The Today Foundation continues it’s long-standing commitment to the community and was recognized in September of 2019 at the SMU Football game. Warrie Birdwell and John Henderson of Origin Bank present the Origin Bank Community Hero award to Dick Collins of the Today Foundation and Charles Haley of Tackle Tomorrow.

EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global education technology market selected Istation co-founder and CEO Richard Collins as the winner of the EdTech CEO of the Year award for 2019.

Being a Good Parent
By Richard H. Collins

1. Be there. Go to the ballet recitals, soccer games, birthday parties, football
   games.
2. Find out what aptitudes your child has and focus their education in those
   subjects.
3. Make sure the school is right for your child. Make sure the teacher is right
   for your child. If they aren’t, then find the right teacher and school.
4. Know your child’s teacher.
5. If divorced, never criticize your former spouse.
6. No means no. Children need boundaries and need to know they matter.
7. Do not let the new husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend disrupt a good
   working relationship with your former spouse.
8. Every child needs a spiritual aspect to their lives: it teaches ethics, morals,
   character, and a higher purpose in life.
9. Failure happens in life and is acceptable; quitting is what losers do. Stay the
   course. Don’t let the child quit; make them complete the task.
10. If you are the friend or spouse of a parent with a child, remember you are
    only the child’s friend and do not try to be the parent. You can become a
    parent figure only after you have earned the right.

People ask me what lessons I have learned in my life. The most important one is to tell the truth. People make up convoluted stories unnecessarily to boost their image or hide their behavior.

I thought I had  seen  every type of crazy scheme out there, then another new and wilder one happens. True events are stranger than fictional ones.  For instance, a guy running for Congress in New York 25 years ago disclosed his glorious military record: a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, etc. This was great,  except for one thing: It was all a lie. Did he not think someone would check?

Or what about Eliot Spitzer, the former Governor of New York  who portrayed himself as a  champion of integrity and justice? As New York State Attorney  General, he viciously went after Wall Street bankers on alleged financial improprieties (all convictions were overturned on appeal), but he had moved on up to Governor. Someone then found out he was flying places to meet prostitutes, and, subsequently, was forced to resign. Did Spitzer believe that payback was not coming?

I owned two commercial banks and learned that your first loss is always your least loss. We financed a car for the brother of a well-known  Dallas political figure. The guy fell three months behind on his payments so we repossessed his car, a Corvette. The borrower came into the bank and begged us to give him his car back.

He caught up the payments and we let him have his car again. Three months later he had never made another payment and wrecked the car. We repossessed the car again though now it was in much worse shape, and our loss was three times more than what it would have been in the first place. Your first loss is your least loss.

When a person starts talking about his or her commitment to the Lord, watch out for your wallet because it’s a cover. Truly spiritual people don’t need to tell you about their religious beliefs.

When you hear someone bragging about how great they are  doing: Beware! I was a member of the Texas Prison Board and was invited to see a new privately owned non-violent inmate facility a man had built with someone else’s money. The promoter picked me up in a Rolls Royce, showed me his new fancy house in north Houston, and told me that Forbes magazine had called to interview him about being on the Forbes 400 Richest list.

While touring the facility I heard him tell one of the other guests, an investor in the project, that I was there from the Prison System to see the facility and recommend the agency lease it. None of this was exactly true. He had lured sophisticated greedy Wall Street investors to finance four private prisons at very high  tax free interest rates. He pocketed huge fees and the investors were poised for big profits. Of course it all blew up and “the fraud was exposed.” It turned out the car and the house had been rented, and the Prison System did ultimately buy the facilities for a third of the investors’ costs. This man pleaded guilty to securities fraud and got a probated sentence because of prison overcrowding!

Or J. Howard Marshall at age 94 marrying former stripper Anna Nicole Smith.  He must have hated his kids.  I saw him at the Houston Club in 1994 (right after he married Anna) and he was in a wheelchair barely cognizant.

When people have success it is common for them to buy a second or third house, or a plane and get other toys – including a new wife or husband. However things don’t go well forever and those same people are forced to sell their collected toys for much less than they paid for them. So remember: If it flies, floats, or eats…Rent it.

I have two daughters who are successful and the pride of my life. My oldest daughter, Calvert, was a TV reporter and now Director of Communications at a Dallas hospital and has a 18-month-old baby who is a joy. My second daughter, Genevieve, is a Senior VP at my company Istation and is one of our top salespeople. She is a serious athlete who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, last Christmas. She fortunately did not press me to go. I am blessed with these outstanding young women. According to them, the most important reason for their confidence is that I have always been there. I have supported them, I helped them, attended their recitals, plays and athletic events but let them solve their own problems. But most importantly, I was there.

So, the most important message for all of us to remember is to never quit. Life is a Marathon…keep running.

With more than one hundred thousand followers on Twitter, Steven Anderson knows what he’s talking about when it comes to social media. He joined us for an EdTech Works Podcast to offer school administrators and classroom teachers some tips on getting and staying connected.

When I was at the TCEA conference in early February, I met so many educators who are passionate about technology in the classroom. Nicole Hicks of Celeste ISD in Texas is one of them. She was even a finalist for TCEA Teacher of the Year in 2014. She deserves praise because, even in a rural school district, she’s found a way to integrate technology into virtually every aspect of her day. I think you’ll really enjoy this interview with Nicole.

If the way we teach children is changing, shouldn’t the way we teach teachers also change? Professional development should not be boring, and thanks to a digital transformation, it doesn’t have to be. Our newest EdTech Works Podcast features conversation with a technology coordinator from Aldine, Texas, who is sharing ideas about a new approach to professional development.

Past generations remember a time when there weren’t enough textbooks for every student to have his or her own. Now some districts are going so far as to issue every student a computer. At the Texas Computer Education Association Convention, we had an in-depth discussion about how school districts are accomplishing this. It’s the subject of our latest EdTech Works Podcast.

I had the pleasure of talking with Todd Nesloney a little more than a year ago. My, how quickly his star rose! Todd is now viewed as a leader among educators using social media and technology. Todd came back to join us for another EdTech Works podcast at the Texas Computer Education Association Convention in Austin. His colleague Aaron Marvel spoke with us, too.

I recently had the great pleasure of attending the Texas Computer Education Association convention in Austin, Texas. I met so many inspirational teachers who are using technology in their classrooms in innovative ways.

The Istation booth at the event attracted a lot of attention as we recorded several video podcasts. Istation’s Sabrina Jones was a teacher for fifteen years before joining our team. She landed a great interview with a man whose real-life story is now on the big screen. Fredi Lajvardi’s life as a science teacher is the basis for the movie “Spare Parts.”