Developing and Growing

So here is today's prompt/ question from TeachThought

"What is one area of my learning and teaching I want to develop this year?" 

So I am no longer teacher but as a professed lifelong learner I am always learning something. 

My passion is in meeting students needs given our diverse student population and using technology, creativity and the arts to help meet those needs. So I am always looking for good material about those subjects. 

I also have a passion towards leadership and like to read books about on that subject as well 

Just to give a sense of what I am talking about here are two pictures from my kindle on my iPad 

These were taken in August I have updated it a bit since then 

On a more personal note I would like to develop my writing skills so that I can make this dream of publishing a book a reality and work on my marketing skills and web design so that my  consulting business can take off in a real way. 

LOOKING UP - STAYING POSITIVE

picture: www.quotepix.com

Today's Prompt for the TeachThought blog challenge is areas for improvement or growth.

For me the one area that I need to work on is staying positive and looking up and not getting down about my current situation and not dragging my friends down with me.

I want to publicly thank Amanda Countryman Dykes for her #365suucess challenge, which is "forcing" me in a good way to reflect on the success and not focus on all the challenges.

For many this coming week brings a new focus and new  excitement and a "NEW YEAR" with resolutions and commitments.

For Jews this is a "second new year", since for us the time of introspection and resolutions comes with the High Holidays.
I want to share with you a post I wrote recently prior to Yom Kippur the holiest day on Jewish Calendar.

It has been a while since I blogged. One reason is that while I have had a lot on my mind and a lot to blog about I wasn't able to put into words. I sit here hours before the holiest day on the Jewish Calendar Yom Kippur, The day of Atonement.
There is a lot I could say and a lot I can reflect on over the pass year. During this past year my family and I have faced a number of challenges and I know that each challenge is a test and that G-D has given us the tools to pass each challenge and test. .
However as we learn from the laws regarding Yom Kippur and repentance we have to make the effort and take the steps needed. Therefore not only to I sit here and reflect but I respond as well.
I respond with a Thank You first and foremost to G-D for his daily blessings and for all that I have and secondly to my family and friends. I have a loving family, a loving wife who has stood by me during each challenge two beautiful girls who never cease to amaze me on how caring and dedicated they are. I have an  amazing extended family and friends who at times believed more in me than I did.
As I look towards the coming year and hope and pray for a year of health, peace, happiness, and prosperity I know I need to make and effort as well. While I find myself in uncharted waters right  now I know that I will be given the tools and ability to navigate these new waters. To that end I have begun a new venture into consulting with the formation of  Star Educational Consulting

I hope and pray daily that in the coming year I will be a better person, husband, father, and friend.
May this new year be one of peace ,health, happiness and prosperity to all

Akevy

WE ARE ALL UNIQUE

picture: www.mybehaviorresource.com

Today's prompt for the TeachThought blog challenge  is 'What is unique about teaching style?'

Honestly for me this is a hard one.  I am not sure I would consider myself unique or that I do anything special.

However I will share with you certain qualities that I have that I think are important for all educators.

By no means is this a list of all my qualities ( LOL) and by no means are these the only qualities

•  A Lifelong Learner 
• Having a growth mindset 
• Willing to embrace and accept change 
• A people person 
• Someone who smiles
• Being a team player and willing to collaborate 
• Kind and cares about others 
• Trustworthy

There are other qualities that I have that are honestly both positive and can be negative as well 

• Seeing the big picture - Taking the "balcony view" . While this is important at times some of the little details get over looked and people sometimes need you to focus on the details. 
• Wearing my emotions on my sleeve- I tend to be very passionate and sometimes emotional about things I care about. While a great quality at times you need to be more reserve and keep things a bit closer to the chest. I probably wouldn't make a very good poker player. 

However as my friend Angela Maiers  "YOU MATTER" and she is so right we all matter. We have unique qualities both positive and some we need to work on and that is what makes us unique.

We need to remember that about our students as well. "ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL". Each student brings his or her unique qualities to the classroom and each adds a certain dimension to the class. As I have often told my own students you can't have a team of all "insert your favorite sports star" 

So in reality we are ALL UNIQUE and THAT'S A GOOD THING! 

Student Involvement

picture: pintrest.com


Happy New Year!

I mentioned yesterday that I would be announcing a new challenge. At the time I wasn't sure what to do. I thought about just doing the 30 day challenge again. Then I saw a post from TeachThought about a blog challenge they are doing.

"REFLECT AND RENEW IN 2015 - The January Blog Challenge!"

So I got my answer I will be participating in this challenge. Each day they have a different prompt for the blog post and you can follow the posts on twitter using the hashtag #reflectiveteacher. 

Today's prompt is: What are my beliefs about how students learn best?

That's a easy one. 

Students need to be involved and engaged in the learning process. The famous quote of Benjamin Franklin comes to mind; "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

Students need to be involved and be empowered to be part of the learning process. There is a difference between teaching and learning. A Teacher may teach but that is no guarantee that students will learn. Teaching by nature is teacher centered where as learning is student centered and requires the involvement of the students. 

How can students learn if they are just lectured to and spoken to all day? 

What meaning does the 'Teaching" have if the students aren't part of the process?

How can learning take place or be meaningful without student involvement?

The answer is obvious learning only take place with the students being involved and engaged in the process and requires students to buy into it and own it. 

This is all very nice but how do we accomplish this? 

I have often said one sizes doesn't fit all and there are a number of different ways this can be accomplished in my opinion. Here are some:

• Technology is a great way to make the learning real and engaging. Learning about the moon of the solar system, you can now  virtually explore the moon. That's just one example 
• Using problem or project based learning offers very real and hands on experiential learning to take place
• Asking questions. Teachers need to allow the students to think and ask question and not just give them the answers. 
• Talk less. I read a book in which the author suggested that teachers need to talk less and allow the students to play a greater role in both the teaching and learning process. 
• Learn together.  The same author suggested that what if a teacher asked a question that the teacher didn't know the answer to and the class together with the teacher had to explore, discover, and find the answer together. 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments 

Happy New Year!

End of the Year Thoughts

I first want to apologize that I won't be finishing the five part series on leadership. This post really applies to everyone and since we are all leaders in some way I think it counts. Tomorrow I hope to announce my next challenge. So stay tuned!

As I browsed my Zite, Twitter and Facebook feeds today its hard not to come across posts that talk about reflection, resolutions and just general summaries of the past year and what is in store for the coming year. 

I want to share with you four such posts and excerpts from each. 

First one is called Reflections on Leadership 
Here are some quotes from the Article:

"“There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything.”

Vince Lombardi

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”
Peter Drucker

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership…Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.
Indira Gandhi

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Steve Jobs

Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity. …Leadership is not “magnetic personality” that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people” that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.
Peter F. Drucker

“A leader. . .is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
Nelson Mandela

The following graphic comes from the post " There are 16 Attributes of  the Modern Educator"

The following comes from The 18 Skills Every 21st Century Learner Should Develop

Finally I would like to close with words from Lord Rabbi Saks in his post "Count your blessings and begin to change your life"

"Have you made your new year resolutions? If not, try the following. Each is potentially life changing.

1. Give thanks. Once a day take quiet time to feel gratitude for what you have, not impatience for what you don’t have. This alone will bring you halfway to happiness. We already have most of the ingredients of a happy life. It’s just that we tend to take these for granted and focus on unmet wants, unfulfilled desires. Giving thanks is better than shopping – and cheaper too.

2. Praise. Catch someone doing something right and say so....

3. Spend time with your family. Make sure that there is at least one time a week when you sit down to have a meal together with no distractions – no television, no phone, no e-mail, just being together and celebrating one another’s company. Happy marriages and healthy families need dedicated time.

4. Discover meaning. Take time out, once in a while, to ask: “Why am I here? What do I hope to achieve? How best can I use my gifts?.....Finding meaning is essential to a fulfilled life – and how can you find it ....

5. Live your values. Most of us believe in high ideals, but we act on them only sporadically....

6. Forgive. This is the emotional equivalent of losing excess weight. Life is too short to bear a grudge or seek revenge. Forgiving someone is good for them but even better for you. The bad has happened. It won’t be made better by your dwelling on it. Let it go. Move on.

7. Keep learning. I learnt this from Florence in Newcastle, whom I last met the day she celebrated her 105th birthday. She was still full of energy and fun. “What’s the secret?” I asked her. “Never be afraid to learn something new,” she said. Then I realised that if you are willing to learn, you can be 105 and still young. If you are not, you can be 25 and already old.

8. Learn to listen. Often in conversation we spend half our time thinking of what we want to say next instead of paying attention to what the other person is saying. Listening is one of the greatest gifts we can give to someone else. It means that we are open to them, that we take them seriously and that we accept graciously their gift of words.

9. Create moments of silence in the soul. Liberate yourself, if only five minutes daily, from the tyranny of technology, the mobile phone, the laptop and all the other electronics...."

10. Transform suffering. When bad things happen, use them to sensitise you to the pain of others. The greatest people I know – people who survived tragedy and became stronger as a result – did not ask “Who did this to me?” Instead, they asked “What does this allow me to do that I could not have done before?”...."

I hope some of these ideas help you reflect on 2104 and help you enter 2015 with renewed energy. 

Here's to another great year 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MAKING A PERSONAL CONNECTION

picture: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/105271710013003766/

Today we live unprecedented times and the access of information is overwhelming. Our children no longer just learn in their classroom, school, or community but rather the world is their classroom.  Technology has changed the way we view education and has made the ability of reaching all our students easier.

However there are certain things that can never be replaced with technology

On the top of list would be the ability to make a personal connection and role model for our students.

we are learn more when  we see things in action  and actually being modeled than by just reading about them.

It is our teachers and leaders that need to make those connections and model;

Caring
Honesty
Integrity
Trust
Forgiveness
Compassion

Just to name a few.

It is true the role of teachers and leaders has changed  due to the advances of technology and that we need to embrace that change but something never change and having teachers and leaders be those role models and make those personal connections is as valuable and important today as it ever ways.

Learning From Mistakes

picture: www.forbes.com

Many posts have been written about Leadership and there are many recurring themes about what makes a great leader. One of those ideas is that Leaders are Human and make mistakes. The real question is what happens next. Do they admit they made a mistake? Do they learn from their mistakes? Or do they blame others. 
This week we read the weekly  Torah portion Vayigash, where Judah pleads to Joseph on behalf of Benjamin and when Joseph finally reveals himself to his brother. Last Year Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote the following article "The Unexpected Leader"

For many of you who have read my blog before know that I am big fan of Rabbi Sacks and he is true to mentor to me. I would like to share with you some his words. 

"Leaders make mistakes. That is an occupational hazard of the role. Managers follow the rules, but leaders find themselves in situations for which there are no rules. Do you declare a war in which people will die, or to you refrain from doing so at the risk of letting your enemy grow stronger with the result that more will die later? That was the dilemma faced by Chamberlain in 1939, and it was only some time later that it became clear that he was wrong and Churchill right.

But leaders are also human and they make mistakes that have nothing to do with leadership and everything to do with human weakness and temptation. The sexual conduct of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton was less than perfect. Does this affect our judgment of them as leaders or not? Judaism suggests it should. The prophet Nathan was unsparing of King David when he sinned with another man’s wife.

What matters, suggests the Torah, is that you repent – you recognise and admit your wrong, and you change as a result. As Rav Soloveitchik pointed out, both Saul and David, Israel’s first two kings, sinned. Both were reprimanded by a prophet. Both said chatati, “I have sinned.” But their fates were radically different. Saul lost his throne, David did not. The reason, said the Rav, was that David confessed immediately. Saul prevaricated and made excuses before admitting his sin.

The stories of Judah and of his descendant David tell us that what mark a leader is not necessarily perfect righteousness. It is the ability to admit mistakes, to learn from them and grow from them. The Judah we see at the beginning of the story is not the man we see at the end, just as the Moses we see at the burning bush – stammering, hesitant – is not the mighty hero we see at the end, “his sight undimmed, his natural energy unabated.” A leader is one who, though he may stumble and fall, arises more honest, humble and courageous than he was before."

Let us remember that we all are human and we all will make mistakes the true sign of a great leader is what happens next