Month: March 2021

Linda Markley

Kindness

calling to make a difference, Can do's, creating community, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

This poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sums it up:

 “Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.
Take care of your garden, and keep out the weeds.
Fill it with sunshine, kind words and kind deeds.”

The etymology and meaning of kind is ”class, sort, variety,” from Old English gecynd “kind, nature, race,” related to cynn “family” (kin)

Kind, kindred, kindergarten, kin…all related.

This is how school should be. This is how the world should be.

It should be our nature, part of our race, part of our family, part of the class.

I long to see more kindness toward each other. All of the stress in the classroom is causing there to be more unkind thoughts, words and deeds.

But I don’t believe that there are unkind hearts…in children or in their teachers.

I just think the pressure and the stress are causing all of us to think, say and do things that are not coming from the heart, but rather, from the mind. A mind that is flooded with cortisol and anxiety and fear and anger and made-up stories and perceptions that are being created from the negative input from social media, television, news, music, violent video games, unreasonable and unreal expectations, etc. 

What should kindness look like in the classroom? 

(more…)

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Linda Markley

SPIRIT Journey: Transformation

calling to make a difference, Can do's, Essential questions, Intention, Introspection, Intuition, Maslow before Blooms, Passion, Purpose, Sincerity, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, Wholehearted teaching

“Transformation” means “to change form; trans = cross over, to go across”.  

What we learn should transform us. It should empower us to cross over any boundaries or obstacles in order to get to the other side. 

It should give us the “lentes nuevos” (“new lenses”, which is a reference to past blog posts) that we need in order to transform and see more clearly…that which we need to change, that which we do not need to change and to acquire the wisdom in our hearts to know the difference.  The Serenity Prayer, basically.

Like all things in life, we have gone full circle in our SPIRIT journey. We have gone through the SPIRIT process, step-by-step. And through that process, we have crossed over many barriers and overcome many obstacles. 

But, transformation is not the end of our journey. 

We are still not perfect. The world is not perfect. There are just new obstacles or problems. 

And most of us, honestly, are really good at re-cycling or hunkering down in past obstacles and problems. We have not crossed over into any new form of being and doing in the world. 

So, we will find ourselves back where we started our SPIRIT Journey with serenity because we are overwhelmed and overcome in our minds by the problems and obstacles. And we just circle back to journey through the process again…and again…and again because we are human, and we are not perfect and change is a part of life. Everything is dynamic.  

The human learning journey both in and out of the classroom is a spiral…we learn a little, grow a little wiser and get a little better at living our life each time. 

Learning is not a “one-’n-done” deal. 

We never really master anything. 

The concept of seeking mastery or worse yet, perfection, is 

one of life’s biggest deceptions and cruelest ironies. (more…)

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