Professional Growth – Page 2

Inspiring Our Work Through a Sense of Professional Curiosity

On September 8, 2016 #G2Great hosted a chat, Inspiring Our Work Through a Sense of Professional Curiosity. This year I embarked on a new path in my professional journey. After the end of my first week of a new position in a new school, this was just the right dose of reflection I needed. The topic of curiosity is so important to me as I begin this journey.

The dictionary says, curiosity is a strong desire to know or learn something while the thesaurus calls it ‘a spirit of inquiry’. I was in the classroom for so long and loved every moment with my students but I knew something was nagging at me – that something more was out there for me to explore. So as I joined in on the #G2Great chat Thursday night I reflected about what curiosity meant to me.

On my 10 year anniversary my husband and I went snowmobiling through Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. Temperatures plummeted to 40 and 50 degrees below zero but we still spent up to 10 hours seeing everything we could before the sun set. We didn’t let dangerously cold temperatures stop us. We were inspired by the beauty and the unknown. We were curious.

Just as I am inspired in my personal life, I am equally inspired in my professional life. Leaving my 5th grade classroom was hard, like being exposed to the plummeting temperatures. My desire to know more and be more is like the inspiring views of the boundless beauty on my snowmobile ride. My curiosity protects me from the fear of change. That “spirit of inquiry” ignites a “spirit of curiosity” for my professional journey.

As I continue to think about what curiosity means to me, I looked back on our first question. I was inspired by #G2Great tweets that led me to five key ideas that will support my thinking this year.

Professional curiosity really begins with the individual

As Lauren points out, curiosity ignites something wondrous in us. We feel alive, happy, and motivated as we explore and discover. It must be my curiosity that drives me to want to be the best because it is not competition that fuels my fire. I am not trying to be better than anyone. I don’t even know where I am going to wind up but my role as a reading teacher affords me an opportunity to move in that direction as I explore the possibilities ahead.

Professional curiosity inspires our commitment to keep learning

My decision to leave the classroom has been years in the making. My passion for all things literacy landed me as a reading teacher, a coach. So when I saw the question, What does professional curiosity mean to you? I knew this was important. My curiosity was fueled by my passion that brought me down this path, but now I want to be sure I stay curious as I sift through the initiatives, mandates, and difficult days. Chris Quinn’s tweet reminds me that professional curiosity is what links me to a growth mindset and my commitment to keep learning. This year I will commit to embracing a growth mindset as I navigate my new role to collaborate with teachers and grow side-by-side with them.

Professional curiosity flames a sense of wonder in all we do

The first day of school usually meant welcoming wide-eyed 5th graders into OUR room. I had my routines, my classroom management and best practices down to a science. This year as the doors in my new school opened, I was fortunate to stand by and watch through my admiring lens as teachers welcomed THEIR new students. My curiosity piqued as I learned how amazing and unique teachers are. I learned so much in my first week about how change can be the flame that keeps my curiosity burning.

Professional curiosity inspires us to do our best work for students

Spanish, Arabic, and Polish are some of the languages spoken by the students in my new school. I have absolutely no experience with this. How can I possibly be in my profession for this long and not know how to help students? This is a very vulnerable position to be in as a teacher. I am a person who likes to have control over my teaching. I took the hand of a lovely 4th grader who speaks only Arabic. I speak only English. We walked down the small corridors and stopped at things I thought would be important for her to know. Girls bathroom, the office, the BOYS bathroom, and the fire extinguisher. Together we practiced saying the words that matched the places we visited. On this day, my curiosity inspired me to take a baby step for this one child within this one moment.

Professional curiosity inspires collective commitment to our students

During the chat I realized that I was feeding my professional curiosity right on the spot. Fran reminded me that professional curiosity is about wanting to know more for the sake of our entire community of learners while Kari reminded me how this drives us towards figuring out what we can do to have the biggest impact. Suddenly, it hit me! My curiosity isn’t just a gift for self-fulfillment It’s a gift to be shared with others so that we can collaborate in a shared commitment to our students. I know that my impact this year will always lead back to children.

As I reflect back on the words of wisdom and inspiration from our #G2Great community, I am inspired by the impact of these dedicated educators on my own thinking. I am EVEN MORE COMMITTED to “the spirit of inquiry” and the question that will continue to enrich my professional curiosity:

What will you do this year to enrich your professional curiosity?

Read more about Donna’s thinking at 4 O’Clock Faculty

Influence in Education: Leaving a Lasting Imprint

by Mary Howard

On 5/26/16, #G2Great guest host Kimberly Davis spread her light on Influence in Education: Leaving a Lasting Imprint. Kimberly first left her imprint of influence on 7/16/15 when she inspired our BRAVE based on her amazing TEDx Talk, What it means to be Brave. Kimberly brings wisdom, commitment and joy to her work as illustrated in a powerful episode with Alise Cortez, Bringing our True and Best Selves to Work. In fact, I am fortunate to have been touched by her influential friendship over the past year.

When I asked Kimberly about her #G2Great chat vision, she quickly expressed her desire to “stimulate teachers’ ability to influence through professional learning and self-discovery.” We can leave a lasting imprint of influence as we inspire or are inspired by others in positive ways. Certainly her goal was in part met by virtue of educators participating in our twitter chat. But how do we accomplish this even when we are surrounded by negativity? As we explored this question, our #G2Great family left a collective trail of influential imprints.

Kimberly’s message of hope in education comes at a time when her voice is desperately needed. As I perused tweets of influential possibility, I uncovered five points that we can all embrace as we strive to leave our own lasting imprints of influence:

Influence is anchored in our purpose

Our purpose is grounded in the innermost beliefs that lead us to do great work each day in our own arena. These beliefs inform and inspire our purpose so that all we do contributes to those beliefs. Without purpose, our path will be littered with the ‘stuff’ that can blind us to influence imprints worth leaving. Our purpose as educators is centered squarely on the recipients of our efforts – students. We seek to understand so we can make decisions that will lift their learning lives, decisions that are inseparably intertwined with our beliefs. Our beliefs are always in our sights so believability (What IF) is transformed into BELIEF-ability (What IS), as our actions reflect that we can be trusted to make decisions based on the beliefs we purport to hold dear.

Influence rises from learner “WANTS”

But purpose grounded in our beliefs is only the beginning. In order for us to truly have positive impact, we must be willing to acknowledge and respond to the WANTS of others. Our students’ wants begin with their desire to learn combined with unique needs they bring to the learning table (which varies from child to child). These wants amplify our determination to celebrate each child and honor their learning desires and needs. To do this, we set aside our professional agenda to make them our priority. We accomplish this goal by establishing relationships that help us to truly know students so that we can we tap into their WANTS at even greater levels. We believe every child desires and can achieve success and do all we can to help them become their best self in every possible way. We leave imprints of influence by assuming responsibility to meet their specific needs, refusing to be dissuaded by distractions that impede our efforts.

Influence extends beyond our four walls

Each child who walks into our classrooms brings more than their learning self to school – they also bring their lives outside our doors where they spend the bulk of their day. Understanding this life beyond the school day can help us create a bridge between home and school, a bridge that can strengthen our efforts from both perspectives. We are given a precious gift of time with students, but lasting imprints of influence come from creating this home-school connection. Building an instructional bridge of influence that follows them once they leave our care allows us to ‘step into shoes’ of parents and join forces with them to enrich and extend our efforts even if children are not with us. Understanding and respecting the “wants” of others is a courtesy we offer not only children but parents. Respect is earned and we earn respect when we afford are willing to afford others the same level of respect we desire. Respect is a two-way venture.

Influence is nurtured in the company of others

We have all experienced a sense of professional loneliness even when surrounded by others. We can still leave lasting imprints in a lonely environment or when our words fall on deaf ears, but this is a challenging journey that can derail our efforts and rob us of the joys that enrich the experience. Yet if we are willing to take active steps to find our professional joy tribe of others who believe in our journey, we enter a celebratory exploration of enthusiastic dialogue. These collaborations can transform our teaching in ways that merge our efforts and leave collective imprints of influence as we walk alongside positive, uplifting others. More often than not, we find that our influence is multiplied and even changed by this collective experience along the way. Thoughtfully reflective joint ventures can be a powerful meeting of influential minds.

Influence begins from within

Kimberly’s tweet is a reminder that each of us hold the power of influence in our hands. Force and coercion seem to be commonplace in schools of today, but we cannot allow this to sap our energy and blind us to our influence potential. In spite of the popular but ever so flawed notion that we can force influence upon others through compliance, influence will occur only when we assume personal and professional responsibility awakened by our commitment and dedication to our profession. Influence is not an act of being, but a lifelong process of becoming. The good news is that no one can rob us of our influence potential unless we allow them to do so. We all hold in our hands the potential to influence others and leave a lasting imprint. Teachers have always had the ability to positively impact others, even when it may not feel that way.

As I ponder Kimberly’s points, I am in awe of the immense potential that each of us have to be influential. You don’t have to write a book, stand on a stage, or have power to be influential (in fact some do those things without being influential). Your book is the book you write as you gaze into the faces of hopeful learners. Your stage is the stage you stand on each day to elevate the learning lives of students. Your power is the quiet impact you have on your own practices when you seek to understand and enrich your work day after day. Each of us leave imprints of influence every day – even when we are not yet privy to that influence at the time.

Never underestimate your influence on others and those they in turn influence, knowing that we can’t be influenced unless we are willing to be influential. This is a ‘heart decision’ we make out of deep commitment and dedication to our work and our responsibility to do that work in the most effective ways.

Yes Kimberly, tomorrow is ours to win or lose and with the student stakes so high, winning is the only option. Thank you for leaving an imprint of influence on each of us and for inspiring us to bravely forge ahead as we strive to leave our own lasting imprints of influence on others so…

I hereby make a Heart Decision to Win Tomorrow by approaching my work through a lens of joy and wonder where the magnificent realm of possibilities will forever remain in my sights. I choose to spread a light as candle and mirror. I choose to leave a lasting imprint of influence on others and embrace the imprints they leave as I continue on my learning journey. I choose…

Will you join me friends?

Below are just a few of the many inspirational tweets from our dedicated #G2Great friends

Thriving as Professionals with Meenoo Rami

Guest Blog Post by Susie Rolander @suzrolander

On April 7, 2016 #G2Great, we were lucky to have Meenoo Rami, author of Thrive, as a guest host on our Thursday night chat. Just as her book helps us to thrive in the professional work that we do, Meenoo’s message on the chat was that when we make our own learning a priority, our students in turn benefit greatly.

Meenoo’s message supports Carol Dweck’s idea of growth mindset. Since the publication in 2006 of her book, Mindset, Dweck continues to remind us that we are actually on a continuum between fixed mindset and growth mindset. My friend @JDolci, an amazing educator, lifelong learner and questioner, illustrated this continuum when he was faced with putting together a complicated easel this week. He reverted into the “I am so terrible at putting things together” mindset but luckily used the growth mindset to assemble it (with the encouragement of our Voxer network). As we work to strengthen our professional growth mindset, Meenoo’s message helps to guide us. Her words give us a roadmap for our own learning journey.

Meenoo’s tweet reflects a responsibility that we all have to reach out to others in the teaching community in order to help them grow. Thrive gives us a template to offer to teachers in our community. This message of mentorship is more important than it has ever been before because many teachers feel isolated. Meenoo encourages us to step outside the boundaries of our school environment to connect with a greater teaching community.

A dear friend has been teaching for over 20 years. She goes to the end of the earth for her students but she hadn’t read a professional book in years and had no current mentor to look up to. By her own admission, she was stuck, isolated and bored. Her years of experience and successes in the classroom make her such an invaluable asset to her school community, but she lacks the spark, the drive and the community to help her grow. She was eager to learn but the PD her district offered never seemed to meet her personal learning needs. I shared with her that Twitter has provided me a platform where I can grow in the company of others. She was ready to break down those barriers.

Meenoo suggests here that as mentors ourselves we don’t want to change others, only spark their own personal growth. She also clearly advocates that we all hold the roles of both mentor and mentee and she encourages us to help others learn and learn from others. Meenoo emphasizes the importance of being in a community of learners in order to thrive, but we each have to find our own path to accomplish this. Professional inspiration can come from many sources, including our students.

Herein lies the great impact of Meenoo Rami’s book, Thrive. She gives us, the teaching community, a guide to help us all continue to grow and learn as teachers, no matter how long we’ve been in the field. She lays down the groundwork to be able to cultivate a growth mindset around our very important work. As guest host on this week’s #G2Great chat, Meeno shared her amazing wisdom with a group of eager learners. Her clarity in the importance of growing as educators beyond our comfort zone resulted in changes that could be felt in the course of the chat.

During last night’s chat and in Meenoo’s book, Thrive, she reminded us of the importance of cultivating professional growth and curiosity which, in the end, greatly impacts our students.

(RE) Invigorate your teaching with Meenoo’s newsletter and remarkable book, Thrive.

Susie Rolander & Dani Burtfield will be leading a book study on Thrive with Meenoo every Tuesday during June. Stay tuned for time or contact Susie or Dani. #EdThrive

Literacy Lenses

Category: Professional Growth