Way 8: Joy

Way 8: Joy

The timing of this topic could not be have been orchestrated any better.  With New Year’s Eve quickly approaching and many taking stock of their lives, mostly as a measure of their level of happiness, it is a most auspicious time to discuss what is real joy and why is it so important. Joy is the sense of accomplishment you feel from the growth in personal victory such as overcoming a difficulty.  For those who unfortunately rely on others as their benchmark they sadly may not feel joy unless someone else validates their accomplishment.  This is tragic, for no one …

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Way 7: Humility

Way 7: Humility

With so much focus on self-esteem we know that self-esteem is very important. Clearly though our approach to self-esteem missed the mark (See Simon Sinek’s famous talk on Millenials).  By praising people for doing things that are not praise worthy and exaggerating the importance of those actions we have fostered a generation with lower, rather than higher, self-esteem. True self-esteem is knowing exactly who you are, your gifts, strengths and weaknesses.  In the post on Awe I left you with this question, “What is amazing about you?”.  Self-esteem is what gives a person the strength to do the right thing …

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Child First

Child First

The problem with the No Child Left Behind mandate is that it is designed to force the teacher to constantly turn back and check if all the “little ducklings” are keeping up (read constant testing).  The only way to fix this is with a balanced approach of the teacher leading by good example but at the same time putting the child first.  Thus, my response to the chaos created by the No Child Left Behind mandate is the Child First approach to education.  When you have the children in front of you there is no need to keep looking back …

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And The Award Goes To…

And The Award Goes To…

And The Award Goes To… You work so hard at parenting/teaching/treating.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be recognized? So who does get “Teacher of The Year” and what’s the lesson for us? Perhaps it goes to the teacher who feeds hungry students?  Certainly there are award winning teachers who are acknowledged for doing so.  Then again, if that is what makes students excel academically and teachers get awards, then with the advent of school breakfast and lunch programs academic performance should be on the rise.  Instead, our scores are decreasing and obesity is on the rise.  There is also the …

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Teaching vs. Education

Teaching vs. Education

Teaching is about accomplishment, particularly academic accomplishment.  Education is about process and an understanding that we may be planting seeds for a process that may not sprout for years.  I have a fairly nice garden that I enjoy puttering around in very much.  For those of you who do not garden it might surprise you to learn that flower bulbs are planted in the fall for flowers such as hyacinths and tulips or even gladiolas which will only bloom the following year.  Fruit trees generally do not fruit for a few years (as fruit does not grow off the trunk …

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What To Teach Part 2

What To Teach Part 2

We discussed in an earlier post that both the teacher and student have responsibility in the learning process.  The teacher, as the successful climber at the top of (or at least higher up) the mountain knows what the student must learn.  Therefore, Timeless Teaching must have a double focus.         1) Just what is it that the student must know?                    2) How best to teach these skills? Just what is it that the student must know?  I have grouped the items into 4 categories Self-discipline What allows for …

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What To Teach

What To Teach

Is that really a question? You were given a curriculum! While this might seem to apply only to teachers, in fact this applies to parents too.  You may not be consciously aware of it but you have been given a curriculum by society on what your children must do at home by certain ages.  Items such as toilet training, bike riding, household chores, bathing, independent dressing etc. and the items and ages vary in different societies. (I can’t help but think that if we told society to speak a little slower, instead of diagnosing people with auditory processing disorder for …

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Don’t Be A Pedagogue

Don’t Be A Pedagogue

 It might seem strange to say that to teachers who spend years learning how to be one.  This is where education was first hijacked by a too narrow perspective. One of the most important ideas I learned from neurolinguistics programming (NLP) is how to find a good teacher.    Their definition of a good teacher is someone who not only can do the task well, but also knows HOW they do it. Obviously only someone who knows how to do a task can be considered to teach the skill to others.  If I want someone to teach me how to …

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