FUD

FUD

Listening to one of my podcasts on the way to Jewel.  I was introduced to the concept of FUD, it is a strategy used in the business world to gain an edge on a competitor. That part is not all that important but when I heard what FUD actually meant… I was like “awww shite” That is where we are.

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.

So I decided to figure out what business folk do to reduce FUD.

Here are a few techniques to move past your FUD:

• Identify the situation in three sentences or less – I tried it, it was interesting.

• Ask others for their perspective on how they would solve the situation. – I am half tempted to ask an Uber driver.

• Engage those you term as “negative or toxic” and get their perspective as well. – Been there, done that, learned some stuff. 

• Engage those who you don’t know but who have successfully handled this situation. – Why I spent so much time on the Harvard website. 

• Write all the options down, storyboard it, draw it. – Pages and pages and pages.

• Step away from the situation, go out, and have fun with family and friends, go for a walk in nature. – One of the reasons my dogs get an extra-long walk every-freaking-day.

• Come back and look at it with fresh eyes, answer the question “if there were no boundaries and you were not worried about failure, what would you do?” – It seems I ask myself that at 2:00 AM every morning when I wake up out of a sound sleep.

• Define the first step that makes sense to take and take it. – Watch out August 24th, here we come. 

This whole year will be filled with countless opinions, choices, & perspectives. And FUD has this nagging ability to hold back good inclinations & inspirations.

But you know what?

We are going to grab FUD by the horns and use it as a catalyst for even better teaching, different ideas, and growth for ourselves… dang it.

“Ordinary People accomplish Extraordinary things.” – Jim Valvano

An everyday hero is found inside of everyone, everywhere, each one of us. It is waiting for the right moment to be turned on and we are at that moment right now. We didn’t ask for it but it has found us. It’s time to be the hero for those who need us.

Our kids. The one that ran out of our buildings one day like the next day was to be like a “snow” day only to realize whatever they left in their locker would have to stay or whoever they were supposed to sit with the next day at lunch wouldn’t be there. They left happy and carefree believing it was just a free day tomorrow but are now faced with something that just a month ago seemed unfathomable.

We are taking on new challenges that no PD, regardless of how inspiring, could have prepared us. This event, this type of teaching, this complete emptiness of not being with “our kids” tomorrow is forcing us to push our beliefs about school. We are moving from grades and points to being focused on growth and responsibility.

This is hard and we are tired.  This is a challenge and we will overcome courageously. We will figure it out from a place of strength, confidence, and love. And we seemingly “just teachers” will accomplish extraordinary things.

Ok…so I am just gonna write it.

My side hustle… adjuncting.

Real glamourous but it does fill my bucket in lots of ways. I have “students”, I grade, I lesson plan. I get to laugh lots.

One of my gigs is at USF. Mostly I move through cohorts, maybe take on the first class, maybe revisit them after a bit and I come away connecting with some pretty great educators.

However, with this last group with which I just finished I taught the majority of their courses. It wasn’t the original plan but they jumped right off the deep end with me so I was hooked. I have always known they were some sort of special but tonight solidified the fact.

Our last class, last of the course, last of their cohort. Last. And their final project guided them through a capstone project “Grown-Up Genius Hour” They blogged throughout the process but tonight was their Final Show.

The requirements:
– Show in someway how you now can do something that you couldn’t do before you began the project.
– Teach us something.
– No Slideshows (this was not going to be a research project!)
– Bring something tangible to illustrate your Project.

Throughout the 2 hours of learning:

Photography
How to Become an Apple Distinguished Education and Drawing with a Stylus
Hand Lettering
Organizing (Thank you no thank you Container Store)
Getting Rid of Junk
Home Design
Cooking (no baklava – yet…but there was Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup with Bok Choy)
Baking
Riding the Peleton
Running
Habits
DYI
Playing Chess
Losing weight
Doing a Headstand
Boating (There was a Boating Binder and Chips Ahoy included…a Boating Binder with a Boating Bucket List.. like how amazing!)

My cheeks ached from smiling as we learned how each of these reminded us how to learn, brought us closer to our families and forced us to take time for ourselves.

I am exponentially better for knowing these educators.

The car ride home proved it when I already started to miss them.

 

A School to Watch

I always wondered when I would start feeling like I was getting older…yeah the fact that I have a 20-year-old and the cousins I used to babysit for are on their 3rd kid..all pretty jarring..still didn’t do it. 

The final gut punch was when those “sayings” started making sense…”Ah yah know… 20/20 Vision” or “Youth is wasted on the young”. (By the way, if I start yelling at kids to turn down that “racket”, you all have permission to shame me publically.) One phrase that resonated with me throughout this entire School to Watch experience is “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”.

Each moment in the history of OQ has shaped us to be this school to watch. Mistakes, failures, practical jokes, support and the stories that are shared with us piece together into this community, this story of teachers and learners. 

While we happen to be the ones who are in the moment of recognition, I understand the work we are able to achieve has been because of the commitment of so many in the years leading up to today.

Accolades we receive from becoming a School to Watch is not for us but to those who have come before us and to those who will carry on.

Thank you all. We crushed it. 🙂

#7DaysOutEdu – Day 2

Day 2…we all came back.

Unveiled a commitment to build a culture of reading, witnessed my Superintendent scooter it up,  visited by one heck of a guy, laughed together with our new principal. (dang I list lots of things).

But one thing happened that keeps knocking on my brain.

During the start of our as our keynote speaker shared his story out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone who had been missing from our community for a bit and is going through somethings. This person stood there in the doorway and watched from afar. Thinking nothing of it until I witnessed 8 folks stand up to greet him. One after the other they hugged him. And these were the types of hugs that talked…

I felt like I shouldn’t be watching as if I was intruding on an intimacy of which I was not a part but I couldn’t stop.

Big moments are needed and planned and celebrated but those small moments like that which will always change how I see the world.