Building Relationships
Day 5 (of 187) – September 10, 2018
I am slowly but surely flooding my office at UNBC with “stuff.” There is no way that I will handily fill 5 BOOK SHELVES within the school year, but I am prepared for the challenge. I am also slowly but surely catching onto this DAILY BLOG on days of learning. Yes, I am learning. And yes, I am one day behind, as anticipated because it takes time to form new habits. That said, I had no classes on Monday but I like to go to the university to work and meet new people. All that I have to do is LEAVE MY DOOR OPEN. This is nice. Personally, as an extrovert, I like the door open. But having my door open provides an invitation to others to walk by and say HELLO or have a seat to have a chat. I liked that. I met more faculty (new to me), connected to familiar faces, and chatted with some students one-to-one. What I am appreciating most about teaching and learning at UNBC is that I can be myself. I feel authentic to my practice and to those I work, teach, and learn with. This is a nice feeling. I like being in a state of change, personally and professionally, which helps me to gain a deep understanding of the change process and how RELATIONSHIPS are at the core of what we are trying to do and achieve.
Today will not be a super long blog reflection on learning. I’m anticipating to write another blog entry tonight on today’s day of learning. I’m teaching tonight too. Anyway, I love that I continue to make connections with other people to broaden and deepen my understanding of teaching and learning. I am diversifying my understanding being in a different place with different people and I love the opportunity to make myself vulnerable to the learning process with hopes that it will influence my teaching practice and thus improve or enhance the learning experiences of my students (aka. teacher candidates) and their students to be. This is a good place to be and I hope to continue building relationships so that we can move forward together towards a common goal. Don’t get me wrong… as much as I am excited to lunge forwards 3 steps… I do step back one or two because it’s the right thing to do. This is the thing about relationships. It’s a give and take process. There are no winners. It’s opportunities for teaching and learning. In the end… realizing this after a brief conversation with another student this morning… it’s not about what you teach that students remember, it’s the relationship that you have created and nourished… and how you made them feel in that relationship will last a lifetime.