Wow, does this post resonate! I'm still in the process of unwinding myself from the structures of formal education and how my identity connected and disconnected form those structures during my 36-year teaching career as a Communication professor. Now that I'm retired, I'm grateful for the work I did and the impact it had on my students and myself as well as the benefits I derived from those structures such as my pension. Yet, in reading this particular post, it helped me understand why I struggled with certain aspects of the educational system and why I believe many aspects inhibited learning such as measuring success by how well students achieve pre-determined learning objectives (I get it. . . we want intentionality in teaching, yet I find objectives so limiting). Similar to you, I find our cultural emphasis on "productivity," "hustling," and the "gig economy" (more like "stuck in serfdom") to be bullshit. So, if I answer your question, "What mindsets from past structures still shape how you work today? Are they helping - - or holding you back?" I would probably answer "both/and" as I see "helping/holding you back" on a continuum, a dialectical tension. Sometimes those structures hold me back, sometimes they help me.
I'm currently completing a yoga teacher training program and working with two other yoga instructors to develop a series of workshops on yoga for educators. I believe practicing (and studying yoga) could benefit teachers in establishing presence and enable them to offer some activities to support students in developing presence as well. I see how the structures I employed in my classroom can help in building these workshops. I can also see how they can hold me back from unleashing my creativity.
I am also currently a certified Fearless Living Life Coach with a few clients, and employng my creativity has enabled me to help an autistic young man better understand his "quest" for a college degree and moving into adulthood using Dungeons and Dragons and allowing him to teach me about all about elements of the game as I've never played. Most surprisingly, using this framework, he's been able to talk about his family's dynamics and his role in a deep way that I don't believe he would have been able to do had I not used the framework of the game. I'm not sure I would have taken this approach had I not listened to students' speeches on the value of gaming for teaching problem-solving.
I'm also in the process of developing a short course (6-7 weeks) I'm calling Pace for Space to help participants re-envision work-life balance in terms of the pace at which one is moving (slow-moderate-fast) and how to make choices to support a sustainable pace. I developed this idea while keeping my "learning journal" that I learned about from you!
Awesome to hear about the projects you have on the go. Sounds like a lot of fun, creativity, and full buckets of possibilities.
The "Pace for Space" sounds like a really cool initiative. Have you seen some of my posts/issues on this idea of 'work-life balance'? In short, I call it BS, too.
It's all just Life. :)
Are you posting (social media, newsletter, etc.) about things you're exploring, thinking about, learning, and so on?
Wow, does this post resonate! I'm still in the process of unwinding myself from the structures of formal education and how my identity connected and disconnected form those structures during my 36-year teaching career as a Communication professor. Now that I'm retired, I'm grateful for the work I did and the impact it had on my students and myself as well as the benefits I derived from those structures such as my pension. Yet, in reading this particular post, it helped me understand why I struggled with certain aspects of the educational system and why I believe many aspects inhibited learning such as measuring success by how well students achieve pre-determined learning objectives (I get it. . . we want intentionality in teaching, yet I find objectives so limiting). Similar to you, I find our cultural emphasis on "productivity," "hustling," and the "gig economy" (more like "stuck in serfdom") to be bullshit. So, if I answer your question, "What mindsets from past structures still shape how you work today? Are they helping - - or holding you back?" I would probably answer "both/and" as I see "helping/holding you back" on a continuum, a dialectical tension. Sometimes those structures hold me back, sometimes they help me.
I'm currently completing a yoga teacher training program and working with two other yoga instructors to develop a series of workshops on yoga for educators. I believe practicing (and studying yoga) could benefit teachers in establishing presence and enable them to offer some activities to support students in developing presence as well. I see how the structures I employed in my classroom can help in building these workshops. I can also see how they can hold me back from unleashing my creativity.
I am also currently a certified Fearless Living Life Coach with a few clients, and employng my creativity has enabled me to help an autistic young man better understand his "quest" for a college degree and moving into adulthood using Dungeons and Dragons and allowing him to teach me about all about elements of the game as I've never played. Most surprisingly, using this framework, he's been able to talk about his family's dynamics and his role in a deep way that I don't believe he would have been able to do had I not used the framework of the game. I'm not sure I would have taken this approach had I not listened to students' speeches on the value of gaming for teaching problem-solving.
I'm also in the process of developing a short course (6-7 weeks) I'm calling Pace for Space to help participants re-envision work-life balance in terms of the pace at which one is moving (slow-moderate-fast) and how to make choices to support a sustainable pace. I developed this idea while keeping my "learning journal" that I learned about from you!
Thanks for all your inspiration!!
Thank you Lauren!
I really appreciate your thought-full comment.
Awesome to hear about the projects you have on the go. Sounds like a lot of fun, creativity, and full buckets of possibilities.
The "Pace for Space" sounds like a really cool initiative. Have you seen some of my posts/issues on this idea of 'work-life balance'? In short, I call it BS, too.
It's all just Life. :)
Are you posting (social media, newsletter, etc.) about things you're exploring, thinking about, learning, and so on?