Category: creating community

Linda Markley

Love

calling to make a difference, Can do's, creating community, Essential questions, i am enough, Intention, Maslow before Blooms, Purpose, Resources, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

This is a really, REALLY tough time of year for teachers and students. 

They come back from Spring Break only to face testing and admin in overdrive and red-lining their list of demands to “wrap things up” for this school year. *note – the definition of redlining is: “drive with (a car engine) at or above its rated maximum rpm or revolutions per minute”

Yep…sounds about right! Teachers and students are being driven to their maximum limits.

As a result, anxiety, anger, frustration, shaming, blaming, screaming and all other kinds of negative and “ugly” human behaviors are raging through schools.

And in a pandemic… well, that is just adding gas on an already out of control, raging fire!

So, what can teachers, students, parents, admin and everyone do right now? 

Remember that love conquers all…love makes the world go round (revolutions)…all you need is love…

and the epitome of all quotes on love…

Love is love is love is love is love….  such simple, yet powerful words spoken by Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Tony Awards in 2016 following the Pulse Night Club shootings in Orlando, FL.

You can watch the speech here, but I’ll warn you…have a box of tissue handy!

This gets me every.single.time because it touches a place deep in my teacher heart about loving ALL children just they way they are, as Mister Rogers taught us.

Love them ALL…no matter what!  There are days when it is so hard to do this in the classroom because of too many demands made on us as teachers. 

Too much stress due to too many demands.

Too many emotions to process and deal with because of too many demands.

Too much testing and judging and shaming and blaming and… you get the picture.

Everything is too much, and yet not enough. It echoes through the halls and permeates the walls of every classroom, that is, if we will allow it to do so!!!

There are preventive measures, however, which are at the heart and spirit of teaching. I will be exploring some of these preventive measures and powerful antidotes in my upcoming blog posts. I actually started with the last post on kindness.  You can check it out here.

What does LOVE look like in the classroom?

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Linda Markley

Kindness

calling to make a difference, Can do's, creating community, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

This poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sums it up:

 “Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.
Take care of your garden, and keep out the weeds.
Fill it with sunshine, kind words and kind deeds.”

The etymology and meaning of kind is ”class, sort, variety,” from Old English gecynd “kind, nature, race,” related to cynn “family” (kin)

Kind, kindred, kindergarten, kin…all related.

This is how school should be. This is how the world should be.

It should be our nature, part of our race, part of our family, part of the class.

I long to see more kindness toward each other. All of the stress in the classroom is causing there to be more unkind thoughts, words and deeds.

But I don’t believe that there are unkind hearts…in children or in their teachers.

I just think the pressure and the stress are causing all of us to think, say and do things that are not coming from the heart, but rather, from the mind. A mind that is flooded with cortisol and anxiety and fear and anger and made-up stories and perceptions that are being created from the negative input from social media, television, news, music, violent video games, unreasonable and unreal expectations, etc. 

What should kindness look like in the classroom? 

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Linda Markley

SPIRIT Journey: Reality

calling to make a difference, Can do's, communication, creating community, Essential questions, making connections, Maslow before Blooms, Purpose, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Strategies, Wholehearted teaching

“Reality” means “the quality of being real.” It is also defined as “sincerity”.

REAL  has its roots in Latin, from “res” meaning “thing”.  Then, in the early 14c., “actually existing, true;” mid-15c., “relating to things”.   

“Real” meaning “genuine” is recorded from the 1550s, and today, we use it to mean “authentic”, like when we say “are you for real?” 

We also use “real” to emphasize the significance of something, like when we say something is a real problem or a real pain in the…well, you get the picture! 

Perhaps, in summary, I could say that 
to be REAL means to be AUTHENTIC, TRUE and SIGNIFICANT.

I spent my entire teaching career trying to make learning for students real and meaningful, full of purpose and connections to the real world and relating everything to their personal worlds and how that fit into the bigger picture of humanity. 

Years of research and personal experience taught me that if students don’t see a “REAL reason to learn this stuff”, then, they will not own it. It just becomes part of a virtual reality. I think that is what is going on right now with online learning. It doesn’t feel or seem like “real school”, but even more so, what they are being asked to “learn” is rote, prescribed, computer-generated, impersonal and disconnected…not real.  

The same is true for teachers. Teaching has become so prescribed and scripted that most teachers don’t REALly understand what they are supposed to be teaching or what the students are REALly supposed to be learning. 

What is important, significant and meaningful for students to learn in school? 
What is for real, and what is just for a test? 
What are we teaching them about being kind and loving human beings? 
Where are the connections and the community?

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Linda Markley

SPIRIT Journey: Integration

calling to make a difference, Can do's, communication, creating community, Essential questions, making connections, Maslow before Blooms, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Strategies, teacher vulnerability, Wholehearted teaching

“Integration”, means “the act of bringing together the parts of a whole,” from Late Latin integrationem  “renewal, restoration,” and from past participle stem of Latin integrare “make whole, renew, begin again”.

There is a lot of talk in education about integration, 
but in many different, and sometimes confusing, ways.

Integration (with inclusion) means that exceptional students are being partially taught in the mainstream classroom and that activities are adapted so that these students can “fit in” with their mainstream peers…to make part of the whole.

Then, there is an integrated curriculum, which allows children to pursue learning in a holistic (whole) way and brings out the interconnectedness of all curricular areas.

Integrated skills focuses on the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking through a holistic communicative language teaching approach bringing all these skills together and not used in isolation.

There’s also integrated lessons, integrated technology, integrated classroom, integrated schools, integrated teaching, integrated learning, integrated data, integrated systems, integrated “you name it”.

There are so many buzz words in education that incorporate the word "integrated".  
So, why is that? 
And is the word "integration" related to the word "integrity"?

The concept of making connections and bringing those parts together to make a whole lot of sense out of things when learning so that we can move up Bloom’s Taxonomy and apply them to our lives and the real world is the key to lifelong learning and becoming a whole, well-rounded, self-actualized (Maslow’s Hierarchy) human being.

But are we truly applying the concept of integration faithfully and truly in education? 
Are we maintaining our integrity in the use and application of the word?

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Linda Markley

SPIRIT Journey: PURPOSE

Can do's, creating community, Essential questions, making connections, Purpose, Resources, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

The use of the word “purpose” has come to be used and explored in bigger philosophical terms such as “What is my purpose in life? Who am I?, and why am I here?”  These are big life questions. 

We tend to think of purpose in terms of an “end” goal 
or the reason why we do something.
 Reflecting on purpose can give us direction and meaning 
in our lives to attain those goals.

According to the dictionary, the definition of purpose is “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”.

The origin of the word purpose is “intention, aim, goal,” from Anglo-French purpos, from porposer “to put forth,” from por– “forth” (from Latin) + Old French poser “to put, place”. (etymonline.com)

Research has shown that, when asked “what is your goal in life?”, most people answer “to be happy”. When asked, “what does that look like?”, they might give a list of material things acquired, accomplishments, titles, superlatives, accolades, etc. to be checked off.

Too often we get lost in a checklist of things to do and get caught up in a whirlwind of striving for one goal after another. We focus more on purpose as defined by goals. We begin to believe that our purpose in life is equivalent to our accomplishments, things we accumulate, titles we acquire, status that we achieve or bucket list experiences that we check off. This path will surely lead to happiness, right?

The educational system helps to propagate this illusion that if we just achieve a certain score, get a certain grade, receive a certain accolade or award, go to a certain university, pursue a certain career or status, we will be successful and, therefore, happy.

Our purpose, our goals, our reasons for doing anything 
have become formulaic and prescriptive. 

So, if there is a formula that we can follow, and a prescription we can take, why do so many people feel lost, unhappy and not clearly see their purpose on Earth?

Why are so many teachers and students disillusioned and not fulfilled with school and learning and the checklists that are being placed before them? (more…)

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Linda Markley

Tribute to Teachers on Labor Day

communication, creating community, i am enough, Maslow before Blooms, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Teacher Appreciation

Labor Day is an annual celebration of workers and their achievements. It originated during the late 1800’s in America during the Industrial Revolution when working conditions were atrocious, requiring people to work excessive hours, seven days a week and for very low wages.

According to history.com, “people of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions, with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities and breaks.”

Hmmmm, that sounds familiar for teachers, especially in this current pandemic! However, we cannot allow teachers to believe that they must suffer these labor injustices in order to be effective, worthy teachers!!!

Teaching is a labor of love … unconditional love! 
And this Labor Day, I would like to 
recognize, honor and celebrate what teachers do 
unconditionally every day!

Labor Day did not become an official holiday until almost the turn of the century when President Grover Cleveland signed it into law. During the time leading up to this, there were many labor strikes, rallies, protests and events that took place to raise awareness to the atrocious labor conditions.

Limitations, boundaries, clear expectations and best labor practices were set. 
Maybe teachers need to set some "conditions" like these as well!

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Linda Markley

The Power of Community

calling to make a difference, creating community, Maslow before Blooms, Podcasting, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

There is great power in community.  And by power, I mean the energy of the heart that connects us through our common humanity  The energy of support, encouragement, validation, guidance, compassion and love of the “me” that I see in “you”.

Common = “belonging to all” +  unity = “state of being one.” 
We can all come together, communicate, connect and learn from one another.

There is no curriculum map for life’s learning journey.

There are just lessons to be learned and to be shared in community.

We all need support, encouragement, validation, guidance, compassion and love.  We need to be inspired.  We need to be lifted up.  We need to reach out and make a difference by touching the hearts of others.

As teachers and students are heading back to school, 
with many questions, few answers and a lot of anxiety, 
what can we do to tap into the power of this community and help?
PLEASE CLICK ON "MORE" TO ENGAGE AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER!!!

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Linda Markley

Our Path(ways)

Can do's, communication, creating community, Essential questions, making connections

Like many teachers today, my heart was crushed by a system of mind-centered, data-driven, tech-stressful, competition-focused path of never enough-ness.  We have lost ourselves and the real school spirit in all of this.  Our hearts are broken.  My heart was broken, and as a result, I got very sick and had to leave my beloved profession.  I literally couldn’t stand being in my job any more and my legs would give out on me at any moment.  The doctor tested me for MS and ALS and finally said, “if you don’t get out of that job, you will be in a wheelchair in five years!”   It took three years of physical and mental therapies to get back on my feet, but my heart was still broken.  I was lost, and I felt like my inner compass was broken.  So, I decided to set out on a journey to find my way back home to the heart of my true self. 

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