No Excuses

In Get Rid of Excuses and Get Ahead from Cool Cat Teacher Blog by coolcatteacher@gmail.com, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher, asks,

“Are you making excuses for yourself? Are you blaming others? If others are truly at fault, how will you respond?”

I tend to make excuses when I’m trying not to do what I know needs to be done. To avoid what I should be doing, I do all the other things that I normally avoid. This way, I feel like I’m doing things I don’t like, so I don’t feel so bad. I rationalize that I’m doing things that had to be done. When in reality, if I put them off for longer, it wouldn’t really matter. I’m only making an excuse not to do what I need to do.

I really don’t blame others but I do put a lot of blame on myself. Sometimes I blame myself so much that I feel bad and don’t want to try. Then I think that this is just an excuse to avoid failure. I guess it is just a vicious cycle and I have to really work hard to break out of it.

I’ve started a new routing where I list all the things I have to do. I am making myself do them in the order of the worst is the first. Once I get the worse thing out of the way, it actually makes the others easier to do. I’m learning that I can get a lot more done this way and still have time to do the things that I want to do.

In fact, since I’m not finding excuses not to do things, I’m getting more things done. I’m happier with my productivity.

Of course, realistically, there are some things that have to be done first, even if it isn’t the worst. But if I move things like that off the list and only list things that I have flexibility with, it makes things less overwhelming. It is like taking one step at a time rather than being overwhelmed by the big picture.

Others might not find the list of things I do as horrible as I do but each individual may see things differently.

I think if I had my students do this, it would help them be more productive also. I think my students would be more successful in their daily living.

How do you get around your own excuses? Please share.

Photo: 20110120-dont-make-excuses by Chris Piascik

No Excuses

In Never Too Late from Sioux's Page, Sioux talks about a 93 year old author who just had her novel published.

This had me thinking about coming up with excuses why I can’t do something or why I can’t achieve a dream.

I don’t remember my parents ever letting me get away with an excuse why I couldn’t do something. They believed in me and didn’t want to hear that I couldn’t do something. It was just unheard of.

I knew growing up that I wanted to go to Furman University. I never believed I would go anywhere else. So when it came time to apply for real (I had been applying since I was in 6^th grade but they kept turning me down), I only applied to this one school. Even though it was 800 miles away and it was a private school, I didn’t think about the cost. My first priority was getting accepted. Once I got accepted I would deal with the financial issue. I never doubted in my mind that I wouldn’t be accepted. I didn’t have any excuse not to try.

I was accepted in November of my senior year and then had to think about financing my education. I was going to do whatever I could to pay my way since my parents didn’t have the money to send me to an out of state private school. I guess the school wanted me too because they gave me a lot of scholarships and I took out a loan. But again, I never thought I wouldn’t be able to go because of money. I didn’t have any excuse not to find the money.

Once I got to college, I knew that I had to keep my grades up so I could keep my scholarships. I was also working every work study job that I could find. I did not have any excuse not to have good grades or for looking for jobs to earn some money.

Once I graduated, I never doubted I would find a job. I knew that I was going to be the best special education teacher ever! I quickly found a job and loved teaching. I worked to be a better teacher every day of my career. I had no excuses not to seek improvement.

Sometimes I think schools let the students have excuses why they can’t do something and this encourages that behavior. They find excuses for being late to school, for being absent from school, for not doing their homework, for not doing their classwork, for not being the best that they can be.

Sometimes teachers feel sorry for their students because of their home life or their backgrounds. Sometimes it is because of their disability. I hear schools talk about rigor and then say my students can’t achieve the rigor of a general curriculum so they write them off.

My students might not be able to achieve what a general ed student can but they deserve rigor in their own curriculum. They deserve the right to be taught and challenged so that they can reach for the stars too otherwise we are doing nothing but babysitting and warehousing these students. If we don’t believe in them, who will?

As a teacher, I need to get past their home life and backgrounds and their disability. Their life is what it is and I need to help them cope with the present and the future, not the past. I need to give my students the tools they need so that they don’t have excuses for not succeeding. I need to help them get past the point of using excuses to explain their behavior and help them learn determination and perseverance instead.

Do you allow excuses? At what point do you if you do? Please share.

mage: 'My Dog Ate My Website!'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48540379@N02/4709956785
Found on flickrcc.net

Yes, but…

In From ‘yes, but’ to ‘how can we?’ and ‘why not?’ from Dangerously Irrelevant by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com, Scott states,

"We give too much attention to yes, but and rarely, if ever, embrace the more powerful questions of why not? and how can we?”

When I stop and think about this, I realize that I do spend too much time with the “yes, but…”I use that as an excuse not to try new foods or try new things which keep me from having new adventures.

I think I need to train my mind with a new thought such as “Why not? What is the worse that can happen?” If the worse is not severe illness, injury, or death to myself or others, I need to move forward.

I remember years ago when I was in Nassau, Bahamas and allowed this man to put a boa constrictor around my neck. No, I had not been drinking and I wasn’t mentally incapacitated. I didn’t event think about “yes but” or “what if” at the time. It was more of a Star Trek - “boldly go where no man has gone before” kind of attitude.

Over the years I have let the “yes but” stop me from trying things like rock climbing or roller blading. Now the worse that can happen at my age is severe injury and I’m not willing to risk it.

How many times have our students felt in this same predicament? How many times are they not willing to risk being told they are lazy or a failure because it has happened so many times in the past. For some students, this shot in their self esteem is a severe injury and they aren’t willing to risk it. I have to figure out ways that I can protect my students so that they can make mistakes without causing severe injury to them emotionally. Not one way will work for every student but I need to be there to catch them when they fall and keep them from getting hurt severely. I’m not saying I can keep them from getting hurt, any more than a parent can protect their own child all of the time. Sometimes the small hurts are actually important lessons. But we can keep them from getting severely hurt which is even more important.

Sometimes by building them up so the setbacks don’t hurt too much is a successful strategy. Sometimes preparing the students for possible setbacks and talking about how to respond to setbacks can also work. Sometimes by giving them strategies to deal with setbacks and teaching them how to move forward will help them.

How do you help your students get past the “yes but” and move to the “why not”? Please share.

Image: '...Just a Little Girl, Lost in the+Moment'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34120957@N04/6950404017
Found on flickrcc.net

Don’t Hide Behind Excuses!

In R.I.P. Digital Native/Immigrant Tags from TJ on a Journey, TJ states, “
“In the past, I have recommended to teachers that WE ALL are responsible for teaching kids good information and Internet skills. A response I have heard several times, ‘The kids know more that we do anyway.’ No, they don't. They are not afraid of technology and they USE technology, but oddly, we prohibit their familiar tools (like cell phones and social networks) when they get inside the school building.”

I feel, as teachers, it is important for us not to just show students the tools and how to use them, but to be responsible too. When we teach students to drive, we don’t just teach them the basics in order to get them to move a car forward and backwards. We teach them the laws and how to make decisions based on their knowledge. When I took a driver’s education course, we learned how to figure out gas mileage and how to read a map too. When students learn how to drive, do they know great places to go? Do they know about the public library and how to get there? Do they know where some museums are and how to find out about them (directions, hours, cost of admission, exhibit information)? Do they know where the state and national parks are that may be near them? There is so much more we can add to their basic knowledge once they learn how to use a tool.

TJ is right that many students are not afraid of trying new technology and using it the best that they know how. But we can show them how to use it better and more effectively if we take the time to learn it ourselves and share this information with them. We have the knowledge and background to figure this out easier than our students do because we have learned how to learn. We need to teach our students how to learn too.

Many of my students could only read cereal boxes and ads in the paper but I wanted to broaden their knowledge base. I got them to read newspaper articles and form opinions. Some even read super hero comic books and thought that was as good as reading a book. Then I had them read magazine articles that they might be interested in or about a hobby they had. Later we moved to comic book classics and they were amazed that there were other forms of literature out there besides thick and overwhelming books. We eventually moved to young adult novels and critical thinking with their reading. They learned to discuss these books and develop their critical thinking skills even further. I didn’t have the attitude that “the kids knew more than I did anyway so why bother.” I enjoyed watching them grow.

Many students will even try to tell me that they know how to do stuff but it is up to me to tell them they might now how, but I might be able to show them a better or easier way. Students love to find an easier way to do something. Then I also explain that I might learn a few things from them too but this exchange of ideas is as important as learning something.

TJ also states “We are educators...We must not hide behind cliches as excuses. We have studied pedagogy and we must use it to best instruct our students.”

I applaud TJ’s attitude and wholeheartedly agree! It is with this attitude that we will have a successful classroom and push successful students out into the real world!

Original image: 'no excuses' http://www.flickr.com/photos/28473961@N02/3347023861 by: Colin