Think | Do | Thrive
We do not remember days, we remember moments. —Cesare Pavese
We believe nurturing a dynamic mindset in educators is an essential pillar to a society that thrives. And it’s the moments that make people exchange ideas, make meaning through active ideation and social-emotional exchanges that we build active mindsets and find our best ‘educator as leader’ selves. With this in mind, our purpose is to create, partner, or support human capacity-building efforts so students, educators, and leaders in all levels of education can thrive.
My name is Darren
Darren Hudgins. And, I am the lead of Think | Do | Thrive and the co-author of two books, the bestselling Fact VS Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking In The Age of Fake News (ISTE 2018) and the newly released Developing Digital Detectives: Essential Lessons for Discerning Fact from Fiction in the ‘Fake News’ Era (ISTE 2021).
I work with educators, school leaders, districts, and school organizations to help build ‘community of practice’ experiences that promote critical thinking, creativity, and instructional strategies. I believe crafting engaging experiences where educators can practice strengthens human capacity efforts, drives action, and inspires the souls of social servants so that all students can thrive.
Both Developing Digital Detectives (ISTE 2021) and Fact VS Fiction (ISTE 2018) are available wherever books are sold.
My Work
I created Think, Do, Thrive to help the outcomes I wanted my clients to achieve, which is not all that different from what I want my students or athletes (sports coaching) to do: learn, inquire, and transform.
Think: I want to be hired to help people look at things differently, whether that be exposure to new tools, strategies, stories, or…how a community could be nurtured differently to get the most out of an idea.
Do: I promote engagement, curiosity, and experimentation via play and activity. Social and emotional skills are built on experiences, and then the reflecting on those experiences.
Thrive: Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure. Cycles of thinking and doing are where these skills are built.
I discovered this awesome sign at The DoSeum on an ISTE 2017 running morning in San Antonio, Texas.
Thriving: My Current Focus
I’ve carried several jobs in the field of education, as social studies and CTE teacher, to a Director of Instructional Technology and Events for a small nonprofit, and now to a consultant, speaker, and experience builder for all things media literacy, social-emotional learning, school leadership, and innovation mental model coaching.
It’s with that experience that back in 2016, when the term “fake news” became the regular lexicon surrounding the pending US presidential election that I called foul. As a social studies teacher, I knew that “fake news” had been around for a long time. And hypothesized that it is the erosion of the mainstream press, the rise of social media and the attention economy, and the abundance of mobile devices that is allowing mis/disinformation to scale like never before. This knowledge then made me look inward ….
What kind of world will my two young sons inherit if they do not know the difference between fact and fiction?
I knew I had to do something, but wasn’t sure quite what. Then, I remembered a quote by former Oregon Governor Tom McCall, that I posted in my classroom 20 years ago:
Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say, This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better.
And so, here I am. This is my community.
Say Hello…
I’d welcome a chat if you are interested in working with me, learning more, or talking through an idea or event.