Part 1: Stories of Resilience

I watched three strategies of resilient people by Lucy Hone. She presented 3 strategies to help people become resilient in the face of adversity. Strategy 1- suffering is part of every human existence. This first strategy is important so people who are suffering realize they are not being targeted or discriminated against. Suffering happens to each and every one of us. Strategy 2- Change what can be changed; accept what cannot. Focus on what can bring you closer to healing instead of increasing your pain. Strategy 3- Think about your actions. Are they harming you or helping you. Evaluate your actions and behaviors and really ask yourself if you are causing more harm to your self or are you helping yourself move away from suffering.  

I really loved listening to Sir Ken Robinson's take on education.  He talks about how everyone has a talent that is hidden inside. It is not surface level, but rather it takes some digging. When thinking about this from the education aspect, Robinson says that finding your passion changes everything.  I think that this is a part of education that we often neglect.  However, if we work to really understand individual students' talents (or help them discover the talent) and help them grow these through more differentiated learning experiences, we will help our children flourish and be more successful.

Brené Brown is an absolute genius. This video really demonstrates a lot of things and yes of course it made me reflect on my own compassion and what I allow myself to feel and what I don't but it also holds a mirror to what is often deemed in the education world "soft skills." And those soft skills can be defined by what Ms. Brown was discussing, the idea of empathy, compassion, and courage. We often to do not develop these skills in our young people because they are the "soft" skills the skills that come secondary to academic skills. I would argue that in order to truly learn in authentic ways we need to first have the courage to do so. And in that there needs to be work surrounding students and their identity. All identity work requires vulnerability and even if its internal vulnerability it is still asking us to be in a state of weakness which is often uncomfortable but wholeheartedly necessary. Ms. Brown goes on to discuss joy and that in the work of achieving joy, love, and belonging we need to be courageous enough to do that And courage is defined by vulnerability. These are not soft skills, they are the necessary skills. 

The video shows that many times in life children and adults face many challenges in life.  But we must realize that when teaching we must show our students/children that we must form relationships with them.  By forming positive relationships that children need, they will have a support system to go to when in trouble or needing to be helped.  By creating positive relationships with our children we can help them understand to look to us for resilience and help.

This video illustrated that while there are issues that children face that they should not have to  - neglect, drug abuse, mental illness, poverty, and abuse; they need to a have a relationship with adults that feel they are invested in them. It is through these relationships that they we need to look at to not only help the children but also the adults that care for them. This can be through training, practicing examples, coaching, and making policies to help get rid of some of the toxic stress that people have to deal with. 

This video made it clear the importance of taking care of ourselves and developing a positive work/life balance in order to be able to move mountains in the classroom. It was refreshing to hear a story of resilience from an educator that was struggling in this area and ready to become a part of the 1/3 of teachers that quit within 5 years of teaching. I think that this message is important for educators to adopt but it also needs to be a culture within the school. Often, I feel like expectations of doing more and more are given to us and it doesn't leave room for a healthy work/life balance. I think it is important for administrators to model and encourage the expectation of taking care of ourselves so we can be the best educator in the classroom.