Building Networks and Other Connections- Damien Challenger’s P3

Damien is the co-founder of Nexus Education - an online hub and educational events platform for over 11,000 teachers across the UK and beyond to share ideas, best practices and experience via blogging and vlogging. Nexus Education co-founders, Damien Challenger and Mike Reardon, have helped over 1,000 schools discover the best solutions and, coupled with helping over 1,500 suppliers find the most pertinent routes to market, this means he has been ideally placed to witness the education landscape from a middle ground. This middle ground has enabled Damien to foster relationships built on trust and common objectives.

Passionate about the education sector, Damien wanted to help give educators solutions and a place to share. He noticed that much of the landscape compartmentalized thinking and learning, and he wanted to create a space that reached beyond a specific title like edtech or literacy. The organization has grown so significantly in the past 12 months that Damien was able to leave his other employment and devote himself to Nexus Education. His dream is for Nexus Education to provide over £100,000 of funding to schools in the next three years via bespoke NeXworking events with school groups. He also wants Nexus to be the go-to hub for teachers wanting to improve themselves, learn from others and share their experiences, regardless of where or what they are teaching.

When preparing for his guest appearance on The Personal Playlist Podcast, Damien thought long and hard about his song choices. He asked his wife, Rhiannon, for guidance. While many songs come and go from his playlist, these were constants. Not only are all three songs from UK artists, all three songs from Damien’s P3 are by artists from Manchester, England. He grew up in North Wales, in northern Britain. “A lot of my influence are from growing up up North,” as we say in Britain.

This is an image of Damien's hometown of Flint, North Wales. You can make out his primary school on the right amongst the fields and the house he grew up in across the field next to it.

Damien’s nostalgic song was the first song that came to his mind. Growing up where he did in the 90’s, there was a lot of economic deprivation in his town; that was true of many places in the UK at the time. His parents, though they were young, gave Damien and his 3 younger siblings a grounding in many things including music. He chose this song because the opening drum beat always takes him back to his parent’s house, his siblings running around their living room without a care in the world and the fearless optimism for the future that they had in spite of their local circumstance. Damien attributed much of his entrepreneurial drive to his parent’s constant support and encouragement as well as the examples they set.

This song was written in 1991, inspired by The Rolling Stones’ Shine a Light. The hopeful nature of the song and the contrast it was to the grunge music that was popular at the time made it unique, but it was especially celebrated in the UK, where it became Oasis’s first single to enter the top ten. Noel Gallagher said during a Reddit AMA that he never had a life goal until he wrote this song. "Where I came from, and the times that I grew up in, it was best not to have any ambitions. It was quite a bleak time. I never had a life goal until I wrote 'Live Forever.' And then when I wrote 'Live Forever,' I wanted to be in the biggest band in the world." Damien said, “This song encapsulates the northern spirit.” Here is Live Forever from Oasis:

Damien’s identity song is by a band that he really loves. While the title reflects his impatience, on a deeper level, this song is about being true to yourself. Damien doesn't always exude confidence, and he is sometimes full of doubt. He has, though, been able to come to terms with this characteristic and view it as an asset, even though he is still working on building his self esteem. “I used to think of it as a weakness, but now I’ve learned to use it as a tool...to harvest it and use it as an advantage.” The dramatic music that Damien feels builds perfectly makes this song not just about his identity but a perfect song overall. He was often comfortable behind the facade and not always honest about being as shy as he was. The singer of this band was also painfully shy and, according to Song Facts, “This song - which guitarist, Johnny Marr, described as The Smiths' "most enduring record" - is about their frontman Morrissey's crippling shyness. It has since become an anthem for the alienated and socially isolated.” It can also be a call for connection so that those who are shy don't feel alone. That powerful line from the chorus is a universal decree: I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does. This is The Smiths’ with How Soon is Now:

Damien’s personal motivator song is one that is by the singer of the band from whom we just heard. “I can remember exactly where I was when I heard this song for the first time. I was fourteen, and my dad was redecorating my bedroom. I finished school and I went upstairs...the room was completely bare; the only thing in there was a CD player and a stack of CD’s that he had been listening to….” This was the first track that he listened to, and he was hooked. As a result, Damien bought all the old Smiths albums and became a huge Morrissey fan (“...not really his political statements these days.”). Damien asserted that, “...on a musical level, I think he really is...a poet.” This song is an escape for Damien. Here is Suedehead by Morrissey:

Damien found his experience on this show to be very personal, even more personal than he had imagined. Outside of his wife, most people don't know many of the things he shared, including his parents. “I think that more people should do it...think of music in this way...it does speak to everybody in a different way.” The Personal Playlist Podcast began as a classroom presentation that I now call The Personal Playlist Project (the other P3). Damien really connected to the idea of using music to tell your story.

Damien and Nexus Education have a lot on the horizon. They are launching NeXworking . NeXworking events are bespoke 90 minutes sessions aimed at solving school groups problems through qualified introductions to pertinent providers. In exchange for just 90 mins of their time the school groups will receive £1,000 to reinvest! They currently have NeXworking events booked with hundreds of school from Wirral, Runcorn, Bradford, Dudley, Cornwall, Telford, Cumbria, Leeds and more.

Damien and Mike handing over a cheque for £1,000 to a group of 24 schools in Wallasey, UK.

In addition to me, they now have over 250 bloggers writing for NexEd Blogs. Nexus Education has a newsletter to which you can subscribe to http://www.nexus-education.com/contact-us/newsletter-sign-up/. You can also follow Nexus Ed on Twitter, and their YouTube channel. “Our approach is completely impartial – we want to connect teachers to each other and to providers but, most importantly, we want to share every day teachers ideas with our 11,000+ strong, and growing, community.” Check out www.nexus-education.com to learn more.

Here are the links to my posts on Nexus’s Edublogs so far:

Building Outside the Blocks- an introduction to the BOB Approach

One Off and Tri-BOBs- Explaining the difference between a one-time BOB project and a three part spiralling BOB.

What's In a Name (W.I.N.)- A post on the project where learners share the story of their names with the class, building cultural literacy along with skill, connection and a sense of community

The Unmeasurable and Immeasurable Outcomes of Project Based Learning (PBL)

If You Build It- The invitation of Personalizing Projects