MAC - Week 2 blog post #2, comments to Kristi Swartz

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@ Kristi,

I appreciated your take away from the reading this week in your idea about our ability to enhance not only our own quality of life but also for those around us.

I've dealt with a very difficult year being a new teacher at a middle school replacing a loved teacher. In the final 4 weeks of school I've only recently started to get kids to respond to me and not just give me a hard time.

Beyond the transition, I've felt that it requires believing that what you teach really means something to your students and it should show in the deliberation. Students know when a teacher is not on top of their game vs. when they are and they respond accordingly.

Kristi Swartz wrote on her Blog page May 10^th, 2011:

My Contribution

I love Zander’s idea that a leader does not doubt peoples’ abilities to do what it is they are to do. As I look at education I ask, What if all teachers believed in the abilities of all of their students? How would education change? Stop thinking about everything along the way, and see the big picture. Have a vision, a long line, and see it through! How would education change?

Zander’s video on Ted was moving and showed the connection possible for classical music through Zander’s determination and perception.  His connection to the conductor as a person to make others powerful, and make others feel it is possible. I loved his question: Who am I being if my children’s eyes are not shining?  I hope to take this and use it in the classroom. I want a classroom with children’s eyes shining.

The idea of enhancing our quality of life and the quality of life for those around us as we have the power is really meaningful to me. I think this year has been eye opening for me as I look and understand perception and the big part it plays in each of our version of reality. I have looked at this through my Masters courses, my own Bible study, through the students I teach, and now this book. It is amazing how life opens something up to us, and we see it all around. I see this as the power of God.  In this book, I feel the importance of perception and I love thinking about how our brains constructs our reality, and how that reality is just ours, we can not know if it is the reality that is real, or created, because our brain constructs our own thoughts. The idea of it all being a story we tell, can change our own thoughts about every situation. For me, the closer I become to God, the more I want his will, this leads me try to be a better person, think about others feelings, and desire good. I love the idea in the book of setting the context and letting life unfold

I loved the thoughts on giving an A, not just in the classroom but also in the everyday world. It is so true that we measure everyone according to a standard measure. When we can believe everyone has a unique gift to share, and that not all of us have the same gift, we can begin to accept and love people for who they are, learn from their gifts, and accept their differences, as well. I love the idea of giving A’s, looking at what is great about this person I meet that I can learn from, rather than comparing them to a standard measure I set.