Audio books & reading....

Garrett Jackson

     If you have been following me on Twitter, you will surely know that I have been swamped with work, and my new born son.  In fact, having my first child has taken a great deal of time away from personal projects such as this blog.  It will continue to do so.  So while I may not post as often as I would like, I will continue to work on this project and I hope, to add a great deal of information to the education community.

    With this being said, I want to tell you about a couple of books that I am reading. Both books are extremely interesting to me and I wanted to share with you  how I  plan to adapt the lessons to the classroom.

     Any book you read, be it nonfiction or fiction, offer you an opportunity to help you in your classroom.  It could be you learn about vocabulary, you learn about people, or you simply are able to relax and enjoy something not related to work.  It all comes down to your personal growth.  I don't mean the endless "sit and get" professional development that we all hate.  Take for instance the book The Lincoln Lawyer.  Here is a work of fiction, that has nothing to do with being a Special Education teacher.  The premise if you haven't read the book or seen the movie is about a Lawyer who is hired to defend a client on a murder charge.  In the course of the investigation he gets information that is not accurate.  He moves forward to defend his client, but is ambushed with the actual facts of the case. (If you are a SPED teacher, you may be starting to see the parallels.) Moving on and not to ruin the book, but the case reminds him of one of his first cases where he did not do his best work as he was new to the profession.  As a SPED teacher, I found myself relating to the main character in his professional life.  Here the similarities revolve around the fact that both SPED teachers and Lawyers are advocates for people.


     While I am reading the paperback of The Lincoln Lawyer, I am listening to the Audio book to Spy the Lie. Many people do not think that listening to an audio book is the same as reading, and that may be true, but I found that I am able to have a great more access to good information when I can multitask.
   If you exercise you most likely listen to music while you work out.  Before moving to the Northern Mariana Islands, I delivered Pizza's for Pizza Hut.  I was able to listen to a number of books on my drives to deliver food to the many people in need. (Shameless plug here, but if you order food for delivery, you need to be tipping at least $3 for the trip, even if there is a delivery charge.  The people who are delivering your food, barley make enough to cover gas and vehicle repairs.)
     I found my Audible account to be a worth wild investment, and I also found that many of the topics I was listening to were in preparations for my classes that I taught. So as a SPED teacher, who taught students with low reading skills, I would play excerpts of the audio books to help my students.  It had an amazing impact on what knowledge the were able to retain.  It also helped students expand their vocabulary, and learn how to pronounce words that they did not use on a regular basis.
      So that brings me to Spy the Lie.  I have to say, I like it.  It is one of the most interesting books that I have listened to in a long while. While I am learning about how people can be deceptive, the book is making me reflect about some of the body language  my students use in the classroom and what it is telling me.  It is teaching me how to read body language.  Something that we as SPED teachers sometimes need to pay more attention to those nonverbal cues than we do.    While the book does not specifically talk about people with special needs, I am doing a lot of reflecting about how my students use body language to communicate with me and their peers.  I am also trying to frame the lessons of the book in the context of IEP meetings so that I am better able to understand what people are trying to tell me.
    Anytime you can listen to a book, read an article, or sit down with someone new, you have an opportunity for self-enrichment. Think about how much time you spend in the car driving, or working around the house.  Can you break up your routine and add a audio book?  Try it!  Audible.com offers a free audio book to try out the service.  As to reading a paperback, I love to do that too.  Reading stimulates my brain in a different way than listening does, but I find both to be great ways to improve myself.

Opportunities & Failures

    The opportunities offered today to our young people are as vast as any ocean. The opportunities that our young people throw away are as vast as the stars in the sky.  As adults we observe young people through the lens of personal failures, personal success, and personal values.  It is no wonder why many times adults, think young people waste opportunities presented to them. Besides that, failure can be a wonderful learning experience for our young people.  What they learn from their failures can serve to make them a better person in the future.  More importantly, without a doubt a young person will fail at something.  If they do not learn how to accept that and how to deal with that, then we are doing them a disservice.

     Experience is learning that takes place over time, as a result of the good and bad decisions a person makes.  Each person will end up with a different experience that we will shape what we view in our life forever.  Good or bad, it is Experience, that shapes most of our views.

   I too fall in the trap of being to critical of young people when they make poor decisions about life.  That is not to say that a healthy does of criticism isn't good, but many times we overlook the all to real lack of experience that young people have.

     I cannot tell you how many experiences I have that are the result of bad decisions.  What I will tell you is it is a lot.  It takes time for people to learn the lesson from good and bad experiences, and often times that knowledge isn't tested until an opportunity presents itself.  For young people to get experience that is meaningful and helpful to them, students need to be encouraged to jump on opportunities.  The quote at the top of the page is just a text-bite of what he said.  Just too the right is what he said along with the first line.  He talks about how he was never better than the job he had.  He talks about hard work and how each job provided him with a new opportunity.
   
    With our young people, we need to be not only encourage them to get off the game console and get outside more, but we need to continue to help them seek opportunities to learn about themselves and the world around them.  We need to be there to guide and support them on what the best decision is, but allow them the space to make a bad decision and fail.

     As someone who has failed at a few things in the past, I can speak from personal experience, that it sucks.  It also taught me something about my self each time.  Those lessons are certainly something we need in the future generations.  We need our young people to know how to accept failure and how to rise from the ashes of that failure and to continue to move forward to bigger and better things.

    I you are a parent, teacher, friend or neighbor.  Don't be quick to fix things for our young people.  Let them have the opportunity to experience failure.  It is a lesson that will serve them well as they go through life.

Leadership... A winning trait...

Watch the video first then read the article.  


     My last article was about the misunderstood coach. People who I call friends who inspire others to be better.  Writing about my friends prompted me to go down memory lane.  Growing up I was a huge baseball fan.  I often think of some of the most amazing things I shared with my parent, and I think baseball had a huge impact on me as an adult.

      I intentionally posted at the top of an event that I recall with such vivid detail, it is indelible mark on my persona.  I am an avid Texas Rangers fan, so it is no surprise that when I watch the World Series I support the underdog.  The 2016 World Series, for a lifetime of fans, was an epic experience, one that people will talk about for all time.  Though for me, the 1988 World Series is one that is a true David and Goliath story.  

  Unlike the 2016 Chicago Cubs, by all accounts the 1988 Dodgers had no business being in the World Series, much less winning it, except for one little detail.  Leadership.  The two players that I recall from my youth that had the most influence on the out come of the Dodgers year were Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson.

   Without getting into too much detail about what these men did as individual feats, I want people to realize that it was how they inspired their teammates that made the Dodgers contenders and ultimately World Champions. 

     In education, many times we as adults forget about the valuable influence that students have on their peers and we many times miss opportunities to let students help each other.  Edgar Dale says,     "We remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see, hear 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we personally experience 95% or what we teach others."  While, I believe this to be absolutely true, I want to add, that many times, peers can explain things better than an adult.  

     So it begs the questions, why don't we allow more young people to be peer tutors?  Why don't we have more peer mentoring?  The answer vary.  What is true though is that, when people are given responsibility they thrive.  

     One of the lessons of baseball, that we can apply to the classroom is that our classes, are full of leaders.  They need to be given the opportunity to lead.  Teachers would find it beneficial for students to take ownership in the classroom and for the learning that takes place.  It is an important life skill that all young people and adults need to learn.  

     I am going to leave you with one last video.  It is a picture of what I think is the Single most important play of Kenny Rogers career.  It is the catch that saved his Perfect Game. A game I might add, that I along with my dad and brother were in the stands for.  Team work is always required to win a game, and even if Rusty Greer didn't catch this the Rangers would have won, but Kenny Rogers would not have thrown his Perfect game.  We all can be successful when we work as a team, and that like Kirk Gibson's homer and Kenny Rogers Perfect game, allows for some spectacular individual achievement.