The New Year is upon us. I
hope for us all that this will be a year of inclusive opportunities, filled
with meaningful relationships, laughter, fun and lasting memories.
I hope that this can be a
year of lighting sparks rather than filling vessels. I hope that we will
explore, discover, engage, debate, struggle, persevere and grow.
I hope that we can embrace
learning for its own sake and recognize that learning is life-long.
I hope that this is a year
filled with joy and wonder for our children and that we are able to step back
from the hectic routines to let them experience it all.
What Are Your Hopes for
the Year Ahead?
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This post is a part of
the month-long series #BlogElul. The Jewish month of Elul,
which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and
reflection. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew,
refreshed.
Over the
years I have grown in my appreciation of Shabbat. Where once I saw it simply as
the end of my work week, I now respect that Shabbat brings an opportunity to
relax, reflect and reenergize before the new week ahead. I have experimented
with different ways to observe, creating my own personal boundaries in ways
that help me to connect and recharge.
As we
approach the final Shabbat of 5774, I am thinking about the ways in which I
might grow my personal practice in the year ahead.
We can apply this same principle to our efforts to become inclusive. We can grow over time as we take opportunities to slow down, reflect and make new commitments. No one ever said you have to do it all at once. No one ever said that inclusion has an "end date".
So here is a thought to consider as you slow
down and reflect on how you might want to grow in the year ahead:
“Accept
everything about yourself – I mean everything. You are you and that is the
beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.” ~ Henry Kissinger
Be sure you don't miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
This post is a part of
the month-long series #BlogElul. The Jewish month of Elul,
which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and
reflection. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew,
refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for
each day to help with the month of preparation...
I’m a “finish what you start” kind of person. When I set a
goal for myself, I see it through. But I am also realistic, and the goals I set
for myself are typically appropriate and manageable, with just enough “reach”
to push myself a little further.
#BlogElul is more ambitious than that.
I am not a daily blogger. While I genuinely appreciate this
opportunity to tune in and become more mindful as I prepare for the holy days
ahead; if I am really honest with myself, completing #BlogElul fully is a bit
of a personal dare. I feel a sense of obligation to myself, and that, in and of
itself, might just be the point.
To judge
is “to form an opinion or conclusion about.” Straightforward, right? We need to
form opinions and draw conclusions in order to make sense of our world. We do this
every day.
We live in community. And at the core of a successful community
are relationships built upon networks of interdependence. Why then, is asking
for help hard for so many?
There is no right way to pray. Some feel most comfortable in
a communal setting while others prefer solitude. Some speak to their God
regularly, while others only once in a while. There is no right way.
Spirituality is a part of us as human beings, although there
are those who would choose to deny it. Some have struggled with this idea their
whole lives while others are completely in tune to their own internal voice. Still
others may choose to ignore what they know is there.
For me, the idea of awakening conjures images of
heightened senses and an appreciation for the gift of life.
To awaken can be to gain a spiritual awareness,
to have our eyes symbolically opened to the beauty that is all around us.
Inclusion will happen when we awaken to the recognition
that each of us is a gift from God; that each of us has a gift to share with
the world.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
This post is a part of
the month-long series #BlogElul. The Jewish month of Elul,
which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and
reflection. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew,
refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for
each day to help with the month of preparation...
There is significant value to building relationships when seeking to foster inclusion.
And yet, even when we understand the importance of cultivating authentic,
meaningful relationships, the practicality of helping students actually do it
can be daunting.
Here is
a lesson specifically geared for older children and teens:
1.Have a conversation about the power of words. Discuss how easily
words can hurt a person and how it is just as easy to use words to lift someone
up.
2.Brainstorm together positive words that might be used to
describe a friend or someone you care about. Consider steering children away
from generic words like “nice” and “fun”.
3.Have one student sit in front of a white board. Gather the
other students around him/her to write positive phrases. No peeking! Take a
photo of the student and the board when it is complete.
Do this activity once a week until every student in the
class has had a turn.
If you have a white board that is rarely used, consider
turning it into a display. Keep the original activity up along with the photo
and encourage students to add to the board throughout the week.
“I was sitting on a beach one
summer day, watching two children, a boy and a girl, playing in the sand. They
were hard at work building an elaborate sand castle by the water's edge, with
gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly
finished their project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it
to a heap of wet sand.
I expected the children
to burst into tears, devastated by what had happened to all their hard work.
But they surprised me. Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water,
laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle.
I realized that they had
taught me an important lesson. All the things in our lives, all the complicated
structures we spend so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only
our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come
along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens,
only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.” ~ Rabbi Harold Kushner
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There is an image that I first encountered on Twitter that
instantly captivated me:
“If only our eyes saw souls instead of bodies, how very
different our ideals of beauty would be.”
If only…
Here is another image that I discovered on Pinterest:
“How others see you is not important. How you see yourself
means everything."
And while I love the potential that this image represents, I also
recognize the challenges. This could represent pushing ourselves father than we
are truly capable. This could mean giving in to the dangers of eating disorders
or other self-injurious behaviors because we are never satisfied with what we
see...
Yet, when we combine the two images and teach our children
and ourselves to see souls and not physical attributes, how stunning the
potential.
And finally, there is this image:
"See the able, not the label."
How might these images help you lift the value of inclusion?
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photo credits to nationalautism.org, themetapicture.com, and pinwords
How often
do you say, “I hear you?”Is that
the same as listening?
Do you
only listen for what you want to hear?
Can you
really listen, to that which you can hear and that which you can’t?
“We, the one's who are challenged, need to be
heard. To be seen not as a disability, but as a person who has, and will
continue to bloom. To be seen not only as a handicap, but as a well intact
human being.” -- Robert M. Hensel
Each of us yearns to be heard.
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
This post is a part of
the month-long series #BlogElul. The Jewish month of Elul,
which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and
reflection. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew,
refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for
each day to help with the month of preparation...
The word search immediately makes me think Google. I am sure I am not the only one. I
know that it’s Elul and this prompt is intended to inspire reflection and
introspection, but I can’t quite seem to get my brain past the notion of an
online search for ideas and images.
Maybe one
reason for this is that I have finished reading the book “It’s Complicated: the
social lives of networked teens” by Danah Boyd. To be honest, I have done little
more than think about this book’s impact since setting it down. Yes, it really
was that significant.
So I went
to Google. I figured that if I was going to write a post about using Google to
search, I should go ahead and do it myself.I googled (yes, it is a verb) “inclusion” and the first hits were, as I
expected, mostly education focused. And yet, I realized that from the moment I pressed
“enter” I was thinking more critically about what I might encounter online. I
recognized that this search was tailored to my own biases based on my own past
search history. Boyd elaborates on this in chapter 7 where she explains that, “most
parents, teachers, and teens express reverence toward Google” and “many of the
people I met believed that Google was neutral.” She further explains that most of
the people she encountered failed to recognize that Google, a for-profit
company monetized through advertising, is far from neutral.
This
isn’t a bad thing, and it doesn’t mean that we should stop using the search
engine. Rather, it illustrates that we have an obligation to teach our students
and our children how to view and think critically about the information they access
online.
That message
is one of this book’s most significant takeaways. As Boyd states in her closing
chapter, “Networked publics are here to stay. Rather than resisting technology
or fearing what might happen if youth embrace social media, adults should help
youth develop the skills and perspective to productively navigate the
complication brought about by living in networked publics. Collaboratively,
adults and youth can help to create a networked world that we all want to live
in.”
As a
Jewish Educator this speaks to me of tikkun olam; working as partners to
repair and perfect the world.
As a
teacher this speaks to me of directly teaching the skills of critical thinking
and digital awareness.
As an
advocate for inclusion this speaks to me of opening new doors and embracing new
possibilities.
It’s
Elul, so I am still processing, still reflecting, still searching for the ways
that this book can and will impact my work and my students. I believe that this
book is an important read for anyone who works with, lives with or cares about
teens.
And if
anyone has read “It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens” and
wants to discuss, please let me know!
Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
This post is a part of
the month-long series #BlogElul. The Jewish month of Elul,
which precedes the High Holy Days, is traditionally a time of renewal and
reflection. We look to begin the year with a clean slate, starting anew,
refreshed. All month, along with others, I'll be blogging a thought or two for
each day to help with the month of preparation...
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