Create your on pin buttons!

Over the past few days my #clmooc friend Algot Runeman, who you can find on Mastodon, as been sharing pin buttons.  In this article he shows how he makes them and how he wore a different pin button every day while he was a teacher. His students loved it!

This seems like something that could be an activity in any site-based tutor/mentor program, which is why I'm sharing it.  If you read his article you'll find several pages of pins that he created in the past, which you can use as you make your own.  Or you can create your own.

This would fit well with creative activities like the Student Voices project at Tutoring Chicago. Below is one student creation which you can view in this PDF.

As programs are recruiting volunteers for the new school year, imagine having pin-buttons created by your own students and volunteers to hand out at recruitment fairs and events. 

I see ideas like this because I scroll through my LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky and Facebook post each day.  I hope you'll connect with me in one, or more, of these places.

Finally, I depend on financial support from a small group of people (even though I'm not a 501-c-3) to keep doing this work. Visit this page if you can help. 

Blogging4Life: Why I Started Blogging

A few of my #clmooc friends have created posts showing why they blog and invited me to add my own history.  I invite you to read posts by Kevin, Sarah and Sheri to see where I'm getting my inspiration. 

Like Kevin, I'm going to break this into a few posts, with the first one probably the longest.

Why did you start blogging in the first place? 

Creating and writing this blog, starting in April 2005, was an extension of the public awareness strategy which I’d launched in 1993 when I and six other volunteers created a new tutor/mentor program in Chicago, to serve teens in one neighborhood, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, to help similar programs reach k-12 youth in every high poverty area of Chicago. 

Sample graphic from Tutor/Mentor blog articles

The goal of every article is visualized with the graphic shown above.  "How can we do this better?"  How do we get more people involved in helping kids in high poverty areas move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty, and from the scourge of systemic racism.

The habit of blogging has deeper roots, extending to my 17 years working in retail advertising for the Montgomery Ward retail store corporation from 1973 to 1990. Every ad we wrote was a ‘mini blog’ providing information to millions of potential customers. 

When I started leading a tutor/mentor program in 1975, as a volunteer, I created weekly newsletters to provide volunteers with ideas and tips and news about upcoming events that they were to share with their students. Each of these is an early version of what I have been trying to do with my blog articles. This link points to the April 1986 issue shown at the right.  

From 1993 to 2002 my primary communication to the world was through printed newsletters that I sent three to four times each year. In 1993 the mailing list was around 400. It grew each year and was close to 14,000 by 2003 when we stopped sending these due to rising costs and lack of funding. 

We created two versions of this. One focused on our own tutor/mentor program, as well as the T/MC. The other focused on the T/MC and other programs in Chicago and around the country, with just a small mention of our own program.

In each printed newsletter I included a “President’s Message”. That was an early form of blogging for me. At the left is the editorial from my Jan-Feb 1997 newsletter.  On this page you can find links to many of my past printed newsletters. 

We switched to weekly email newsletters in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the people in our print mail database transferred over to the email list. Unless they have searched the Internet for "tutor mentor" and found my website and blogs, we've lost contact. 

As with the print newsletters, each email newsletter ended with a “President’s Message”.  You can read many of these in this section of my archive.    

By 1995 I was beginning to share ideas on Internet forums, such as the VOC-Net (Vocational Education Discussion List), Digital Divide, After School Network, SAC-List at University of Illinois, and MOTT School-Age list. I also connected on a list hosted by the Australian Student Traineeship Foundation.

Then around 2000 I started hosting planning conversations on Yahoo Groups.  My rational was that using the Internet I could reach hundreds of people every day, whereas in face-to-face meeting I might only meet with one or two people a day, at the most. 

The goal was to get more and more people involved, helping the program I was leading, and helping every other program operating in the Chicago region. My library now points to youth serving programs in all parts of the USA and many parts of the world. They all need help.

We recruited a professional public relations firm, Public Communications, Inc.,  in 1993 to help us develop the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy and implement the public awareness part of it. This led to me hosting tutor/mentor conferences every six months from May 1994 to May 2015, publishing a printed Directory of tutor/mentor programs, and organizing Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaigns each August/Sept from 1995 to 2003. 

Our PR partner fed information to the media each time we hosted an event, which resulted in numerous print, radio and TV stories. You can see many on this page.  

We launched a “Rest of the Story” strategy in 1994 to follow negative news with map-stories showing where the incident took place and any tutor/mentor programs operating in the area. Many of the articles in the Tutor/Mentor blog are part of the “Rest of the Story” strategy. Here’s an example. 

Along with this I began to write “letters to the Editor” which were often published in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times and other media. I shared some of these in this article.

However, more often than not, my letters were not published. 

Volunteers from my Chicago tutor/mentor program built my first Tutor/Mentor Connection websites, in 1996, then again in 1998, which demonstrates how workplace volunteers who first begin as one-on-one tutors and mentors often go beyond, and help the program, and the students, in other ways. 

I posted my maps and information and lists of programs on those sites. I pointed to them in my on-line listserv conversations.

As I learned about blogging I saw a way to by-pass media gatekeepers who only chose to print my letters occasionally.

I felt that with a blog I could share my ideas and draw attention to the tutor/mentor program I led, and to events I was organizing, more consistently than through traditional media.

So, I launched this blog.

In my first article, published in April 2005, I wrote:

I've been taking a look at the blogging community in the past week and feel that this is a great format for creating on-going dialog about volunteering, community service, civic engagement and tutoring/mentoring. Most blogs only connect to other bloggers. I'm looking to create a blogging space that links to the T/MC web sites, so that as people talk about tutoring/mentoring, we can use maps, charts and other web links to show them where, why and how they can be involved. If we can create a space for this on a T/MC web site we can be a hub for bloggers throughout the world to connect, link, and increase awareness of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and the work we do.

In a couple of months it will be the 20 year anniversary of this blog.  Over the next two weeks I'll address some of the other questions shown on Sarah, Kevin and Sherri's blogs. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit some of my past articles and use them as starting points for your own. In particular, look at the #clmooc articles to see how I've connected with this group since 2013.  They have been a tremendous source of inspiration and support.  

Thanks for reading.  I hope this encourages you to write your own blog, and use it to focus on drawing people to ideas they can use to help solve problems that need the efforts of many people, over many years.

My second Blogging4Life article is here. My third is here. Read them all and follow the links!

I'm on BlueSky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I hope you'll connect and boost my posts.  

I also hope a few readers will visit this page and make contributions to help me continue to do this work. 

Map the network to enhance connections

The 2025 National Mentoring Summit will be held in Washington, DC this week.  I won't be there but have attended and written about these over the past 20 years. Browse some of my articles at this link. 

I wish the organizers would create a participation map, similar to the one created by the Making Learning Connected cMOOC, which was first held in 2013 and repeated for several years. Participants are still connected in interesting ways. 

I had participated in an Education, Technology & Learning ETMOOC a few month earlier and was impressed by their participation map. I shared that in the CLMOOC conversation and they created their own. You can see the 2013 map below. Visit this page and see maps from 2013 to 2017. 

2013 CLMOOC participation map

cMOOCs are idea sharing events. If you can participate long enough you learn new ideas that might be applied to your own work.  You can also build friendships with people living in different states and countries, as I have over the past 12 years.   The Mentoring Summits have a similar purpose, but when there are 1000 people in the room, you really only connect with those you rub elbows with, if then. 

While the Summit has some features that encourage registered participant interactions, this is not open to the public and I'm not sure how much it continues after the summit.  I certainly have never found a #MentorSummit discussion group on any of my social media channels that operated in a similar way the connected learning cMOOCs have.

This is more important in 2025 than ever before. Just this past week the President issued an executive order ending Federal grant funding for thousands of organizations.  Youth serving programs, including mentoring and tutoring, will be hit hard.  

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in 1975 (see history) while I held a full time job with the Montgomery Ward company. While our program grew to include over 300 pairs of youth and volunteers by 1990, funding was not an issue because all of the leaders were volunteers.

However, in 1990 when I converted this program to a 501-c-3 non profit and needed to raise money to pay salaries for myself and others to stay involved, the funding of non profits began to become a real issue. Over the years as my personal frustration grew, I've built a library of articles that show the challenges small non profits face in finding consistent operating funds, and I’ve built a library of articles that show how others think on this topic.

I no longer lead a direct-service non-profit. Finding consistent funding has always been a challenge.

I can only imagine the anxiety and fear taking place among staff, leaders and clients as they try to navigate the Federal funding cuts announced this week by Executive order.

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011 to influence how youth serving programs are funded.  I've posted many articles tagged 'philanthropy' on this blog that show my thinking. I hope you'll take time to look at them.

The goal is to reverse the process, at least a little. Teach donors to seek programs to fund, based on who they serve and what they do, and what the donor can learn about the need for that type of service provider.  By building lists of Chicago volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs and a library of research articles, and sharing that on my website, I enable this process. 

We created the Tutor/Mentor Connection while we were launching a new direct service program to help teens in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago move from 7th grade through high school.  The graphic below shows an on-going commitment to help EVERY tutor/mentor program in Chicago as a strategy to help our OWN program.  

I've constantly encourage other programs in Chicago to do the same, and other cities to duplicate the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy.  

I illustrate my thinking visually so let me show some maps that I think many of you will find interesting, and useful.

This is a map showing nearly 400 foundation (corporate and private) in the Chicago region and Eastern part of the United States who I put on my mailing list between 1993 and 2005.

This map shows a close up of the Chicago region so you can get a better sense of how many foundations I was reaching out to.

My organization never had more than 3 or 4 people on staff, and never had a full time professional development officer. I was CEO, chief innovator, chief marketing officer, newsletter writer, grant writer, janitor. Yet every year I was challenged to write letters of introduction, letters of inquiry, grant requests, grant reports, each with different requirements and different questions.

This map shows the Chicago LOOP area.  Imagine how much time went into reach out to these organizations every year. Or how much frustration resulted from countless rejection letters. 

Every year I sent copies of my printed newsletters to these people, showing why tutor/mentor programs were needed and what I was doing as a direct service provider, and as leader of the intermediary Tutor/Mentor Connection.  By 1998 I was using web sites to show the work I was doing and what I was trying to do.

The green icons on the map are foundations that funded my organization at least one time. Few funded me more than 2-3 years in a row. Some, like Montgomery Ward, funded me for seven consecutive years, then went out of business, and thus were not able to continue their support.

None of the grants was larger than $50,000 and most were in the $1,000 to $10,000 per year range. Some were for general operating expenses, which I could use flexibly to build the organization, while many focused specifically on activities of the Cabrini Connections direct service program or the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

In total I raised more than $6 million between 1993 and 2011, with a peak of $500,000 in 2000. This money split with 40% funding the Cabrini Connections direct service program, 40% the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and 20% funding operating and fundraising expenses. With no multi-year commitments, each year since about 1998 I started from zero in raising $300 to $400,000 from a wide range of donors.

None of this was from Federal grants.  A small percent came from a State of Illinois Department of Human Services grant provided from around 2000 to 2011.  

The graphic below shows the intermediary role I've piloted over the past 30 years. It aims to connect "those who can help, which includes donors" to information showing where help is needed, which should include comprehensive lists of youth serving programs in every city and state.

Events like the National Mentoring Summit, and their websites, are part of a number of organizations who take on the role visualized by the blue box in this graphic.  They collect and share information and bring people together to learn from each other. They advocate for public funding of youth serving programs.  Many have directories on their websites that people can use to find places to get involved.

So far, I've not found any that are trying to connect private sector funders with programs in their directories. The "Donate" button on their website usually points to themselves.

What's the point of this article?

With more than 200 youth serving organizations in Chicago offering various forms of tutoring, mentoring and non-school support, we can have 200 development officers and/or Executive Directors reaching through resource lists to find foundations who will give them funds each year, which is a tremendous redundancy.

Or we can build strategies that educate and motivate donors and business partners to reach out and build proactive support systems for tutor/mentor programs in neighborhoods that need such programs.

Imagine if every youth program shared their funding and prospect lists with maps like this.  What if each were educating donors to fund multiple programs, not just their own?  That's what I was doing.   

As I look at what the National Mentoring Partnership offers I wish they hosted their own resource map showing foundations who provide grants to mentor-based programs across the USA, sorted by city and state and by type of mentoring programs they fund. Workshops at the annual Summit, and throughout the year could show youth programs how to use this data in on-going marketing campaigns.

That would make it easier for youth program leaders to find donors.  And, for donors to find programs!

Hopefully this will be discussed in face-to-face events, like the January Mentoring Summit and in statewide gatherings.  And in on-line events like the cMOOCs that I've described.

We can do both. We can do better.

If you're looking for a current map of foundations visit the Foundation Maps by Candid website. Unfortunately,  you'll need to pay a fee to access the data, or be a member of a local network that subscribes.  

Building these on-line communities, encouraging people to connect and share ideas, sharing lists of programs and resource providers, are just some of the responses that should be developed to counter a loss of Federal funding, and a potential decline of critically needed services.  

If you know of such platforms, reach out to connect and share this information with me on these social media pages. 

I turned 78 last December so don't know how many years I have left to write articles like this.  Articles in the About T/MI, History, and A New T/MC sections that are intended to help others understand what I've been trying to do, and to learn how they might duplicate this work in different places, or rebuild it in the Chicago region.

While I'm still here, you can help me keep sharing these ideas by visiting my "Fund T/MI" page and sending a small contribution. 

Embed these learning goals in your youth program

I created this graphic many years ago to visualize all of the work that needs to be done to create high quality, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs and make them available for 10-20 years to youth living in ALL high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other places with concentrations of persistent poverty.  I've used it often.  One place was in this article about building personal learning habits.

In that article I also showed a concept map created in the mid 2000s to show Internet-based learning goals that I was trying to embed in the Chicago tutor/mentor program I was leading at that time.  I updated it today.  You can open it at this link.

I circled three additions I made to the cMap today.  

One points to the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) goals of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, CASEL. On their website they say, "We envision all children and adults as self-aware, caring, responsible, engaged, and lifelong learners who work together to achieve their goals and create a more inclusive, just world. How? Through a commitment to SEL."    

The other two point to articles by my Connected Learning  (#CLMOOC) friend, Terry Elliott, who is a retired college teacher from Western Kentucky.  We've connected via the Internet since we first met in 2013. 

The "Tips for Deeper Learning" node points to this article on my blog, and this article on Terry's blog. Neither of these is a "short read".

That brings me to the node on the concept map titled "Invisible Practice".  I read this article on Terry's blog a few days ago. Then I posted this comment:

In this article you describe “invisible practice” and how do we practice it? My question is “How do we reach every newborn and coach them to develop these habits, during the first few years of life, so they are embedded and used for the rest of their lives? 

I’m reading a book titled “The Bitcoin Standard”, by Saifedean Ammous. It talks about the role of money in developing economies and the quality of life. In one section he talks about people who defer immediate reward to invest in future productivity. He says “the most important economic decisions to any individual’s well-being are the ones they conduct in their trade-offs with their future self.” 

Your description of “invisible practice” would fit the description of this deferred investment.

At the bottom of Terry's long article I saw the link to a podcast. I listened to it and it was a man and a woman talking about what Terry had written about "invisible practice".   

Then, I looked at an article Terry had written prior to the one about "invisible practice".  It included the graphic below, which includes another podcast discussion of the poem on Terry's blog.

I encourage you to listen to these. They sound like real people taking a deep look at blog articles Terry wrote. 

So I posted this comment.  Terry, was the podcast generated by AI? Two people talking to each other, making sense of your poem? If yes, that is amazing! I’d love to have a couple of people reading my blog articles and discussing them with the depth and insight that this video offers. Thanks for sharing it. 

Within a few hours Terry sent me an email, with a link to a new article he'd written, titled, "Daniel's Query".  He said "it took him less than an hour to pull this together". 

Terry started his article saying,   "One of my wonderful online colleagues, Daniel Bassill, asked me previously to run one of his blog posts through Google Notebook LM. I did so using this prompt:

 “Please connect these sources and explain how they fit into the idea of small voices.” There were two sources: his blog post and the book “The Bitcoin Standard“. 

For those who know little (or nothing) about Bitcoin, or "The Bitcoin Standard" book, Terry's AI query provided quite a lot of information. And, the podcast discussion does a lot to help you understand what's in the book. 

The podcast focused totally on the book, and not the Tutor/Mentor blog article, so Terry created another prompt, saying: Please analyze this source and explain how it might fit into the idea of bitcoin.  

The podcast generated by that prompt is at the bottom of the article.  I really hope you'll read it. It is an example of the type of conversation I'd love to see happening all over the world.   

I said earlier that these are not short reads. However, what the author of The Bitcoin Standard, and what the "invisible practice" article is saying, is that if you spend the time now, you'll be rewarded later.

I added these links to the concept map because these are habits that need to be embedded and modeled in every youth serving program and every public school.  Kids as young as one or two-years-old need to be introduced to these habits.

Figuring out how to do that and how to pay for it is the type of problem Thomas Edison might have loved to solve.

I've been sharing these ideas for over 30 years. And I keep learning. I read Terry's blog, and those of other #CLMOOC educators regularly, because they are always introducing new ideas to me.  I've a section in the Tutor/Mentor library with links to many valuable blogs.

I hope you'll spend some time reading this and try your own hand at creating podcasts using Google Notebook LM.  I've more than 1000 articles on this blog that you could be sharing with others!

It's a new year and my FundT/MI campaign starts again.  I received my first 2025 contribution last week from one of the volunteers who built the computer lab at the Montgomery Ward/Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program back in the 1980s.   It's greatly appreciated!   I hope I'll hear from many others as we move through January and the rest of the year.

Deeper learning and lost digital archives

I've been sharing ideas for ways people can start and sustain volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that help kids in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives since forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago in 1993 (and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011).

As I searched past articles for inspiration for this article, I initially was going to share an article showing work interns had done in past years to help share the ideas I launched in PDF essays and blog articles.

That brought me to an article I wrote on this blog in 2018, which I'm going to repost, with comments.

Start 2018 ---

My first line was "In this article I'm going to write about the Thinglink360 video created by Kevin Hodgson, a middle school teacher from Western Massachusetts, and more than 20 other people starting in February 2018."

However, Thinglink360 no longer is open for public viewing so the video by Kevin, and the projects I created, no longer work.  Furthermore, my link to Kevin's profile on Twitter does not work either, because Kevin deleted his Twitter account due to the actions of its owner.  He's not the only one.

Then I wrote about this cMap which I created in 2018, inspired by the project Kevin is describing.  I hope you'll follow along and see the connection.

See Interns w T/MC cMap at this link. 

I first met Kevin in 2013 as part of the Connected Learning #CLMOOC, and have grown to appreciate and value the ideas he shares on his blog. Thus, I visit often. So in early April 2018 I opened this article, which was the first of a three-part reflection under the title of "Creating a Virtual Gallery of Digital Art".

It all started about three months ago (mid February?) when Kevin got an idea. "What if the (open and university) folks dabbling in Networked Narratives (#NetNarr) together created a collaborative piece of trans-media artwork together?"

Kevin brainstormed the idea with a few other on-line friends and soon created this site as an invitation for others to join in the fun. He titled this the NetNarrAlchemyLab.

In his blog Kevin wrote, "Early on, we had a vision of an immersive virtual lab that visitors could wander around in, like a museum."  He went on "We wanted to create a "doorway" in and a "doorway" out.

Over six to eight weeks 20 people from different parts of the world (Australia, Scotland, USA, France, etc) created more than 50 projects. The project began with a group from the #NetNarr ecosystem, but soon spread to folks in the #DS106 and #clmooc groups.   

I encourage you to visit Kevin's blog and read his description of what worked, what did not, and see how he keeps drawing attention to the work he and others have been doing. 

Another change I learned about today is that Kevin has reformatted his blog. No longer does it show past articles or links to other blogs on his side bar.  

See graphic in this article

As I said, I've been engaging with the #clmooc world for five years and have shared some of these interactions using graphics and concept maps posted in more than 30 articles. 

As of December 2024 that number is up to 75.

I've watched Kevin and many others from several on-line communities connect with each other and amplify the work they are each doing via their own blog articles, Tweets and Facebook posts. The motivations for these interactions are many. For instance, if you visit this #clmooc home page you can see how such interactions have been stimulated in that group.  

Since late 2023 many of the people who I met on Twitter are now using Mastodon and BlueSky to connect and share ideas.  

Find Dan Bassill on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/tutormentor.bsky.social
Find Dan Bassill on Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@tutormentor1, https://mastodon.garden/@tutormentor1 and @tutormentor1@mastodon.cloud

As you do you'll see a few examples of where I've tried to draw members into the work I've been doing since 1993, helping non-school tutor/mentor programs reach k-12 youth in high poverty neighborhoods.

So far, I've not found many of the Chicago tutor/mentor programs on this list on Mastodon and BlueSky. Few use Twitter any more.  Some are on Instagram. Some on Facebook. Some on LinkedIn.

That means people looking for information about programs and ways to help them are going to have a more difficult time.

I liked Kevin's description of his goal, "to create  an immersive virtual lab that visitors could wander around in, like a museum."  That's the way I think of the web library I've created, and it communicates my own goal that people come in, wander around, do some reading, then share what they see with others.

As I looked at the Thinglink360 I wanted to create something similar to show work interns have done while working with Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC between 2006 and 2015, with the goal that some of these educators would duplicate these intern efforts and for the same purposes.  Since I don't have a paid account with Thinglink (or the talent) I could not do what Kevin did, so I used my free cMapTools account and created the concept map shown above. 

Each graphic on the cMap comes from a project done by one of the many interns who work on the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC project. Below each graphic you can find one or more links that open blog articles and/or videos that show the project, or show how the project was created and how I coached the interns along the way.

As I spent time last week reviewing work interns had done to collect images and links for the cMap I was reminded again of the immense talent of the students who worked with me.  More than half came from South Korea and Hong Kong, while most of the others were from Chicago area universities.

Much of the work being done in these on-line communities focuses on "cultivating connections" and "strengthening networks".  My goal is to draw people from the non-school #tutor #mentor, youth and workforce development and anti-poverty ecosystems together in similar on-line communities...and to connect them with the people and networks I'm already following.

As participation grows I hope to recruit a few people from different places who will spend time building their own understanding of what I've been trying to do. I hope some then begin to duplicate my own 25 year history, by creating libraries of content, and recruiting students from as early as middle school to spend time reading, reflecting, hacking and re-making work that I and my interns have done, to mobilize the time, talent and dollars of more people to help kids born or living in high poverty areas get the extra adult support they need to not only move successfully through school, but to have help moving into adult lives with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids in any place they choose.

In many of the links on the cMap, like this one, I show how interns created their own projects after reading PDF essays, or blog articles, that I've written.   That represents more than 1000 articles, a mountain of content and ideas, that educators and social innovators from all over the world could draw from.

Throughout this and other articles I've included #hashtags with links to Twitter.  If you open these and scroll through past Tweets, you'll open yourself to a wide network of people and ideas.  For instance, here's a Tweet Kevin posted to draw attention to one of the projects in the Alchemy Lab.

A starfish in the Alchemy Lab? Of course, if it leads to a poem by @inspirepassion. And, yes, if the poem is giffed up. We’re surfacing media in the #netnarr Alchemy Lab, and you can wander amidst the words of the shelves at any time: https://t.co/b2W1oiR53O Doors always open. pic.twitter.com/TQK5YAkfsi

— KevinHodgson (@dogtrax) May 26, 2018

Note:  Due to people like Kevin leaving Twitter hundreds of my past articles will have a "not found" message. Fortunately, the text still appears.

In another cMap I've been aggregating links to Twitter conversations I've been following.  My vision is that at some point in the future I could find Tweets within each of these groups, pointing to my articles and work interns have done with me in Chicago, with new visualizations, videos, articles, etc. that apply those concepts in Chicago neighborhoods, or in neighborhoods throughout the world.

I'm not sure how much value this cMap will have in the future, unless their is a dramatic reversal in ownership and operations at Twitter. 

Furthermore, while my articles focus on helping kids living in poverty connect with extra adults and learning via organized non-school programs, this graphic visualizes a wide range of complex problems that need to be concurrently addressed in Chicago and throughout the world.

The "how do we do this" needs many people's ideas and what better way to communicate those than through the type of work Kevin is describing and that I've been trying to do.

Finally, if you are re-making and hacking the ideas I share, let me know. In the lower right corner of the intern map, you'll find this map, shown below, which I'm using as another 'museum' that showcases others who are already helping share Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC ideas.

I don't find enough people writing about my work. Yet, I keep encouraging alumni and others to take ownership and carry this effort into the future. 

Share the link in the comments section or on social media. You can connect with me on many platforms. Open this page to find links to each. 

--- end 2018 article w 2024 comments ----

Thanks for reading my posts, and for sharing them with others.

If you find value in what I'm sharing please consider a gift to support my 78th birthday - see this page

Or a contribution to my annual "Fund the T/MI" campaign - see this page.

This helps me keep my library and ideas on line for another year.

Tips for Deeper Learning

Below is text for a message to be posted on Twitter, created by ChatGPT, at the request of Terry Elliot, who I met in 2013 via a Connected Learning cMOOC.  I've shared many articles in the past showing my long-term connection to Terry.

This was part of a long article on Terry's blog. I encourage you to take the time and read his full article about the concepts of "unfurling" and "unflattening" and "adjacent possible".   Look at how he used ChatGPT to create the article. It's impressive. 

I posted a comment on Terry's blog and asked if he'd request ChatGPT to create another post, showing how "mentors, parents, coaches, and teachers can introduce these ideas to students and help them build lifelong habits of growth, curiosity, and complexity in their thinking.

That was the goal of the volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs I led in Chicago from 1975 to 2011, even though I never articulated it using these terms.

Terry responded with the text I'm sharing below:

**Cultivating Growth: Teaching Young People to Unfurl, Unflatten, and Embrace the Adjacent Possible** 

In today’s rapidly changing world, the skills of curiosity, flexibility, and depth of understanding are more important than ever. As mentors, parents, coaches, and teachers, we play a pivotal role in guiding young people to develop these skills. Teaching the concepts of “unfurling,” “unflattening,” and the “adjacent possible” can help them form lifelong habits of thoughtful growth and continuous discovery. Let’s explore how these concepts work and how we can encourage them in daily interactions. 

### 1. Unfurling: Encouraging Exploration and Outward Growth 

**What It Is**: Unfurling is the process of opening up and spreading outward, like a flower blooming or an idea expanding. It involves taking something in its simplest form and allowing it to grow, becoming fuller and more developed over time. For young people, unfurling might mean exploring their interests, hobbies, and talents without feeling pressured to be perfect. 

**How to Teach It**:
- **Give Permission to Experiment**: Often, young people feel they must “get it right” on the first try. Encouraging them to see learning as a series of explorations rather than a test helps them build the confidence to try new things. Remind them that trying something is itself valuable.
- **Encourage the Process, Not Just the Outcome**: Praise their curiosity, questions, and willingness to try rather than just the final product. If a young athlete learns a new skill, focus on their effort and enjoyment of the learning process.
- **Model Unfurling in Real Life**: Share examples of times when you or others gradually explored something and grew from the experience. For example, a teacher might explain how they “unfurled” their understanding of a subject over years by exploring different aspects of it.

 **Activity Ideas**:
- **“Idea Gardens”**: Encourage them to keep an “idea garden” where they write down ideas or dreams, big or small, without judgment. Each week, ask them to “water” one of those ideas by thinking about it, researching, or trying something related. This way, they learn that ideas are not static but grow with attention and care.
- **Learning Expansions**: If they’re studying a topic, ask them to look for connections to other interests. For example, if they’re learning about history, they could explore how it connects to literature or science. This way, they see that learning can spread outward in fascinating ways.

### 2. Unflattening: Encouraging Depth, Nuance, and Multi-Dimensional Thinking

 **What It Is**: Unflattening, a concept introduced by Nick Sousanis, is about seeing beyond one-dimensional perspectives and adding layers of meaning and complexity. It’s the ability to think critically and recognize that most issues have multiple sides and layers, which is crucial for developing empathy, problem-solving skills, and emotional intelligence.

 **How to Teach It**:
- **Encourage “Why” Questions**: Prompt them to look beneath the surface by asking questions like “Why do you think that happened?” or “What could be another reason for this?” This helps them recognize that there’s often more than meets the eye.
- **Discuss Multiple Perspectives**: Whether it’s a historical event, a book character, or a personal conflict, show them how to consider various viewpoints. This can be especially powerful for older students in literature or history, where understanding different motivations and outcomes deepens comprehension.
- **Challenge Simplistic Thinking**: Gently question “black-and-white” thinking by presenting scenarios that require nuanced answers. For example, in a sports context, a coach might explain that success is about more than winning or losing and includes effort, sportsmanship, and teamwork.

**Activity Ideas**:
- **Perspective Maps**: Ask them to choose a topic and create a “perspective map,” where they list as many different viewpoints on the issue as possible. This could be as simple as considering different points of view on a story character’s actions or as complex as exploring diverse perspectives on a current event.
- **Layered Learning**: For any new skill or topic, ask them to think about it in “layers.” For instance, in learning to play a musical instrument, they might start by focusing on notes and rhythms (surface layer), then move to musical expression (deeper layer), and finally think about how music makes them feel (even deeper layer). This approach builds appreciation for complexity and encourages depth.

### 3. The Adjacent Possible: Opening Doors to New Opportunities and Growth

**What It Is**: The “adjacent possible,” a concept introduced by Stuart Kauffman, is about the realm of new possibilities that are just within reach, shaped by each step we take. Teaching young people to seek the adjacent possible helps them understand that progress is made through small, continuous steps into new territory. This approach builds resilience, adaptability, and a love of discovery.

**How to Teach It**:
- **Highlight Small Steps to Big Goals**: Help them see that growth often happens gradually, one small step at a time. Encourage them to look at what’s possible from their current position, emphasizing that each small step unlocks new directions and possibilities.
- **Celebrate Progress, Not Perfection**: Remind them that exploring the adjacent possible is about progression, not perfection. Every small achievement is a step that opens up new opportunities.
- **Encourage Openness to Surprises**: The adjacent possible includes unexpected possibilities. Show them how to stay open to serendipity by celebrating “happy accidents” and unplanned discoveries.

**Activity Ideas**:
- **Goal Mapping with Steps**: Encourage them to set a goal, then map out the “adjacent steps” they can take to reach it. For instance, if they’re interested in learning to code, suggest steps like exploring beginner-friendly coding platforms, then creating a simple project, then learning more advanced skills. Each step builds on the previous one, leading them into new adjacent possibilities.
- **Reflect on New Possibilities**: At the end of each week, ask them to reflect on any new possibilities that arose from their recent experiences or achievements. This helps them see growth as a process that continually creates new opportunities.

### Bringing It All Together: Helping Young People Make These Habits Lifelong

Developing a habit of unfurling, unflattening, and embracing the adjacent possible can create lifelong learners who are curious, resilient, and open to growth. Here’s how we, as mentors, parents, coaches, and teachers, can help them make these ideas part of their mindset:

- **Model the Mindset**: Talk openly about your own learning experiences, showing that growth doesn’t stop in adulthood. Share moments when you’ve unfurled a skill, unflattened an idea, or explored the adjacent possible.
- **Encourage Self-Reflection**: Set aside time to discuss what they’ve been learning or trying. Ask them about what surprised them, what they’ve grown curious about, and any new ideas they’ve uncovered.
- **Create a Supportive Environment**: Young people thrive when they know they have a safe space to explore, make mistakes, and ask questions. Offer a non-judgmental environment where they feel comfortable unfurling ideas, even if they’re imperfect, and unflattening them by considering complexities.

### Final Thoughts

Teaching the practices of unfurling, unflattening, and exploring the adjacent possible is a powerful way to cultivate habits of growth, depth, and resilience in young people. When they learn to embrace these complementary approaches, they’re equipped to navigate challenges, seek meaningful growth, and explore the ever-expanding possibilities in their lives. And as mentors, parents, coaches, and teachers, we have the rewarding role of guiding them on this journey of discovery that will shape how they engage with the world for a lifetime.

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Thank you Terry Elliott!

Terry's blog also has a recent article about journaling, which offers many tips that students and adults might apply as they incorporate the concepts of "unfurling" and "unflattening" and "adjacent possible".

My blog and concept map library also offer many examples of how students might map and visualize their learning journey, following many suggestions from Terry's article.  The concept map shown below is an example of "unflattening" as pursuit of one idea lead to many other challenges that need to be addressed.  This article show more tools to use in mapping ideas.

I've put the article about "unfurled" and "unflattening" on my Google Drive, in PDF format, for those who'd like to print and share copies.

I've always felt that this type of learning was important. It's one reason I've created the Tutor/Mentor library.  The articles help you expand your range of ideas and tools for solving complex problems.  In the uncertain future following this week's election, those habits of thinking will be more important than ever.  It's too bad they were not being taught in every zip code for the past 50 years!

You can find Nick Sousanis's book "Unflattening" on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Unflattening-Nick-Sousanis/dp/0674744438 

Find Stuart Kauffman's TED talk about the "adjacent possible" at https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_kauffman_the_adjacent_possible_and_how_it_explains_human_innovation?subtitle=en

I hope you'll reach out and connect with me on social media. I'm  using Twitter less now and trying to encourage youth programs and those I've been following on Twitter for so many years to connect with me on BlueSky or Mastodon.  You can find links to my social media sites on this page. 

I depend on contributions to help me fund this work and pay my bills. If you can help please visit this page. 

Be Like Terry. Share My Resources

I started participating in cMOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) around 2011 and connected with a group of educations in a #CLMOOC event in early 2013.  I've built relationships with several people in that group in the years since and pointed to them in stories I've posted on this blog. 

One of those is Terry Elliott, a retired college professor from Western Kentucky.  I did a search on his blog today for "tutormentor" and the image below shows the result. You can view that page here. 

I hope you'll read through the article Terry wrote. He offers his  own perspective on the work I've been doing.  That's the goal.  Each person has a different lived experience, based on where they live and what their life journey has been.  Each person has a different network of people they learn from and influence.

If we're going to do better at helping kids out of poverty and distressed conditions, we need many, many more people involved.

If you skim through the CLMOOC articles I've posted, you'll see that a few others have also mentioned my work often on their blogs.  I appreciate that. It's what I hope many will do.

Here's an article I posted in 2015, encouraging others to share my articles, and those of each other, in an on-going effort to build attention and draw resources to support tutor, mentor and learning programs that help kids in high poverty places move through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty.

Thank you Terry and others who share these ideas.  

What if students in every city did this?

Today as I strolled through my social media platforms I came across a graphic created by Kevin Hodgson, from the #clmooc group.  You can see it in this blog article. 

I did my own remix, adding a New Year's wish. See it below.

The text in Kevin's graphic reads "We need to think differently about our culture. This is not simply augmenting our experience with technology. Claim  your space. Review. Remix. Make Meaning. Make Art. Damnit!"

I added a photo of me at my computer, with a map story on the screen. Then a photo of two of our interns from South Korea, looking at my articles and creating their own remix, their own interpretations.

The https://michaelcnt.blogspot.com/ blog was created in 2006 by an intern from Hong Kong and I've used it since then to share the work interns were doing. 

My message was "What if... this (the student sitting at the desk in Kevin's graphic) were students sharing ideas from http://tutormentor.blogspot.com?)

That has been a message I've shared over and over for the past 16+ years. Youth from every part of the world could be writing articles similar to what I've been writing, focused on using information libraries to "review" and "reflect" and focus on strategies that would make life better for people living in areas of concentrated poverty.

At every high school, college, faith institution and even non-school program in the USA (and the world) there could be a blog sharing student work generated over many years, attempting to build greater and more consistent attention and involvement in solving deeply entrenched, complex problems.  

In a few weeks I'm going to be writing an article showing my efforts since 1993 to build strategic alliances with local and global universities, which would lead to students doing the research and writing that I dream of.  

Below is a 2010 example of what I hope for.

This is one of five blogs created by students from DePaul University, who were part of an Explore Chicago class that studied different neighborhoods to determine the need for, and the availability of, tutor/mentor programs in different parts of the city.  This article has links to the 2010 blogs. This 2009 article describes the launch of the partnership with Tutor/Mentor Connection.

It was a great start, but did not last beyond 2010 and did not extend into other parts of the student learning curriculum at DePaul.   Yet, it is an example of what's possible.

I recognize that helping kids in high poverty areas is one huge issue that needs more consistent involvement, but that there are many other complex problems that need to be addressed.  Below is a concept map showing multiple issues.

Imagine having a concept map like this on a college website, where each node opened to a page where student blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. were aggregated over many years, focusing on a specific issue.  Such a strategy could appeal to a wide sector of the student body and could engage alumni as well.

Maybe someone is already doing this.  In fact, I know that many colleges and universities have student research and reflection programs, which annually produce reflections on problems and proposed solutions.  However, I don't have links to any who are aggregating these projects, by category, over multiple years, creating a knowledge base that alumni and others can use to actually solve the problems students are identifying.

Share your links in the comment section if you know of anyone doing this. 

Thank you for reading.  Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter (x), Mastodon, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads.  Find my links on this page.

Thank you to those who supported the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC with a gift to my 77th birthday campaign. 

If you want to help me continue this work in 2024 consider a gift to the FundT/MI campaign.