The nicest things anyone has said about Alpaca on the internet.
Team Letter | June 10, 2024
June 10, 2024
Happy Monday, Alpaca!!!
My friend Cary introduced me to the idea of a “TL.” It stands for Trade Little Lifts – no one knows where that second L ran off to. It works like this: If I hear someone say something nice about Kaitlynn, then I go to Kaitlynn and say “I have a TL for you.” Kaitlynn, then, waits for someone to say something nice about me, and when they do, we exchange the nice things other people said and – yep, you got it – we “trade little lifts.” If you’re wondering if this is a flawed system by which you basically withhold compliments from your friends, well, you’re not wrong. But for its flaws, the core idea is sound: everyone loves hearing that people are saying nice things about them.
Yesterday, one of the best things happened for Alpaca. Jenn Gonzalez, who runs Cult of Pedagogy (a podcast with 62,000 YouTube subscribers) published her podcast about Semantic Pulse Surveys, and with it, an amazing, complimentary, joyful, and heartfelt review of our work.
You can read the whole thing on her site (and you should!), but my favorite thing about it is the clarity with which she explained our product. Like this:
“If I were part of a large group of people taking that same survey, maybe a group of teachers, all of our input could be aggregated into a report that would show how often each word was chosen, giving a snapshot of which feelings were most prevalent among the faculty that day. Our school leadership could then look at those results and respond: If lots of people chose the word ‘noticed,’ for example, it would suggest that leadership was doing a good job of recognizing people’s contributions and concerns. On the other hand, if the word uncertain came up often, that would warrant further investigation — it could mean that clearer communication or more support was needed.”
That’s EXACTLY right. And we didn’t write that for her. She then went on to say “Everyone should be using this surveying technique.” GAH! Her email and blog post mean so much to us, because these thoughts are from someone who is so well respected in the field.
It makes me know we’re on to something big and important, and we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. I can’t wait for the conversations this podcast will bring us and the opportunity to meet new educators in the process. If there was ever a bit of inspiration to make this a GREAT week – this is it! Let’s get out there and do BIG BIG things, Alpaca!
♥️, KB