Monday's Takeaway

School starts Wednesday so today we had our staff meeting where we discuss all the new things in the handbook along with some other house keeping issues.   It was really a pretty quick meeting and only lasted till about 11:15.  Typically I listen and take some notes and do a whole lot of doodling in my notebook with about ten different colored pens.  Today was different though I only took four pens and my notebook only had doodles on the tops of the page.  

We started the meeting, and our mental health person for the district did a little presentation with our principal and it caught my attention and made me think all day.  It was about the book Drive by David Pink.  It is about what truly motivates you and makes you get up and do what you do everyday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRu7k70Jhc

They showed this video and  I still haven't come up with the answers to the questions they asked but it definitely has made my brain hurt! They handed out a slip of paper the asked these two questions:

What's my sentence?

Was I better today than yesterday?

We didn't have to fill out the paper there thank goodness because I still haven't come up with my sentence.  If this one sentence is what I am defining why I do what I do, that is a lot of pressure for one sentence.  Watching the video you learn having a paragraph is too much so in all reality it needs to be one sentence... just ONE!  But how do you take everything that you do and turn it into one sentence that makes you who you are.  I don't know the answer to this question, but I do know I will not be able to answer it tonight because quite frankly I just don't know.  

The second question 'Was I better today than yesterday?'  is a pretty loaded question because you can turn this into many different aspects of life.  I am only going to use this question for school at the moment, and honestly I feel like I want to use this question in my relationship building with my students.  Did I make a student feel worth?  Did I help a student get to that aha moment?  Did a help a child build their confidence?  Did I let a child know that I truly care about them?  Did I make the students in my classroom feel special?  These are things I want to ask myself and I hope that these are things that I am doing.

So as the rain pours and the thunder roars, it is time for me to crawl into bed and turn my brain off for a while.  But I challenge you, even if only a couple people read this, watch the video and think about those two questions and see what you can come up with.