Activity - 1Chapter 4 in Onward has been my favorite of the chapters so far and really stuck out to me due to my position as a shared teacher. I spend my mornings in one school environment and then my afternoon in a different school. I really like my school district as a whole and enjoy both buildings, however, being a share teacher often makes me feel like an outsider. It makes me feel like I don’t fully belong to either place and due to scheduling I am often left out of school wide celebrations/events that are held monthly. My first year teaching I had the time to eat in the teachers lounge and I will always be so appreciative of the advice and kindness I was shown by two of the veteran elementary teachers who I ate with. The year after that I had to spend my time pumping for my second child. After I returned to work I never did get back to eating with others at the school. In this sense I do relate to the section A Dive into Fear. My fear of not belonging causes me to avoid my peers in the workplace (Aguilar, 2018). My antisocial tendencies cause me anxiety that make me feel that I have diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. I over analyze every interaction I have and am constantly on the look out for others nonverbal communications. The activity from pages 220-223 was intriguing as it made me realize the traits I really value in my close friends. I connect well to individuals that are brutally honest, people who are not afraid to tell you how it is. On the other end of that I reflected on a trait that makes me the most wary, those who complain openly and harshly about others behind their back. These are individuals I avoid because in my mind this is an individual who would do the same treatment to me. I find it strange that I avoid this in my peers but I’m upfront when my students do this and combat this behavior in my classroom regularly. Students do this so often it is draining to keep up on, my go to method is to state that the comments they are saying are hurtful to me because I respect that individual and that when they speak that way it makes me wonder what they say behind my back. This works pretty well with students who I have a good relationship with and varying effects with others. Activity - 2In chapter 5 I found myself relating with the information on mindfulness and meditation. That mindfulness assists with focusing on the present, being in the moment and that through practice you can change reactions you have to certain situations/stimulus. Information from this chapter and from our guest speaker, Steffany Kroeger, came in extremely useful this weekend. This weekend I was taken on an adventure in celebration of my upcoming marriage. Four of my closest friends surprised me by showing up and taking me on a weekend excursion to Kansas City! While there I used a few techniques I had learned from Steffany Kroeger in class. One example I can explain best is how I am always worried I will not remember an experience to the fullest and all I will end up having are the photos. Through practicing focusing on the five senses while downtown I was much more at ease in this new bustling environment. Some examples include; the sounds of the commuters and tourists on the Street Car, the smells of the market food stalls, the macro details hidden in the Union Train Station architecture, the tastes of the local cafes, and the tactile of the plant life that was incorporated throughout the downtown area. Even though my friends had to toss out the timeline they had prepared it was all worth it for the spontaneity and being allowed the freedom to enjoy the city on our own time instead of by what a schedule suggested. By practicing those suggestions I felt more intune to my friends, surroundings, and the experience of our excursion. Aguilar, E. (2018). The Onward Workbook: Daily Activities to Cultivate Your Emotional Resilience and Thrive. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Aguilar, E. (2018). Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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