Less is more...

As I was working this week, I found myself thinking a lot of the old saying, less is more. In my field, it can be, but there are always two sides to a coin. Remember to look at them both. I have this person that I find has a very 'busy' workspace and work environment. This person is wordy with directions and must put flare into everything. I thought it almost sounded condescending to this person to say less is more, because she believes more is essential. She also tends to put herself into everything verses allowing anyone else’s personality show through. This is hard for some, and others just accept it. So, how do you handle this, you say…well. I thought long and hard and decided clear is kind. I must be clear with her, and this might be hard, and she may be unwilling to accept it but if by acting and demonstrating a clear lesson to her about her own clarity, it would be kind to her and hopefully help her to be kind to others. I chose not to push the limit of her acceptance. Therefore, I only mentioned one area where it might benefit her and others to have less or do less. We shall see my theory on this has yet to come full circle. I will eventually tell you more on this, stay tuned. 

Something to think about...less is more in many cases, just remember to take a step outside of the box to look back and see. Also, know that everyone can use a good coach, so take constructive criticism as honest feedback that you can take or leave. 

Clear really is kind! Don't beat too far around the bush or your message may get lost on the way to the point. 

My new coaching job

 

I started a new job this year. I am really excited for my new position. However, the person I replaced was not clear on her position and now I am dealing with the repercussions from that. Many do not know or understand my job; therefore, I am thrust in many directions as I try to explain that these other tasks are secondary or collateral duties that I am willing to offer support in, but not until I fulfill my tasks properly, fully, and to the best of my ability. 

This experience brings to mind a quote. You know I love quotes and I am sure it comes from all the reading I do. “When you educate one person you can change a life, when you education many you can change the world.” I think this is a great teacher quote by Shai Reshef. So, I coach teachers. I am a student-centered instructional coach that’s purpose is to help teachers be the best they can be. Some of my collateral duties are to support student interventions, I do this through modeling for teachers and other staff as well as what we call a Response to Intervention team. I do not only work with teachers but also with students and I love every minute of this work. I am still working to make the world a better place. I encourage teachers to want to do more and realize that they still can get better every day and that they do not have to settle when things are not working for the best. I am a partner in their educational journey.

So, my new job has made me sit to think about why I am in education, and it brought me back to the realization that even experts need a coach or partner to be their external eyes and ears. We can all get better, and we do have the ability to learn something new every day. Do not give up, if you feel burnout in your job, reach out for support. Know that no one is ever done learning and there is always someone on the job or even a friend willing to offer support that can help you grow and get better. Even surgeons need coaches. Would you want to be under the knife of a surgeon who thought they had already learned everything? Not me. Go forward and be your best self, keep learning and asking for constructive criticism. I know for a fact you will hear what you are doing well, but why not hear what could use some modifications? 

Quotes that are worth thinking about and challenging.

GANDHI VS. COELHO

A Mahatma Gandhi quote I have always enjoyed thinking about and striving to achieve is "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever". 

There are many reasons I feel this way. I believe it is essential to enjoy every moment or seize the day. I also have always enjoyed learning, not just on the outside but deep inside every aspect of what I want to know. I believe digging deeper and spreading your knowledge is beneficial to not only yourself but others as well. How great to share what we know? How many times have you shared information, only to learn something new? What a great way to grow. 

I cannot imagine being stagnant. I love to travel, enjoy, and live my life. I love to do this with the knowledge that I can learn more every moment of that life. So, live every moment as if it were your last...or 

Maybe we should we look further into Paulo Coelho, who said "Don't live every day as if it were your last. Live every day as if it were your first." Wow, right? I mean think about that for a moment. Your first day to enjoy a moment. Remember that feeling. I am not going all the way back to birth, though if we could remember that day, amazing, everything is new and bring and even scary, but maybe exciting. I am thinking more on the lines of a brand-new moment a first time, like the first time you enjoy ice cream, snowboarding, skiing on skis or in water, or that first time you start a new dream job. If we can live every moment or day as if it were a first, what joy could that bring. 

Who wants to challenge these quotes, who wants to dig deeper and think about which way they want to live? I think it is a great way to learn more about yourself. May I suggest digging into these and relating them to yourself and how you live and maybe how you want to live. Have fun! 

Freedom...you just have to choose

I read this quote today and really liked it. I live in America and just recently celebrated our Independence Day. It was amazing watching others get out and share their love of their homeland. I really enjoyed watching my children enjoy the parade and fireworks. We came together as visitors to a town I grew up in. The quoted individual is a new and upcoming young lady, Candace Owens. She really speaks for all people, especially those who live in America a place where it is said to be the land of the free and home of the brave.  She said, “In a truly free society, individuals are granted responsibility for themselves. Freedom necessitates that we learn how to provide for ourselves, contributing value in whatever form, to generate personal income. We then decide how we wish to spend or save earned income; freedom is the reward for fulfilling personal responsibilities." To truly be brave we must stand up for and follow a path that makes us proud to be who we are. 

I enjoyed this quote, this is what we as teachers and adults leading young children should be teaching. It is so important to be able to think freely, this is what God wants. As a believer in God I know that we are guided to do right, but also to take our lessons and follow our own path. I wish for others to be able to follow their own path as I have done for my life. I pray that our children and their children get to follow their own path and not one that is dictated to them. If knowledge is power I hope they gain enough knowledge to move forward and make decisions based on what they know and where they want to go from there.  

Do not continue to follow a path that does not make it easy to lay down and get a good rest at night. You can make a change in your life starting today, tomorrow, or the next morrow...There is no time like now, but you have to decide when you want to follow your path to happiness and success.

As a parent and teacher I spend my days educating children, the future leaders. I spend even more time educating my own children and taking down barriers. This is what teachers and leaders do all day long. The more we teach others the more barriers we break down. As a mother I do my best to help my children to see what it would be like to be in different situations including to live and feel as if they are in someone else's shoes, like living in different times, countries, and cultures. This teaches them how to tolerate differences by accepting them. Does this mean that my children have to change their beliefs? Not really, but they should tolerate others and theirs. Hellen Keller once said that the highest result of education is tolerance. I hope that I can help my own children to become tolerant of others. I also hope that I can teach my students about difference by not impeding on their own beliefs. I will never push information on someone's child that is un wanted and unaccepted. I have an important job, it is to teach lessons that help others achieve. So, though I will teach literacy, math, and science, I will also teach culture, and history, and geography in hopes to help others grow their own tolerance. I hope for you that you tolerate others. Do not let down your guard, this does not mean to allow mischief and malice in, it means to know right from wrong but to still treat others with the respect you wish to be treated with. 

Yet another quote that makes me think...

Albert Einstein stated "it is not that I am so smart, it is just that I stay with problems longer. What this means is that he spends times with his problems and finds a real solution. It is not simple to learn or get a good education, many of us experience many challenges during our education that others do not, which really adds to our education. For that matter, we experience life and that adds to what we learn. You really have to believe in yourself and never give up if you wish to learn. So I wish for you to stick it out and learn what you find interesting, and come by other knowledge on the way.  

Any Questions...

As a professional, with many different certifications, I feel that my strength is in finding how to help others no matter what they need. Does this mean I have answers, yes, all of the answers...nope. However, it does mean I will seek until I help you find peace. So, if you have any questions about mental health, education, art, and so on...ask me, lets see where we can take it. 

Advice is funny...

I think it is funny, advice we give and take. It is so interesting how we are such different beings that no matter what we need to know or hear can sound so different based on who tells us or how they tell us. The other really interesting and funny thing is that we can so easily give advice to others that we sometimes forget to take for ourselves. I wish you all the open-mindedness that you need to accept. Those that are open-minded are not concerned with being right, they just wish to learn and to help. Please know that this is why I write on this blog. I know there is no black and white in a situation. There are tons of gray areas and though I say make sure you are right and go for it, I mean, make sure it feels right to you. Understand and find peace and follow the advice that leads you in that direction. 

Live...Learn...-Gandhi

Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever. 

Mahatma Gandhi

Edmund Burke

 When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Edmund Burke