Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Author: Tracy Rosen

  • Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams

    If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn – Charlie Parker
    Ok, it’s way about time I take a good hard look at my wishes, hopes, and dreams. How can I move towards a better future unless I define what I wish, hope, and dream for it?

    I know that I can be a good leader. I’ve been floating for the past month or so though. I’ve been letting things slide in my classroom, I’ve been hiding from my work, I haven’t been digging deep into the planning of what my students need or what I need.

    On Monday I will be back to teaching after this holiday break, and on Tuesday I will be back in the classroom myself as I begin my PhD studies.

    My wishes, hopes, and dreams?

    Courage – to keep pushing the envelope with my kids and myself. To not let ourselves get too comfortable because I know that true learning needs discomfort. And to stand up tall in the discomfort and plug away even harder.

    Strength – to keep my vision clear and to not let it be chipped away by criticism (“that’ll never work”)

    Structure – to keep my focus I will need to build and maintain a solid structure to help balance my PhD work, my work with the kids, my personal life

    Fun and Laughter – without that, all else is useless :)

    buddha watching over Fern

    I’ve also been thinking of a recent conversation I was in over at EdTech Journeys about coaching. I love the coaching I receive from my online community, but I also feel the need for some personal interaction – a phone call, a meeting over coffee…on some days over something a bit stronger.

    One of the wonderful things about blogging is communicating with others all over the world. I realize, though, that I have not encountered anyone else from Montreal here! It’d be lovely to meet with some of my blogging friends in person, to add another dimension to the reading/writing relationship that I cherish, to add depth to the conversations, to add some soul.

    I’ll leave this post now, thinking about how to turn that last dream into something real…and welcoming any other suggestions…feeling reflective at the beginning of this new year
    Tracy

    Metamorphosis, no better metaphor for this.
    ~Invincible

    mp3 No Compromises originally downloaded from: FREE THE P! Palestine Takes NYC’s East Village by Storm, article by Remi Kanazi, The Electronic Intifada, 17 October 2005 is from www.freethep.com compilation which is a fundraiser for the film Slingshot Hiphop ! Many thanks to Invincible for allowing its use here.

     

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  • I heart convention

    Quebec’s annual teacher’s convention kicked off last night. I didn’t attend the opening sessions because I was just too darn tired out from parent teacher interviews…but I’m so looking forward to today!

    I love going to our funky ‘Palais des Congres‘ that everyone makes fun of but I love for its colour. I love seeing teachers I worked with 10 years ago who I get to see in person once each year at convention. I love the gift bag we receive at registration and the goodies available in the display hall. I love the passion around learning that I can taste in the air.

    So I’m off for a day of connections, learning, and gift bags!

     

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  • Today, one of my students…

    …I swear, I could start a million sentences with that phrase.

    Today one of my students told me that no had ever told her they missed her before today, when I was letting her have it for the attitude she was spreading around the room. I told her that if it continued after 2nd recess I’d have no option but to ask her to leave and I didn’t want to do that because I would miss her insight during our daily meeting. And then she told me that no one had ever said that to her before, that they missed her.


    image from: http://www.inmagine.com/single-images-photos/imagezoo-izs002

    I’m thankful she focused on that and not the wahn wahn wahn Charlie Brown teacherness of the rest of the message I was saying.

  • How do you Get Things Done?

    I recently read Scott Elias’ page GTD in Education, where he demonstrates how he Gets Things Done, based on David Allen’s action management method called Getting Things Done (GTD).

    I do not have an explicit system for getting things done, and I think I am cheating myself because of it. On top of teaching and program planning this year, I will be starting a PhD in educational technology in January. All very exciting, but I will need to develop a method for GTD in order to stay sane.

    How do YOU get things done?

  • MyBlogLog Disappoints

    Nov. 17 –> I have decided to discontinue my use of MyBlogLog. Not only do I find this contest wrong but I posted a comment to their thread about the issue (evidently I am not the only one who takes offense) about 3 or 4 days ago and it has not been approved for posting. When I am not comfortable with a company’s services I stop using them.

    This silly contest was the first thing, then either not posting a comment because it criticizes the contest OR being negligent in responding to a community member’s criticism on their own forum was the second.

    So not impressed.

    From Nov. 12 –> Here is a note I recently wrote to the MyBlogLog staff:

    I have met bloggers on this site from all over the world. I myself am from Canada. I think that your decision to open up a contest only to US citizens is disrespectful to all of the other bloggers out there who use your services.
    Really bad decision on MyBlogLog’s part!
    I am thinking of leaving this community. It is not one that welcomes all of its members :(
    Tracy Rosen
    ps – oh, and I am blogging about this…

    What do you think? Am I overreacting? I think contests that are advertised on sites that cater to an international audience should be available to that audience. It is a generous contest that asks for participants to work at building up their communities. Sites like MyBlogLog are participatory community sites. Wouldn’t it be lovely if all of the members of the community were considered as equal participants?
    bah.

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