space-time compression

November 23, 2013

This week felt like a compression of the space-time continuum.

Now packaged to share with you.

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Rather than mere busyness, blurring or feeling that sense of events compounding, carriage-wise which then manifests as nervous agitation (stress? anxiety?), as if choice is beyond personal control, my habits have been focused on mindfulness and deliberate resistance to immediate or thoughtless reactivity.

Easier to articulate than practice, perhaps.

Also difficult defining associated feelings which arise from frustration – red lights, stolen laptop, stuckness in traffic, continual interruptions, the handball pass of delegation, pressure to comply with others’ wishes, familial obligation, marking commitments, reporting deadlines – and letting the feeling be.

Without responding. More than that – electing to bear witness. It is what it is. There it goes… being present whilst the feelings (as they inevitably will) pass.

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Week in flashback:

marking exams and writing reports as a backbeat;
Monday night freebie preview of Ender’s Game courtesy of Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM);

Tuesday leadership for learning session;

Venn diagram looks better in colour:

Key concerns/ directions identified:

Common language – what works? Menu of options. What is the focus?

– School improvement; measure of our improvement is student improvement

– Shared purpose/ collaborative practice/ understanding of process/ reflective process

– Destination in common, but strategies may differ

– Learning to learn/ evolution of practice

– Reculturing – coach staff forward to resolve issues together

– No more one-off conversations; process more compelling

– Providing environments/ opportunity for ongoing learning

– Crucial – effect sizes

– Challenge: staff development days

– Building common understandings

– More considered thinking, planning & resourcing

– Focus on department priorities

Lastly, Friday’s Theatresports workshops with 60 Year 7 students sequenced over 3 x 60 minute sessions. Revelatory fun. Felt like what Malidoma Some calls “an instinct of community” (Wheatley, 2007, p. 45).