Teacher Thoughts - Week 19 Edition

 Post-Traumatic Growth edition -

 

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty" - Maya Angelou

 

Wow. 

 

That is a quote that I heard this morning on John O'Leary's podcast. Now if you don't know O'Leary's story, he was burned over 100% of his body when he was just a boy. Not only did he survive, but - amazingly - O'Leary will go on to claim that getting burned was the most important event of his life, for it taught him so many things and turned him into the incredible man he is today.

 

What perspective!

 

Again, I saw on social media posts from all kinds of people complaining. Teachers are tired. Health care professionals don't get the respect they deserve. Employers can't find workers. Workers aren't getting paid enough. Scientists are being marginalized. On and on and on.

 

I get it. Times are difficult. But when haven't they been difficult? If times aren't hard for you now, they will be one day just as they are for so many others right now.

 

The key is to keep perspective, as Maya Angelou's quote and O'Leary's survival attest to. The one "dirty" truth of all of these difficult times is that they are truly what make us grow and prosper.

 

It's called "Post Traumatic Growth." Tom Brokaw acknowledges that such a concept is what helped produce what he dubbed "The Greatest Generation" as they grew up in and emerged from The Great Depression. 

 

So instead of taking to social media to simply complain, think first about how to embrace the hard times and emerge from them even stronger.  Plus, no one wants to hear your troubles. Half the people don't care; the other half are glad you have them. 

 

Inside this week's Teaching Thoughts, you'll find . . .

 

Images - there is a great image written on a "Checkout Card" (remember those?) from a library book. Upon it is the quote: "Reading forces you to be quiet in a world that no longer makes a place for that" - John Green. Isn't that true? Over the past few months Kenzie has become obsessed with reading. It started with a detective series she found in her middle school library. As she devoured those, she soon came across the Percy Jackson series. Again, she devoured those. Now she is working on a whole new series. There is just something magical about walking up stairs and passing her room and seeing her laying on her bed with a book in her hands. Absolutely magical.

 

The World is a Fine Place - It's working! A Dutch team is working to clean up the oceans. Their design and system was doomed - or so critics said. But after several trial runs, it is removing tons of garbage from the ocean. This is what is so inspiring about humans - and what has kept us around as long as we have been - the ability to solve problems. Let's hope we don't lose that any time soon. 

 

Book of the Week - The Classroom Chef by John Stevens and Matt Vaudrey. I have written about this in past editions, but I like to revisit it once or twice a year. Their thesis is an interesting one - design your lessons as if you were a chef at a fine restaurant. What is the appetizer? How does that work to prepare your students for the main course? How many courses are there in the meal? What kind of atmosphere will you have for the meal? What condiments will you have with it to bring out the full taste of the dishes? And what about dessert to top it all off? I love the thought process.

 

Teaching Thoughts - Check out Practice, Promote, and Permit. Want buy in from your team or students? It all comes down to what you practice, promote, and permit. For example, I'm struggling right now with one of my Hot Topics in Writing classes. I practice exactly what I want to get from my students. If I assign a paper, I write a rough draft of one with them. I am practicing what I preach. I am also always trying to promote the thinking skills and work ethic I want from them. If I see an issue that everyone is jumping to conclusions on, we will pause and think our way through it. I am trying to promote using the critical skills we learn in class. Finally, and this is where I'm struggling, you have to really focus on what you permit to happen. I'm more of the "you're a high school student. You should use your time and act like a young adult" type of person. But that's not the case always. I permitted some of my kids to stop working a few minutes early and even leave for lunch early. Well since I permitted that, now it's become an expectation for them. And now it's a battle I fight every day. All because I permitted it to happen early. Never again!

 

Why I love Teaching - Clinics and Conferences. Coach Mumm and I had the chance to present down at the Big Time Strength and Football Clinic in Dassel-Cokato, MN. What I love about coaching is just listening to other coaches talk about their craft. It's so ironic to me that I don't nearly hear this type of passion when it comes to talking about teaching and learning. But when you talk about sports, it's blatantly obvious. I snapped a picture of Coach Mumm arguing with another strength coach about the back squat vs. the front squat. Where can I find someone who is willing to argue the benefits of voice and style in writing like this? I love that passion.

 

Podcast of the Week - Check out American Shadows. If you teach history or current events, this is a great podcast that explores the darker corners of American history. The episode I focus on deals with the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900. It includes an analysis that reveals one man's stubbornness to accept data and keep an open mind led to thousands of deaths. So maybe we haven't learned and progressed all that much in 122 years after all! But that's what is so fascinating about history.

 

Bonus Content of the Week - If you aren't using the app, ClibGrab, you're missing out. It's an app that allows you to download YouTube videos. I use this for all of my presentations. I will find a video on YouTube and then download it as an .mp4 file to use in a presentation. That way I never have to worry about embedding a link into a slideshow or have to worry about WIFI. Another great way to use this is what I did just this morning. I downloaded a song I heard on TV last night, but iTunes only had the explicit version. So I went to YouTube and found the clean version. Then I downloaded the video as an .mp3 file and added it to my iTunes library so I don't have to worry if my kids listen to it now. I don't know how I could teach or present without this app.

 

PS - The background image for this week's newsletter - the curse is broken! After 31 years, my beloved Cincinnati Bengals have won a playoff game! The last time they won a playoff game, it was 1991, and I was a junior in high school. I know their stud QB said this isn't the icing on the cake (getting the curse broken). This is the cake. A Super Bowl would be the icing. I disagree. Everything after this win is just fun. Who day!!!