I hope everyone had a wonderful break! I am looking forward to an AMAZING 2015, and
I know we are going to some great things in the months to come!
One of the things I love about the new year is everyone’s
focus on what “could be.” There is so
much hope and positive energy….there is so much potential…and there is goal
setting all around! I love that people
are proactive about thinking about what they want for their lives and looking
at how to achieve that end result. That
is a wonderful thing for us to do personally as well as in our careers. We want to seek to start fresh…I am sure we
had some things that weren’t going well for us.
We can simply start again….we can choose to reboot and try it another
time. I hope that we do that with our
students. Maybe we ended before the
break not knowing what else to try to help a struggling student….but now after
we stepped back and took a breath, we can be ready to try again. We have fresh tires and an open road!
Last year, we focused on the differences of boys/girls
learning styles. One of the videos I
showed was Mark Gungor discussing the “tale of two brains” which is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjUFYxSxDk
(13:34). That really has no bearing on
today’s mush, but wanted to give you a great video if you wanted it and a
reference point.
I had the pleasure of hearing him speak today, and while his
message is designed for marriage, it is applicable to us in any form of
relationship. It can be with our
spouses, our parents, our kids, our friends, our team mates, or our students.
He message was simple…I love simple…yes because I am simple
minded, I know. He clearly defines the
way that we can have better relationships by making CHOICES. I am choosing in 2015 to focus on these…His “rules”
are these:
1.
Be Nice
– Simply choose to take the higher road and be nice. Not because someone deserves it, but because
it makes you a happier person too. You
can feel justified to treat people badly, but that is stooping to a low road…take
the high road and be nice…don’t choose to treat people based upon your feelings
as they are often wrong and change often.
Treat people nicely simply because it is the right thing to do.
2.
Be
Content – Don’t wait for your life circumstances to change to be
happy. You never will then. Life throws curveballs only, so be content
knowing you will hit some and strike out some too. Don’t let what happens to you define you.
3.
Be
Connected – Find friends…find support group…he said that you can save a
lot of money on therapy by simply having a group of people that you can talk
with and be yourself around. Focus on
building relationships and being a good friend to those around you.
4.
Be Prepared
– Taking time on the front end ALWAYS saves time on the back end. Make sure that you are prepared for life’s
curveballs. He talked about instilling
character in our children, and focusing on character for our lives. He said some people focus on beauty over character,
but “sexy has a shelf life” and character doesn’t. That is good advice for us to focus on with
our students.
5.
Be
Proactive – Don’t wait for others to take iniative…they might not. If you see a need, meet that need. That is what leaders do. Many of you might not define yourself as a
leader, but you are everyday. Choosing
to make high road choices is being proactive.
6.
Be
Clear – Relationships are often muddled by miscommunication. How many times do we see that in work
situations with a badly worded email or a frustrated comment made too
rapidly. What works is clarity…if we
focus on what our objectives are together, we are much more likely to get
there. Students need to know CLEARLY
what is expected of them. The better we
do that as teachers, the better their education.
7.
Be
Doers – Rarely if not never does success fall into someone’s lap. Successful people do what they must to
achieve their goals. The same applies to
us…if we want something to change, it is up to us to change it.
8.
Be
Patient – Good things comes to those who wait….that is probably one of
the hardest concepts to me. It is very
hard to plant seeds and wait for them to grow.
In education, we are doing that….we have to daily do what we know is
best even without seeing the end results.
I hope 2015 blesses you….but more so, I hope that no matter
what 2015 throws at you, you become stronger and more content. I also hope that we continue to grow as a
team and support one another for our students’ benefit. I know that we don’t rest at Huggins because
we want the absolute best for each kid, and I appreciate your drive in that.
Thank you for all you do every day.
Happy Monday!
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