Learning from ourselves

Often it are the setbacks that bring people back with their feet on the ground and have they rethink about their position in this world and in their life.

The most difficult part in our life is often to liberate ourself from the chain of vanity that may have caught us, and to get to learn that we better have to become an instrument in the Hands of our Creator, following His path He has laid out in front of us.

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To remember

“You teach best what you most need to learn.”  = line from Richard Bach’s book ‘Illusions’ running through mind

Marianne Williamson frequently shares very personal stories about her honest trials through life which makes her advice all the more more palatable

• We share in our own ways + we learn in our own ways

 

today’s lesson = Humility.

• ego wants to (and has been) defending self, making excuses, + trying to justify own actions
• making way through personal feelings of remorse, embarrassment, + confusio
• often advice we give to others = exact advice we need ourselves.
• hold ourselves to some ridiculous standard of “perfection” => too self-conscious to admit struggle with things we advise others to do.
• listen to ourselves +  realize things we passionately want to teach other people = things we, ourselves, truly want to learn + embody =>  vigilant level of self awareness + honesty

enhance + deepen relationships with others + ability to impact them in a positive way

1)  Be Honest

2)  Have Compassion

3)  Stop Trying to be Perfect =>  sense of freedom

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Preceding

I is for Incompleteness

Timeless Insights on Humility

Dear Mr. President – A Response to the “Shithole Countries” Comment

From people in a certain position we would expect coming out their mouths some respectful and words of a certain standard. Incredible that we in Europe could hear already so many words and phrases a president unworthy, though coming out of the mouth (and mind) of the one who has to lead one of the most powerful countries in the world.

He dares to give the outside world the impression he is standing for the American upbringing and culture, but luckily there are others who want and dare to counter this ‘bogeyman’ plus trying to educate in the proper way the next generation, so that we still can have hope for the future.

7th Grade Global Studies teacher at Jefferson Junior High School in Naperville, Illinois , Chris Heffernan, National Geographic Education Contributor Worldgeochat gives a very nice welcome reaction on the way of speaking of his schoolkids president. He does find that Donald Trump does not represent them anymore than warlords represent all Sudanese or corrupt politicians represent all Haitians.

This isn’t a Democrat/Republican thing, this is all about human decency.

It’s the 12-13 year olds in his classroom that give him hope for the future, but it are also those who do need the right ‘spiritual’ food to be able to communicate with each other in their upcoming world.

We need to believe that they will do better than the “grown-ups” we have now!

worldgeochat

Dear Mr. President,

I have so many thoughts right now, but I’ll try to keep this simple for you.

My school has students from 38 nations. It is hard enough for them to adjust to life in a new country as an adolescent without someone calling their homeland a “shithole country.” As a geography teacher, I’ve spent the better part of two decades trying to get students to see that ALL countries have problems, and ALL countries have cultures to be proud of. I’ve had hundred of students watch the TED Talk by Chimamanda Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story.” You should consider watching it, it would serve you well.

What 12-13 year olds understand, but you clearly don’t, is that we cannot, and should not judge an entire group of people by the actions of some. You have done this repeatedly with respect to Muslims, Mexicans, and anti-Nazi…

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When God Moved a Mountain

If better is possible, good is not enough

is the proverb of our guestwriter for today, Coco, who found herself at the brink of quitting the profession that she had chosen in her life.

I felt then that I cannot do anymore what I have been doing for just a short period of time. Honestly, I want to scream out lout and tell the world that my life sucks. My feet have been heavy to carry as I walk to school, and it has been a burden to enter every class. Each day has become a boring routine and all I wish that time was the end of every quarter or end of the school year. {The Perks of Being a Teacher}

She wrote four years back, when she was still reviewing for her licensure examination. {From Theories to Practice}

For the job that brings home a lot of extra work, nobody sees or thinks of a teacher having to do, often when giving more, the person being paid less, and having no respect as part of the compensation, it seems she was at that time a little-bit depressed or not satisfied, being not receiving what she had hoped for.

It took her two years after she passed graduation and stood the test of her board exam, when she started to understand the real meaning of the field that she had chosen.

Theories of learning, methods and strategies in teaching, styles in classroom management, types of assessment, and many other topics has become vividly clear to me when I encountered them in the classroom and applied them in my teaching. {From Theories to Practice}

Since 2014, she has recorded the books that she finished. In 2016, the year she made her life free from writing her thesis, but doing so actually imprisoned her with thicker things to accomplish, she was thrilled that she was able to finish 67 books, though her goal was to finish 60 books only, so going beyond her target made her stark happy. In fact, she finds she read many great books that year. {No Excuses}

January the 22nd she just finished one of her most favourite Christian books “Believe That You Can” by Jentezen Franklin.

The first time I read it, I decided to leave my job and try something different. Months later, I was in a different working environment, and I never regret that decision I made. The Lord gave a lot of breakthroughs since then.

In Many opportunities given by God you could already see how God is there to come to people. Even when they might think they are on their own or may have to undergo horrible experiences, there they could find the Mighty Hand of God.

Today’s guest-speaker also has that experience of the Most High having an eye onto her, even she has not assets like Abraham had. Also in these modern times God is prepared to be with His creatures and to favour those who are willing to give themselves in His Hand.

Coco actually almost lost hope with her sister when she failed her defence and she’s not graduating this March. Together with her mother she approached her sister. The mother doing the encouraging part and she the praying part. Finding out the good news that she passed, becoming  the happiest man alive that moment.

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Preceding article

Many opportunities given by God

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MY NAME IS COCO

Today, I just finished my most favorite Christian book Believe That You Can by Jentezen Franklin.

The first time I read it, I decided to leave my job and try something different. Months later, I was in a different working environment, and I never regret that decision I made. The Lord gave a lot of breakthroughs since then.

I can because the Lord can always move mountains. Although I am not Abraham, God favors me as much as He did with Abraham.

I actually almost lost hope with my sister when my mom broke the news that my sister told her that she failed her defense and she’s not graduating this March. Since then, I felt a pang in my heart and that was a heavy burden I’ve been carrying.

It was really devastating and disappointing, but when I gathered all my strength, I confronted her to fight for it…

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Reflections on Existence and Teaching

Maria Gianna Iannucci at her blog Reflections on Existence as an educator at Mercy High School in Middletown, CT.  has written courses in Astronomy and Cosmology, Neuroscience, and Medical Botany for the High School level, wonders why she came to teach.

Betonwerksteinskulptur “Lehrer-Student” von Reinhard Schmidt in Rostock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lots of educators do feel they have a calling. You might even call it a drive which brings them to put themselves at the site at the service for others. Many may have different reasons why they choose to become a teacher. But for sure one can not be a good teacher when one does not love the matter or subject one chooses to bring over to others. In a certain way the one who wants to teach properly must be

in love with God’s new creation. {Why I Teach…}

Every year again the teacher gets to see youngsters which have many questions and lots of aspirations, but also many who do not see the reasons of existence any more and do not know where to go to. It is up to the teacher then to show them some light and many reasons to go forward.

With each generation that moves forward on the earth, hope is born.

when one teaches in class or comes to write a blog, sometimes an other way of teaching and preaching,

It takes contemplation, inspiration, creativity, consistency, and commitment…all those things add up to one thing…love. {A Note To All My Followers}

Without commitment and love for the other one can not bring such life in teaching that can inspire others to continue to do further research and to grow in the knowledge of science, arts, and so on. Without the commitment to the good of others, wanting to give oneself to the other  and to give as much usable information as possible. This free giving, with the knowledge that one can not know everything, that each of us is limited, but by sharing information we all can grow.

As teachers we do also have a mission which should make us to do our utmost best to fulfil the mandate given to us. Our direction should inspire those in front of us and should make us to want to go further than our generation.

Sometimes at the expense of your own wishes. I am committed to holding space for peace and real love in a world that often does not understand what that means. Our behest should also be to bring knowledge and peace, living for the moments “when our students wake up and look at us with new eyes”

as the universe expands beyond their capacity to comprehend. {Why I Teach…}

Maria Gianna Iannucci stands with the young at the threshold of possibilities, when they begin to realize their true purpose.

They catch a brief glimpse of a Love so expansive it leaves them breathless and in awe. I teach for the moments when they see in each other a reflection of the cosmos and the Love that animates it. {Why I Teach…}

I teach to awaken those who slumber, to comfort the grieving, to rejoice with those who dance, to bring hope to those who believe they live in a meaningless world. {Why I Teach…}

for many it may seem a meaningless world, and today with not many prospects. But by opening their eyes to the past and showing them it is a continuous act of reflecting back to mankind and to each of us, individually and in group, that we may come to see much more clear and see that there can be a line of continued hope.

A special education teacher assists one of her students. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The female writer might, like I have done throughout the years I was teaching them, trying to show her pupils the beauty of our world, always referring back to the master Hand behind it,

so that they see with clarity, the beauty of the gifts they were given by the Eternal One. {Why I Teach…}

I can only hope students remember something from what their wanted to teach them plus from what he or she wanted to show them how we as human beings had to move on in this world. I sincerely hope that

Maybe my students will remember the unconditional love and respect, the feeling of being safe and cared for, being known and cherished for who they really are …and carry that out into the world. {Why I Teach…}

Whatever our purpose here on earth, we having been placed here, have to be fostered, guided by others, who want to guide us thorough our growing up process. even when many do not want to know that

We are brought into existence together for the purpose of growing into the very Love that created our hearts and the stars {Why I Teach…}

each educator has to show that way, with lots of patience and hope for the future.

Maria Gianna Iannucci one of her aims of her classes is to show young people the value of the plants for food and medicine to help keep these spaces free. When we look how far people have grown away from nature this is essential. We should have more teachers showing kids how man should be united with nature.

It is sad that nature is not appreciated in its own right, that we have to extract something from it.

Educators should continue with their unending efforts of trying to bring the parts of the chain of knowledge to youngsters and showing them the tools to handle everything what comes in front of them.

I always hoped that by personal endurance or forbearance I could bring some sparkle to lighten the brains of those in front of me and to get them too look for new ways of building up their own life and a new future. Sometimes our way of looking at things, or way of speaking, perfidies that we are a teacher.  (Even on holiday so many asked me if I was a teacher.)

“Once a teacher, always a teacher”

is how Steve Schwartzman see and I it.

The blogster ends her article

To teachers past and present who have dedicated their lives to the restoration of earth and the cultivation of the human. Why I Teach…

with a quote from the French philosopher and paleontologist known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“As soon as humans have woken to explicit consciousness of the evolution that carries them along, and begin as one to fix their eyes on the same thing ahead of them, are they not, by that very fact, beginning to love one another?”

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Additional reading

1. The first question: Why do we live
2. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #7 Education
3. Too many pupils for not enough teachers
4. Passion and burn out of a teacher
5. A learning process for each of us
6. For those who make other choices
7. Fools despise wisdom and instruction

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Further reading

1. Live List of Education Books
2. The Simplest Question Needs the Simplest Answer
3. Science: A Great Source of Metaphor…
4. Teaching ruminations
5. What My Student Teacher Taught Me
6. Oh, The Power You Have…And Yet May Not Even Use.
7. Banning teachers from work
8. 5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2017
9. In memoriam George Aditjondro
10. Thoughts About How I’ve Just Finished School Forever
11. Reflects the core values of Career Toppers
12. An Open Letter to My Firsts
13. What Is a Traditional Teacher?
14. Lesson Plan: Teaching Emotions
15. Critiques of Groupwork in ESL Classrooms
16. Native Speaker Privilege and Unprofessionalism within the ESL Industry by Kevin Hodgson 
17. Conversation with my favorite teacher 
18. Worried
19. There is Only One First
20. Elitism is the enemy of merit
21. Shakespeare and High School English Teachers
22. Tempest-uous Spring Planning
23. The Girl on the Piccadilly Line
24. Dear Students
25. A Day of Giving
26. About Me (miss Natalia)
27. About Me (miss Lindsey)
28. Teaching the Pre-Modern Post-Election
29. Organisational Challenges are Usually Technology Related
30. From business administration to midwifery education: Sara’s midwifery journey
31. The little school in Huilongguan
32. Feedback – perfect this and everything else falls into place!
33. grading
34. Internet Roundup: Education Part 7
35. Teacher “number 4”
36. Shock! My blog has been neglected again.
37. Clashes with Colleagues.
38. I have applied for a new job.
39. Let’s Sum Up – My First Term.
40. First Semester Down #madeit
41. Maybe Sunday School Would Be Better If It Were Actually School
42. Grateful the Time is Near
43. I’m sure what you meant to say in that email critiquing my repertoire choices was thank you…
44. New Day, New Start, TEFL wobbles stabilised
45. Why are languages being taught like math?
46. First Semester Review
47. One Year
48. Empathy and Global Awareness
49. Life lessons from the land of cheese and wine!
50. Time to recharge
51. A Tale of Two Educators
52. Teaching Others about Jesus

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Related articles

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• ‘A teacher is an actor, writer, doctor, lawyer, politician, painter and director – who wouldn’t want that?’: Teachers around the world share their stories
• The discursive positioning of graduating teachers in accreditation of teacher education programs (2016)
• Happy National Teacher Day! Five Tax Tips to Educate You on Tax Savings

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