Found this posting over at the Leading Blog, a gem written by Michael McKinney (spend some time there one weekend morning with your coffee, he will get you to think about several teaching / leading connections): He begins:

Education Makes a Difference in How We Treat Each Other

Much of what we do everyday involves some kind of teaching—conveying information to others. We can be enlightened by the discussions from the educational arena on what it means to teach and how people learn. Teaching done right is really a labor of love. It’s having a mind oriented toward the future; seeing a bigger picture beyond what is actually being taught in the present.

Do click over and read the rest. Another quick quote:

“… the faculty at the Laboratory Schools are carefully chosen not just for their expertise but “because of their character and because they believe that education can make a difference in how human beings treat each other.”

Are you sure you always see them?

They are not always this obvious.

Frustration by - reuben - on Flickr

I happened upon two posts by way of Jason Haley, which I felt compelled to share with you, for they are so rich in lessons about the learning experience, and when it can frustrate the best of us – even when we teach too.

The posts collectively tell the story a middle school computer science teacher relates of a week-long workshop she took. As her friend, Alfred Thompson explains,

“Some of it went well and some of it, well, not so well. … These two posts are chock full of useful observations and insights on what it is like to be a student and why even good students can struggle. Ten object lessons and a couple of thought questions make this a case study I think many people can learn from.”

I agree. You must read these

1. Lost in syntax part 1 (or: OMG I’m going to cry in front of all these people)
2. Lost in syntax part 2 (or: OMG I’m going to cry in front of all these people)

Normally I would be very tempted to capture by reprint the “Object Lessons” she shares – as Alfred says there are ten of them – but I resist, for I think it important that you click over there, and read her story in the full context she shares. You will also enjoy the narrative with which she writes.

There is so much to learn there: So much.

Perhaps you can come back and share which lesson makes the biggest impression upon you, and how learning the values of Aloha in teaching can help?

If similar learning roadblocks crop up in your classes, do you notice them? How do you handle them when you do?

I love this observation from Alfred as well:

“Letting students help each other can be a great thing for everyone involved. Honestly it is one of the reasons my classes tended to be a little louder than many others in the building.”

When is it that the best thing you can do, is allow your students to teach each other? Is the learning culture within your classroom setting – whether a school, or some other learning place – conducive to students co-teaching with you?

Workplace Aloha Coach and Author Rosa Say

John Maxwell wrote a wonderful book that we all need to read entitled Failing Forward.

Failing Forward tells you how to look at life’s setbacks and learn from your mistakes. The basic steps to moving on and failing forward are:

• Realize there is one major difference between average people and achievers. The difference is in how they respond to failure.
• Learn a new definition of failure.
• Remove the “you” from failure. Don’t take it personally.
• Take action and reduce your fear.
• Change your response to failure by accepting responsibility.
• Don’t let failure from outside get inside you.
• Say good-bye to yesterday.
• Change yourself, and your world changes.
• Get over yourself and start giving yourself.
• Find the benefit in every bad experience.
• If at first you do succeed, try something harder.
• Learn from a bad experience and make it a good experience.

Do you see any of these that could be applied to teaching? During these weeks between last year and the one to come, take sufficient time to reflect on past failures.

1. Don’t excuse them, but don’t embellish them either.
2. Refine your list to those things for which you were solely responsible.
3. Consider what you should have done.
4. Determine what you will do in the future when the situation happens again.

These simple four steps can help turn the failures of the past into successes in the future. And, when that happens, you fail forward!