Skip to main content

Gathering Inspiration from Everywhere

I was recently given the chance to deliver a mini-keynote of sorts to a group of educators. My charge was to talk about what was most important to me as an educator. I had nearly two weeks to figure out what I should say. I began to think about current influences. There were pieces of each scattered in my mind (and heart). 
From all that I had been reading and digesting as of late, what was sticking with me the most?

  

I knew I could talk about something academic but I kept coming back to all of these ideas that were not nearly as neat in my head as they are on this padlet board. (If only my mind could look that!). While I know the role of an educator is an academic one, I wanted to focus on heart first. 

I found a way to weave the main parts of each of these life influences into a short essay. That essay was edited multiple times and became the talk. 

That "mess" of ideas...that's how our work is sometimes. We take pieces of what we've learned and pieces of what we remember, step up to the imaginary podium and do the best we can.


Video by Tim Dawkins
And when we're done, we look back on it and realize there are parts we could definitely improve on. We sometimes even get stuck on the mistakes we made and need reminders to look at the event as a whole. 

 We're so quick to find fault or criticism when we should be honoring the "showing up". 

Sometimes, the bravest thing we do in our work is just that.

Comments

  1. Fueling EductionNovember 15, 2015 at 6:10 PM

    LOVE this! Amazing what showing up can accomplish all in itself! Have a great week ahead!
    Craig

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something about March

Our work in school leadership can often come in waves. Some days you are happily swimming to shore while other days you might feel as though it is taking all of your energy to stay above the water.  The latter is often what March feels like.  There is something about March that has always felt like a difficult month for me, at least personally, as an educator. Maybe it's the impact of a long winter, access to less sunshine, or the absence of any scheduled downtime in the month. It's also the point where we are able to look back on a school year and see how much we have accomplished but at the same turn how much there is still to do.  But, the difference is the proverbial finish line that June brings. We all know, whether we like it or not, what we planned or were even assigned to accomplish this year is now connected to an imaginary stopwatch that is counting down that time. We can see the end to the year and that can be stressful.  What about all the things still le...
Post a Comment
Read more

Growth Mindset

This will be a quick post likely full of errors and incomplete sentences. But, I feel a pressing need to get these thoughts to paper while: a) I have time  and b) I can still remember the pieces I want to connect I was given a great opportunity to work with Dr. Shawn Hunziker today. We've conducted some online book studies around Mindset by Carol Dweck. This past winter, we were invited to give a keynote to CSE Chairpersons ( BIG TIME for us) and that led to today's session with CNYSEA's Summer Institute .  On my way to the session, I was rehearsing notes (as I always do, see previous post ). At a stop sign near the venue where the conference was held, I pulled up in back of a car and noticed the neatest license plate: NEVRQT* I think that's how it was spelled. I tried to grab a picture but realized how creepy that would look and did not reshoot the blurry image I captured. When I arrived at the conference, I immediately told my partner, Sh...
18 comments
Read more

My one word: Courage

I am part of an amazing voxer group of MS Principals and Jay Posick became a recent member of that group. Talk about a man with the right mindset. Recently, he posted a link about a one word challenge and it got me thinking. I've been struggling with the idea of a "new year" and the (self-imposed) push to set some resolutions. I don't like the idea of setting resolutions. They feel too artificial for me. Maybe that's because I've failed at them before. But, what I can commit and buy into is this idea of one word . I think my word is COURAGE.  It's funny when I typed out that sentence, I couldn't get around the phrase "I think". The way I crafted that sentence speaks to why I have chosen the word courage to help guide me in this new year. I need courage to continue to take risks and nurture creative ideas. I need courage to finally do some things I have been postponing (some for just 30 years or so) and set to accomplishing them or...
3 comments
Read more