Guarding Apples or Sharing Cookies?

      Comments Off on Guarding Apples or Sharing Cookies?

The choice to guard apples or share cookies is actually easy for me, when I remember to step beyond problems and lead possibilities. You?  It’s a bit like choosing between a cranky staff room where complaints bat last, and a refreshing carpet ride over awesome new vistas that rev up fun and spark curiosity.

As the new term opens, this may be the best time to mimic minds of curious kids with magical and  innovative ideas that could help us past cynicism and stress.  Did I just suggest turning teacher burnout into student brilliance? Ready…Set…

Before you Check into Cynical Chatrooms or Sit in Toxic Staff Rooms

Wait –  not sure that most teachers slipped into toxic cynicism or mental stress?  A recent federal review of teacher job outcomes and survey feedback from the American Federation of Teachers . It doesn’t have to be that way… Let’s make 2017 a mind-bending time to dance with rebooted ideas! It starts with a rather simple choice to help lead a finer future, a stressful past is the best launching pad.

Not willing to stagnate in ruts with cynics or the 78 percent of teachers who express overwhelming daily levels of stress? Refusing to flee with the 17 percent of teachers leave educational careers within their first five years?  Great news, if you agree that students’ academic success rests on teachers’ mental health, you’re likely ready to look hopefully at the brain’s ability to burn strong in tough times, rather than burnout in your next class.

Take all the Cookies You Want – God is Watching the Apples!

Take all the Cookies You Want – God is Watching the Apples!

Yes, it Takes Risk …

Let’s learn from those students who tend to invent genius pathways toward assets on the other side of deficits. Take the apples and cookie problem, for instance. Story has it that a teacher – angry that hungry students were stashing apples in their pockets, hung a sign over the apple basket:  TAKE ONE APPLE ONLY – GOD’S WATCHING!

Next day a new sign in shabby letters appeared above a plate stacked high with chocolate chip cookies. TAKE ALL THE COOKIES YOU WANT – GOD’S WATCHING THE APPLES!

On a serious note, did you know that teacher stress sends out toxic cortisol effects that can kill brain cells in any gathering? An alternative?  I use two-footed questions and mind-guided innovations to get talented results from hidden and unused intelligences too often silenced by cynicism on both sides of issues.  It’s like moving from a chatroom of complaining experts to a genius circle where answers fly like unexpected melodies from diverse angles at every topic raised. No topic is banned when teachers and students lead innovative results that benefit all concerned.

The journey from burnout to brilliance begins with a two footed question toward a new innovative target to shoot for. It’s sustained by mind-guiding your working memory for a solution that benefits all. Are you guarding apples or dancing near delicious cookies today?

Looking for a New Place to Leap?

Toss out a two-footed questions to boost innovation into possibilities and away from problems. Worth a try in your next class, to unleash a possibility that resolves a stubborn problem? My students facilitate these unique 2-footed questions – brain facts – and peer-mentoring guides to innovative change in this brain-based resourcecapture1Why burnout by watching apples when you could dance with sheer delight near delicious cookies? capture-extra

Here is a mentor program (called mind-guiding) that fosters students to mentor one another for mental well-being.

YOUR TURN! Join our Brain Based Circles! Would love to meet you at any of the following!

Brain Leaders and Learners Blog
Mita Brain Center Facebook
efweber on Pinterest
@ellenfweber on Twitter
ellenfweber on Instagram
Ellen Weber on Google+
Ellen Weber on LinkedIn

Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset