Reading more than just words

I enjoy writing six-word memoirs and mantras.  One that I've written recently is a reminder of the importance of reading in our lives:

"All the world is a text."

Reading doesn't just have to be limited to words--in a book or magazine or on a website or email or billboard.  Reading is actually something we can do on a larger scale.  And we can do it often and regularly.  We can read the world around us--situations or events that unfold in our lives, our circumstances, our choices, our experiences, our successes, our failures, our learnings, and our relationships.  What's more, we can read these things in other people's lives, too.

Reading is something we do actively.  Reading is perceiving.  Reading is learning.  Reading is growing.  And perhaps most important of all: reading generates awareness.  It's about more than just words.  The whole world is a text waiting to be read, analyzed, critiqued, learned from, emulated, not emulated, enhanced, or changed.  

So, when you get up tomorrow (and everyday thereafter), remember all the world is a text.  Go out and read it.

Infinitives I live by

I used Wordle to put this graphic together during the summer. My love for language and my tendency to try to organize my life in helpful ways motivated me to make this: "Infinitives to Live By".

All of these verbs are present-tense; they are actions I try to do as much as possible in the appropriate contexts in my life. This collection of words inspires me to do my best and to be the best person I can be, everyday, on all levels, in all areas.

My favorites: reflect, learn, think, choose, connect, pursue, experience, create, and realize.

Putting my teaching hat on, these words are great to share with students. They're empowering and varied and a great way to encourage students to learn and grow and think and explore themselves and their worlds.

What words here do you do? What words do you do that aren't included in this graphic? Which words are your favorite?

The importance of finding your element

There's a lot to be learned from dogs. Whenever I take my dog, Chloe, on a walk, I am reminded of how important it is to find something in life that I really enjoy doing, something I can get lost in and never get bored with, something I can continually get excited about and never get enough of. In short, this is called being in one's element. When I take Chloe on a walk, she is totally in her element. Before we even go out the door, she's gushing with excitement in anticipation of the journey ahead, jumping up and down, barking energetically, imploring me to hurry up and throw my shoes on and go. Once out the door, she's eager to smell everything and look in the direction of every sound she hears, leading me every which way. She loves quickly running ahead only to stop and sniff every square inch of ground in sight. She wants to take it all in. Oftentimes I have to pull her away from certain spots because she's taking way too long and I'm up against the clock. Even if we were to walk the same route everyday (which I don't actually do, more for my sake than hers), she'd never get bored, never lose excitement.

When Chloe's on a walk, she's in her element, she's a fervent learner, and she's always reminding me how important it is to seek out and choose something that I'm so passionate about, something where I can be totally in my element, too. This goes for both my personal life and my professional career. For the former, I know I'm in my element when I'm reading, thinking, learning, taking photographs, and having intellectual, inspired conversations with bright, motivated people. For the latter, I know that teaching and education and learning are where I genuinely belong. These are the things in my life where I'm totally in my element. Thanks, Chloe, for leading by example and for constantly reminding me how important it is to find and be in one's element.

Taking responsibility, taking initiative

On Seth Godin's blog yesterday, I read a post titled "Responsibility and authority."  It got me thinking of the relationship between responsibility, initiative, and leadership.  In the post, Godin highlights the seemingly subtle relationship between authority and responsibility as it has been constructed in our society.

"Many people struggle at work because they want more authority," he writes.  People believe they have to have authority to do more work, to contribute more value-added effort to the bigger cause.  They feel they need some kind of special entitlement or power to be able to have a bigger impact, to make a bigger difference where they are.

Godin's most powerful argument in the short post counters these typically falsely-held beliefs: "It turns out you can get a lot done if you just take more responsibility instead.  It's often offered, rarely taken."

There are always things we can do over and above our main/primary obligations (both in our professional and personal lives), if we just open our eyes wider and really look around.  Responsibility is there for the taking--either in the form of something on the table waiting for someone to claim and run with it, or in the form of a new idea that hasn't yet been explored but could have some benefit for the cause.  And in most cases, you don't need authority to take this responsibility.  Step up, take it, and run with it.  Not only will it show initiative on your part, but it'll also make evident your desire and will to be a leader, or if you've already established yourself as one, it'll give you an opportunity to show that you're an even bigger, better one. 

Have you been thinking a lot lately about starting a new group or campaign to focus on meeting a specific need in your organization?  Is there a new report or document that needs to be made that your boss or others of your coworkers have been frequently mentioning in meetings or brainstorming sessions?  Or in a similar context, is there a premature idea that needs to be further fleshed out and given more dedicated thought before it can be acted on?  How about an engaging lesson plan or unit idea that you've been mulling and know you should share with the other teachers in your department?
  
The responsibility is there for the taking, someone just needs to step up and do it.  So why not now?  If you have the bandwidth and you want to develop your leadership skills, or you want to contribute more, or you just want to learn and grow further, take that responsibility you see.  Take the initiative.  Eat it up.  Be a leader.  And be an even bigger impact for the cause.

Is less really more? I think it can be.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the notion "less is more."  Especially when it comes to my reading, and more importantly, my learning.  It seems like I hear the mantra quite often and read about it quite frequently.  Less is more.

I'm a big reader.  I spend a great deal of my time regularly consuming texts such as blog posts, news and journal articles--I'm a huge internet reader--my college course books, novels, and professional literature relevant to educators.  Yet, the thought keeps coming back to me: less is more, less is more.  It's as if something is telling me to slow down--slow down and really spend time stewing for a bit on whatever I'm reading.

With today's ubiquitous availability of information and reading material and the rate at which it is created, shared, and turned-over, it's so easy to get caught up in it.  (My PLN--which I love and am so thankful for because of the learning opportunities I'm afforded--is a great example of this.)  It becomes akin to a race where I try to read as much as I can as fast as I can because I feel like that's what I have to do in order to keep up. And then it's easy to lose sight of what's really important: engaging with the text, broadening my understanding, and deepening my learning.  I have to force myself to stop and ask: when I read (or even skim) a lot at a fast pace, how much am I actually letting set in, how much am I truly learning and retaining?  In today's web 2.0 world especially, it's so important for me to remember that less really can be more.  I need to slow down and spend more time with each text that I read.

Slow down.  But what does that mean?  Taking the time necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the material.  OK.  And what does that mean?  It means focusing even more closely.  Taking more notes about the BIG idea(s) and MAIN argument(s) and the most SUBSTANTIVE supporting examples... which also means underlining and highlighting less than I currently do, too.  It means asking more questions.  Exploring the text from different angles. Identifying what I like or don't like about it, what I agree with or disagree with.  Giving myself more time to see and articulate connections between the text and what I already know.  It means sitting with the text to really let it percolate.  Being more deliberate about synthesizing my learning.  It means balancing going broad with going deep.

Obviously, this is a new strategy for me.  It's a big change; it'll require a significantly new mindset.  But it'll help me learn even more than I already am with my current reading style.  It'll be worth the change.  Is less really more?  I think it can be.  And with time and practice, it definitely will be.