Recent Posts

I’m Tired of Average!

I have reached a breaking point with the unit I am currently teaching.  It just isn’t good enough and it is far from great.  I have finally put my finger on why I have been frustrated for the past week and it is very simple…this unit doesn’t live up to my standards.  Don’t get me wrong, students are learning and it is definitely not horrible but I didn’t get into teaching to be average.  I go into anything with the will to be great and settling for less is cheating me and my kids.

There is more to it that is frustrating.  This unit was average for the last couple of years and each year I’ve said to myself that it is time to change it.  The problem is that I DIDN’T change it.  There was no commitment.  I was interested in changing it.  I considered changing it.  Interest, consideration, and good intentions get you nothing!  Only COMMITMENT followed by ACTION gets the job done.

I was interested in losing excess weight and getting into shape for a couple of years but that didn’t make my pants fit any better.  About 15 months ago I made a commitment that I was going to raise my standards of what was physically acceptable and I committed to changing my lifestyle and training with a passion and enthusiasm that matched my new goals and vision.  Then I took ACTION!  Now it’s 44 pounds later and I look forward to working out every single day and it has become easier to make better decisions for my health.

The key is that I tried for years to do this for myself but it was only after reaching a frustration level high enough to generate a true commitment that change happened.  Commitment means cutting off all alternatives and refusing to give credence to excuses and obstacles.

I hereby COMMIT to changing this average unit into a monster of student engagement before I teach it again.

What standards do you need to raise in your life and work and are you ready to truly commit?

Dave Burgess
daveburgess.com
E-mail: outrageousteaching@gmail.com

So Fragile…So Strong: 2 Stories in 2 Days

On consecutive days this past week I was reminded of both how incredibly strong our students can be and, at the same time, fragile.  First, I got word that a student had made an attempt on their life.  This is a student who seemed to me to be in a particular good place at the moment with a recent development at school that was an exciting personal success.  What we see of our student’s life in our one little class period is like the very tip of the iceberg of what is really going on at a deeper level.

The very next day I was having a casual lunchtime conversation with a student who had come into my class to work on a project when she said something that shocked me.  In discussing her lack of time to get work done, she made an off-hand comment that she walks an hour and a half home each night after her extra-curricular activity.  Wow!  Here is a student who is doing well academically, participating in extra-curricular activities, and dealing with the consequences of her family not having a car.  She was not complaining , like most of her peers would if they had to walk 15 minutes, she was stating the fact of the matter to explain why she works through lunch.

Two good examples in two days that our students are dealing with a lot more than we’ll probably ever know.  What we offer in the way of rapport, validation, and support can make all the difference in the world.  Students’ lives are a lot more complex than a G.P.A. and a test score.