Need your battery recharged? That’s Kevin Honeycutt’s specialty! Born of the difficulty and turbulence of COVID-19 and social upheaval, he’s found ways to reignite joy and spark passion within students and teachers alike.
In this episode, Doing What Matters (Episode 73), we linked up with Honeycutt as he teaches us the importance of coming together, how to keep students and teachers passionate about instruction, and how to make creativity blossom in the face of adversity.
Here are the key ideas we took away from this episode:
- “Remember that the kids are watching and they think we know what we’re doing” so adults must strive to be better role models. We can set a good example by unifying and not allowing our differences to divide us, especially politically.
- Honeycutt is so passionate about togetherness that he wrote a song over a period of two years called, “It’s So Convenient,” that highlights the absurdity of friends becoming enemies over the polarization of politics and differing opinions. The song highlights the danger of habits such as consuming media that only supports our pre-existing views and the bad habit of viewing those with differing views as unequivocally wrong.
- In his own experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic, he made it a point to cease giving attention to news and social posts that angered him. He challenges the listener to stop consuming triggering media and to not “waste heartbeats being angry.” Instead, that energy should be used to create positive change by guiding younger generations.
- MadLearn is just one of many ways that Honeycutt creates emotive, meaningful learning experiences. It’s a program that allows inner city students to build apps that solve real-world problems. It follows one of Kevin’s numerous personal mottos: Kids should “learn to love to learn!”
- He shares that one of the best ways to make it through difficult times is to create community through collecting bright, positive people the way a child collects fireflies. Doing this will ensure that your world “never goes dark.”
Honeycutt’s enthusiasm is contagious. This power-packed podcast, filled with heart-felt wisdom, brain-tickling analogies, and a positive perspective, teaches us how to move forward when faced with great difficulty. It’s sure to put a smile on your face and maybe even encourage you to find some fireflies of your own!
Check out the full podcast for all the details: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts
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