I used to give dozens of talks about teaching every year. I spoke at 54 events one year. I flew 100,000+ miles. Speaking was my main source of income. And I gave it up back in 2019.
Why did I quit giving talks?
Talks Don’t Lead To Change
I realized that talking about teaching just didn’t move the needle. Even when people loved my presentation, the chance that they’d implement anything from the talk was pretty low. And it’s totally understandable! Talks leave too many details unexplained.
After you go home, you’re left with vague memories, some notes, and maybe a PDF of slides. That’s not enough to successfully implement a new idea. You need to see it. And you probably need to see it a few times before you can do it well.
Listening to a talk actually creates more work for teachers. Everyone has to go home and try to implement the ideas I talked about.
Trying To Be More Useful
So, instead of giving talks that people like but don’t implement, now I write fully-functioning lessons. No no. Not mere “lesson plans” (reading lesson plans makes me go cross-eyed).
I make videos. But not videos for teachers to watch. They’re videos that teachers can play directly for their students. You can just play them for your class.
The difference has been striking. It turns out that teachers are starving for solutions. They don’t want to hear someone vaguely describe an idea. They need work taken off of their plates! “Byrdseed.TV is a lifesaver!” people tell me. (No one called any of my talks “lifesavers!”)
Nowadays, Byrdseed.TV has more members than I would ever have dreamed of. It’s way way way larger than any conference I ever spoke at.
But its size isn’t what I’m most pleased with!
The Proof Is In The Feedback
My favorite metric isn’t the number of Byrdseed.TV members. It’s the type of feedback I receive now.
Back when I “talked about teaching,” people would say to me:
I loved your talk! It was so engaging. You’ve given me a lot to think about.
Ok! That’s nice. But, now I get emails like…
My students just finished your lesson about the hundreds place and wanted me to show you what they came up with…
Or, even better:
We are in the middle of the Coloring Problem activity and my students disagree with your conclusion. Can you answer their questions…
Do you see the difference?
Sure, teachers liked my talks. But they actually use the lessons from Byrdseed.TV.
I Hope I’m Retired!
Every year people reach out and ask me to keynote an upcoming conference. But now you know why I’ve given that up. My time and energy are limited and I want to be as useful as I can. Talking about teaching just doesn’t cut it. If you see me suddenly promoting my speaking career again, you’ll know that something has gone awry 😝
If you haven’t tried it yet, explore Byrdseed.TV a bit. It’s about as useful as I can be without actually visiting your classroom!
And if you run a conference and would like to offer Byrdseed.TV to your attendees or members, get in touch: ian@byrdseed.com.