You Matter: Five Years of Changing Learning, Lives and OUR World
Five years ago today, educator and author Angela Maiers stepped onto a red rug on the stage at TEDxDesMoines and said:
“Two Words.
These two words can change a mood, they can change a mind, they can change a heart.
I’m going to make the case today that these two words can change lives and can change the world, if we understand them and we leverage them in the right way.”
Angela’s talk has been viewed online a quarter of a million times since it was published in September 2011. People reacted powerfully to Angela’s call to action, accepting that they matter, accelerating the message that everyone matters, and undertaking awe-inspiring quests to address the problems in our world that break their hearts.
Watch: “You Matter” at TEDxDesMoines, June 26, 2011.
Five years later, hearts have changed, lives have changed, learning has changed and our world has changed. Choose2Matter has become a global movement that challenges everyone to make “mattering” a way of life. Thousands of schools, hundreds of thousands of educators and students, and entire communities have embraced the challenge to Choose2Matter.
Evidence overwhelmingly shows that when people accept that they matter and that their actions count, lives and learning change, and our world changes.
Watch: “Five Years of You Matter”
In 2012, corporate attorney and Internet entrepreneur Mark E. Moran joined forces with Angela Maiers to accelerate the growth of the movement. Next came Courtney Collins, a doctoral student in the Morgridge School of Education at Denver University and 13-year educator in New York, Miami, Japan and Venezuela.
Today, Daisy Dyer Duerr, who spent 17 years as a teacher and school principal and won the 2014 NASSP Digital Principal of the Year Award, joins our team to enhance our relationships with other organizations and educators. Daisy will also present on behalf of Choose2Matter at conferences and school districts around the world.
Read Angela Maiers’ reflection on the fifth anniversary of her transformational TEDx talk.
How schools, companies, organizations, individuals and communities can Choose2Matter:
Support the Choose2Matter Movement
- Sign the You Matter Manifesto.
- Visit our fundraising campaign on Generosity.com.
- Visit our Shop to support Choose2Matter through the purchase of t-shirts, posters, note cards and other items.
Purchase Our Curriculum and Courses
- The Mattering IS the Agenda Toolkit features the best video and writing we’ve created to share the Choose2Matter message, plus field-tested workshop activities. It offers a low-cost, high impact professional development event for any group, and is entirely suitable for sharing with students and employees.
- Purchase a hardcopy or download a free e-version of Liberating Genius in the Classroom: A Framework for Epic Transformation, which helps create the conditions for passion-based learning, such as genius hour, to flourish in your classroom.
- Two of the lessons in Liberating Genius feature Thrively, which helps students discover and explore their passion. Visit Thrively Classroom.
- Learn about our courses available through Atomic Learning.
- Coming late summer 2016… a Choose2Matter Curriculum for Accepting, Accelerating and Acting.
Participate in “The Summer of Mattering”
- For many, summer is a time for relaxing, refreshing and recharging.
- Mattering is not an event, a day, a month, or an item on the agenda — it IS the agenda. We need to matter almost as much as we need food, water and air.
- So, since I know you’re planning to eat, drink and breath this summer, I also want you to plan to matter
- Read more in “How to Make This Summer Matter.”
Engage With Us on Social Media
- LIKE our Facebook page & follow @Choose2Matter on Twitter.
- Follow our team on Twitter: @AngelaMaiers, @findingDulcinea, @DaisyDyerDuerr, @Courtknee1728
- Join Angela Maiers’ “class” on Remind to receive “You Matter” messages.
Learn More About Us
To learn more about Choose2Matter, visit http://www.Choose2Matter.org
Contact: Mark @ Choose2Matter.org