It has been a long time since I have written in my own professional blog. Hundreds of posts have been crafted in my head. Yet, they never make it here, to the place and space for those ideas to become more than murmurings and ideas of my own. A place and space to share my own learning with hope that it becomes part of a collective process to inspire, encourage, challenge, empower and grow us all as lead learners.
I haven’t been completely radio silent. Every week I write a blog post for my campus. It is designed to come from where we have grown, the pulse of our present need, and provide focus for where we need to go. This is where some of my murmurings and ideas have found their place and space: SRE Longhorn Learning.
Still, I find other things that I want to share in regards to impact as an educator that do not fit the purposes for my campus blog if I want to keep it focused to the needs of the campus.
Still these other things need a place and space. For that I come back to the “Tag… you’re it!” personal professional blog to share. I will have to say, it’s been a battle. I have reasoned with myself it wasn’t necessary. However, I couldn’t shake that there was a need for me to write again in this space and place after I read a recent post “Why Aren’t You Blogging More…” ,from the blog “The Principal of Change” by George Couros. I was challenged. I stopped the excuses.
In George Couros’ post that I mentioned, he says “be kind, be thoughtful, don’t overthink it.” So this is where I begin to share again. It starts at as a murmuring about being kind and thoughtful, and maybe leads to an idea…
Today I was asked to help one of my sweet students. He is an adorable little boy who, like many adults, doesn’t like the things he creates or his belongings to be moved or “messed up.” He was upset. His Rube Goldberg project that consisted of a chain of dominoes had been “messed up” by another student and thus ensued a disagreement. After some deep breaths, empathetic listening and talking through things, I shared some wisdom. I suggested he apologize first. His sweet little five year old brain felt he had been wronged first and it puzzled him that I asked him to apologize first. So I explained, sometimes to help others see what upset us, we first have to be the one to say “I am sorry.” I reasoned with him, “If we say sorry first, we lead the way. We are the leaders for making things peaceful.” I then asked him, “Do you want things to be peaceful and to get along with the friend you were upset with?” He nodded. Then he shared, “I don’t think I can do it by myself.” As I offered to go with him, I pondered… if only, when we struggle to make amends, we admitted we can’t do it by ourselves and accepted the help of others would so much be resolved.
We walked back into the classroom. He walked right up to his classmate and genuinely offered his apologies… his classmate in turn apologized with the same measure of sincerity. The Rube Goldberg project was back on and the students were at peace.
There is good in the world. This moment is evidence. So I encourage us all… be the first to apologize, even if you were the one wronged. Be the leaders for making things peaceful. These students learned a valuable lesson in life. Let us continue to be the example and look for ways to be thoughtful and kind. Let’s work to create a world that creates peace for the future… for our students.
The Bulldog Educator 