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#DBC50Summer 29/50: Social LEADia

/ Alicia Ray / 4 Comments

Before I even start this blog, I feel the need to set the scene around me. I am sitting in a super uncomfortable chair that I slept in for about 45 minutes last night (so don’t be too harsh about a typo here, there, and everywhere; I’ll fix them after some sleep) wrapped up in a hospital blanket (because anything above freezing seems to be too warm), listening to the beeping of the machines (seriously though, why are they so loud?). The preschool/daycare my 5 year old daughter attends called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that Sophie was showing signs of an infection. My husband left work to take her for a quick check-up anticipating antibiotics and a relaxed evening. However, when Sophie’s blood sugar came back at over 330 when suggested range is 80-180, we were referred to the pediatric hospital in city about an hour away. By the time we reached the hospital and did blood work, her blood sugar had elevated to 775! We were admitted and Sophie was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Today we learned all about her treatment plan and are quickly becoming versed in the vocabulary that surrounds juvenile diabetes.

I tell you that story to tell this one. The support of my PLN has been tremendous. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate every single text, Voxer message, DM, tweet, and facebook comment/message. I valued my PLN before as a professional group of amazing educators who push me and hold me accountable for implementing the insane ideas I have. After this experience, I hold my PLN close to my heart as part of my extended family. Taking just a few minutes of your time to share your well-wishes, your stories, or just to send a digital hug during this unexpectedly wild ride means more to me than any of you will ever know. Sophie is finally resting in her hospital bed (she is clearly the captain of this little ship) and I wanted to take the few minutes I have to share Jennifer Casa-Todd‘s incredible addition to Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc because it just has to be now! She authored book 29 titled Social LEADia.

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You can sense Jennifer’s passion for connecting students with the world through social media from the very first page. She shares countless stories of classrooms that integrate social media, not only incorporating positive digital interactions, but moving beyond that to developing leaders! The tremendous thing is that these leaders in the digital world are often not the leaders we would expect in the physical world. Frequently it seems that leaders in the digital world found their voice by impacting others through social media. Jennifer shares the thoughts and inspiring stories of individual students from kindergarten through high school. The power behind these voices would lead you to believe you were speaking with mature adults, but a deeper look would show that, in fact, these are children. At the end of each chapter is a Student Vignette in which Jennifer gives these students the opportunity to further amplify their voice. There are also summaries, discussion questions, notes, and a “meet the student” at the end of each chapter. Using these “meet the student” segments of the book allows educators to inspire their own learners to make an impact through the power of social media.

The power of twitter will forever be a topic I will yell from the mountaintop. After the encouragement, support, and genuine empathy I’ve felt from educators I’ve never met face-to-face while my youngest child has been in the hospital the last 20 hours is something I will never forget. Why shouldn’t we want our students to feel that same connection and empathy for others around the world? Why wouldn’t we want our students to feel that encouraged by people they’ve never met? Every child deserves a champion, and that champion just might be someone in their own network!

There is no way that I can possibly share all of the incredible points made by Jennifer in Social LEADia. In fact, I literally STOPPED highlighting in the book because I was highlighting every other sentence. Some of the a-ha moments I had are listed below:

Curriculum and IT should be working together in order to develop the foundation for teachers to create the best lessons possible. No longer should these two entities operate parallel; they should intersect at every possible opportunity. This better allows IT to know the WHY behind the need to open the floodgates and curriculum to better understand WHAT tool could meet their needs, as well as HOW to troubleshoot simple technology issues to create a more fluid environment with less interruptions.

The foreword by George Couros (author of The Innovator’s Mindset, book 9) is superb and Jennifer references multiple times the GC quote that has circulated Twitter multiple times (I add to that circulation because every time I see it, I feel a moral obligation retweet it.).

We need to make the positives so loud that the negatives are almost impossible to hear.

Another huge takeaway is that we, as educators, should treat discipline over digital matters in the same manner we would treat discipline in analog matters. It’s not a reason to take the devices and opportunities away from each and every student, or even the one or two students who made a poor decision. Rather, this is a time to have an authentic conversation in which we teach that student(s) how to make more appropriate choices. If a student is cyberbullying another student, it is a bullying issue. Just because the computer is involved doesn’t mean that it’s the computer’s fault. Artificial Intelligence has come a long, long way, but giving an automation feelings, empathy, love, hatred… not happening. It’s the person behind that device that should be removed from the situation at hand, pulled into a conversation, then placed back in the situation with the opportunity and freedom to make better choices… not the device.

I could go on and on! I also love the chapter “Building Bridges”! This chapter is a must-read for those who are fighting the good fight to include social media outlets in education. Jennifer gives many talking points to share with district leadership, school teams, and parents! These are really points that no one can argue as they are rooted in sound logic. I posted a few of my other takeaways while reading using #BookSnaps (Check out Tara Martin‘s BookSnaps website if you are new to this idea or want to know how to create them for yourself! Great stuff!)

So after all of this, what is my implementation? We know that reading all of these books means nothing if I just store the knowledge and don’t share it with learners, whether those be my students or the teachers I’m honored to work beside. I am really excited to get started on this implementation; in fact, I may start on this one before students arrive back on campus! I am going (after years of pondering, stalling, and second-guessing myself and my super country accent when I get passionate about something) to start a YouTube channel (I will link it here when complete) and share my voice there. I will share tech tips and tricks with staff and students using screen-casting, I will include the voice of my students, and I will share some of “those” stories that I spoke of in the #EDUPassions blog from earlier in the summer (with permission, of course). This implementation will be so much fun!

Be sure to check out the hashtag #SocialLEADia to follow along with the Social LEADia community! You can find more information on the Social LEADia website and on Jennifer’s website. Jennifer started a podcast this summer and has three fabulous episodes, which feature some of the students we heard from in her book! Check it out here! Speaking of podcasts, Jennifer has been featured on several including Brian Costello’s The Teacher’s Journey, TL Talk Radio by Randy Ziegenfuss and Lynn Fuini-Hetten, 10 Minute Teacher Podcast by Vicki “CoolCatTeacher” Davis, and many more. Simply Google and find several more! As always, the flipgrid is a place for global collaboration and reflection. My sweet friend, Andrea Paulakovich, suggested this amazing idea at the beginning of #DBC50Summer and I couldn’t help but to jump on board as quickly as possible! Andrea and I copilot this space and hope that you will join us here with your reflections, questions, and ideas!

Well… here we go again rounding off another set of ten books! Book 30 is another book that I was, unfortunately, not aware was a DBC, Inc book until I began forming this idea of #DBC50Summer in June. However, I did start following the author immediately and I have been seriously inspired just seeing the things he tweets and retweets on a constant basis! Ramsey Musallam, EdD (yep, THAT Ramsey… from THE TEDtalk with nearly 3 million views… yeah, I felt like I’d been under a rock, too) brings us book 30 SPARK Learning! If his tweets (and almost 3 million views) are any reflection of his book, I will be flying through this one itching to reflect and share! Blog coming soon!

 

#DBC50Summer 28/50: Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth

/ Alicia Ray / 4 Comments

Typically when I prepare for any session I present, I create a Google Form that allows me to get to know the participants in a quick snapshot so I can best cater the session to meet their needs. One of the questions I always ask is, “How many years have you been an educator?” with the options as ranges in years of experience. These ranges were not created by accident; they represent my shifts in mindset throughout my career. These are not indicative of every educator’s mindset, but from the reactions I’ve received while presenting, I feel like I’m not exactly alone in these shifts. See what you think!

From 0-3 years, I thought I knew everything about how to teach. I was arrogant. I had just finished my college degree in three years and was one of the youngest people ever hired as a classroom teacher in my district (I was only 20 years old). I thought I didn’t need to sit through any more professional development; I was developed enough, thank you very much.

From 4-7 years, I realized just how little I actually knew about educating. The training wheels were off, so to speak. I had a great professional learning community, but wasn’t using them for support. I struggled through these years and matured more than any other stretch of my career. I attribute massively epic fails to this growth!

From 8-10 years, I experienced what I refer to as the “honeymoon” period. I finally felt confident in my ability to teach. However, it seemed like no one realized that I might know what was I doing, so I was left alone. No observations from other teachers, little to no requests to present content to my colleagues. It was great. I just did what I knew to do and impacted students with little additional responsibility.

Then, somewhere around year 10, administration and those with a higher pay grade than me figured out that my story might benefit other educators. So I started presenting and having people come observe. By no means do I believe that I’m an expert; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. I know enough about lots of things to be dangerous. However, I’m comfortable saying that I don’t know when I don’t know and am always looking to grow and learn. (I’ve just started my 13th year – Lucky 13!)

Then I suspect, around year 16-20, I will wonder if this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. I’m invested enough to be fearful of losing retirement benefits, but am I really sure I can continue this pace for another 10-14 years. Finally, year 20 and beyond, I believe I will be calculating my time left to teach and feel that it will be bittersweet. While I love educating (thus my twitter handle @iluveducating), knowing that I will only be 50 years old when I reach retirement, I can begin traveling and hopefully continue to impact education through other avenues. Or I may not leave at all. If given the choice right this minute, I’d still get up and go every morning! I enjoy it that much!

Book 28 released by Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc is all about that perfect teacher. You know the one… comes in every day, perfect teaching outfit, beautiful classroom with perfectly laminated posters covering the wall (How do they manage to laminate so perfectly? I always have an edge that is peeling!), students are amazingly well-behaved, scores are phenomenal, all the parents love them and administration thinks they walk on water. They have no idea what Pinterest-Fail even means because everything they touch educationally turns to gold. Okay, so I may be exaggerating, but you get the point. It was the teacher I was trying to be my first three years of teaching. The veteran teachers made it look so simple. They were the epitome of a perfect teacher! The thing is… these perfect teachers… they’re unicorns, leprechauns, centaurs… they don’t exist. And book 28’s author Aaron Hogan is out to prove it in Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth!

teachermyth

This book was a quick read if you just read it at the surface level. I was able to finish it in about 2 hours, but I don’t recommend that you approach the book in this manner. In fact, neither does Aaron. This is a book that you will want to read a chapter, put it down, reflect, write, sleep, then come back to it a few days later. It’s powerful and honestly, pretty heavy at some points. It’s important to note that “heavy” is not a bad thing! Aaron is pushing us to not just survive in the teaching world, but to THRIVE as an educator! In order to THRIVE, he suggests:

T – Teaching Expectations

H – Hook Your Students

R – Reject Isolation

I – Imagine It Better

V – Value Vulnerability

E – Everyday Every Day

Aaron is very clear and quick to say that these suggestions are not a “fix-it” to every problem we will face. It will not prevent failure and it will not be effortless. Because of the depth of each of these suggestions, it is really in the best interest of the reader to take bite-sized chunks of this book. (This is clearly a “do as I say, not as I do” statement right now. Just trust me. I’ll take bite-sized chunks in the future because it was fantastic and I want to really spend time on a deep dive of this one.)

In Teaching Expectations, Aaron says that we need to model, teach, reteach, review, model – all those things we’d do for content pedagogy, that we consider to just be “good teaching” – we need to be doing those things for teaching behaviors as well! I love when he flips the script and asks if we’d send a student out of the classroom for not mastering the content. Instead, we’d find ways to reteach. It’s not three strikes and you’re out for mastering content, so why do we use philosophies like that for behavior? We can’t assume students know how to behave. We must teach them and set high expectations.

Hook Your Students was awesome because it took me back to Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess. We need the constant reminder to do all we can do grab our students’ attention before we even begin to deliver the content.

Reject Isolation speaks to being a connected educator. Read about Aaron’s journey on social media and how it’s impacted him as an educator. We do not have to be in a silo anymore. Social media gives us a way out; it allows us to find “our people”. I can’t imagine my life (both professionally and personally) without the amazing PLN of which I get to be a part. I love you all!

Imagine It Better was a real gut-check. Spend some time here. What can you imagine doing better? What sacred cows can be slain? When you’re trying to be innovative, everything is back on the table. I’m really looking forward to revisiting this section!

Value Vulnerability speaks for itself. I love how Aaron spins this to be not only our own vulnerability but the vulnerability of others as well. He discusses being honest in your uncertainty and quieting the whispers that happen between adults in our schools.

Finally, the part that resonated with me and has inspired my implementation plan is Everyday Every Day. This section is about building authentic relationships with students and teachers. Aaron talks about positioning yourself to get to know your students and staff. He repurposed his time in the hallways to “make it about more than just enforcing expectations”. His Selfie of the Day idea was phenomenal! I love the connections he was able to make with students and the impact it had on his school! I do very well connecting with my students. If I’m being honest, building rapport with students is one of my strengths as an educator. However, I’ve noticed that the past two years have been a struggle for me to get to know my 6th grade students. Sure I know the surface level information, but I feel guilty when they see me really connect with my 8th graders (because I’ve had them for a couple of years). While I don’t want to force the connection and I know real relationships take time, I want to build a stronger foundation with my 6th grade students. So that is my implementation for this year. I’m honestly not sure how to go about making this happen quite yet. I need to think through it a bit more. On #HiveSummit Matt Miller (author of Ditch That Textbook and another DBC book that you’ll hear about later in #DBC50Summer) suggests using Google Slides as a getting to know you activity (also read about this idea & suggested as implementation plan in Teaching Math with Google Apps by Alice Keeler and the late Diana Herrington). Michael Matera (creator of #HiveSummit – see website here – and author of Explore Like A Pirate) says he’d like to try this, and I think I might like that as well. There are 150 6th grade students coming in this year, so I need this implementation to be realistic while still making an impact. The Google Slides might just be the way to meet both criteria, but I’m going to continue investigating options of how to intentionally build a strong foundation with my 6th grade students, as well as new students who come in throughout the year.

Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth is a yet another wonderful addition to the DBC, Inc line up. I appreciate Aaron’s willingness to share some of his epic fails and believe this book was really written for anyone and everyone in education. There were some places where I was nodding my head, while I was scratching my head in others. I’m excited to dive into this deeper in the future because I have no doubts that I will be pushed out of my comfort zone and constantly reminded that I should be intentional about the decisions I make in education.

You can follow along with the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #TeacherMyth and I encourage you to join the chat on Tuesday nights from 9:30 – 10:00 pm EST using the same hashtag! This is a wonderful community of encouraging educators! Another terrific resource is Aaron’s blog! He also shares questions and resources from the book here. Vicki Davis hosted Aaron on the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast and you can listen here. You can also subscribe to Aaron’s YouTube channel to see some of the videos he mentions in the book. As always, the flipgrid (idea from the phenomenal Andrea Paulakovich) is available for you to share your thoughts and reflections. If prompted for a password, use DBCSummer. This space is designed to be a global collaboration and reflection space on all DBC books, so please don’t feel limited by the question, just share your thoughts! The question is only there if you need it to start conversation.

Check out my twitter reflections from my reading of Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth.

I am so excited to finally be able to read Social Leadia by Jennifer Casa-Todd! I won this book in a #DBCChallenge and am so excited to dig into it! I had wanted it for a long time before winning it! Dave and DBC, Inc even sent me an autographed copy of the book, so that makes it even cooler! So glad Tara Martin made the Captain pose for a quick picture with my book before it was sent my way! That was a huge surprise!

Let’s go with Book 29! Blog will be up in a few days.

#DBC50Summer 27/50: Unmapped Potential

/ Alicia Ray / 4 Comments

When I was a kid, I remember using one of those big state maps to get from place to place. You know the ones; they’re a pain to get folded back the right way. I remember being asked to create a path to get us from Point A to Point B. At the time, that was perceived as a skill that I needed to know once I got my license, just in case I got lost. I’m sure the thought never crossed my parents’ minds that we’d not only have a GPS available, but that I’d have multiple GPS options from which to choose.

I was on my way to South Carolina to hear Dave Burgess speak at a keynote the next day (for the second time; yes it’s that good) and hit some major traffic in Charlotte. Of course it was afternoon rush hour and there was about 25 miles of construction zone ahead of me. I had spent my day moving outdated technology out of storage to be picked up by our technology department, and I just wanted to get to my hotel and have a hot shower & relax. Naturally, when I came up on a sea of red brake lights, I was irritated. So I consulted my GPSs, yes – multiple. Initially, I was using the GPS in my car. I consulted Waze to see what the social network was saying and it appeared I’d be in traffic for quite a while. Waze asked if I wanted an alternate route. Why yes, Waze, yes I do… However, every alternate route I took led to more congestion. I could either get mad at the traffic or enjoy the ride. I wish I could tell you that I was above being mad at traffic, that I am mature enough to know that I can’t control it so I should just relax. Not happening. I’m big enough to admit it;  I got mad at the traffic. It was infuriating. I just wanted to get to the hotel! That’s all I was focused on!

Had I read Book 27 in the Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc line up, I might have just relaxed and enjoyed the opportunity to listen to the music I wanted to listen to (I have two daughters who enjoy owning the music selection). I may have still been angry and ready for my hot shower, but at least I would’ve appreciated the irony in my map taking me into even more congestion. Book 27 is all about modifying the map we’ve created in our heads to expose our unlimited potential. It’s called Unmapped Potential and it’s written by Julie Hasson & Missy Lennard. These phenomenal principals can be found on Twitter at @PPrincipals.

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This book is so much more than a professional development book. It required me to do some real soul-searching and discover what my prejudices were… against myself and those I serve. A prejudice is a preconception. For the purpose of this blog, it is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. There are several truths that I had to grapple with while reading this book. I will share a few with you, and then I highly suggest you go purchase your own copy of the book (I’d get a physical copy because you’re going to want to complete the map-changing actions and questions at the end of each chapter).

I’ve been told by people I highly respect that I need to value myself more, that part of my problem with other’s seeing something special in me is that I feel unworthy of their attention for various reasons. And those people would be right. I struggle with self-worth, as many of us do. I constantly compare myself to others, which typically ends with me feeling inferior. Julie & Missy speak to that very thing in the book (see Tweet below). Someone else will always be smarter, more accomplished, prettier, have more money (obviously… I teach), funnier, and more desirable to be around than me. And whomever that person is will likely feel the same way about someone else. Self-confidence is hard because it’s a fine line to walk. Too much and it comes off as arrogance and too little comes off as self-pity. I continue to work on my self-worth, but it’s a struggle every. single. day. I still need some form of reassurance most days, but just a quick note or a small affirmation usually makes all the difference.

I am not flexible. Julie & Missy say that “effective teachers are irrefutably flexible”. Oops! I’ve always struggled with flexibility in my schedule. Those spur of the moment assemblies, changes in schedule because of TAs needing to provide coverage, a sick teacher which prevents me from having the planning I needed to make that phone call or grade that stack of assessments… that’s the kind of thing that put me over the edge. The principal who hired me had a little heart-to-heart with me at one point when she witnessed one of my “freak-out” moments over a schedule change. It must’ve made a strong impact because I still remember her exact words… “Alicia, if you can’t be more flexible than this, you went into the wrong profession.” Wow. In my teacher youth I was appalled that she would say something like that to me. Now, I appreciate her honesty. She was 100% correct! It’s something I’m working on, and I’m actually getting much better at handling sudden changes in my plans. I love how Julie & Missy say, “Filling your days with what is predictable leaves little room for what else is possible.”

My mom used to always tell me that it wasn’t what happened to me in life that defined me, but how I reacted to it. I have heard versions of this same statement over and over in my life, usually when I needed to hear it the most and wanted to hear it the least. The truth in that statement is so evident though. The version from Julie & Missy is shared in a tweet below. There is so much that I cannot control. My power lies in the things I can control and how I react to the things that I cannot control. I choose to be more easy-going and not waste my energy on those things over which I have no control. I will constantly be asking myself this year, “What are you going to do about it?” If my answer is nothing or there’s nothing I can do, then I refuse to waste my energy on it.

Another truth that stood out to me was a bit more personal. When Julie & Missy talk about labels and how we generalize students with a label, I couldn’t help but tear up. I struggle with labels. I will attempt to share why labels are such a difficult topic for me with two quick stories about my daughters:

Sophie, the youngest, will start Kindergarten in just a few weeks. We are so excited for this new adventure for her, but also we’re terrified for her, beyond the normal anxiety that comes with sending your child to kindergarten. When Sophie was about 2 1/2, I started to wonder if she was exhibiting signs of autism. After taking a few parent surveys about autistic behaviors and indicators and discussing her behaviors with a dear friend of mine that was in her residency for psychiatry, I decided to bring it up at her 3 year well-child exam with her doctor. After a lengthy discussion and his observations of her during that appointment (she was having a rough day), he referred her to a behavioral specialist. After several appointments, the psychiatrist described for my husband and me the differences in Developmental Scale Models (DSMs) and that with Sophie being so young, he’d like to give it a couple more years to see how she progressed. We were to continue with play therapy and speech therapy. He wasn’t comfortable diagnosing a 3 1/2 year old with autism (so thankful for this). I asked him what he would write if he were to diagnose her right then with all he’d seen. He told us that under the new DSM, she would be diagnosed as high-functioning autism (formerly known as Asperger Syndrome). My husband and I thanked him for his time and left. We adamantly did not want a label on Sophie. We don’t want others to have a preconceived opinion about our spunky, quirky, beautiful little girl. Through lots of work at home, Sophie is doing much better with her speech and is working to identify and control her emotions. If you met her briefly, you’d likely not see symptoms. Spending day after day with her, you’d definitely understand. We want her teachers to love her and appreciate her for her, not give her a pass because of a label, or write her off because of a label. Julie & Missy discuss this very thing in Unmapped Potential. Sophie has an infinite amount of potential and we want her to have every opportunity to share that potential with the world, without a label.

Bailey, our 9 year old, just finished third grade. She has an insanely high composite CogAT score and is an “out of the box” thinker. She strives for perfection, but is easily frustrated when she doesn’t understand a concept. She puts more pressure on herself than any child I’ve ever seen. Trust me, she doesn’t get any pressure from us. She doesn’t need it. Her first experience with the state’s standardized test (EOGs) came at the end of the school year. She panicked. She passed both the math and the reading with no problem, but did not score a high enough level to be considered for the AIG program (another label). It broke her heart. She cried and cried because she thought she’d let us and her teachers down. Another broken spirit because of a label that we place on children.

As Bobby Boucher’s Mama would say in The Waterboy… labels are the devil!

I appreciate everything this book had to offer. I will continue to grapple with my own mental map. It’s not an overnight process and will be in constant revision as I struggle to see myself as worthy of praise, finding the right amount of self-confidence, and breaking through barriers placed by previous (& current) experiences in my life. My implementation for this one may seem a little peculiar, but I’m going to go with it. In The Writing on the Classroom Wall, I committed to posting at least one big idea for students to see what I believe about education. I have a wall in the media center that is bare and desperately needs to be transformed into a focal point. I will share this journey (#DBC50Summer) with my students and share, in particular, this book when we are making goals for each individual student in regards to how many books each student will read in each quarter of school. I will share the story of mental maps and inquire about what barriers are placed in front of them in regard to their reading goal. Then, I will encourage them to break through those barriers. My reminder of these goals (because I believe that visuals & connections are the key to memory)… I will purchase a large United States road map – one of those that I used as a kid to plot my path from Point A to Point B – frame it and hang it on that blank wall as our new focal point. A visual reminder for every single student that we are constantly fighting negative self-talk and pessimism and we can fight back with positivity and optimism.

Check out Julie Hasson & Missy Lennard’s website, Purposeful Principals. There you can find a book study PDF to enhance your time with Unmapped Potential.  You can also follow along with the learning using the hashtag #UnmappedEd on Twitter. I highly recommend checking out their videos on YouTube here! Pay special attention to the Unmapped Potential Readers Q&A. Also check out the podcast with The Wired Educator with Julie Hasson.

As always, please feel free to share your reflections on the flipgrid. If a password is requested, it’s DBCSummer. A huge thank you to Andrea Paulakovich, the genius behind the fabulous idea of using the platform to provide a space for global collaboration on every DBC, Inc book that’s been published!

Book 28 is another book I’ve had on my shelf for several months and just keep missing out on reading. I’m thrilled to finally be able to read Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth by Aaron Hogan! Check back soon for the next blog post!

Edited April 5, 2019 to add link to implementation! See how I implemented Unmapped Potential here!