It is incumbent upon us as human beings to dream beyond what the reality of the moment in which we live is capable of imagining. Everyone knows by heart the litany of examples often employed to propel us toward a greater sense of what imagination, and its close companion perseverance, can lead us to do: the phonograph, the lightbulb, the telephone, the steam engine and railway systems in many countries, movies, movies with sound, numerous scientific experiments and theorems, and the creation of NASA and man's subsequent ability to explore, peer into, and to walk upon the surfaces of places that once only existed in the realm of human thought and imagination. The immense nature of any of these and many more accomplishments can never be downplayed or dismissed, and their varying geneses need to be studied in greater detail. Greater detail, however, often reveals great minds riddled with obsession, humans, who despite their admirable use of facts and knowledge to create change, could not maintain healthy relationships with other humans. It is commonplace to discuss the depth of great person's genius while at the same time outlining the decrepitude of his or her character. What happens to those who aspire to a greatness beyond that of the present? Does the need to be great come to overshadow the inherent ingenuity of the product or idea itself? Does the objective of the progenitor transform from one concerned with the good of the whole to one concerned with the good of the self? Does this change in objective serve to corrode the natural essence of an individual's character, embittering what once was sweet, or does the purity of the creation make any unpleasant ideological alterations within the creator more palatable?
First, I wish to address the three pathways one who desperately clings to a dream of any form can take: maintenance, derivation, or death.
1) Maintenance
This pathway is basically the same one you have travelled since the dream was planted in your mind and sowed its seeds into your heart. On this pathway the dreamer sees the ruts and footprints already created by his or her previous efforts. From time to time, the dreamer will trudge alongside these reminders hoping that the current struggles do not simply find their resting place parallel to the failures of before but rather far beyond and ahead of them. Sadly, however, the results of maintaining a dream that has not yet bore the desired fruits are oftentimes equal to the prior results. You may find that, in the end, you have occupied and continued deepening the tracks of your same mistakes. Maintenance of a dream in its original state, no matter the cost, can be a breeding ground for extreme self-loathing and anger.
In this stage the nobility of the dream can be obscured by the desire of the thinker to see it achieved. Now the dream is becoming entangled with the self-worth and perception of the person. The dream no longer moves forward by way of its value and worth to others but rather the dream is simply used as a banner, an identifier to lift up the wearer.
When the dream becomes something to be donned in order to embellish the exterior instead of as something each possessor can plant within themselves and allow to flourish through actions and deeds, the dream loses part of its essential character. If you continue to display the dream this way, no matter how much gold paint you apply to the outside, the dream will never shine from within and beyond. A dream should never be or become something that simply improves your image; a dream should allows have, at its core, the ability to be true for all, and have the purpose of moving all. A dream which is for the purpose of inflating the self is just an advertisement for a false product no one will purchase.
A dream built up for the purpose of elevating you will do nothing but minimize you and the dream you carry. A dream is not built and expanded due to the size (real or perceived) of the person who thought of it. A dream grows because of the multitudes of commonalities it finds with the minds and the hearts of other thinkers. Those thinkers beyond the originator are the ones who fearlessly defend and challenge its precepts. Those like-minds see it as it is and mold it into what it will be. A dream does not grow because of who you are. A dream grows because of what it is.
If a dream is only for you, it will always be a small, infertile seed. A ground fertilized with anger and envy will never cultivate bountiful harvests of hope, not even for one season. Envy is the weed that will invade and destroy your earth, sap it of all its nutrients. You will have moments where you are determined to suppress that plants with any and all other emotions, but you will unsuccessful because the weed will have taken root and spread its death grip. Planting in soil with even one weed present will poison what you plant. It will never rise above the height of the weeds. In you, envy will make you quick to anger. In you, envy will make you scornful of any success that you feel as if you should have garnered irrespective of the dream of the other person. You will feel that your dream needed that infusing of success just a bit more than your contemporary. Just like how a successful is made full and sustainable by the activity of others, you will need the help others to clear your land of any and all pernicious interlopers. Others will tend to your dream in your absence; therefore, new hope will reach high into the sky for seasons to come.
2) Derivation
Dreams, as with anything in life, can benefit from a steady routine of reflection and revision. Reflecting about a dream can help the dreamer to gauge how close he or she may be to bringing it to fruition. It can also help one to assess the present reality in which the dream exists. The inception of a dream and five minutes into its reality can represent to very different environments. This difference can often be attributed to the social sphere, support system, economy, and motivation of the dreamer. While any one or more of these factors can influence the success or failure of a dream, a dream can exist because of or in spite of the existence or nonexistence of any given circumstance. Dreams, whether we like to believe it or not, can be modifiable things.
In fact, the willingness to play with the form of dreams, like some hope-filled type clay to be made into anything, is probably indicative of future success in actualizing your dream. Reflection about a dream is not an admission that the original shape was flawed, but rather it is a laudable attempt to be very intimate with the product of one's hopes and desires. Reflection represents a willingness to try and fail in many given contexts in order to see which soil offers the most hope and food to the purpose of the dream, so that it can sprout and spring forth at the most opportune moment to spread, pollinate itself, and thrive in the environment of any moment. Revision is an acknowledgement that failures and flaws are more often than not predecessors of success. Revision, again, is not recognizing that the totality of the dream is bad; it is simply the process by which a dream's author can ensure that the dream lives and is promulgated in a state that can withstand time and its many tests.
Revision and reflection can help our dreams take root in reality more quickly because we have prepared the garden for their introduction. We have not been caring for them, feeding them with expectations too lofty to take hold of the bedrock. It has been shaped for its reality in which it will be. These dual tools can help the dreamer maintain his focus, personhood, and character irrespective of the eventual magnitude or marginality of what is being dreamed because the dream now lives independent of its dreamer.
3. Death
A dream is not the person who dreamt/dreams it, so the death of a dream is not the death of a person's worth. Try as one might, all dreams are not meant to become manifest, at least when we can be witnesses the riches they reap. The death of dream is not meant to be a moment of paralysis, but rather a moment of freedom and birth or re-birth for new opportunities for new or old dreams.
When a dream dies, the dreamer will cry. He will mourn what he has lost, and he will have to find a way to eulogize it. The eulogy will be the product of a deep well of indescribable wails, no words to be understood. They will be heard by none and felt by all. The pain will be unbearable. A soul pierced by the sharpest sword, to be followed by unending gushes and spurts of hope. A dreamer will vow to never dream again and cover himself in his bed sheets in the vain hope that oblivion will protect him from further pain. It will not work. Days, weeks, months, or years may pass, but you will dream again; hope will be replenished, and the cycle renewed. The ability to visualize that which is not there and make it be is what makes man/woman unique. Dreaming will never die as long as we cannot see what is beyond the horizon, and humans believe that we may have the answer to the question, what don't I see?
Monday, May 2, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Personal and Professional Development
The majority of posts that follow will respond to teaching and classroom management suggestions found within various sources such as books, blogs, articles, and online news sources. This blog will deal with the source material in its entirety so that the reader can benefit from both the source and the suggestions offered in response to it in the most contextualized manner possible. The purpose of this blog, however, is not to replicate source material that is already available. This blog is to offer a call to, and materials to aid in, the process of self-directed professional development.
I am a Foreign Language teacher, and I realize that teachers receive copious amounts of professional development opportunities from their schools and districts alike. Sadly, these opportunities too often focus narrowly on how to use new pieces of technology within the classroom, or on the new lesson planning, grade book system, or teacher evaluation strategy that is currently fashionable. These professional development sessions have little to do with improving the teacher and the teaching experience for either the student or teacher. True and meaningful professional development must come from the teachers themselves because it is we who have the desire to be better at what we do. We must take responsibility for directing our continuing improvement and maturation as teachers. The best skill that will allow a teacher to direct his or her develop a teacher is one that is familiar any teacher, past or present: self-reflection.
Self-reflection is a part of any good teacher preparation worldwide. In my own experience, however, I often only used self-reflection to judge the success or failure of one classroom activity or strategy. More times than I like to remember I found and focused on failure when I reflected, and that fear-based focus paralyzed any efforts I made to be a more effective teacher. I ignored that self-reflection is not solely concerned with error correction. Self-reflection ought be about recognizing both the strengths and weakness about the totality of work that an educator puts forth. Yes, it is great to focus on celebrating and maybe improving a particular lesson, but never downplay the effort devoted to teaching because an activity may have gone awry. Just like teaching a unit or lesson, self-reflection is as much about putting our successes and failures in a meaningful context so they can be fully understood and appreciated.
The reality of the profession in which we work as teachers is not often discernible by the items reflected back to us within our work environment and by society as a whole. But the reality is, if a teacher is confident about his or her ability to reach and teach the students under his or her charge, then the teacher will exceed the expectations of any and all evaluations. A confident will be able to field any new changes in planning or the grade book with relative little stress because the foundations of his teaching and classroom are built on stone. He knows himself as a teacher, and he knows and loves his students as people, and grasps fully the reality of the people they will become. We cannot blame anyone but ourselves if we allow the ebb and flow of the profession to scare us into mediocre performances as teachers.
My reality is, I do not know myself as a teacher. Many times I tried to mimic what I thought those with power over my position wished to see or hear. Alas, this was wrong. No one wanted to see a teaching performance from an actor who could become something different from one moment to the next. Mimicry of any kind never made me a better teacher because whatever I was projecting was never a true representation of myself or what I could bring to my students as a teacher. Moreover, I never had the courage to seek guidance from my colleagues observing me, because I thought asking would mean the loss of my job. Truthfully, asking is a form of both personal and professional development, and to a good colleague and mentor, questioning is never a sign of weakness.
I have never been fired or released from a teaching position due to my inability to be a teacher. Be that as it may, if the reader were to look at my work history, the reader might swiftly conclude that I must be unable to teach, given that my stays at schools are brief and have sizable pauses before the next position. Not true. I left these positions out of fear of the inability to properly manage and teach my kids. One bad day represented an utterly irreparable failure that marred. my career and students forever. There is little truth in those decisions to leave because they were by-products of fear and not fact. While most of you may not abandon schools or teaching completely out of fear that you are lacking as an educator, it is certainly a thought that invades our minds with far too much regularity.
This uncertainty does not have an exterior origin. It is not the fault of inattentive students, "helicopter" parents or administrators, lack of training, or the lack of productive instructional time. These are all valid concerns for any teacher, but their existence or nonexistence does not determine your worth as a teacher. In contrast, how you perceive these challenges can amplify or dampen your confidence. I chose the latter. I saw each problem as an obstacle so daunting that it was almost was not worth overcoming. This capitulation does a grave disservice to myself as a teacher and beyond. That abdication of self-worth diminishes the ardent fire I hold for teaching itself, and it negates the qualities and talents that make me (and you) the caliber of person able and worthy to help pave a pathway of success and self-reliance toward the foggy and uncertain future on the horizon.
In order to help our students navigate the on-coming doubt, we cannot doubt ourselves or our worth in what we do. We cannot feed this inner-quarrel by falsely claiming that its beginnings are not within ourselves. My work here is meant to dispel my own fear, and maybe yours, so that I can continue to move forward and to pursue my vocation as a teacher. From this moment on I am in charge of becoming what I know is within me: a true teacher.
I am a Foreign Language teacher, and I realize that teachers receive copious amounts of professional development opportunities from their schools and districts alike. Sadly, these opportunities too often focus narrowly on how to use new pieces of technology within the classroom, or on the new lesson planning, grade book system, or teacher evaluation strategy that is currently fashionable. These professional development sessions have little to do with improving the teacher and the teaching experience for either the student or teacher. True and meaningful professional development must come from the teachers themselves because it is we who have the desire to be better at what we do. We must take responsibility for directing our continuing improvement and maturation as teachers. The best skill that will allow a teacher to direct his or her develop a teacher is one that is familiar any teacher, past or present: self-reflection.
Self-reflection is a part of any good teacher preparation worldwide. In my own experience, however, I often only used self-reflection to judge the success or failure of one classroom activity or strategy. More times than I like to remember I found and focused on failure when I reflected, and that fear-based focus paralyzed any efforts I made to be a more effective teacher. I ignored that self-reflection is not solely concerned with error correction. Self-reflection ought be about recognizing both the strengths and weakness about the totality of work that an educator puts forth. Yes, it is great to focus on celebrating and maybe improving a particular lesson, but never downplay the effort devoted to teaching because an activity may have gone awry. Just like teaching a unit or lesson, self-reflection is as much about putting our successes and failures in a meaningful context so they can be fully understood and appreciated.
The reality of the profession in which we work as teachers is not often discernible by the items reflected back to us within our work environment and by society as a whole. But the reality is, if a teacher is confident about his or her ability to reach and teach the students under his or her charge, then the teacher will exceed the expectations of any and all evaluations. A confident will be able to field any new changes in planning or the grade book with relative little stress because the foundations of his teaching and classroom are built on stone. He knows himself as a teacher, and he knows and loves his students as people, and grasps fully the reality of the people they will become. We cannot blame anyone but ourselves if we allow the ebb and flow of the profession to scare us into mediocre performances as teachers.
My reality is, I do not know myself as a teacher. Many times I tried to mimic what I thought those with power over my position wished to see or hear. Alas, this was wrong. No one wanted to see a teaching performance from an actor who could become something different from one moment to the next. Mimicry of any kind never made me a better teacher because whatever I was projecting was never a true representation of myself or what I could bring to my students as a teacher. Moreover, I never had the courage to seek guidance from my colleagues observing me, because I thought asking would mean the loss of my job. Truthfully, asking is a form of both personal and professional development, and to a good colleague and mentor, questioning is never a sign of weakness.
I have never been fired or released from a teaching position due to my inability to be a teacher. Be that as it may, if the reader were to look at my work history, the reader might swiftly conclude that I must be unable to teach, given that my stays at schools are brief and have sizable pauses before the next position. Not true. I left these positions out of fear of the inability to properly manage and teach my kids. One bad day represented an utterly irreparable failure that marred. my career and students forever. There is little truth in those decisions to leave because they were by-products of fear and not fact. While most of you may not abandon schools or teaching completely out of fear that you are lacking as an educator, it is certainly a thought that invades our minds with far too much regularity.
This uncertainty does not have an exterior origin. It is not the fault of inattentive students, "helicopter" parents or administrators, lack of training, or the lack of productive instructional time. These are all valid concerns for any teacher, but their existence or nonexistence does not determine your worth as a teacher. In contrast, how you perceive these challenges can amplify or dampen your confidence. I chose the latter. I saw each problem as an obstacle so daunting that it was almost was not worth overcoming. This capitulation does a grave disservice to myself as a teacher and beyond. That abdication of self-worth diminishes the ardent fire I hold for teaching itself, and it negates the qualities and talents that make me (and you) the caliber of person able and worthy to help pave a pathway of success and self-reliance toward the foggy and uncertain future on the horizon.
In order to help our students navigate the on-coming doubt, we cannot doubt ourselves or our worth in what we do. We cannot feed this inner-quarrel by falsely claiming that its beginnings are not within ourselves. My work here is meant to dispel my own fear, and maybe yours, so that I can continue to move forward and to pursue my vocation as a teacher. From this moment on I am in charge of becoming what I know is within me: a true teacher.
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