Pounding

“The NVIV (Next Vista Inspiring Video) series of posts are written by Rushton Hurley and designed to provide students and teachers with fascinating discussion prompts.”

In A Pound(ing) of Mochi, Rushton features Mitsuo Nakatani, a mochi master. We watch him turn sticky rice into mochi. At one point, he is mixing the mochi while another hits it with a giant wooden hammer and this is done is almost warp speed!

He gives the following prompts to accompany this video:

“What do you trust that others will do each day to keep you safe? What do others trust that you will do?”

When I saw this video, I immediately thought that this guy is either very stupid or very trusting. I don’t think I want to be the one trusting the hammer guy. I want to be the hammer guy! It reminded me how much teaching and learning involve a lot of trust. As a teacher, I am probably seen as the hammer guy so it is no wonder that many students are very tentative when learning something new. I want my students to feel safe and know that I would not purposefully hurt them or ridicule them when they make mistakes. This would be a great video to show students and talk about the trust between teachers and learners.

Please check out the video and think of other prompts you might come up with. Please share.

Building Trust

In Trading trust for attention from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin shares,

“But the only purpose of advertising of any kind is to cause action, and action only happens when there’s trust involved.”

Students will have an easier time learning new skills if they trust the teacher.

I know when I want to learn something, I have to trust that the teacher is knowledgeable and capable of teaching me this skill. If I have no respect and don’t trust the teacher, my mind shuts down. I will not be able to focus on or retain any new learning.

In my own classroom, I need to earn my student's trust. At the beginning of the year, many students don’t know me. They don’t understand my methods of teaching or if they feel I’m knowledgeable about teaching.

At the beginning of the year, I give my students some background about myself. I also share the values that I feel are important in a person such as honesty and integrity. I explain that I want to help them succeed and will do everything in my power to help them, but ultimately the learning rests on their shoulders. No one can make them learn.

I also tell them that I will always be honest with them. They may not always like what I tell them but I promise that I won’t lie to them. If they ask me questions that I won’t answer because they are personal questions, I will let them know why I won’t answer them. I expect them to respond the same to me.

I will always try to do the right thing and I hope that they will do. I try to share the “rule” that I go by. If I have to hide it or lie about it, then it is not the right thing to do. If I can’t tell my parents or grandparents, then there is something wrong with what I’m doing, unless it is a good surprise for them. My students should practice this rule also.

I want them to know that I’m knowledgeable about teaching, but I don’t know everything. If there is something that they want to learn and I don’t know how to do it, I’m willing to figure out a way for them to learn how to do it. I might even enjoy learning it with them.

Students will test me to see if I mean what I say. When my actions speak clearly that I practice what I say, they will begin to trust me. When I ask them to do difficult things that involve them risking failure, they are more willing to give me a try. I’m basically asking them to trust me. I’m not promising them success, but I will promise that I will be there to catch them if they fall. I will help them get up again and try. I will encourage them not to give up and even see if there are other alternatives to reach their goal.

Once students learn to trust me, their goals can become endless. Success is waiting for them around the corner.

How do you get students to trust you? Please share.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Opening myself up

In Taking a Risk from Sioux's Page, Sioux asked,

“Was there a time when you shared with an audience/family member/friend and the results were encouraging?”

According to my husband, I share too much of everything with everybody! I try to be an open book because I want everyone to like me as I am, flaws and all. Of course I don’t open up right off the bat and have to get to know you before I tell personal stuff.

I try to share with my students that I don’t find a lot of things easy to learn as it may appear. I love to read and can learn anything I want to by reading but applying my learning always scares me. It is basically the fear of the unknown. Yet, the more I do, the easier it becomes, not because the actual task is easier but the fear of failure is not as scary. I am still learning that failure is not such a terrible thing. What is the worst that can happen? I might waste materials and time but no one and nothing has been hurt. I also learn what caused my failure and I can either decide to try again but in a different way or I can decide that I need to do something different. Either way, I have gained knowledge from this experience so all is not lost.

Many times my students like to listen to my personal stories of adventures in learning (or failures in learning as the case may be). Maybe it makes me more like them rather than up on a pedestal. They see that I “survived” from my many failures and that gives them hope.

A lot of my students have already faced so many failures by the time that they are in my class that they have given up hope. They feel as if they shouldn’t even bother trying because they will just fail again. It is my job to turn a possible failure into a reasonable success so we discuss “the worst thing” that could happen and then talk about what happens even if “the worst thing” happens. When we reason things out, they suddenly see that it is worth taking a risk and trying. In my class, nothing is really a failure and everything we do is a success as long as we try.

The more I open up with my students about how even I have a hard time learning, the more encouraged they are with trying. We also talk about individual strengths and weaknesses. All of the weaknesses seem magnified in a school setting because that seems what educators focus on. Suddenly they learn that they do have some strengths that other people may not have (including me).

Do you open up to others? What have been the results? Please share.

Image: 'Decisions, decisions...'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48447300@N02/14363065472
Found on flickrcc.net

Happily Married for 32 Years

32 years ago I was married to the love of my life at the Furman University Bell Tower. We work hard on our marriage every day and don’t take each other for granted. Most importantly we talk to each other about everything and we don't keep secrets from each other. Our marriage is built on trust, love, and hard work. We make sure that we are each other’s best friend and the most important person in our lives. I’m not saying that we don’t argue, disagree, or sometimes hurt each other’s feelings but it is after when we make up and learn from our mistakes so we try not to do it again next time that make us stronger. We try to build each other up, encourage each other, and support each other. We don’t tear each other down in front of others whether jokingly or not.

Who is the most important person in your life? How do you build on this relationship to make it stronger? Please share.

Honesty – To Be or Not to Be

In Honesty...Such a Gift from Sioux's Page, Sioux asks,

“When did you have trouble either delivering honesty or receiving it?”

Honesty is very important to me because trust is also important to me. I can’t trust someone if I don’t think they are able to be honest with me. Once someone is dishonest, there is no way I will ever be able to trust them. To me, honesty and trust go hand in hand. Once I don’t have either one of them, it is like a glass that is broken and can never be fixed to its original state. I really try to be honest at all times because that is how I want others to be with me.

I would rather people be honest with me rather than talk behind my back. It may hurt at the time but it is so much better than the hurt over the long term. This is kind of like ripping a band aid off quickly or so slowly that the pain goes on and on. If they are true friends, I can see that their honesty may be helpful to me and not an act of meanness. When someone asks me, “Do you want me to be honest with you?” The people that are important to me don’t need to ask this. I know that they don’t know me well enough and that their opinion has less value then they think it does.

Now after saying all that, I have to admit that I have major problems with being honest if I know it is going to hurt someone’s feelings. I will do all sorts of avoidance tactics in order to not have to say something that will hurt someone. I try to be prepared with neutral statements that doesn’t make me lie but can be used without hurting another person’s feelings. Things like: “It doesn’t work for me but that doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect for you!” or “What most important is whether you like it or not.” Usually I can get by with these statements. Now, if I really dislike something and I think it will hurt the person worse by not being totally honest, I will bite the bullet and just come outright and tell them how I feel.

How do you deal with honesty? Please share.

Image: 'Author Unknown Trust is like a piece+of+paper.+Once+it's+crumpled,+it+can't+be+perfect+again'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85608594@N00/13259697024
Found on flickrcc.net

Connections

In I can’t save everyone… from Blogush by Paul Bogush shares,

“I printed off of all of my class rosters and placed a check next to each kid that I “talked to” today.  Go ahead try it.  If you do nothing else today, print off a class list and place a check next to each kid that you talked to today.  Not just a question and answer back and forth, but a few sentences either in or outside of class.  I wonder what that data would show over time.  I bet that the kids who aren’t doing so well would be the same kids missing checks next to their names on more than one occasion.”

I think Paul hit the target on this one. Many times students need that personal connection before they trust someone enough to believe what they say. Learning involves a lot of trust. If a student doesn’t trust a teacher, I don’t believe they will be able to learn and retain that learning for future use. They don’t want me to talk AT them but they want me to talk WITH them. I try to find out something interesting about each student and each day I try to ask them about their interests or comment about something I saw or read about their interest. I like for them to explain more about things they are interested in and sometimes I learn a lot from them. The more I talk and connect with the students, the more I feel connected and invested in their success. It feels as if I try harder and so do my students.

I also think this applies to our colleagues. Too many times I hear teachers complain about their workplace. They complain about the administration and they complain about teachers they need to collaborate with. Maybe if they took time to connect with these people, it might make a difference. I try to learn about their interests and when I see them, I try to ask a question or make a comment about their interests. This takes time and energy to remember things like this. At first, I make a list (yes, I love my lists) of people and beside it I write about their interests. If I know I will meet with someone the next day, I look up their interests and may even look for a news story about their interest or think of a question that I could ask them about it. The more I do this, the less I need my list. Before long we are connecting on a more personal level which helps when we disagree on something. It also makes it more comfortable to share new ideas or make suggestions.

It would be interesting to see data on how this would make a difference in the workplace atmosphere. It would be fun to see how people would rate their workplace comparing those colleagues who connect and those who stay isolated from each other.

I think these connections are important to being successful in the classroom and in life.

Do you connect with your students? Do you connect with colleagues? If so, what are some things that you do? Please share.

Image: 'Pitaya (light green)'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94805433@N00/45406386

Is My Classroom a Safe Place?

In A Safe Place… from Tinkerings by admin, the author writes,
“… we want a place of safety to express ourselves, to reveal ourselves, and to risk ourselves. As is usually the case, my thoughts about things turn to my classroom. How many times have I denied my students a place of safety to express themselves? To tell me what is happening in their lives? To open their hearts and their minds to learning? How many times have I stolen safety from a child with a sarcastic remark? An answer to a question that wasn’t even being asked?”

I try to do this in many ways and hope that it is successful. Here are the ways I have tried but if you have any other ideas, please share in your comments. I’m always looking for new ideas.

Building trust: I share a lot of stories about myself so that the students can learn more about me. When I don’t know someone, I don’t feel comfortable expressing myself because I am afraid they will judge me or think badly about me. My students probably feel the same way so I try to take the first steps in getting to know them. I can’t expect them to tell me things about themselves if I’m not willing to share with them.

Sharing feelings: When I am feeling angry, sad, or happy, I try to let my students know this. They can see that there is an appropriate time and place to share these feelings as well as an appropriate way to share this. Many times students feel these things but do not know how to express it. By doing this, I am modeling the behavior that I want them to show.

Writing journals: I have the students write in journals every day. I do not grade them for spelling or grammar but I do count participation. This is hard for my students to feel comfortable with but once they start, they are hooked. My only rules are that I don’t accept anything about drugs, sex, or profanity. Eventually when they see that I’m not judging or condemning what they write, they begin to write more and more. Sometimes they show me that they wrote something but that they do not want me to read it and that is okay too. I write in my daily journal at the same time. Sometimes I share with the class what I wrote and open it up to anyone else who wants to share what they have written.

Class discussion: Sometimes there is a major issue going on in the school and it is like the elephant in the room and needs to be addressed or it becomes a major distraction. The rules are: we can discuss anything but there can be no profanity or calling names. Everyone gets a chance to talk at least one time (if they choose to) before someone can get a second chance and we write their names on the board to keep track. This helps to keep order in the discussion. I also have a little stuffed animal that is passed around and only the one holding it can speak. It is always impressive to see everyone sticking with the rules and participating. I do not give my opinion at this time because I don’t want some students just saying things they think I want to hear so I tell them that I’m undecided and would like to hear their views to help me decide.

These have been successful strategies that the students seem to enjoy. I can’t wait to see any new suggestions out there!

Original image: 'trust' http://www.flickr.com/photos/49512158@N00/3434414425 by: Ibrahim Iujaz