Charm City Yoga

I love, love, love attending yoga classes at Charm City Yoga! I live a 12 minute walk from the Midtown studio (yes, I’ve timed it!) and just walking to and from class is calming. I am learning to focus on my breathing any time my mind wanders during class and am also learning to apply that practice outside of class. Unfortunately, I don’t make it to nearly as many classes a week as I’d like to. I’m working on it!

Check out their website for class information and their youtube channel for the “Posture of the Week”!

Graphic: Charm City Yoga

Cookie and Kate

One of my favorite blogs to read also happens to be a guide to healthy eating. Kate, of Cookie and Kate, shares her adventures in the kitchen and inspires me to make cooking and eating healthfully a habit, not an exception. She recently shared, over a roasted strawberry rhubarb parfait (absolutely amazing and so easy to make!) her struggle with this perfectionist mindset:

“Will my fellow perfectionists please raise their hands? I know I’m not the only one who chases perfection and suffers for it. In its more mild form, perfectionism can be a good thing, a steady drive to improve. I’ve taken it to the extreme lately, though, into never-good-enough territory. At this point, I am my own harshest critic and my own worst enemy. Whenever a surefire recipe concept fails me, or I don’t like what I see in the mirror, or the crumbs and splatters take over my kitchen countertop, my disappointment spirals downward until I hit rock-bottom defeat.”

“Eventually, I drag myself up and put on Cookie’s leash so we can walk it off. Those brisk walks bring perspective. I remind myself that perfection is entirely subjective. Not to mention, impossible. Nothing will ever be perfect. So why am I bothering with such an impossible pursuit? My drive to be the best only succeeds in making me feel worthless, jealous, even bitter. That’s not me! To that end, I’ve hired a professional to help me. I want to learn how to accept less-than-perfect with grace rather than defeat.”

I am not alone in this battle! I love her approach, wanting to “learn how to accept less-than-perfect with grace rather than defeat”. Thanks for sharing, Kate!

Words and images: Cookie and Kate

National Alliance on Mental Illness

“Our passion and promise: It is our core principle that empowering family members and consumers is a critical factor in recovery, and a potent force in providing community education and bringing about systemic change. NAMI Maryland is a unifying voice and a skilled provider of knowledge and skills at the grassroots level. NAMI Maryland promises to work to build better lives for Marylanders affected by mental illness.”

My friend Nicole participated in a service learning experience at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) center near Loyola. At the end of the semester, there was a fundraiser gala held at the American Visionary Art Museum and they needed volunteers. Off we went in our white tops and black pants to serve food and beverages. Loving the amazing location was all that I remember from that yet. But this morning, I heard an interview on the radio with two women from NAMI promoting their annual walk-a-thon and it occurred to me that this is a resource I want to check out. That’s all for now. I’ll let you know what I find and will definitely share anything that I think might be useful!

Employee Assistance Program

I struggled for nearly an hour attempting to access the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) on the intranet. I threw my hands in the air and decided to try again tomorrow. I didn’t. If it wasn’t for my wonderful friend, Nicole, I doubt I would have finally made an appointment with a counselor to discuss my stress and anxiety. The process of accessing your EAP benefits should not be stress-inducing! If Cigna is your healthcare provider, you can visit their website to begin everything. When in doubt, just call. Even if it’s scary and stress-inducing!

Destination Imagination

“Destination Imagination (DI) is a non-profit, volunteer-led, cause-driven organization. Our purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders. Annually, we offer seven new standards-based Challenges in STEM, Improv, Visual Arts, Service Learning, and Early Learning. Each Challenge is open-ended and enables student teams to learn and experience the creative process from imagination to innovation. Academic tournaments take place around the world where teams have the opportunity to present their solutions to trained appraisers. Students have fun and gain confidence in their ability to solve any challenge. In working to solve our Challenges, teams learn 21st century skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, citizenship and courage) to build on their unique strengths.”

I have had the great pleasure of managing a Destination Imagination team at my school for the past few years. It is an overall fun learning experience for the students who get involved. Each year, new challenges are offered and each year I get to see creative minds work together to come up with a “solution”. This past year my school was able to sponsor two teams. Teams competed in the Laugh Art Loud and Going to Extremes Challenges.

The Laugh Art Loud team researched an artist, created a piece of art inspired by that artist, developed a live comic strip to incorporate the new piece of art, studied comic books, and invented a “Caption Contraption”. The Going to Extremes team researched several extreme environments, developed “Extreme Gear” in order to adapt to the environment, and created props and scenery to depict their extreme environment, Mt. Everest. Teams learn to think differently and therefore approach problem solving in new ways. They also learn to collaborate with classmates and peers.

My fellow co-managers and I frequently reflected on the learning process this year and came up with a list of ideas and strategies to make next year even better! We are still working on helping our teams to keep on track. Although we helped teams to set goals, they frequently would not meet those goals, insisting that they would finish it next week, not realizing they also set goals for that week as well. Over the summer, I’d like to have a “Try DI Afternoon” (an idea shared with me at the tournament) where students and parents could come learn about DI and engage in some “Instant Challenges”. I think that educating parents and other teachers at my school could help develop the DI culture in our classrooms and change the way we (as teachers) help our students to approach problem solving. Have you had any experience with DI at your school? I’d love to hear!

Joseph Gordon Levitt: HitRECord

I am so excited to share Joseph Gordon Levitt’s HitRECord Production Company as the first “In Good Company” feature! I stumbled across this brilliant concept a few years ago (was I IMDBing a movie Gordon Levitt was in or just google-imaging him?!) and have always wanted to see how it would play out in my classroom. But first, an explanation:

Please visit the HitRECord website to view “Joe’s Intro Video”. I apologize for this inconvenience. I’m still new to blogging and am not sure how to embed a video. I’m not sure I can even access a link to the video. I know this is rule #1 (maybe not, but at least in the top ten) of what-not-to-do on your blog. Kindly indulge me in an extra click. I promise it’s worth it! Then report back here. Okay, two extra clicks.

Genius, no? Like I said, I’ve been curious to see how this might be implemented in my classroom but, like I’ve also said, my perfectionist mindset has been debilitating in that it’s prevented me from trying out new things that could potentially end in chaos! Also, the fear of failing! I understand the irrationality of this line of thinking and that’s what I’m trying to do here. So, I’d like to try to share this concept with my students as they work in groups on creating a movie trailer for a book our class had read together this year. Each group will be making a movie trailer for a different book, but I’m excited to see how they will respond to this idea of “remixing” within their own group and then how all of the groups “remix” each other’s ideas. I’m imagining providing an opportunity for group members to share their individual strengths (singing, songwriting, illustrations, etc.) and then letting them have a go of it, within the structure of other mini-lesson, of course. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Image and related reading: T Magazine’s interview, The Author as Your Average Joe

JCrew

JCrew’s In Good Company sparked the idea for a new category of blog posts:

“a gallery of brand partnerships–a meticulously curated collection based on quality, craftsmanship, and, of course, cool factor.”

In the spirit of Brain Picking’s creativity as combinatorial force ethos by cross-pollinating ideas, “In Good Company” posts will become a collection of featured individuals, companies, nonprofits, and whatever else I stumble across that collaboratively designs something new by rethinking and reworking the old. Enjoy!
Image: PopSugar

Maria Popova: Brain Pickings

Brain Pickings is another example of not-being-able-to-remember-how-I-stumbled-across-this-amazing-book-or-blog. Like serendipitously finding Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem on my bookshelves, Brain Pickings happily fell into my lap(top).

“Brain Pickings is a human powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in–until you are.”

Popova already does what I strive to do: connect the dots in an attempt to make sense of it all.

“The core ethos behind Brain Pickings is that creativity is a combinatorial force: It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to culture, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will be.”

Creativity as a combinatorial force. A cross-pollination of ideas. (I wonder how Maira Kalman would illustrate that!) Combining and recombining ideas and building new ideas. I have always sought inspiration for lessons by doing anything and everything unrelated to teaching and education. I visit art museums, peruse the farmers’ market, arrive at the airport super early just to people watch, go to the movies alone, enjoy the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, read fashion magazines and blogs, get lost in the travel section at Barnes and Noble, slow down and notice during puppy-sitting walks, drive home to New Jersey. Engaging in these experiences makes me happy and when I’m happy I’m my best self. And when I’m my best self I have so much more to give to my lessons and my students. Still, I struggle to bring my adventures back to my classroom. Am I being too literal? Planning too much? Allowing my perfectionist mindset to stifle the creative process? Not seeking out feedback? Not developing the habits of innovative educators?

Maira Kalman: The Principles of Uncertainty

Perusing Barnes and Noble one afternoon, as I often do, I stumbled across Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style and promptly fell in love with the book’s illustrator, Maira Kalman. Her written musings and colorful images are the perfect combination of whimsy and poetry. The Principles of Uncertainty began as a New York Times blog that was eventually made into a book. These are the pages I turn to again and again:

Image: Illustration Friday
Graphics: The New York Times Opinion Pages: Maira Kalman, The Pursuit of Happiness

Carol Dweck: Mindset

My principal first introduced me to Mindset: The New Psychology of Success during a Saturday morning stroll around the Inner Harbor. It was a perfect late winter day: blue skies, crisp breeze, sunshine, and sailboats. With a coffee in hand and my gloves in the pocket of my Northface, we walked and talked. At a time when everything felt uncertain and unsteady, in that span of three hours, everything felt possible. It seems fitting, then, that I came to know the work of Carol Dweck, professor of psychology and researcher at Stanford University, on that particular day.

We hear more and more about the critical importance of developing growth mindsets in our students, but very rarely do we hear about cultivating it in teachers. I think it’s a dangerous assumption to think that teachers already embody all the qualities we want for our students. Ideally, that is exactly what teachers should do. In reality, teachers are only human. And maybe that’s the best kind of role model.

During my leadership internship this past school year, I focused on aligning my approach to teaching, learning, and leading with the Interstate Leadership Licensing Consortium (ISLLC) standards. As a part of Standard 1, an educational leader, “believes in, values, and is committed to a willingness to continuously examine one’s own assumptions, beliefs, and practices.” The language to talk about this habit was new, but the process of reflection was not. My undergraduate experience at Loyola College in Maryland (since renamed) placed a high value on reflection. Every classroom or service experience was an opportunity to reflect and process and think. I got really good at thinking about my thinking, but it stopped there. I didn’t learn how to take my thinking and develop a plan for change. I didn’t even really understand that I could use what I learned to makes changes.

In her sports chapter on the mindset of a champion, Dweck describes the qualities of a hero:

“the loss, the vulnerability near defeat, then a comeback and a final triumph.”

What is it, exactly, that heroes have inside of themselves to get back up from a fall? Champions show character, heart, and will. They also have a growth mindset. Dweck shares finding from sports researchers:

“Those with the growth mindset found success in doing their best, in learning and improving. And this is exactly what we find in the champions.”

I think the word improving is key here. Personally, I have always found success in doing my best and in learning. Somehow, there’s been a disconnect between the striving to do my best (largely due to the fact that for a long I time I equated doing my best with perfection) and improving. Because what would it say about me that I didn’t get it right the first time?

I used to say that the most challenging years in school were 5th grade, 7th grade, and 11th grade (those odd numbers). Fifth grade marked the end of warm and fuzzy teachers and the beginning of doing real work. I broke two backpacks before my parents decided to invest in an LLBean backpack (hello monogram!) to carry my four textbooks and binder to and from school each day. Science required a great deal of independent reading at home and responding to open-ended questions. I struggled for awhile, not quite sure I was doing it right. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my father, day after day, until eventually I built the confidence to do it on my own. Seventh grade was just overwhelming. Period. Switching classes wasn’t new, but then it seemed each teacher had such high expectations and I feared I wouldn’t be able to reach them. I built relationships with these teachers, demonstrated my willingness to study and practice, and eventually things got easier to manage. Eleventh grade algebra just didn’t make sense until a friend and classmate explained it to me. From these challenging experiences, I learned valuable lessons about perseverance and collaboration. Yet, no one explained to me that I could use those strategies the next time I was feeling defeated. Not only do we need to explicitly teach our students, we also need to be as clear with ourselves.

“Those with the growth mindset found setbacks motivating. They’re informative. They’re a wake-up call.”

Failures are opportunities for success. It’s hard to see mistakes this way when you’re trying to hide the fact that you messed up in the first place. Which brings me back to self-worth.

“People with the growth mindset in sports (as in pre-med chemistry) took charge of the processes that bring success–and that maintain it.”

And that brings us to the present and the work I’m working on.

Related reading (and a must read at that!) that I literally just came across on my brief break from blogging: Brain Picking’s Pixar Cofounder Ed Catmull on Failure and Why Fostering a Fearless Culture is the Key to Groundbreaking Creative Work

Image: Mindset Works