Last week one of my 6th grade coaching clients spontaneously started singing James Brown’s “I Feel Good” while we were cleaning out his binder:
“I feel good! nuhnuh, nuhnuh, nuhnuh nuh…
“So organi-ized nuhnuh, nuhnuh, nuhnuh!”
We sang together while he purged, hole punched, and filed.
I couldn’t help but think how much I love my job. He seemed to be enjoying himself, too.
What’s your theme song for organizing?
I just finished collaging the cover of a new spiral notebook, and now I can’t wait to write in it! Art makes such a difference in our lives.
I often have my academic coaching clients decorate their planner covers for this very reason. Just yesterday a senior in high school told me that she has already started collecting pictures for next year’s planner, when she is a freshman in college. This from a client who usually has a terrible time planning ahead.
How might you incorporate more artfulness into the mundane systems in your life?
A 17-year-old client of mine just discovered a brilliant way to motivate herself doing homework:
If she dedicates an assignment to a friend, she finds she’s more inspired and puts more effort into it than she would have otherwise!
Although I’ve never tried this technique with academic assignments, what I do know from my experience with teaching and performing InterPlay: when I do an improvisational dance on behalf of someone else, the dance has a whole different feeling than if I do it “just because.”
It doesn’t surprise me that dedicating a distasteful activity to someone about whom I care could transfer some of those good feelings onto the yucky task.
My client had been creating a map for her history class. Her eyes glimmered with pride when she reported how beautiful the map turned out because she put extra time and energy into completing it.
If any of my readers try this, please let me know how it goes!
“This book is soooooooooo boring!”
That’s the refrain I heard over and over during my academic coaching sessions today.
Tom was annoyed with My Antonia; Grace couldn’t handle Huckleberry Finn.
I used to try to convince my students that the books they were reading were actually interesting. But the problem is: I know too well what it’s like to read a book I don’t enjoy. It’s no fun! And the truth for these students is that these books ARE boring. That’s their truth in this moment.
So now I encourage them to turn reading into a puzzle: How can you trick your brain into being curious? How can you solve the problem of the boring book?
Grace and I tackled this question by making a list of all the possible ways she could think of that would make reading Huck Finn more pleasant. Here’s what she came up with:
Character What They Say What They Do Huck’s Response
After making this list, Grace seemed most interested in making the Data Collection sheet for the essay. She even got a big curious about what she might discover in the process! It doesn’t hurt that creating such a sheet will give her a leg up on her essay.
As far as Tom’s disgruntlement about My Antonia, I’m not quite sure what to do. How to inspire a 15 year old boy whose first love is first-person shooters to dig a book about relationships, immigration, and pastoralism? The jury is still out on that one.
Randy and Marcus just left my apartment. I love those two guys, and am so grateful to be collaborating with both of them on our quest to Change the World!!
As we work together, we are developing some theories of How To Collaborate in ways that are fun, purposeful, and effective. I don’t want to give away all our secrets just yet; however, I do feel inspired by our time together, and want to write some sort of celebration of our time together.
I don’t have time to write a full out blog entry, but here are a number of things I could talk about, if I had the time:
I could talk about…big warm hugs to start the work day.
I could talk about…Randy and Marcus helping themselves to the supplies in my kitchen, as if they live with me.
I could talk about…Marcus working quietly in the kitchen while Randy and I work in the living room. I love the sense of productivity that comes when groups of people are getting things done!
I could talk about…Randy sitting next to me looking over my shoulder in quiet support as I (finally) import all my my online banking transactions into Quickbook.
I could talk about…discovering that Google Docs now has simultaneous editing!!! I can be looking at my own screen, but see what Randy is typing as he types it. Woohoo!!!
I could talk about…using Google Docs to create an agenda that tracks the projects we’re collaborating on together.
I could talk about…discovering that our collaboration motto is “Adventure Together Forever…Yay!!!” What an inspiring phrase to be at the top of our work agenda!I could talk about…
I could talk about…having a shared language for productivity and collaboration based on books we’re reading, which right now include: Getting Things Done, The Five Love Languages, and The Best Year Yet.
I could talk about…realizing that I feel most loved when I receive physical touch (based on The Five Love Languages model), so it felt extra affirming when Randy leaned over and touched his head to my head as we gazed together at the computer screen.
I could talk about…the power of having the next meeting scheduled before we end the current meeting.
I could talk about…how satisifying it is to use the MuseCubes in the company of others. We took a break by rolling some new ones I’m testing. I loved Skipping Jerkily while saying Woohoo and Dancing.
I could talk about… how great it feels to thoroughly love, and be loved by, the people with whom I work.
Yum.
P.S. The picture above was taken earlier this summer, when Marcus, Randy and I went on a road trip together. In the picture they happen to be wearing the exact shirts that they had on today! Marcus is the one reading; Randy is the one working on the fire.