I have learned a lot in my years of post-secondary about the importance of community, and for this week's blog post what a better way to transition from Thanksgiving weekend than talking about gathering. More specifically, gathering information, gathering resources, and gathering together. Gather InformationIf we are awake to the wide circle of reality around us, then its intelligence can join to ours in ways that reach far beyond what we can imagine from our point-wise awareness" - Arthur Zajonc The world provides us the opportunity to gather information on a daily basis, we simply need to act like sponges. Mindfulness and awareness are two key components to allowing ourselves to soak up this information. As teachers, it can be easy for us to slip into the leader mentality instead of the co-learner mindset. If we allow them to teach us, we can learn a lot from students and gather information about what they have learned, how they learn, and why they know what they know. Parker Palmer talks about letting the subject be the centre of our classroom in his powerful novel, The Courage to Teach. It takes the microphone away from the teacher and "the subject itself corrects us, resisting our false framings with the strength of its own identity, refusing to be reduced to our self-certain ways of naming its otherness" (Palmer, 2017, p. 108). We must be open and available to students and subjects in order to gather and soak up information. Be the sponge in a world full of hydrophobics. Gather ResourcesHere is where I get to tell all educators about an amazing platform that allows teachers to gather and share resources they can use across grade levels and curriculum subjects. This collaborative environment is called Cube for Teachers, and it allows you to save resources found on the web to folders of your choice. Cube is great for planning units, saving ideas for the future, and organizing resources into one place. There are many wonderful educators you can follow on Cube to see what they are sharing that may inspire future lessons of your own. Besides this community, be sure that you are continuing to gather resources to keep both yourself and your students inspired and excited to learn in a world that continues to change and grow. Gather Together
Check out my fellow Lakehead 9x9x25 bloggers:
Helen Dewaard - http://extending.hjdewaard.ca/category/9x9x25-blogging-challenge/ Steven Secord - http://teachingbythebay.ca
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First, a bit of an introduction
I think a big way we grow is by learning more about ourselves. To do this we must constantly be reflecting a light back on ourselves. Why did this upset me? Why did I respond in such a bitter way? Only by self-reflection do we create a pathway for change.
One of the things I have come to know about myself is that I desire structure. I thrive on routines, schedules, and plans. Therefore, to set myself up for success for this free flowing challenge, I decided I would grant myself that much desired structure. I am a graduate student this year and one of the opportunities granted to me along this pathway is to work with a professor at the Lakehead University Orillia campus. Not to brag, but this year I hit the jackpot and was assigned to work with two amazing women in the Faculty of Education, Frances Helyar and Helen Dewaard (who is also doing this challenge). My main task for these educators is to release a weekly podcast for the faculty, which I have set up to focus around a new word each week (see, structure). I thought this was the perfect opportunity to be able to write a blog post simultaneous to the podcast and incorporate the word of the week in a reflective way. So, here we are with the word dream. Dare to dream
Deadlines and commitments. This is what Dan Pallotta tells us are the very two things we need to achieve our dreams.
Pallotta suggests, "we are born to dream and we might die without ever having the chance." I know I have dreams, and I know you do too. We tend to look at what I am going to call our "safe gifts" are. You know the gifts we were born with that will land us a stable career, make us financially secure, and allow us to fit in with a respectable group of friends. But what about your dreams? The dreams that use your "risky gifts" and might not offer you all of the frills of a comfortable life. Why don't we pursue those? Well, my thought is that it boils down to two main reasons: fear and time.
What if you took the advice of Pallotta and made yourself a commitment with a deadline? What if you dared to follow your dreams?
Follow my fellow Lakehead 9x9x25 bloggers:
Helen Dewaard - http://extending.hjdewaard.ca/category/9x9x25-blogging-challenge/ Steven Secord - http://teachingbythebay.ca
With another weekend gone by brings a whole new season to life. Welcome fall, and with this season of harvest, I bring a fresh new blogging challenge to the lifeless pages of this space. The 9x9x25 blogging journey is for educators to be reflective and expressive about all things education, and you can read more about the origins here.
When I first read about this challenge, I thought it sounded rather intriguing, but I did not give myself permission to be apart of it. After all, this project is for educators, not someone like me who is in the full-swing of their Master's of Education. However, after continued reflection and thought, I realized that the only person stopping myself from participating is me. Last June I graduated with both a Bachelor's of Arts and Science, as well as a Bachelor of Education. Despite the fact that I do not have a traditional teaching job in a classroom, I am a teacher. I worked hard to get to where I am and I am not going to let the overanalysis of definitions pertaining to what it means to be an educator stop me from participating in something so COOL. Labels lead me down a rabbit hole of insecurity. I tend to view myself as having limiting beliefs, “those which constrain us in some way” and “just by believing them, we do not think, do or say the things that they inhibit” (Changing Minds, 2018). I never had a name for this discouraging voice until I learned about this term in a psychology class during undergrad. As Mullins (2009) describes in her powerful TED Talk about The Opportunity of Adversity, “to say something outloud brings it to existence.” Recognizing these beliefs about myself has been empowering, but for a long time I allowed my lack of confidence to sit back when all I really wanted was to do was dance with life.
Labels I have given myself over the years has held me back from seizing (or at least trying out) opportunities that have crossed my path. These labels have put a lid on me and cast a shadow to my power (Mullins, 2009). Allowing students to recognize, not judge, identify, not label, what is going on inside of them, gives them a sense of self and permits them “to bring forth what is within, to bring forward potential” (Mullins, 2009). Doors open for us at various stages of our lives. Even still, we tend to view the door as closed because we do not believe in ourselves. So, I challenge each one of you reading this to run through that door before you have the opportunity to let doubt seep in. Run. Seek. Thrive.
After all of this being said, I, an educator, am looking forward to engaging in conversation with many inspiring people over the duration of this challenge. There is still time to join, it begins October 1st, take the plunge, tango with teachers, learn more about yourself, and sign up here. |
AuthorJust a university student blogging about her reflections, assignments, resources, and learning tidbits. Archives
October 2018
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