Leveraging Learning

If you work in a school or have children, you hear this sentence a lot. You've probably even heard it today. Within the past hour, even. My advisory is composed of 8th graders. We have been together since they were in 5th grade. I hear this sentence all the time. This fall, they applied to high schools. It was vulnerable work. My challenge to them:  "How can  you make your awesomesness visible on paper?" Their commentary: "This isn't fair!" Later when acceptances came out, I had a range of feelings - relief that some many of them had options, confusion over which schools wanted which kids (turns out they don't always look that awesome on paper) and determination to get this more right the next time I ushered kids through the process. Their response - "It's not fair." They were right, of course. Admissions is only sort of fair and as much as we the adults try to equalize things, we will never get it entirely right. There will always ...

In a few weeks I have to lead a session on self-care for teachers for the Philadelphia Learning Collaborative. I find this hilarious because I take pretty bad care of myself. My gums are receding, I almost never pack a healthy lunch and I don't get enough sleep. Ever. Self-care is trendy and many people mistake it for spa days or expensive vacations. Who can afford that? And who has the time? Not teachers, that's certain. I've been thinking a lot about how to make this time useful for participants. After all, they will be learning about self-care from a heretic. It's not that I don't believe in self-care. It's just that I am bad at it. If the goal of self-care is to keep one on an even keel and help a person see that matters and what does not, it seems like there are some prongs that can make this work easier. Managing our feelings, managing our work and managing our fun seem to be important factors in maintaining balance and equanimity. Managing Feeli...