Focus

Focus, it can be a thing or an action. The thing is a central point of attention or activity. The action is to concentrate.

Focus (or the lack of it) has been on my mind lately. So I found it interesting that the books (yes that is meant to be plural) I am reading right now talk about it in one way or another. A little background, if you haven't picked it up yet. I have a history of not concentrating too long on one activity and often having more than one iron in the fire at a time. Many people have tried to tell me about the perils of this approach to life. However, I thought that trying many things and sampling different styles wasn't really a bad way to live life. Maybe it isn't entirely bad, but I'm learning it can be detrimental if you are trying to accomplish something.

That brings me back to the books, all three of them (once again, I recognize I have a problem!) These three books, including one titled "Focus", speak on the subject.

Mike Schmoker, in Focus, talks about the "importance of simplicity, clarity and priority." Making sure we know our priorities, communicating them clearly, and keeping them simple enough to guarantee we can focus on and achieve our goals is imperative. While Schmoker is speaking specifically about improving student learning, he draws analogies from the business world as well as educational institutions. These principles hold true in smaller settings as well, like families and individual lives.

Dave Ramsey, in his book Financial Peace Revisited, emphasizes the need for focus on your strengths to succeed. When you know what you are good at and how to put that into practice effectively, success personally and financially will follow, according to Ramsey. He quotes Thomas Edison "The secret of success is focus of purpose." So no matter what your purpose, focus is what will help you get there. An unwavering attention on the goal you want to achieve.

Seth Godin, in The Dip, talks about knowing when is the right time to quit. Part of what he talks about is being focussed and hardworking to get where you want to go. Working with your strengths and working hard to achieve your goals and not giving up before you get there. The focus that leads you through 'the dip' ("the long slog between starting and mastery") to the other side is "rewarded by a marketplace in search of the best."  Although I started reading this book for an entirely different reason, it has gotten me thinking about my purpose and where I am concentrating my time and energy.  Am I in a "Cul-de-sac" or a "Dip"?  What are some of the things I should quit and with what should I persevere?

Focus, it seems, brings success of purpose. Hmm, fancy that.  It helps you know where to put resources and energy and frees you up to say no to those things that aren't part of your purpose.  I thought I knew this, but it seems I forget it, often.  Although many things are worthwhile and good, keeping yourself working towards a few, very clear goals will be much more rewarding in the long run.   The idea is that you and the people you serve will be better from your focus.  Whether it is students, customers, or clients, family, friends or self, your ability to focus will bring success and benefit.

So what's my purpose and how can I focus in on that for success?  What detracts from my ability to focus?  How can I recognize when I'm getting off track?  What helps you focus and be okay with saying no to all those other great things out there?  I'd love to hear about your experiences and what works for you.

Everyone has a story!

School isn’t just about learning facts and procedures and times tables and dates in history. School is also an important time for children to learn who THEY are. It is a place for a child to start developing his or her story. At school we want to encourage children to believe they have an interesting story to share. Art teachers guide students to create and share through legacy art projects. Cultural teachers provide stories from elders as models and help children to understand their culture as a way to understand themselves. Counselors help children share how to be friends that can create positive stories. All staff can open up new worlds for children by sharing their own stories and passions. EVERYONE has a story to share that is valuable. Who each child is becoming is an important part of education. Children do love to show you what they know AND who they are. EVERYONE wants to matter and not be forgotten. What’s your child’s story? What’s your story?

Report Cards

I'm trying to teach some of my older students about audience. It is my hope that they will find a reason to learn something and a desire to share what they learn with a specific audience or an unknown one. It would also be great if they found learning something so great that they thought it fun to broadcast themselves for pure entertainment, like this set of college students at Wartburg or to give hope to others, like this inspiring story from Regina.

So it has me pondering (instead of writing) report cards. Who is my audience? What is my purpose in writing them? What is important?

Am I writing them for the child? for the parent? for the future teachers? for the school's records? Each one of these audiences requires something different from the others, even if the differences are only subtle. Is the purpose measuring and showing learning and growth? encouraging students and parents? offering suggestions for future actions and growth? reporting on strategies and accommodations?

I'm not certain about any of these questions. However, I would like students, parents, teachers and administrators to know each child is an individual with strengths, with potential, with dreams, with worth. If I can convey that in just one sentence on the page, I might be able to rest at night. Well at least once the report cards are finished.

Self-Reflection and Purpose

My focus today is report cards. Although today is the day I am choosing to write them, they have actually been my focus for a couple of weeks now. In conversations with other educators, almost everyone I talk with, I have found the similar theme of self-reflection emerging.

Every teacher and administrator I have talked to recently is reflecting on how their students are doing in relation to a standard or a curriculum measurement. Questions like "Am I teaching anything well?" and "Have they learned anything?" are being asked by the second. My thoughts then turn to what affects learning? How do we measure learning? Is all of it measurable? What is our goal? This photo is a great start, but isn't there so much more to consider.

How do you measure:

how often a child cries at school

how often they come with a lunch

how much rest a child has gotten

what experiences they had on the weekend

how often they see their parents

how many people in their family died recently

how healthy they are

Measuring academically how children are doing based on standards is easy, but is it accurate? How can you measure a child's success against a set standard when that standard assumes everyone comes to school with the same set of skills and experiences. Each child is an individual and with that comes a great responsibility to treat them and teach them as such. It's difficult to write report cards and show learning when these other factors are so much stronger than a child's ability to take in, process, retain and utilize information. We still try to teach and continually look for ways to help children learn and remember and use skills. It is always my pursuit, through self-reflection, to try to do better by my students and remember they are individuals with desires.

My self-relfection recently got me into a conversation with one of my students. He is a 12 year old that by his actions seems to enjoy school, he adjusts well to it given a number of circumstances in his life that might derail others, but he has extreme difficulty reading. He has a keen interest in hockey and soccer. He wants to learn all about it and we have been using this interest to improve his reading skills. He is learning new vocabulary, learning mechanics and structures of language, improving fluency, learning comprehension strategies, learning research techniques, and many other skills (I hope)! More importantly he is learning about something he genuinely wants to learn about. In all this I am trying to work from the Grade 7 curriculum and encourage him to learn how to share his knowledge through modes other than writing (which is also very difficult for him!) I have been trying to convince him to share his learning with the younger students in the school that really look up to him, be the teacher rather than the learner. This is the conversation that I had with him.

He says "I'm bored." (having just walked through my door, I'm pretty certain this isn't true).

I say "Remember you aren't allowed to use that word, only boring people get bored. What else are you feeling?"

He says "School is hard. Outside school is fun. Being at home isn't hard. You make me do hard things at school."

I ask "What makes outside school fun?"

He says "I get to play Xbox."

I ask "What makes Xbox fun."

He says "Black Ops."

I ask "What makes Black Ops fun?"

He says "You get to shoot people with guns."

I ask "So you think we should shoot people at school with guns."

He says "No. There are zombies."

I ask "So there should be zombies at school."

He says "No."

I ask "So what about Xbox is fun."

He says "You get to play. Reading isn't fun, it's hard."

I say "Sometimes life is hard, it's not always going to be easy, but that's one reason we learn. So we can make it more fun, how do you want to do that?"

He says "I want to learn."

I say "That's good. So this photo essay and video we are thinking of doing is learning. Would it be more fun." (he earlier has decided this is not something he wants to do, but has not yet told me why.)

He says "I only want to learn, I don't want to show it. I don't want to share it." (now we are getting to the heart of the matter, risk taking!)

I ask "You don't want to share what you learn with anyone?"

He says "NOPE."

I say "Well I'm not going to force you to do anything, but how am I going to know if you have learned anything?"

He says "I just want to learn about lots of things."

The conversation went on from there and eventually we got down to reading but all was not lost. I think that part of being a self-reflective teacher is modelling and encouraging self-reflective thinking. I want my student to learn to read, but more importantly I want him to have his own purpose in learning and understand that he has some control over that (which was where the conversation went to.) I also want him to understand the importance of using what he learns and the importance of sharing to learning (that of others and his own.) even if that means taking a few risks.

Report cards, although they are sometimes difficult and sometimes time consuming, they are also a part of being a teacher. Reflecting on your teaching and the learning of your students isn't just for the purpose of measuring up against a standard, but to guide your purpose. So as an educator, what is my purpose? The same as it is outside my job. I hope to help others see their value. I'm not sure I can measure that on a report card, but I hope I can show it in the words I choose to use daily with my students and when reporting on their learning. This is the article I am going to read next, maybe a follow-up post in a few months!

Monkeys on Books

As is the usual case, my mind works like a hydra, a many headed serpent. Cut off one head and another appears. Get rid of one thought and another replaces it. Worse yet, it is often more like how Liz Gilbert describes it in her book "Eat Pray Love", monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Just enough time to catch hold of the branch and give you a little spring board to the next one. Lately I find myself finding some interest and calming of the mind in books.

My list begins with "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert which I am enjoying nightly and mulling over in my dreams. My sister had read it and seemed to enjoy it but we never talked about why. So, my colleague and friend who is a counsellor loaned me it after I expressed an interest in travel writing. It has turned out to be so much more than that, although it is a good travel story thus far. My friend in Phoenix agreed with me when I said "I am Elizabeth Gilbert!" I know I am not her, but our minds are very similar, freakishly so. Yes, I am crazy and I know it and embrace it! Currently I am praying with Liz, I love corporate prayer!

Recently I met up with some friends with whom I used to work in Japan. They still reside in Japan, she is Japanese and he is a Canadian. It is one of those friendships that really truly can be called such. It withstands the geographic distance, the time span between face-to-face interactions and cultural differences (of which I can say I have with both of them, seeing as he is a guy). Embarking on a new venture in her career has given her some insight into learning about yourself and she suggested "The Art of Extreme Self-Care" by Cheryl Richardson. I have, of course, not begun this book, as I am trying to calm the mind, not overload it. However, I have visited the website and downloaded one of her podcasts as a foretaste. We'll see where that takes us!

Another one of my friends, and I am lucky to call her that as she is really a wise colleague with whom I am fortunate enough to share space with on this big rock overlooking the ocean, has talked about a book along which she tries to align with philosophically. "The Four Agreements" by don Miguel Ruiz is simple in its view of how life should be lived out. I already know the agreements from memory and am curious to see how he gleans, analyzes and synthesizes wisdom from major thinkers of our human history.

The school psychologist who graces our school with his care and wisdom is one of those great thinkers. He suggested a book to me over 2 years ago. My roommate at the time snatched it up from me like it was water for her thirsty brain (she is even more crazy than I, for which I am grateful I have some to aspire towards!) She has since bought copies for all of her friends and family, spreading the gospel, as such. Now at some point I want to have some sort of intelligent conversation with our school psych because he is truly amazing, so I will read this book too. What I really mean to say is, I will continue to read this book, because I have read the first eighth or so. It is really the catalyst for me being interested in brain research and the path it has taken me on since then has been as invigorating as what I envision being a pioneer must have been like, so much new to see and take in. "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, MD will likely find its way from my book shelf to the prominent spot beside every chair in which I perch this summer.

The last and final book that is on my list, at this point in my day, is "Boundaries" by John Townsend and Henry Cloud. God has always blessed me with constant contact with other crazies and among them is so much variety and vibrance. I really value each encounter I have with the people in my life, whether it is a comfortable one or not. AND I am fortunate enough to know some highly respectable and enthusiastic women of all ages. Currently I am connecting with a group that challenges me and empowers me to be and explore who I am made to be. So in an effort to harness what comes out of their hearts and minds and to not be out every single night of the week sponging off of them all individually, I am trying to get them together in one place at one time to talk about things that might help us understand our world, our creator, our purpose, our selves a little more. So starting this month, we are studying together this book. Maybe I am already getting some of the premise of the book without even having cracked the cover yet!

So to recap, the five books are:

1. Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert - http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm

2. The Art of Extreme Self-Care, Cheryl Richardson - http://www.cherylrichardson.com/

3. The Four Agreements - don Miguel Ruiz - http://www.miguelruiz.com/

4. The Brain That Changes Itself - Norman Doidge, MD - http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge/MAIN.html

5. Boundaries, Cloud and Townsend - http://www.cloudtownsend.com/

Even as I am drawing to a close, my mind is listing more and more books that are actually on my list, but in an effort to tame it, I write them on a small piece of paper and add it to my pile.

But for now that is my monkeys, errr, my thoughts on books.

Still Getting Used to THIS!

This really is something that takes some practice and getting used to!  I started this blog December 2005 while I was preparing for a marathon in Iceland.  I thought it would be great way to gain some support.  Could have been, but I didn't use it!  Now I may keep this going and I may not, but for now I try.  I will also like to try linking some blogs to mine and sharing it with others, if anyone out there can help, let me know!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Melissa