A Mental Map for Teacher Success

"As a man thinks, so is he..."

So what kind of a teacher do I want to be this year? What are my personal goals, my guiding principles, the mental targets I want automatically steer towards?

I have eight:

I choose to find it easy to greet staff members and students by name.
I choose to invent schedules, curriculum, and routines to support Special Education.
I choose to successfully utilize my aide to assist the learning of students.
I choose to find it easy to get ready for IEPs ahead of time.
I choose to feel as if parents and staff like me and appreciate what I do.
I choose to cleverly incorporate memory improvement lessons into my curriculum.
I choose to have fun doing my own memory improvement projects.
I choose to find satisfying ways to balance work and home.

It's hard to hit a target if you don't know what you're aiming for. But if you consistently remind yourself who you are, then you become that image.



I have some pretty good ideas of who I am and who I want to become.

Have your created your own mental map for personal success? Can you bring that map into focus?



If you can't picture the target... chances are...
If you can picture the tartet... chance are...

What are your chances?

Why I blog? People like Chase!

Today I went to a Welcome Home party. One of the blogs I follow is the Taiwan Drift. Chase has authored this blog while he was a teacher on temporary assignment on the island nation of Taiwan. Chase is from Southern California. He came home last night after spending a year in Taiwan.

His family had a Welcome Home Party and I was invited.



As much as I love people, I was a bit hesitant to go. It was not the 30 mile journey south to his parents home that made me hesitate. I thought I might be out of place. But I went.

Why?

Because I was invited.

Generally people invite you to things because they'd like you to come. It's really not that complex. Most of the time, people say what they mean and mean what they say. No need to over think things.



Although Chase was the only one I knew, and I "only" knew him from his blog. It turns out that I was warmly welcomed by his family. I felt that I knew some of them from "listening" to Chase's blog. They also felt like they knew me from my comments on Chase's blog. (Some have visited my blog too.)

It was a fun time, in fact it was memorable.



The party was an open house, and I stayed for an hour or so. I met his mom, dad, sisters, and brother. (Plus his grandma, aunt, and family dog.)

The Girl Scout song has it right: "Make new friends, but keep the old: one is silver and the other is gold."

As I was leaving, Chase's mom stopped me. Her plan was to capture the attendees on "film." I had taken my camera, so I also had them take a picture of Chase and me together. Chase's mom said, "I'll look for it on your blog!" (So here it is.)



I keep blogging because of the friends I've made online. Once in a blue moon, you might get a chance to meet in "real life." Today was one of those times.

"When you get the chance to sit it out or dance: I hope you dance."

Today I danced. Why?



Because I ignored my doubts, trusted my heart, and I responded to an invitation. I've spent a year making a new friend. I wanted to add my face and voice among his family and friends as we all joined hearts to say, "Welcome home Chase."

Because, ultimately, it's not about us... it's about others.

Why I blog: 200 posts later...

My Blogger Dashboard is slighty ahead of my Blog's counter, but I sense that I'm passing a milestone here: 200+ posts. Woo hoo!

I began this blog after my oldest daughter, Joanna, began one of her own. I didn't want to crowd her with my comments on her blog, so I began my own. Little did I know how much I would enjoy blogging.



Readers of my blog know that I use personal affirmations to help move myself towards goals that are important to me. I have three affirmations/choices that tie closely to why I blog.

1) I choose to find delight in interacting with my wife, family, friends.
2) I choose to write to inspire and to instruct. It gives me satisfaction.
3) I enjoy the feedback my readers provide. I feel their love and care.

I work hard to be genuine. I detest hypocrisy. As an educator, I often teach writing. My master's thesis in education explored the question: Does my writing teacher write? I discovered that blogging gave me a forum for practicing the craft of genuine writing.

Blogging provides me with and opportunity to interact with my readers. I love your comments. (I also love the insights offered on your blogs. It's a two-way street.)



Blogging helps me distill out of my life those things that have inspired and instructed me. I discover what I believe through the writing process. Through blogging I've discovered a like-minded community of caring, thoughtful people.

I also enjoy the sense of unknown influence. I began my blog in October of 2008. In December, I started using Google's Analytics to track visitors. (Joanna taught me how.) Here are some statistics regarding my blog that Analytics has compiled since December of 2008:

1,058 unique visitors
5,608 page-views
2,374 visits from 60 countries. (Top 5: US, UK, Taiwan, Canada, India)
1,820 visits from the US (47 states -- just missing S. Dakota, W. Virginia, and New Jersey)



Analytics provides me with a sense of involvement in the blog-o-sphere, but it is my regular readers and comment-ers who motivate me to blog. You are the ones who inspire me share my musings and miscellaneous thoughts. Thanks for your friendship and involvement.

Happy Saturday!

My vacations is ending... let the holidays begin!

Today was the last day of my summer vacation. It's was a long summer break this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed all eleven weeks or so.

The final three days of summer, I started getting up a bit earlier, and I worked (for free) five or six hours each day. Not only does my body get ready for the earlier rising time, but I'm prepared enough to relax and enjoy the first holiday of the school year: Labor Day!



We work two days without students, take a three day weekend, and the students show up Tuesday. Many or most of the teachers at the elementary school have been busy getting their classrooms ready. The others, I suspect, will be working (for free) over the Labor Day Weekend.

I'm ready and able to relax because I'm weeks ahead of where I was last year at this time. Last year was my first working at a new school and new grade levels. Apprehensions of last year were mostly imaginary, this year, I know what's ahead: the unexpected!



That's right: what lies ahead is the unexpected. I have a better idea this year about the actual challenges of the job, but life always has the unexpected.

But the unexpected isn't always bad. My #1 affirmation/choice is: "I choose to achieve my goals, with the surprising help of God and others."

Who says all things unexpected are negative. As I left today, I found out that one of my neediest, most challenging students, moved. That was unexpected.

Another upgraded affirmation/choice of mine is: "I choose to make a positive difference wherever I go. I let it be easy."

I'm going to let this year be easy. "I choose to be calm and confident."



Often, you find what you're looking for. I'm looking for surprising help, unforced efforts, positive results, and poise.

I wonder what I'll find?

Summer fades to Fall

This is my final weekend before I report back to work (next Thursday).

So what am I doing special?

Not much.

Why not?

Because I like my life. I've had a great summer vacation. I think it's been one of my best ever. Those of you who follow this blog will know that I've not done anything particularly spectacular. So what made it so good?

Because I like my life. If "Happiness is not a destination, but a way of travel," as I heard from my Grand-pa, then life should be full of happy times. My summer has been.



The summer hasn't been all golden moments, but the scene's have been more pastels than dark browns.

One of the labels on this blog is "Navigating Through Life." That's what I've been trying to learn, and what I've learned, I try to pass on. (Hence this blog.)



Summer is now fading into Fall. At first I didn't believe it. I heard it from other bloggers, mostly those who live further north. I've learned a lot this last year as I've "listened" to the voices of fellow bloggers musing on their weather, their lives, and their locations. I've come to see my own weather, life, and location differently.





The local American Elms confirm that summer is fading to fall. They are starting to lose leaves. Other trees disagree, they are putting out blossoms. (Welcome to Southern California.) The temperatures have been climbing, not falling. Late August and early September are some of our hottest times. (My son, when a student in Maine, saw his breath, at noon, in September! Shocking!)



My dog is going to miss me when I return to the work-a-day world, so I took her on a nice walk. Fullerton has horse trails and bike trails. Heidi and I took a nice walk on one. She didn't know it, but it was my going away present to her. (We took pictures!)



Before the heat came, we had a few cool days: we even had cloud cover til noonish. I took advantage of the cool to wax my two cars. I'd been putting off the task, because I remember the day when car waxes required a lot of buffing. Thanks to Turtle Wax Ice, and such products, those days are gone. (I was hoping they were, but I din't know.)

This summer I had the time and inclination to change TV carriers (now I have DVR), refinance my car to a better rate, out-fox my cats and save my sofas, book a half dozen mini-vacations for the next 12 months, fix some lawn sprinklers, and do some writing on my blog and letters to friends. (And that was just highlights from week one of my eleven week summer break.)



Nothing Earth-shattering, just organizing my life, just fulfilling one of my affirmations: My life is an enjoyable POOGI (Process Of On Going Improvement). Sustainable, enjoyable, involvement with life: That's been my summer.

Of course, in many ways, that's what I'll be doing this Fall and Winter. Another personal affirmation/choice is this: "I choose to make a positive difference wherever I go. I let it be easy." That's my intent and expectation.

That's my life. And I like it.



Last Christmas, my oldest daughter and her family were visiting from Illinois. At one meal, my youngest grand-daughter (2) looked up to her dad and joyfully shared her personal epiphany , "Daddy, I'm happy."

Me too.

Looking forward...

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."

Funerals are strange. They make you think. They make you ponder, assess, and remember. But then... a few days pass, weeks pass, and eventually years pass.

One of the most difficult parts of a loss is the change of focus. Life is like driving a car. We glance in our rear-view mirrors, but we don't gaze in them, at least not while we are moving. Life moves and as drivers we are required to look forward.



Upon losing a loved one, or a job, or a home, sometimes our focus becomes the rear-view mirror of life. I've learned not to dwell there. The heart of the wise may be in the house of mourning, but the heart of the wise also recognizes that life has seasons, or times...

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

Times change and we learn to change with them. Last year I changed teaching assignments. I put in a transfer from a junior high to an elementary school. This self-inflicted change brought with it an unexpected period of mourning, especially as the summer was ending. I thought, I'll miss my old friends. I'll miss the students. I'll miss the events and the routines I've grown to love...

I caught myself looking too long in the rear-view mirror, so I got the keys to my new room and started building some new memories. I still have the old memories, but they are not my constant focus. Sometimes when I'm driving, I notice a really good vista, in the rear-view mirror. I'll tell my wife to check her side mirror. We ooh and ahh for a moment, then we re-focus on the road ahead.



There is a time to look back, and there is a time to look forward. The past and the future deserve some consideration, but we must not forget... the only day we have for living is today. The house of mourning helps us realize what matters the most, what present moments to savor, and what choices to make... today.



My Dad would have been 80 on August 23rd. He died in 1996 about three weeks before my first wife. I visited Patti's grave yesterday. "Born 1952 - Died 1996." We picked out the gravestone before she died. (She had cancer.) We put my name on it too. (Not an idea I recommend in retrospect.) Your name may not be on a gravestone, yet, but if you're reading this... you are... living your dash... that little line between day of birth and day of death.

So, as long as it is called today... live. the. dash. (Look forward.)

Encouraging words...

Yesterday I went to a funeral. A co-worker's wife passed away last week after a 10 year bout with cancer.

Having lost my first wife to cancer 12 years ago, I wanted to lend support, but I felt inadequate. However, I've learned not to let a sense of inadequacy stop me, so I went. An old hymn says, "We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling..."

My friend had told me six months ago that his wife's cancer had returned. We talked a bit, I gave him a hug and offered my "encouraging" words. At the reception, after the funeral, my friend informed someone that my words back then had helped him. What profundity had I shared? I had simply said, "It sucks."

Helping someone die is difficult. Watching your best friend and true love slowly evaporate sucks. It just does.

But then it ends. Death arrives and sorrow fully invades.

"Today is the worst day of my life. Don, just tell me everything's going to be okay." These were my friend's words just before the grave-side portion of the funeral as we hugged. I'm no liar... I paused... and I said in his ear, "Everything's going to be okay."

Life goes on. The worst day ends. New days come. Pain fades to ache.

Love never ends. Memories last. But eventually, everything is okay.

Those who have been bereaved unknowingly become members of what I call, "the fraternity of the broken-hearted." It's co-ed.

Encouraging words most often flow from a sense of compassion and care. Compassion is born through personal suffering.

The light of encouragement shines out not through the beautiful stained glass of our accomplishments, but the light of encouragement shines out through the cracks of our shattered humanity. A broken heart can be a good lamp.

I have believed... therefore I have spoken. God is good, but sometimes, life sucks.