Our heart...such a critical, delicate, and crucial
organ. Our hearts are intricately constructed and must be taken care of. To
this I say, we cannot be heartless.
Our hearts are created with four chambers that
each do their part for the whole heart (and body) to work. The right side of the heart pumps blood to
the lungs and brings in oxygen. Then, the left side of the heart pumps the
oxygenated blood out to the rest of your body. On top of the functionality of
our heart, we connect our emotions to our heart. HOW AMAZING.
Wholeness
Just like our heart, Palmer (2007) explains that as
teachers and students, we work as one. We
work together to create the “profound truth” and we only do this by embracing
it as “both-and”, not “either-or”. Try to follow my thought process here...the
chambers of our heart work together, and that work impacts our whole body. If
we (teachers and students) work together to create the truth, then we can influence the world.
“What I
want is a richer, more paradoxical model of teaching and learning than binary
thought allows, a model that reveals how the paradox of thinking and feeling
are joined- whether we are comfortable with paradox or not.” (Palmer, 2007, p. 66)
YES, the feels people! I know for many of us,
that is difficult to wrap our heads around.
Our heart is a real thing, that not only needs to work, but it needs to
be cared for. Not trying to get all “deep” or flowery here, but this goes for
you as a teacher – take care of yourself, and secondly, take care of your
students – within your limits (obviously).
Taking
care of yourself
BE YOU. Don’t try to mold yourself to be someone
else. Once a student in class told me, “you be you, because only you
can be the best you.” Yes, that is a beyond wordy sentence, but when you take
it apart and really think about it…how true is that. Only YOU can be the best
you.
“As we
learn more about who we are, we can learn techniques that reveal rather than
conceal the personhood from which good teaching comes.” (Palmer, 2007, p. 25)
Be authentic! It is difficult to allow yourself to be
vulnerable to your students (because fear is a real emotion that we face), but life is a continuous learning process. The sooner you accept this, the happier (and less stressed) you will be with yourself and your teaching.
We
are never in the same stage in life, and our identity is continuously changing.
You can run, but you can't hide.
Basically, what I am saying is no matter which
way you look at it, teaching is about heart work. Be true to yourself, be fearless, and "re-member" you are continuously learning.
#heartwork #thefeels #youdoyou
Amnee! You draw such a lovely picture! Being true to ourselves is difficult to do in the best of circumstances much less being true to ourselves in challenging circumstances. When we add the multiple personalities in our classrooms, it adds all sorts of outside influences that effect how we respond to things. Being prepared to deal with challenging scenarios and still be true to ourselves comes with reflection and experience. Time to be true and take care of ourselves. :o)
ReplyDeleteI like how you remind us, that teachers, that we do need to take care of ourselves in the classroom. An important point that we sometimes overlook.
ReplyDelete