What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali

I blogged a while back about organizing a faculty poetry festival. Well, it happened in the middle of March and was a lot of fun. I recited the Poem, "What Teachers Make, or Objection Overruled, or If things don't work out, you can always go to law school" By Taylor Mali It was a great choice of poem. You can watch my recitation here:

Dare some mighty things...

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

I downloaded a motivational quote app on my iPhone. It might be silly, but things like this do keep me going. It has been a rough winter and a slow wet spring. I'll take my motivation anywhere I can find it.

I have written about failure before. I do really believe that we have to get over our fears of failing. These fears stop us from asking questions, from trying things out, from testing new waters and ultimately from reaching success.

As I get back into my rowing and coaching I tread constantly on the verge of failure. My stroke is far from perfect and the boat I am driving and coaching sometimes heads precariously too close to shore.

In my professional life, I feel I have been sitting in the gray twilight of safety. As the sun shines (hopefully it will soon) I am planning to push myself a little closer to the edge, to dare some mighty things this spring. I don't yet know what they will be, but just writing this down will hopefully help me to try something new. I hope you will too.

  by  aresauburn 

(I used http://imagecodr.org/ to cite this image)

The freedom to fail...

Every year at Belmont Hill we have a student poetry festival. The entire student body memorizes a poem and recites it in English class. One or two boys from each class are selected to move on to a semi-final round, and from there one or two boys from each form are chosen to recite their poem at a morning meeting for the entire school community.

I love reciting poetry. When I was in high school I was on the speech team and competed in the poetry category. This year I am organizing our first faculty poetry festival, where faculty will read or recite poems for colleagues and students. I think it will be a lot of fun. I have chosen Taylor Mali's What Teachers Make, or Objection Overruled, or If things don't work out, you can always go to law school. It is a great poem and I think it will be a lot of fun to do for the school.

While many faculty members share my excitement and have agreed to participate, I have been surprised by the number of teachers who do not want to recite a poem because as they put it "I'm bad at it," "I can't do that stuff," or "I can't memorize." We so often talk about giving students the freedom to take risks and to fail. How many of us are willing and feel comfortable doing the same. In front of our students? In front of our colleagues? In front of our administration?

I fell like Belmont Hill is a place that would embrace any faculty members attempt to recite a poem, no matter how wonderful or terrible. I know our students will be respectful, regardless of our performance. Sometimes the fear of failure resides inside our own heart. How do we encourage ourselves and each other to take these risks? I've been trying to encourage my friends and colleagues to step outside their comfort zones and give it a try. I want my excitement to rub off on everyone.

We all have our things and this is mine. I can't expect everyone to get on my poetry bus. But I think it would be a great example to everyone, if some of those nay sayers would just give it a go. I'll keep trying to convince them...

Image Credit: Collection of Poetry

Facing my Fears in 2009!

First of all, thanks to everyone who voted for me in the Edublog Awards. I didn't win, but a lot of really great bloggers did. You can see all the winners here.

On Friday last week I got up in front of my entire school community, 440 teen age boys and about 60 teachers, and sang a song. It was part of a Faculty Holiday concert that we do every year. I have never sung a solo in front of a large audience. The first time I did Karaoke was this summer on vacation and there were only about 50 people there. That was a huge accomplishment for me and this Friday was even bigger.

I am a performer, I have been acting and dancing on stage since I was a little kid. But when I was in 6th grade I tried out for a small singing group and was told that I can't sing. I'll never forget that day. And unfortunately, I let one music teacher's opinion shape who I am. I stopped singing. I only auditioned for chorus and dancing parts for shows. I was embarrassed to sing next to someone and always felt they must be cringing at my voice.

It has taken me 30 years, but I am determined to face my fear of singing and take back that part of myself. As Carol Dweck might say, you aren't born a singer, you become a singer. If this is something I want badly enough, it is something I can do. I am determined not to let my fears stop me from living my life. In fact I've been actively seeking out my fears and facing them down this year.

This summer I learned to sweep row. I have always loved the water and my school has a crew team. I volunteered to help coach the middle school team last spring. "Coaching" involved standing next to a variety of amazing coaches and watching and learning. In the summer I finally got into a boat myself and learned how to row. I even rowed in a race. The race part is where I was terrified.

I have never been a competitive person. In fact, competition scares me. I get so anxious that I can't perform. I tried running a few 5K races years ago and I could barely breath, I was so nervous. This year, this was another fear that I was determined to overcome. I pushed through the fear and raced. It was an amazing experience. I'm so glad I did it. (I'm in the two seat, which is second from the bow of the boat.)

In fact, the more fears I face down, the easier it is to do. Neither of these experiences were resounding successes. My singing was not beautiful and we came in second to last in the race. But, neither were they horrible failures. Instead, I survived both and grew a little stronger and a little braver with each experience. In 2010 I'm going to continue to row and I am going to take some singing lessons.

The more I push myself, the more I want to push myself. I'm seeking out my fears, rather than running from them.

I have been so energized by my own experiences. I believe others can really benefit from doing this. Just take it one fear at a time. They don't have to be big things. In fact, to other people they may seem really small, but it is knowing inside that you are not going to let your fears run your life that really makes a difference.

Well, I haven't really talked about technology here, but I think for many people who are afraid of technology, helping them to face those fears could really make a difference. How can we encourage our colleagues and students to face their own fears and take them on?