I was reading a book by the singer / songwriter Prince called The Beautiful Ones. In it he said, “If I could put my bloodstream on vinyl.” This quote called for my attention. I began to contemplate what he meant by this concept “If only I could put my bloodstream on vinyl.”

If only I could put my life, my soul, my spirit, my being, the very essence of who I am onto this vinyl record. That began my journey of thinking what I should put into my instruction and my instructional design. 

After a few minutes of reflection I concluded instructors should put our bloodstream in our instructional designs. Putting suggests that you do something intentionally without provocation; no one walks behind you pushing you onward; no one needs to nudge you. You just do this on your own. When you sit and you design instruction your bloodstream should fill that instructional design, your bloodstream fill your instruction. When you are in the classroom or in whatever learning space you occupy, your essence, your soul, your spirit the thing that makes you, well, you should saturate the instructional design and the instruction.

When we’re talking about instructional design we’re talking about lessons, rubrics, assessments, worksheets and every bit of the instructional design and the instruction. It ought to ooze with your bloodstream, not a part of it. On the image, as you see in this pie graph at the bottom. It shows part of a whole. No, we are talking about putting the whole pie, your whole life, your experiences and your learnings, your education and your background, your feelings and your thoughts into your instructional design and instruction. 

If you want to live in

This way 

Pray for help 

To walk in 

Your learning space with depth 

With breadth 

With sincerity

And authenticity 

That you cannot hide

and 

Others cannot resist

Give all you can to your instructional designs and instruction,

@growthucator