character – Teach2Connect

Leadership Lessons with Ted

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Teach2Connect

If you haven’t yet checked out the comedic stylings of Jason Sudekis and company in the incredible show, Ted Lasso, please stop everything and watch! Not only has this show provided “spit milk through your nose” level laughter, but there are also some serious takeaways for leaders. While Brené Brown cataloged quite a bit in her Unlocking Us Interview, here are just a few lessons I learned from Ted.

Ted: I’m not exactly sure what y’all’s smallest unit of measurement is over here, but that’s about how much headway I made.

Change takes time and often the teeniest steps feel laborious. Being a change maker can’t always been measured in immediate results. Nuance matters.

Hey, takin’ on a challenge is a lot like ridin’ a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doin’ it, you’re probably doin’ it wrong.

Change and challenge force us to lean into situations of discomfort. While we we want to provide spaces for psychological safety, we have to model healthy risks for our teams and for our students. I had a former boss once give me counsel, “if you’ve made everyone happy, you’re doing it wrong.”

You beating yourself up is like Woody Allen playing the clarinet. I don’t want to hear it.

Being the leader can be lonely and hard. While we make concerted efforts to provide affirmation and emotional support for our teachers and students, it is not a regular part of our receiving list. I also tend to be someone who wears my heart on the outside–I consider this a positive trait, but it does mean that I might self-flagellate just a little more than the next gal. Beating ourselves up doesn’t help us move forward.

for the love of meghan markle, do not blow that whistle again…

The one gave me quite the chuckle, but…as leaders we need to know when to call uncle. If we keep blowing our whistle and not getting results, we need to look for a new path, a fresh perspective, or a new set of rules.

be curious, not judgmental…ted lasso or maybe walt whitman?!

They say this quote is attributed to Walt Whitman, but I’ll happily attach it to Ted. Regardless, this is perhaps the most profound scene in the first season of the series. I won’t give it away because I really think you should watch the show. (If you must google-it’s the darts scene.) It is so easy to be quick to judge, no matter the scenario, but I’ve found that curiosity makes fantastic inroads for understanding another person or tackling a problem. Leadership + Design uses the phrase ‘be more curious than certain’ which I steal regularly. I am not the expert, but I will always be in pursuit of learning.

Ted Lasso has a persistent optimism that is both realistic and visionary. If our circumstances in the last eight months have taught us nothing (ha!), they have certainly taught us that optimism that is balanced with practicality and curiosity is going to get us through these turbulent times. Oh, and shortbread doesn’t hurt either.

Ted Lasso' Renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+ — Jason Sudeikis Comedy | TVLine — Ted has your back.

show them how.

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Teach2Connect

*PS-this was started on Palm Sunday, but life gets in the way….*

Today is Palm Sunday. Across the globe, folks walk the way to Jesus in his triumphal entry to Jerusalem before entering into Holy Week and arriving on Sunday at Easter. In my tradition, The Episcopal Church, we begin with the blessing of palms and then enter our sanctuaries with joyful hymns. My favorite piece of this service is one of my family traditions, and one I bet is shared by many across the blog who are handed a long frond of palm; we make palm crosses. Not officially as part of the liturgy, but something we do with our idle hands as we hear the stories and celebrate this beginning of the holiest week of the church year.

I take great joy in shaping these palms into crosses which I share with friends or keep in the sun until they are dried for the year ahead. Part of the reason I love it so much is that I learned this skill from my mom. Who I assume learned from someone in her church at some point, somewhere. I didn’t learn through a workshop. I didn’t learn through a video or textbook or lecture. I learned by watching my mom, right next to me in the pew, year after year. She might gently guide my hand from time to time, but I learned by watching and mimicking. Now, I sit quietly each Palm Sunday and build three or four pieces of art while I hear the sermon and reflect after communion. Perhaps someone watches me and learns?

This is a metaphor for our learning environments for me. How are we modeling learning, not only with our words and materials but our actions? How are we considering the role of apprenticeship and guest experts within our context of learning? In an age of self-directed learning and tinkering, which I wholeheartedly appreciate and support, how might we not forget the valuable role of modeling?

And not only for contexts of academic work but also learning to be whole-hearted humans. “The students are watching” so say Theodore and Nancy Sizer and remind us of the moral imperative as educators to support the integration of modeling character throughout our educational settings. Character education in a silo is yet just another drill and practice act but rather the appropriate modeling of our expectations for treating one another and ourselves is critical.

The careful and meticulous handling as a long, thin palm is crafted into a short, slightly sideways cross in the silence around others remains a symbol not only of the religious event for Christians but also as a symbol of the need for careful and meticulous shaping of our children. May we model it well.

Breaking into the Heart of Character (book review)

Posted on July 2, 2013August 29, 2013 by Teach2Connect

Our Norwood Summer Reading selection for this year is Breaking into the Heart of Character by David Streight, Executive Director of the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education. The first sentence of our school mission statement declares: Norwood School’s mission is to ensure that each of its students grows intellectually, morally, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually, while preparing to function productively and generously in our pluralistic society. Naturally, a book on the heart of character through moral development is a perfect complement to our initiatives in Character and Spiritual Development. (This is also one of the committees that I serve on with great pride.)

It is a short book, chock full of ideas and research surrounding the concept of Self-Determination Theory as defined by the work of Dr. Edward Deci. The three main principles of this theory revolve around the concepts of Autonomy, Relationships, and Competence. When our human needs are met in these three areas, we can build healthy moral development. The book stresses the need to build intrinsic motivation for our daily life and work, specifically, our work with students. It offers practical suggestions for working with our students to develop their sense of these three pillars and offers research in each individual area.

I found this book to be filled with “yes!” and “uh-huh” moments. It aligns perfectly with my educational philosophy of helping students develop themselves rather than dictating every moment of their lives and learning. He quotes from the Character Education Partnership 11 Principles of Character Education, “When teachers promote moral and performances values such as academic integrity, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and diligence, students are better able to do their best work and gain greater autonomy, competence, and self-confidence.” (p. 20) This is it, in a nutshell, the entire book!!

The concept that we can be our best selves (and our children can be their best selves) when our needs of autonomy, relationships, and competence are met seems like a no-brainer, but it takes intentional practice in the day-to-day of schooling to remember these elements. We must be intentional practitioners of character development. Striving to know our students, to understand the motivation behind their behaviors and choices-this helps build relationships. We must provide opportunities for our students to have true elements of choice in their learning-and may I selfishly add innovative choice-so that they develop a sense of ownership or autonomy. We must provide effective feedback that focuses on the strengths of our students and allows them to see areas for growth in a way that is constructive and developmental so they will build their internal sense of competence. This is a lot to ask of a teacher juggling 16+ children and many subject areas and differentiation. But, it is our task. It is our task to be responsible for the whole child and this means the moral development of children is paramount to academic learning. They are intertwined as a mass of roots and branches-character as the roots and academics as the branches.

Each chapter of this book offers keen reminders and suggestions for implementing strong character development. I won’t go into them in detail because Mr. Streight’s work should be required reading for administrators, educators, and parents looking to develop their children to be independent, morally sound, and competent individuals. I will however, quote his last paragraph-as I think it is the “Charge” statement for all of us:

“Schools whose missions point to academic excellence, character, self-regulation, motivation, or well-being may even see a moral duty of their own to implement relevant practices. These practices are not a curricular add-on; they are not one more thing on a teacher’s “plate.” They do not even call for an extra assembly, and they especially do not call for the purchase and distribution of stickers or stars. Rather, they are all easily implemented, necessary, and available for use by every professional educator, in every class, every day.”(p.96)

And with that, I say, Amen!!

Further Resources based on Breaking into the Heart of Character.