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| Retrieved and modified from FB |
Elijah's comments re: The Art of Possibility-
Chapter 5. Leading from Any Chair: We’re all leaders. How can we make a difference in the people will influence each day? How do we listen to those who help us make our dreams become reality?
Listening to those who act in contrast to our dreams, our visions, our passions is one of the most difficult tasks of our human existence. This chapter really helped me to focus on how those voices also contribute to the possibility of seeing our dreams, our visions, our passions become a reality. If we are truly and deeply listening to what could be perceived as attacking, counteractive, negative we can begin to make what we have envisioned the mere starting point of a more evolved possibility.
Chapter 6. Rule Number 6: Don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is a journey–enjoy and learn along the way. Live, laugh, and love!!
Teaching kids is serious business. So often I get lost in that seriousness, forgetting to relish in the passion of teaching. I suspect that my students can sense this to at times. On the one hand I yearn for them to tap into some intrinsic love of life-long learning, and on the other demand seriousness. I guess the key here is not to a take yourself SO seriously. Seriousness is necessary, but shouldn't be the primary driving factor.
Chapter 7. The Way Things Are: Sometimes settling for the way things are is a lowering of expectations, sometimes it’s finding a starting point so that one can make things better. Where are you in this continuum?
I am so about settling for the way things are these days. Working here in the middle east has begged me to keep my head low, not stir the waters, be complacent. There are people at the top here wanting to make radical changes to education, but on the day to day level you have teachers and administrators who want nothing more than a paycheck. Most of them responding only to the most dire of crises. I came here because I wanted to innovate take my knowledge, learn from the knowledge and experience from the culture around me and blend that into something new and evolved, a new way forward for teaching and learning. The complacency of those around me and the fact that I get shunned every time I try to initiate some of what I was hired to do has resulted in a lowering of my expectations. Finding a starting point as the chapter suggests seems nearly impossible to do alone. Maintaining communication with those who seek to maintain their own high expectations and desire for change seems critical for me now.
Chapter 8. Giving Way to Passion: Control says that the only way to avoid disappointment and frustration is to not care at all. No hits, no runs, but most importantly, no errors. What are you doing in your daily life that expresses your passion or the things you are passionate about?
My Facebook wall has been a place for expressing this passion as of late, through posting links to music, art, news, images, etc. I have also been really focused on communicating my passions with my friends and family, since I don't always have a forum for this at work.
My Comments to Elijah-
I agree that there are times when things seem difficult. As you stated in your comments regarding chapter 7, I wonder if listening to and truly internalizing the message of chapter 9 might not be helpful. We need to really look at every situation as though it is an opportunity. What effect can we have on those around us, what way can we better the place and the people involved. It sounds like you had a mission in mind, that you had a vision and an inspiration. Don’t lose that, those are the types of situations this book speaks of. You can spark inspiration in others, and if you have the confidence and the motivation to move to the other side of the planet, don’t forget how strong you are, use it! I think that the overall message is that we as people but particularly as teachers use our brain in a particular way but that perhaps “that way” is limiting and holds us back. Our brains look to categorize and justify, to connect and simplify. But true inspiration and deep clarity comes from intrapersonal and interpersonal connection while letting go of the limiting connections of thinking. By that I guess I mean that ingenuity comes from thinking outside of that defining and restrictive box.
You have already given up that “control” by taking a chance, now look to see where you can structure some new possibilities! Go get ‘em!
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