3-18-2016

Mary’s Minute

“We need to accept that we won't always make the right decisions, that we'll screw up royally sometimes - understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it's part of success.”

                                       ~ Arianna Huffington

I love this notion of ridding our thoughts that the opposite of success is failure.  Failure can be an important step towards success.  I like to think of mistakes not as failure, but as approximations.  Consider a baby learning to talk.  When the baby says, “Da,” we do not consider it a failure for appropriately saying, “Daddy,” but instead praise the approximation that puts our baby one step closer to normal communication.  Life and learning are not about failure, but about approximations that help guide us.  It is through our mistakes that we learn.  Sometimes mistakes are costly and difficult, but as long as we use them as stepping stones to better decisions, better living, or deeper learning, then they are not failure. 

 

Traditional notions of learning, tend to see student answers as right or wrong, but when we think of wrong as not being failure, but an approximation then we can use the “wrong” answer as a valuable step towards greater understanding.  Sure we all love to not make bad decisions, but let’s remember that even mistakes lead us to greater understanding of academic pursuits and life lessons.

 

                                                                       Have a great break! 

                                                                       Mary

3-11-2016

Mary's Minute 

We all have bad days.  Sometimes it is as simple as just feeling down or having a few things go wrong that make it seem "bad."  The worst days are the ones when the negative things happening have consequences that make us dread days to come.  They are the days that we fear a good night's sleep will not cure.  The reality is that even on these kind of days, in fact, especially on these kind of days, we need to see all the good in life.  On bad days it is tougher to practice the art of gratitude, but more important than ever that we be thankful for all the good in our lives.  It is on the days when it is difficult to see the beauty in nature, that we most need nature's wonder to give us pause.  It is the time when we don't want to laugh that we most need to strive to yfind humor. It is when we don't want to speak to anyone that we most need to gain strength from the kindness of others.  Life is not always easy.  Tough things can happen, but bad days do not define us.  All of the things that make us have good days are still right under our nose, even during the worst of times.  My wish is that you never have a bad day, but realism says we all will.  The next best hope is that we use our positive attitudes as power against negativity during tough times.

Thanks for all you do!
Mary

3-4-2016

Mary’s Minute

“Everyone shines given the right lighting.  For some it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamp lit desk.”

                                                  ~ Susan Cain

My son, Bill, has taught me a lot about introverts and extroverts, since his introvertedness is in direct contrast to my extrovertedness.  A simple explanation of the difference in the two personality types is that introverts gain energy from being alone while extroverts gain energy from being around people.  Like most characteristics, people cannot be pigeon-holed into a single type, but the concept is good to help us understand how our students, friends, and family members operate.  I have learned that Bill can function very well in a crowd and come off to people as being comfortable and confident, but at the end of a day, he needs to be alone to recharge.  For me it is just the opposite, being with people invigorates me.  When I think about our students, I have to admit that schools by nature favor students who gain energy from others.  I am not sure of the answer to this, but it does make me conscious of providing opportunities for students to work both in groups and alone, and to provide “recharging” spaces for introverts to be alone when needed.  As for me as a mother, I have learned to be more patient when Bill wants to just be alone, not taking it personally that he doesn’t want to spend time with me.  Our goal is to provide just the right lighting so that all of our students can shine!

                                                                       Have a great week! 

                                                                                        Mary