Nurturing Your Roots of Inspiration

04/24/2012 20:05:00

"Inner News" published in California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL), winter 2011

A picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes. I envision the picture of that magnificent tree as a metaphor for balance in teaching. I imagine the top of the tree as what is visible –activities, techniques, methods, paperwork, structure. However, the roots of the tree – the unseen - provide nourishment and healthygrowth. These have been called the Roots of Inspiration in Life Coaching. Some of my Roots of Inspiration are creating, being present, spontaneous, engaged, and authentic, with a sense of striving to balance the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual parts of myself. Balance – I look for balance in teaching between the seen and the unseen - content/process, structure/spontaneity, organization/creativity. I had an interesting lesson recently that exemplified this balance.

I have been using the textbook Ventures 3 for the last few years. The book provides a structure in which to teach listening, speaking, reading and writing. Long gone are the days of scouring many sources to create lesson plans. This particular lesson was on the theme of work. I spontaneously invited Chao Xiong who coordinates our CASAS testing, and Javier Vargas, who worked with our EL Civics program, into my classroom to talk to my students. I thought that they would be inspiring for the students as they had both studied in Continuing Education ESL programs and have advanced in so many incredible ways. Chao was a Hmong refugee in 1975 and now has a PhD and Javier came to the U.S. 6 years ago when he was 17 and has recently graduated from San Diego State University. He is now in China teaching Spanish and English. Wow! We set up the visit for two days hence. So, I created a worksheet of potential questions that we practiced. Chao and Javier stayed about 40 minutes and engaged the students in a meaningful conversation. Also, the writing section of this unit was about writing thank you letters so my students wrote a thank you note to Chao or Javier.

My point is not so much about the content and passing on a technique, activity or book but the joyous process of creating, exploring and nurturing my own Roots of Inspiration and the students as well. The structure was already in place. Within the structure of the unit on work, I felt so free to improvise, create, and try out new ideas. My energy was concentrated on how to engage the students, help them focus in the here and now, experientially. Anecdotally, they seemed more interested in the material, had better retention and even have some fun doing it! I thrive on that space of not always knowing where the lesson will take me yet with enough structure to keep me grounded. Seeking balance. Progress not perfection.

Expanding my professional development to become a Life Coach and licensed Therapist, has enhanced my appreciation of the importance of learning about and nurturing all parts of me. I learned about my personality type, my emotional body, my spiritual body and how they all affected my teaching. I learned that what I didn’t know about myself affected my behaviors and outlook on life. I also realized that I need reflection time, integration time, processing time to enhance my teaching. I learned that my being – these intangible parts of me needed nourishment and nurturing as well. I strive in teaching and in my private practice to help/guide students and clients to find their own roots of inspiration as well.

As is said on an airplane – put your own oxygen mask on first. Like the tree above with healthy roots, I can grow and thrive after teaching for 30 years being in touch with my own Roots of Inspiration, keeping those parts of me alive. Ultimately, it not only benefits me but as a tremendous impact on the students and their learning… which is what we are all about…

And you? What inspires and nurtures you? What are your Roots of Inspiration?

Self Care of the Teacher

04/24/2012 18:27:00

"The Inner News" published in California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (CATESOL) newsletter, March 2012

Self care of the teacher Most of us come to teaching as a calling. We enjoy teaching, being of service, and embarking on meaningful endeavors. Teaching is truly a creative job in which there is always something to learn. I have never felt that I have all of the answers or that now “I know it”. At the same time it can be difficult to find balance, to take care of ourselves, to say no to some of the myriad of opportunities available. Yet our very selves are what we have most to offer.

Knowing deeply who you are and what you identify with can offer focus and direction as to what you should uniquely do to take care of yourself. One size does not fit all. We generally think of self-care in terms of diet and exercise which are extremely important aspects of our self care. The image above offers a framework for reflecting on some other facets of self – of who we are and/or what we might identify with – which need our care. I contemplated what to put in the core because I think that is diverse as well. I settled on an image, however, some of the ‘words’ that resonate with me are presence, awareness, consciousness, love. Words are just a signpost for one’s own reflection and direct experience anyway.

In this issue, I would like to focus on character and temperament types which have been important in my own self knowledge and hence, self care. The Myers-Briggs and/or Keirsey-Bates paradigms based on Jung’s psychological types offer useful understanding of not only oneself but how others function alike and differently. You can find information online or through the book Please Understand Me by Keirsey and Bates . It also has an insightful and useful section on teachers.

One of the traits of these paradigms is the preference for extroversion or introversion as to how one feels energized. The source of energy for an extrovert involves a preference for people, the external, breadth and expenditure of energies. The source of energy for an introvert involves a preference for solitude, the internal, depth and conservation of energies. An extrovert will leave a party all recharged and an introvert will leave a party early. As Keirsey and Bates say, “He is no party pooper; rather, he was pooped by the party.” (p. 15). They also suggest that three quarters of the population prefer extroversion (p. 25). It took me many years to find value in my own way of being. Since my preference is for introversion, I do need to be aware of how my much time I spend with people – in classes, at work, workshops - and how much time I spend to re-charge doing yoga, being alone, taking a walk in nature and engaged in one on one interactions with dear friends . These are essential for my well-being to re-charge to be the teacher I want to be.

Another important aspect of this paradigm has been the thinking/feeling traits. We all feel and think but what is the preference for how one makes choices. These are some of the characteristics, perhaps visualized more on a sliding scaled than dyadic: objective/subjective; policy/social values; analysis/sympathy; impersonal/personal; critique/appreciate. My preference for feeling has also been a learning process. According to Keirsey and Bates, formal schooling addresses the thinking aspect over the feeling. So identifying my feelings, understanding what they mean and finding emotional regulation have been a quest for me so I can make choices based on who I really am. I have learned that my emotional age is not necessarily correlated with my chronological age. At work, old unresolved feelings that get triggered have a chance to grow, develop, heal and ultimately help me become a more compassionate, accepting, peaceful teacher. To take care of my feeling aspect, I have learned to be mindful of my feelings, own them, process them, and allow them to inform my choices in a healthy way.

The beauty of this personality profile is knowing ones’ own preferences gives one the freedom and choice to live and accept them, strengthen weaker areas and cultivate tolerance, patience and compassion for self and others who have different personality types.

All in all, self-care involves knowing who are, what works for you and knowing how important your own self care is for those around you. And that self care is available in this moment throughout the day, the only moment we have, in simple ways. We can come back to our breathing - it is always there and brings us to the present moment. We can notice that we are walking as we walk down the hallways. .As we take care of ourselves we are more available to be a part of something bigger, bringing the best of who we are to our students and to our workplace.

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Nurturing Your Roots of Inspiration

Self Care of the Teacher