I love it when you go to a PD and when you leave you think, "man, I was seriously meant to be at that PD. It is like a sign or something!"
Well that happened this week. After listening to a Hugh Van Cuylenburg from the Resilience Project present his keynote speech at the ACHPER conference this week, I am seriously inspired. Everything he said struck a chord with me. I never worked in a school in India like Huhg. But I've been there. And I'll never forget the moment walking through the poverty stricken streets of Delhi how much I wanted to go home. Not to mention how lucky I realised I had it in Australia. How some weeks, my biggest worry was how many kicks I had on a saturday during a local footy game. Water, food, shelter... not to mention the privileged position I was in as a teacher... I I just took so much for granted. He's 100% correct in how easily everyone notices the negatives in their life. I see it every day at work. People talking about things (complaining or worrying) about stuff that doesn't really matters. I am also a culprit in doing this. But I think I've gotten better at recognising when I'm doing it. In fact, a part of my own ACHPER session discussed my belief that teachers are the worst in applying negative perceptions to the connotations of what it means to be a teacher. For example, how many times have you heard. "I'm exhausted." "I'm so undervalued." "I'm so underpaid." "I work so many long hours." "I was up all night and hardly got anything done." "I never have time for anything" "We used to do that but now I don't because I'm too busy." Does this sound familiar? Even more crazy, was his thoughts on being grateful & how to be grateful. How empathy for others and when you be nice to someone actually releases oxytocin in your brain (which is scientifically proven to make you feel good). This made me think of something my colleage instigated out our school called "Take the time" where people could write a nice message to someone on staff and leave it in their pigeon hole. I thought it was a great idea! However, i remember hearing comments of people asking 'so what happens if you don't get one yourself?' Totally missing the point! Anyway, I am inspired to take parts of this back to my school & even my footy club. Some of these techniques and strategies can be applied instantly to make people see how many positives are in their lives daily. Not to mention how lucky we are. I loved the story of the little Indian boy that couldn't speak English, but always pointed at something and said "Dis" as in how good is this. I reckon I'll keep saying it for months now! Things I am grateful for today. 1. My job. 2. My little boy. 3. The coffee next to me. http://theresilienceproject.com.au/
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AboutThis blog has been created to share my thoughts on Teaching. It uses my experiences, thoughts and ideas about a whole range of things related to education. Archives
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