Living an Attitude of Gratitude and Servitude- Renaldo Lawrence’s P3

Renaldo Lawrence grew up in St. Matthews, South Carolina and has always known that his life was meant to be one of servitude, just like his mother Pernell Lawrence.

After graduating from Appalachian State University, Renaldo was drafted by the San Diego Clippers. Over Renaldo’s career, he played in a variety of countries such as South America, Finland, Argentina, Sweden, Russia and Ireland. While playing in England, Renaldo ended up the 4th leading scorer in the history of British basketball, scoring 73 points in a single game. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Renaldo also holds numerous scoring records of 40 and 50-point game. He ended up staying in England and becoming a Physical Education there.

Renaldo works as a teacher at Glyn School in Epsom, Surrey, England, where he develops and deploys interactive learning resources for staff, faculty, parents, and students as an Information and Communications Technology teacher. Thanks to a friend who saw more in him, Renaldo “saw his life come to life” he became an instructional technology teacher. Renaldo holds his master’s in education and went from being Macromedia educational teacher to a leader and motivational speaker. His P3 was full of inspirational music and his deep sense of purpose.

Renaldo’s nostalgic song views the term “love” with many lenses. According to our guest, love can mean a lot of things. “To me, love means that you genuinely care about somebody, you genuinely care about their feelings...and that they're doing the best that they can for their life.” Renaldo sees it as a person’s obligation to brightens someone’s life when given the opportunity. Renaldo believes that, “People are brought into your life in order to help you learn how to help other people…” He honours his friend who past away in all of his work. This song reminds Renaldo that life is about love and how you need to genuinely care about the next person. Here is Anita Baker’s Giving You the Best That I Got:

So much about Renaldo’s life is about sharing who he is with the world. His identity song comes from an artist who, according to an article on the this singer/songwriter, (http://performingsongwriter.com/marvin-gaye-whats-going-on/, once said, “To be truly righteous, you offer love with a pure heart, without regard for what you’ll get in return.” Renaldo begins each day with an “attitude of gratitude and servitude.” He spoke about his parents and grandparents and how they taught him values and respect. Being an educator, Renaldo feels the importance of students understanding that he is a man of his word and that he embodies his values in everything he does, including a deep belief in student success. He asks himself the question of the song title and he asks this question of others. Here is What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye:

Renaldo’s inspirational song reflects his mission. “I really believe that I was sent here to fly. I believe that I was sent here to be a blessing. And, I believe that I was sent here in order to make other people’s lives better.” Renaldo says that flying can take on many connotations including feeling great about yourself and helping yourself and others develop a mindset of possibility. R. Kelly wrote this song for Michael Jordan’s first movie, Space Jam, and it has been used in many movies since. Renaldo told narratives about meeting Dr. J and Michael Jordan and how they both really knew who they were and were driven in view of a goal. “The idea is to find out who you are… and then find your gifts; your gifts will allow you to soar.” Here is R Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly:

Renaldo is many things to many people. He is a husband, father, teacher, inspirational leader and speaker. Renaldo is the author of both I Am More Than What You See and and the recently released comic book for children, Boy Get Off My Pig. He actually had been creating comic books since he was little, writing about all the positive things that were happening around him. He now travels around the world and actually creates a comic book about the place and then make a video to complement that. He would then send it to South Carolina and video conference with the class who received it. Regardless of what people say about you or where you come from , you have a to get an education and understand that you are special. He has also created a 12 week series to help Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT’s) to support new teachers released through Nexus Education UK’s site. He has written articles for Lynda/LinkedIn is an Adobe educational Leader, Apple Distinguished Educator, Microsoft Innovative Educator. You can follow Renaldo on Twitter and learn more about him from his website.

Renaldo Book

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