Dear Lone Wolf,

It seems odd to speak of lone wolves to you, a person that is so intricately... connected. And yet, as you read on, you will relate to the loneliness that I describe, that I too have shared. Sometimes it is surprisingly easy to ignore. Other times it seems as though you are truly the lone wolf. You can hear the distant cries of other wolves through the night air, but your days are spent in solitude. Alone.

It is a geographical solitude that can disappear in seconds via a distant, digital connection... and return moments later when, within a local context you are faced by those who:

...disregard your passion,
   ...constrain your openness,
      ...challenge your pedagogical approach,
         ...question your different perspectives,
            ...contradict your principles,
               ...ignore your offers to share.

The loneliness manifests in different ways, we are unique and our contexts are so different. Yet the loneliness remains a commonly understood experience. It seeps into our being and makes us waiver, and question: Why am I so misunderstood? Why are the challenges so big? Why aren't things moving faster? Why are so many barriers still being put up? Why is it so hard? Why... must... I... do... this... alone?

How is it that so many that feel alone, can share such common experiences? It comes back to geography. While we live in an incredibly connected world, where ideas can 'trend' and spread in reformatted zeros and ones, from a fingertip on a keyboard to a screen across the globe, we will still wake up tomorrow at the same latitude and longitude as we did today. We still find ourselves in structures, and schedules, and schools that have not fully embraced the connected world that exists outside of dated educational paradigms. - But things are getting better!

I have spoken for years about 'pockets of brilliance' that I have seen. Isolated lone wolves who have aspired and inspired because they perspired and desired to do something that went against all odds of success. These 'pockets of brilliance' are coming together, and through a combination of connectivity and serendipity they are spreading. Where I would have seen a lone wolf, a lone educator working in isolation before, I now see a teaching team and I even see a whole school working together. Where I've seen my network grow primarily in distant lands, I now see local, digitally connected communities. I now see educational leaders not just helping me, but pointing the way and guiding me. I have local mentors and supporters. I have people seeking guidance, listening to me, and thankfully pushing back... I'm engaged in learning dialogues... locally. I don't know if I joined a pack, or the pack joined me, but it is a lot less lonely now.

Look carefully and you will see the transformation happening. But not everyone has a vision of education rooted in empowering teachers and students. We need for the transformation we seek to be shared openly, and articulately, so that good pedagogy is explicitly analyzed, questioned reflectively, and improved upon by a community of learners. We need to be cognizant of, and nurturing to, the person across the hall, or in a neighbouring school, and know that some of them are looking for us, for a local connection who 'gets' what is happening.

We need not be a lone wolf anymore. Search and you will find your pack, your community. Share because you know that you must, and seek others like you, because like you, they need to know they are not alone.