Hello blog page, it's been awhile. I've been pretty consumed with all the things the December through February section of the calendar typically brings, and I have neglected you. I usually get caught up in the grind of the school year at this point, and then when you factor in like... the worst winter ever... I've really found myself in kind of a rut of simply surviving and existing.
This is the EXACT same problem I found myself in last year until Mrs. Dudgeon snapped me out of it at a fateful Thursday Coaching session that changed the entire course of my year, and maybe my career. I guess I didn't learn my lesson fully because I found myself slipping into that same rut again. I can't afford to mail it in or give anything less than 100% of my creativity, knowledge, energy and compassion as a teacher. There are too many people depending on me every school day, and I have just started to realize exactly how much influence I wield as an individual. Influence... the term actually registered with me at church a few weeks ago* and I took it as a challenge to acknowledge the amount of influence I hold and to do a much better job of leveraging that influence for good. I realized I directly influence about 110 kids every school day at a time in their lives where they are insanely impressionable. Who knows how many additional people I influence indirectly branching out from those 110 kids? There are parents, siblings, other students in the school that are not in my class, teammates from other schools, and endless others. If I am not thoughtful and intentional with everything I do or say or expect of someone, the consequences could be an unpredictable chain reaction. As I began pondering this, for a second I questioned the validity of the whole premise. Ok, I have influence and I come in contact with all of these people every day, but it's not like I have to put EVERY little thing I say and do under the microscope, right? But then I remembered something that happens to me every so often in class. There are times when a student brings up something I said months ago and brings it into the current situation, almost always with me having forgotten about it until they brought it up again, or having no recollection at all of saying it in the first place. I might not put much stock in every little thing I say or do throughout the day, but that doesn't mean someone else won't. I may not remember taking a detour from the class discussion to tell a story from my childhood or make some pop culture reference, but someone else might. I may not remember I ever told them my favorite candy (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for the record), but they could have stored that away in their mental profile of me. The degree of influence I have is a powerful thing. Sometimes I am stunned by how well students might remember an academic concept I did not expect them to remember. This year I went into a lesson about the Sykes Picot agreement and how it separated present day Syria and Iraq. We started talking about why borders exist and how they are determined and a student said "wait, one time you told us about a time where a British and French guy basically just drew a big straight line somewhere because they were going to divide up the resources and it totally messed with the cultures and the ethnic groups there because they were being split up". Uhhhhhhh... yes... exactly, and that's the whole point of the lesson today and I forgot I mentioned this earlier, but I must have assumed you wouldn't remember all that by now... Sure, that influence is powerful, but it can be a dangerous thing too. One of the hallmarks of my teaching style is rapport and relationships, and I'd like to think I've been pretty successful overall but there's no way I've built a positive relationship with every student I've come across. I know for a fact, because once again I have praised Mrs. Dudgeon and asked how she was able to build a great relationship with someone I was never able to build one with. Maybe just as easily as someone might remember my casual remarks about my favorite candy or the intricacies of the Sykes Picot Agreement, they can also remember a time I didn't build them up when I should have. Maybe they remember a time I lost my cool and snapped at them that I've long forgotten. Maybe they are holding on to a comment on a report card or in a parent teacher conference and have taken it personally, while I have forgotten I said it at all. Therefore, the only option is to be more intentional and purposeful when wielding this incredible influence. And in order to be more intentional in wielding it, I need to be aware that as a teacher, everything I say or do carries the enormous weight of that influence. I need to influence people in positive, uplifting, loving ways. I need to tell my classes I love them more often, no matter how many eye rolls or groans I get. Hopefully that trickles down to everyone else in the chain of influence. The dream is just a massive chain reaction of positive influence, one person after another. But even if that is not very realistic, the alternative of a massive chain reaction of negative influence is too scary. Whether you're a teacher, student. parent, coach, or any other role in your community, I guarantee you have more influence than you realize. Be intentional and loving, and leverage that influence for the common good. *Yes, I am a public school teacher and I fully believe in/agree with separation of church and state... before you go down that rabbit hole, let me assure you I am not promoting any kind of religious belief here, simply providing context!
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AuthorJohn Honish: Archives
June 2021
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