Sometimes it is an idea you know is rudimentary, but you recognize your idea in it when they repeat it back to you. I always worry the easiest parts of an idea take hold and the details are forgotten, but there is the gist of what you said, coming right back at you. There is something embarrassing in the fact that I was able to relay the easy part, but not the more complex portion of what I was trying to explain.
It makes me cringe inside when people who historically are not current with educational technology all seem to embrace a component of one of my ideas. I worry that means I am Old School and not offering the newest ideas and that I may be judged for that. But part of me wonders if I am just building a bridge which only those stranded on the banks of yesteryear actual would use. That can’t be bad, can it?
Sometimes you knew it was a great idea, and you cannot help but smile when someone explains it to you since they have no idea it originated with you. I admit that I do a quick and silent route-trace to think through who actually was influenced by me. And despite my best efforts I do note whether credit travelled with the idea – not to keep score as much as to get to become better acquainted with my audience. It helps me learn the commodity at different school buildings, of different leaders, and can help me in future transactions with those people.
Occasionally, all you want is to plant the seed and allow someone else to cultivate the details which would make that idea flourish in their own environment.
And then other times, you want to present the idea from a different point of view and then allow someone else to come up with a solution.
How are people repeating you?
Are you happy with the echoes of your ideas you hear others repeat back to you?
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