Food for Thought: By changing who we are we can make a difference to those around us and in the world

Dear all,

Thank you for another great week.Our community continues to buzz even as we re-energize from our 3E conference. A wonderful look at who we are on Friday that thoroughly engaged our parents with their children's learning. Lots of very positive feedback. And then on Saturday we had over 100 swimmers with their parents bringing even more energy to our campus for the first of the season's time trials. Again a wonderful community atmosphere with new and old parents meeting, supporting each other and all the swimmers.

This week's Food for Thought keeps us building on the who we are theme and involves a short TED, only seven minutes by Dan Gilbert that links perfectly with our mission and the Achievement Culture that we aspire to create. One of the strands that we work towards is, 'it is never too late to learn.' This strand asks; are we willing to do what it takes to teach all students in ISHCMC? Can we develop systems that hold learning not time, as the constant? Can we push students to go beyond the minimum to discover what they are capable of achieving? It encourages to presume competence in all students and look for each and everyone's true potential.. This positive presupposition is important for the interactions that take place everyday with students and links to Positive Education and Choice Words. This TED supports this idea by showing us that;

 "Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished." Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time." 

Hence, we have the power to influence both who we are, and who our students become. This leads to the second video which captures the amazing journey of John Francis who by making remarkable changes to who he was hoped to influence others and the world.

Together these two videos show why our inquiry into who we are can be so empowering for us as educators and for our students as future citizens. Without taking time to listen and understand ourselves and the world around us, how can we expect to maximize the potential of each one of us to make a difference in the world.

Have a good weekend,

Yours
Adrian