Imagine what can happen when you bring together 1200 stakeholders in the positive education field including academics, educators, students, parents, lawyers, policy-makers, and psychologists all with the common purpose of making a quantum leap in the ways positive education impacts academics and well-being globally.The World Positive Education Accelerator is an IPEN event that just might change the world! With so many mike-drops it was difficult to choose but here are my top 10 aha moments from this four day appreciative inquiry summit.1. "We are expecting our children to change the world and we aren't giving them the skills to do it." Champlain University President Don Laackman discussed how a radically pragmatic approach is needed in rethinking how we educate. To make our world a place, where children and learners of all ages can thrive, he suggested that connecting professional success with life's purpose was one of the keys.2. "We need to change our deficit oriented way of looking at the mental health of students." In her keynote Lea Waters suggested parents and educators need help to see and build strengths in children. When this happens it protects children against depression and anxiety, it increases self-confidence and life satisfaction, it buffers stress and anxiety, and it enhances self-efficacy. She included a reminder that it is our responsibility to educate not just children but also their parents about the strength-based approach.3. "!t's happiness stupid!" was Sir Anthony Seldon's reminder to us to distinguish happiness from pleasure. Selden discussed the fourth education revolution pointing out that under the factory model of school we are not interested in who children are. that we are stronger together when we embrace the unknown, when we say goodbye to our binary ways of thinking, and when we get out of our own ways,4. "Well-being is skill-based and learnable" according to Alejandro Adler. Investing in teacher well-being creates classrooms with a system of well-being which translates to advanced academic well-being, more pro-social behavior, and better health. His reminder that this begins with the educator was a key point.5. "Optimism is the belief that our actions matter" according to Amy Blankson who spoke on the intersection of education and technology. Blankson implored us to become balanced technology users learning to love technology and live with it not to escape from it. Recognizing that the average smartphone user checks 150 times a day is the first step, the is second putting the phone away. She shared that the mere presence of a phone is a happiness zapper. The power of a potential dopamine hit keeps us addicted and distracted while our brain is partially focused on the task at hand and partially waiting for additional content that is released every time we see notifications on our phone. This reward system is highly addictive we need to delete the temptations minimize notifications .She reminded us with a great visual but our concerns are not new they are just different her for rules embrace a growth mindset about technology minimize distracting technology teach self-awareness set healthy boundaries to gather invisible boundaries until kids can self regulate6. " I believe wealth is not meant to create more wealth. Wealth is meant to create well-being." Martin Seligman asked us to think about what are we going to do with human prosperity? Together Seligman and David Cooperrider envisioned new opportunities and possibilities for accelerating positive education.7. "The best person in the class to up the connection of curiosity is the student" according to Angela Duckworth who has launched a character lab at UPenn designed to help use psychological sciences to help people thrive. She uses the heart, mind, will. method of seeing strengths.

• heart to give to and receive from others
• mind to think imagining create
• will to achieve your goals through optimism growth mindset and grit

Her lab hopes to answer the question is character born or earned? Using the science of goal-setting to help increase your results, Duckworth suggests her WOOP model in creating a path to a goal:

1. wish for something
2. identify and imagine outcomes
3. identify and imagine obstacles
4. form a plan

8. "Progress not perfection" says David Cooperrider who compared planning to a jazz improvisation. Cooperrider said the world of leadership design is about legacy; it's not just crazy creative it's also detailed execution. To avoid constraints or see opportunities and to get more creative using the core question "how might we...?" to begin a conversation designed to creatively solve the problems of the world. He also sees a need to remove the barriers that keep students from moving forward and staying curious and joyful.9. "The heliotropic principle reminds us that we move towards things that give us life" we need to activate the motivation of our children said Jacklyn Wong. Speaking from her personal experience of using positive education to transform Singapore as a city. "It's the essence not the architecture that's the difference between a house and a home. " Wong is one of the keys to changing the way an organization uses positive psychology to give leaders, teams and individuals the tools-the house, but they need to make it a home themselves.10. “To prepare young people for a changing world, we need to support them in their self-discovery and awareness and increase their empathy." President of Universidad Tecmilenio, Hector Escamilla spoke passionately about 29 campuses across Mexico who redesigned their process to start from purpose. When education is connected to what matters to a student they go farther faster.