“Sharpening the saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have - you.” Stephen R. Covey I am innately curious and love to learn and so sharpening the saw in terms of learning is a strength for me. I am constantly assessing my own teaching and thinking about how I can improve. I like learning, even if it makes my brain hurt or I become frustrated. Learning is a positive challenge. I also realize that I need to learn to continue to support my students in their learning. I am definitely open to learning about new ideas and renewing my own teaching practice, even if it means change. Maintaining balance in my life to preserve and enhance myself can be a challenge. If life gets too far off balance or a significant change happens, I feel it. I really feel it - physically, mentally, and emotionally. Anxiety takes over and it affects my ability to function like my usual self. Luckily, I have learned ways to enliven my own self-renewal. I go for runs on the local trails. I head to the tide pools to find amazing creatures and enjoy the ocean. I spend time conversing with friends - over dinner, over the phone, or doing something we both enjoy. I spend time in prayer and reading scriptures, or cook a tasty recipe. Intentionally choosing one of these avenues for self-renewal takes practice. I am continually learning to adjust my own balance through the lens of my own expectations and self-reflection. It isn’t easy to make a forward move when you feel out of balance. However, I cannot grow or really experience the joys in life if I stay stuck with my anxiety. I am encouraged by others, and specifically my classmates and professors in my masters program. Their discussion posts remind me that I am not alone in my thinking. Their comments on my blog let me know that someone is reading. Their feedback is personally powerful, and an example on how I want to work with my own students. I definitely feel blessed by the people in my program. Achieving synergy by working together effectively for a greater purpose can be a challenge. Even when a highly intelligent and motivated group of people are working together, large tasks are not always simple. There are a lot of parts to sort out and dealing with each of them takes time. All members of the group must give of their own time so the group can work together. They must trust each other in order to honestly share ideas. They must be willing to think together when solutions do not come easily. A technology support team for teachers and students has been established at my school, and I am part of that team. It is not perfect, but it currently consists of three teachers, the IT technician, and the principal. The main members that are working together to put together the site’s technology vision and technology professional development are the three teachers and principal. Last semester, we were unable to meet together because one of the three of us was always teaching or in a meeting when the others had technology resource time. Finally, this semester, we have a period to spend time working together. We have already met several times, and we have been able to collectively work together to begin synthesizing our site’s technology plan. I have seen glimpses of synergy because we work well together, we trust each other, and we are able to collaborate. It is all very exciting. However, the main difficulty that prevents us from working together is distraction. We all have several roles on campus and it is inevitable that when we want to meet - one of us is off campus at a training or needs to spend the time working on another urgent school project. This is frustrating, but we working on keeping that time for collaboration. I wonder: how can we expect to be able to synergize if we do not take the time to do so? That is something I want to work on because I have seen glimpses so far of synergy with our group. I want to see more, and I know it is possible. We just need time to practice. How will I help the Mayan GB team to understand what synergize means and help them practice it? Well, I have realized recently that my team has needed more team-building activities to help them trust each other and cooperate to complete a task. I put them into teams for specific projects at the beginning of the semester to try and help facilitate their chance to collaborate. However, it has not gone according to plan. Some of my students have needed to read (for their AR program) instead of doing Mayan GB projects. Some students had little to no direction on their projects because I was off campus at meetings for a week and a half. So, the potential for synergy is a tough thought for me with them right now. At the same time, their student-led Mayan GB Bootcamp (student led conference) is coming up in April. I am also back on campus and have no more scheduled meetings the rest of this semester. I am hopeful that the Mayan GB team can come together as a team to help this event be a success. I am confident that I can help and excited to encourage each member of the team in being a part of this project to make it a successful event! Does anyone else ever have an idea pop into your head in the midst of another person talking and you just need to get the information out before you forget? Does anyone else have a mind that can move a mile a minute with a zillion different random thoughts? I have both of these issues. In fact, I have these issues often. I tend to verbalize my thoughts when I am ready, and sometimes this means I interrupt the person who is already speaking. It is not my intention to be disrespectful or make the person think I am not listening to him or her. I have just chosen to speak my thoughts at an inopportune time. Sometimes this even happens several times in a row. (Just ask my younger brother who has called me out on it.) It is then that I remember to listen first. I want to hear and understand what the other person has to say, and I want them to know I am listening. It will take more and more practice for me to first understand and then be understood. In order to work on this skill of understanding first before expressing myself, I will proactively enter a conversation or group discussion with understanding first in mind. I will pay attention to the speaker and listening actively. I will write something down if it comes to mind while another person is speaking. This way, I can come back to the topic of my choice after I finish listening. I think this workflow of understanding first before being understood will be easier in some situations than others. However, if I practice active listening first in every situation - including when I speak with my students about their projects and talking on the phone with a friend about how she is doing, I will have a greater chance of this mindset becoming a habit. Teaching my Mayan GB students to seek first to understand and then be understood will be done by me setting an example first. Too often I have suggestions for their projects without even hearing their side of the story first. I want to make sure I give enough of an opportunity for them to express their thoughts to me before I explain my side of the story. I will practice using the sentence starter: “I think what you are saying is…” to clarify what they are telling me first. I will also explain to them why I am practicing this habit myself and explain how they can try it too. I hope that this leads to a better dialogue between them and me and amongst themselves in the group. What would it look like for all people to understand and practice Stephen Covey’s habit of “think win-win?” I think it would allow for people to recognize individual differences and celebrate them. There would be infinite potential for innovation because people would work together to come up with a different solution than merely their own. “Think win-win” would include spending time working out issues together, and would involve consideration of others’ feelings and thoughts. In this process, one person would not back down or give in. Because of this, solutions and answers would not always come easily. There would need to be room for second chances to work things out. This would take time, and lots of energy. Humans working together can be amazing, but it also can be very messy. I will put “think win-win” into practice when helping fellow staff learn new technological skills. I will be considerate of their perspectives and listen to their experiences. I will work together with them to create a workflow that will be both practical and meaningful to them, while simultaneously help them learn and use a new skill. Sometimes my suggestions for them may not be ideal in their eyes. So, we will need to work together to find a solution that does fit both of our needs. I want to encourage them to use the technology, and also give them a chance to choose and implement technology in a way that is meaningful for them. I hope a collaborative, “think win-win” approach will be a positive step towards accomplishing this goal. It won’t be easy to teach my Mayan GB students how to “think win-win.” Popular culture has competition and comparison surrounding my students through a variety of advertisements, commercials, and videos. I will talk to my students about the concept of “think win-win” as we continue to plan Mayan GB Bootcamp. We’re planning a student-led tech conference for a Saturday in April, and there are more and more decisions to be made. I want to see them to talk about what is happening, and encourage each of them to have a voice in this process. I want them to learn that they can express their own thoughts and ideas and be positively challenged and encouraged as they hear others’ ideas. I know that collaborating is a challenge for my middle schoolers, but I want them to see how important a skill it is for them. When they can courageously express themselves and willingly work together to uncover solutions with each other, growth and progress can occur. I am guilty. I do not always put first things first. Now just to be clear, I am not known to be a procrastinator. Frankly, people like my mother, twin brother, and sister who can procrastinate and still get a task done on time and done well, albeit at the last minute, frustrate me. I do not understand how it is done. They say it is just “how they work.” Well, I was not given that gift. When I try to do what procrastinators do, I get very anxious. I don’t think straight and the sheer thought of being down to the wire to complete something makes me nervous. It just doesn’t go over well. However, with that said, I have my own way of procrastinating. It really is more of something one of my colleagues likes to call creative avoidance. I use distractions as my tool of procrastination. I check my e-mail, call a friend just to talk, or look at my favorite food blog instead of working on grading an assignment or reading the next assigned chapter. I usually do take care of what I set out to do, but the task is not always done efficiently. In some cases these diversions are needed brain breaks, but when they are happening several times within the span of just a few minutes, I am not very productive. This can also be personally frustrating. So, how can I do better at putting first things first? For starters, I need to daily remind myself of what I truly value. In the past, I have put a written reminder of my values on my car dashboard. It is not to give heavy thought to these values each day, but instead make me visibly aware of my priorities in life. One of those priorities I value is a healthy body and mind. To make sure I keep my body healthy I need to eat regularly and slowly (see Post 1) and exercise as close to daily as possible. To keep my mind healthy I need to stimulate it by reading, writing, and interacting in engaging and intellectual conversations with others. (To a certain extent, the masters’ program facilitates this.) In order to encourage these behaviors in myself, I will read and reread this blog post each day this week and also put a written reminder of this value on my mirror. The written reminder will read: “Putting first things first for me includes choices that promote a healthy body and mind.” I will share with my Mayan GB students what I will be doing to implement the habit of putting first things first. This week is an appropriate time to talk to them about this because progress report grades come out next week. I want them to be able to reflect on their priorities and assess for themselves if they are putting first things first. Maybe their priorities don’t include certain grades right now. If that is the case, I will ask them to think about what they do truly value. I will ask them to think about and come up with ways that they can prioritize their values in their daily lives. This will not be easy for them, as they typically are thinking in the moment or about that day only. At the same time, this progress report marks (for most of them) the beginning of the last semester before high school. What do they see in the future? Where I am headed and where do I want to go? I admit that this question has been puzzling at times for me. When I was in college, I was preparing to become a physician. I was mustering through classes like organic chemistry and cell biology as well as making sure I prepared as best as I could for the MCAT. I thought that medical school was my next step, and I was preparing for it. However, toward the end of college, I realized that I did not have enough of a tolerance for high levels of stress and if I chose this path I would have to go through many more years of rigorous schooling. My sense of direction was thrown off. I didn’t know what I wanted to do now. After a few years of working as a biology lab coordinator and later moving to a new town, I still did not have a clear sense of what direction I wanted to head in life. At one point, I even wondered if I would be an administrative assistant for years to come. I even started to become somewhat okay with it. The thing is, I wasn’t fully satisfied with it. Internally, I wanted more but I just did not know how to get there. It took a lot of prayer and wise counsel to take my next steps to get my teaching credential. I applied and was accepted within days of even considering this possibility. I was not completely assured right away that this was going to be a lifelong career path, but I have been reassured many times now that it is a profession I have been created for. I love to teach and be challenged continually. I know there is no end to things I will learn in this job, and yet, that is what keeps me going. My structured, organized brain thrives on the interruptions and unpredictabilities of daily classroom interactions with students. This isn’t to say the job is easy, but I have direction. I want to be challenged. I want to see my students enjoy learning. My internal motivation keeps me grounded in doing what I do as an educator. Teaching my students to think about their own vision for their lives is tough. They are often living day to day and moment by moment. They are junior highers. I want to tell them that their current choices matter and that they have such a wealth of opportunities available to them right now. I want them to know that there is more to life than who is dating who and who is no longer talking to their best friend. In order to help them see that there is more to life than the day to day doldrums, I will show them glimpses of things they may never get to see otherwise. I will show my Mayan GB (help desk) students the latest technologies I am learning about and neat innovative products that are being developed. This week, I will give them the chance to ponder where they see themselves in five years. I will discuss with them what that vision entails, and what they can do to get to that place. I will periodically throughout the rest of the semester check in with them about keeping the “end” in mind. In terms of being proactive in my daily life, there is one change that needs to happen sooner rather than later. I need to slow down when I eat. In fact, most days I even need to eat before I realize I need to eat. This is true about almost every member of my family, and I know my twin brother would agree. Anyways, both eating before I feel overly hungry and eating slower would help me take the time my body needs to digest the food I am consuming and gain essential energy. It would give me pause in my daily routines instead of feeling like I am constantly on the go. It’s going to take some work for this one to become reality, because I am usually with my help desk (Mayan GB) students three days of the week during lunch. That said, I do not usually bring my lunch right into our help desk room. Thus, it becomes even more of a time crunch to fit in eating. (Yes, I know food is essential. Yes, I do end up extremely hungry by 3:10PM. I am working on it. Now I have you helping to keep me accountable in developing this habit.) My weekly target teaching audience will be my Mayan GB - my tech help desk students. In order to help them fully understand what being proactive means, I will teach by example. I will talk to them about (me) recognizing my need for nutrients and feeling hungry by the end of the school day. Instead of merely letting it continue to happen, I will bring and eat my lunch during Mayan GB help desk working time (school lunch time). I will do my best to chew my food with at least five more chews before swallowing so that I don’t have indigestion. I also may actually have a more relaxed state of being if I eat slower. As far as the Mayan GB students being proactive, I’d really like to see them being more proactive with their AR Reading. It’s a requirement for them to be keeping up with it outside of our advisory class time. It is something that many of them struggled with last semester. It is something that I’d like to see them be proactive about, but I know they may have other ideas about what they would like to work on. I will definitely discuss with them what they would like to be more proactive about and give them a choice on what to consciously choose to work on. Note: This week’s teaching will hopefully happen on Thursday during Mayan GB advisory, but I have been off campus for about two weeks on a committee and foresee things may involve virtual (LMS - including an announcement and discussion) communication. |