a brilliant How We Got to Now website for the classroom!

What it is: How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson is a website from PBS. The resources on the site are meant to support the documentary series (or book) and recommended for 6th-12th grade. At Anastasis, we are using it with students as young as 3rd grade and they are all getting something out of it and loving the connections of history and these innovations.

How to use How We Got to Now in the classroom: I love the way that Johnson explores innovation through these 6 lenses. Instead of offering up the typical “heroes” of invention, Johnson introduces students to concepts that span hundreds of years of invention and many of the unsung heroes. The six innovations include: glass, time, clean, light, sound, and cold. I’m telling you, the way that Johnson helps kids see connections in innovation and invention is brilliant! So much the way that inquiry works. 🙂

The How We Got to Now site has a great “Big Ideas” section that leads students to dig deeper into the six innovations and has provocations for students to continue making connections, learning, asking questions, and even coming up with their own innovations.

Students can explore and discuss how change happens and think about how we get to “next.”

As I mentioned, our students at Anastasis are really loving this block. They are enjoying exploring Where We Are in Place and Time with the help of Steven Johnson and through the lens of these six innovations. It has led to a lot of additional lines of inquiry and has also prompted our students to create their own innovations and inventions for the “next.”

As I was reading “How We Got to Now,” I couldn’t help but imagine a set of dominoes. Each innovation connects to something prior that sets off a chain reaction like the domino effect. I suggested to our classes that the students choose one of the six innovations to illustrate this way. The students will create a mini museum for our families to go through that is full of large cardboard dominoes with the inventions and catalysts of the chain reaction. The last domino will be their invention. I’m excited to see this come together!

Tips: Watch full episodes of How We Got to Now online here.

Are you interested in learning more about the inquiry model we use at Anastasis Academy? Join our conference in February! Early bird registration now available.

Ozobot: game pieces with brains

October 14, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2887 views

What it is: “Oh my gosh! This is SO AWESOME!!” – Exclamation from a student upon playing with the Ozobot for the first time.

Last week, I got an Ozobot in the mail…I couldn’t wait to play! These little robots are game pieces with brains. They are about the size of a large bouncy ball and kids can interact with these little robots in a variety of ways. Right out of the box, the Ozobot is ready to use. After a quick calibration (which consists of holding down the power button and setting on a “dot” card) the Ozobot is ready to play and learn with. Ozobot reacts to color codes. The color codes have already been programmed which means that your students can use those codes to create their own games and challenges. Red, blue, green, and black markers can be used to create their own challenges, games, and courses for the Ozobot. In addition to your student’s imaginations, the Ozobot website has pre-made mazes and games that can be downloaded and printed out. The Ozobot can also interact with your iPad or Android devices, download the Ozobot app and you suddenly have a lot more ways to interact with the Ozobot!

How to integrate the Ozobot into your classroom for learning: The Ozobot is a great way to teach your students the basic building blocks of coding. While they won’t actually use code to make Ozobot move, the color codes teach students to think like a programmer. Students start to realize that they can make the Ozobot move and react based on their input of different colors. Before you give your students the OzoCode sheet (which can be downloaded from the Ozobot website), use the color card included with the Ozobot and ask your “scientists” to observe this strange new discovery. Students can play the part of scientist and record observations about what Ozobot does in reaction to the different colors and codes on the maze. Can they reproduce some of these behaviors on their own drawings for Ozobot? Next, give them the color code reference chart and let them experiment with the different color codes. IF they make a red and blue dot next to each other THEN what does Ozobot do? Help students think in terms of IF/THEN and not only will they get practice with the scientific method, they will also get some great building blocks for coding. Students can use the color codes to design their own mazes and challenges for the Ozobot, they can even create their own games! The Ozobot kit that I received is from the Competition Series and included two Ozobots and some Ozoskins (so that you can tell them apart). Students could create large self correcting math or vocabulary puzzles for Ozobot to solve. They can write down the question and try to “beat” Ozobot to the correct answer. Each student can create a problem and they can be used as a center game…Beat Ozobot. Ozobot can move, set timers, pause, exit and win, count down, walk backward, spin, zigzag, etc. While it travels to the correct answer on the sheet of paper based on the path drawn, students have to try to solve the problem first. A fun digital buddy to practice math, vocabulary, geography, etc. with!

Tips: Ozobot is also a pretty great dancer. It should definitely be included in any classroom dance party!

Archive Pinterest Boards with Evernote Web Clipper

August 17, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment8907 views

At Anastasis Academy, we don’t have boxed curriculum. This can be both incredibly freeing, and terrifying. If you don’t have curriculum that tells you what to do, what do you DO?! We engage students in inquiry. Inquiry gives students parameters of learning, but allows them to discover and explore within those parameters. Teaching students to properly manage their freedom.

Each 5 weeks, our students engage a new line of inquiry. We follow the PYP inquiry questions (Who we are, Where we are in place and time, How we organize ourselves, How the world works, Sharing the planet). These questions give us good parameters to work within. Each 5 weeks, I send our teachers resources for the inquiry block. Within these big inquiry questions, I provide our primary, intermediate, and Jr. High with different key concept lines of inquiry to explore. These are aligned to the social studies, science, language, and math standards for that age group. Every year I change-up the key concept lines of inquiry just a bit (keeps things interesting and fresh for all of us!).

I create Pinterest boards for our teachers that have a variety of resources for each inquiry block. These resources include ideas, videos, lessons, books, apps, etc. that are related to the inquiry block. They are not prescriptive, but rather offer a launching point for teachers. Then, I create QR code posters that look like this:

These get posted all over the school so that teachers and students always have access to the resources (note: we are a 1:1 iPad school).

This has worked REALLY well for sharing resources, as I notice students connect with a line of questioning/inquiry, I can add resources during the inquiry block that the students can use. This creates a whole community that is discovering and learning together. The curriculum is fluid, it is constantly growing and adapting. Teachers often send me links and ideas through Pinterest (I don’t add teachers as collaborators for the boards-even though I could- because I don’t want them to feel obligated to spend their free time the way that I do). Students have begun to send ideas through Pinterest as well…way cool!!

Here is the problem, each year I create 18 inquiry boards. I use the same Pinterest account for personal use as I do for education (you never know when a non-education idea will spark the perfect education idea). As I was getting ready to create boards for this school year, I realized how MANY boards I was going to have to sort through to find this years boards. It is starting to get ridiculous! I needed a good way to archive boards. Enter Evernote. We already use Evernote as a school for ePortfolios, archiving boards using Evernote is the perfect solution!

I used the Firefox web browser to do this, I’m sure this plugin exists for all major web browsers. First, go to “Tools” in your Firefox menu bar and choose “Add Ons.” In the search bar, type “Evernote web clipper” and download the Evernote Web Clipper add-on. After you restart Firefox, this will put the Evernote Web Clipper button in your Firefox tools.

Navigate to the Pinterest board that you want to save. Select all by going to “Edit” in the menu bar, and choose “Select All.” You could also just navigate to the board you want to archive and hold down the command key and letter “a.” Then click on the Evernote Web Clipper button in your address bar. Add any tags that you want to be associated with the board and a note to yourself about the board.

That is it! The board is saved to Evernote with all of the images, and the web link is live as well! Verify that the board saved to Evernote correctly and then delete the board. Now you have room for a new year’s worth of boards.

This is a seriously great way to archive any boards that you need to save but don’t need in your Pinterest list right now. I’ve just archived all of last year’s inquiry boards and am ready to pin another year! This is also a great way to create a back-up of your boards or to save and send entire boards to colleagues.

If you just need to save the images from a pinterest board, use that-boy-I-love, (@jtenkely)‘s awesome creation, Pinswiper. This tool will save just the images from a Pinterest board as jpgs on your desktop. Great if you need images that you saved for classroom presentations, writing prompts, etc.

Open note to girls: you are beautiful, you are enough.

July 22, 2014Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3693 views

This post is dedicated to the most beautiful girls that I know: Lexi, Riley, Caroline, Micah, Abbey, Maddie, Kaylee, Meredith, Lexxi, Athena, Taylor, Emma, Hope, Sophie, Lauren, and the young team Anastasis girls that these wonderful ladies set the stage for.

String bean, Toothpick, Twiggy, Slim, Skinny, Bones, Chicken Legs. This is how I was known growing up. More often than not, these “nicknames” were used in place of my actual name. I hated it.

When I was in elementary school, the names didn’t bother me so much. I didn’t really associate them with myself so they didn’t hurt my feelings. I really only heard these names once a year during our PE physical. For some reason someone came up with the brilliant idea to have our height and weight measured in PE class each year. We would all line up against the wall and one by one be told our weight and height while a PE assistant scribbled down our weight on a piece of paper that would be sent home. One by one we walked up, either elated or embarrassed by our height (in elementary school, height rules). Then came the weight. I don’t think any of us really knew what the “ideal” weight was. I don’t remember being embarrassed by the number called out. It wasn’t until they pulled me aside and told me that I was “under weight” and SHOULD weigh more, and that they would send a note home to my parents that I was embarrassed. But, it was one day a year that happened along with eye tests and was always soon forgotten. It was the first time I remember feeling different from the other kids. Like maybe there was something wrong with me.

Cut to middle school where the name of the game is blending in and looking like everyone else. The names started to hurt. It was this constant reminder that there was something “wrong” with me. That I was different. In middle school different is equated with bad. It was the first time that I really began to feel self-conscious about the way that I looked. I was skinny and on the tallish side for how slender I was, mostly I was trapped in the body of Peter Pan. Couple that with the joys of puberty…disastrous. This is the time that you begin to care what others think of you and unfortunately, it comes at the same time as your body is at it’s most awkward.

I started to break out regularly and even though I took care to wash my face twice a day and use products that should have cleared my skin, I always had a break out somewhere on my face. In health class we all got assigned a “disease” to research and report on. As the teacher was calling out assignments, I heard my name, “Kelly, you will do acne.” The boy next to me leaned over laughing, “You know why you got assigned that right? It’s because you always have zits everywhere.” Devastating. When I looked in the mirror, all I saw was my bony shoulders, my skinny chicken legs, and the pimples on my face. I felt ugly.

This feeling of not being enough followed me into the high school years. The breakouts started to get under control, but I was still as skinny as ever. At 5’4 I finished high school weighing 90 lbs. This wasn’t for lack of eating. I have an insane sweet tooth and ice cream and milk shakes were part of my regular diet. No matter what or how much I ate, nothing seemed to change my weight. I know, most of you are shaking your head right now sarcastically thinking, “poor Kelly, she could eat ANYTHING and not gain weight…we feel so bad.” I’ve heard that throughout my life too. I never got asked out on a date in high school, never had a boyfriend. My friends seemed to get asked out regularly. Another reminder that something was wrong with me.

In college I was pulled aside by multiple professors and RA’s who wanted to talk to me about “my anorexia.” It’s hard to convince someone who thinks they know you that they don’t actually know you. It took a doctor’s note documenting that I was at a healthy weight, for me, to get them to stop hounding me. This didn’t stop random old ladies from approaching me and grabbing my arm while they told me that I needed to eat more and take care of myself. It also didn’t stop the rude comments random guys would call out at me, “good Lord, eat something!” Different felt ugly. It sent the message over and over, “you are not enough.”

This post isn’t really about my weight. It’s actually a post about beauty.

When I was young, I thought that beauty was something that was unattainable because I didn’t look like the “popular girls.” I had this picture in my mind of what beauty was: being just curvy enough, perfectly made up face, long silky hair, long legs, perfect wardrobe, perfect smile, pouty lips, tan.

Imagine my shock when I learned that none of this is what makes you beautiful. It took a long time to learn this truth. My definition began to shift when I was in college and lived in a house full of girls. I had beautiful roommates. Attractive in every sense of the word; yet the longer I lived with them, the more I heard their insecurities about their looks. I was baffled. How could these beautiful girls look in the mirror and believe they were ugly? Perception is an interesting thing. We assume that people see the same things we see, that they perceive us the same way that we do. This is rarely the case.

My husband was my first boyfriend. He saw beauty that I couldn’t see. He helped reshape my perception. My wonderful friends and roommates had a big hand in this as well. I began to realize that we really don’t see ourselves the way that others do. Our perceptions are often not accurate representations.

Beauty is so much more than what we see in the mirror. It’s sad that we reduce it so much and beat ourselves up about it. I can’t tell you the number of girls I’ve taught that come to me in tears because they don’t feel like they are enough. Not pretty enough, not smart enough, not athletic enough, not funny enough. Not enough.

Without exception, every single one of these girls was unequivocally MORE THAN ENOUGH. They are beautiful. They are smart, and funny, and engaging. It breaks my heart to see their tears, to see the insecurity that they carry, to realize that they don’t see themselves the way that the rest of us see them.

They look to makeup, revealing clothes, unhealthy relationships, snap chat, ask FM to tell them they are beautiful.

So girls, with everything above as a backdrop, this is my message for you:

You are beautiful.

Yes, you.

You are enough.

Yes, you.

When we look at you, we see beauty. It’s not the makeup you put on. It’s not the tan. It’s not the perfect hair. It’s not the perfect weight or height (as if there is such a thing).

You are beautiful because you are brave, you don’t hesitate to leap in and take big risks.

You are beautiful because you put passion into the work you do and when you share it, we can’t help but be captivated by the same magic.

You are beautiful because of the work you do in the service of joy.

You are beautiful because you have a laugh that pulls everyone else into the fun.

You are beautiful because of the way your eyes widen with compassion when you see someone hurting, right before you jump in to help.

You are beautiful because you have a generous nature that you share freely.

You are beautiful because you have a great sense of humor that instantly puts everyone at ease.

You are beautiful because you make everyone a friend.

You are beautiful because of the way you join in silliness, especially when your peers won’t join in.

You are beautiful because your awkwardness is endearing.

You are beautiful. We all see it. We want you to see it.

You are beautiful.

I hope that when you feel like you aren’t enough, you will call and let me change your perception. Sometimes, people will cross your path that don’t deserve you. But that doesn’t matter in the long run, you are beautiful because of the way you keep sharing your gifts with the rest of us who do see the immense beauty.

I hope that when you look in the mirror, you see what we see. The beauty that you are.

I’ve become passionate about self-image over the years. Perspective can do that for you. I want every single girl, young woman, and woman to recognize the beauty that they are. To see what the rest of us see. I want them to be secure in who they are and the way that they look (especially without makeup). I want them to know that they are enough. It’s why I love the message of Rodan + Fields. It’s why I’m hosting a virtual party on Thursday. It’s the reason I hope you will join me Thursday and then take a makeup free selfie on Friday with the hashtag #rfnaked. Show the girls in your life that it isn’t the makeup that makes a woman beautiful…the added bonus is that for every #rfnaked makeup free selfie posted, Rodan + Fields will donate $1 to education. If you missed the details about the virtual party, check it out here and make sure to join us!