The Lighthouse Diary #52: When there is still more to learn...

On days when teaching and coordinating the Extended Essay weighs heavily on my shoulders, I go back to the message I received from our workshop leader.  

Dear Zarah,

Congratulations, you have completed the workshop.

It has been real pleasure working with you again. You came in with a lot of knowledge and you have built so well on those foundations, seeing and making connections, appreciating how what you have been learning can be applied in your own situation.  Your Learning Journal in itself is impressive.  However much we know there is still more to learn - and we learn from each other.  So thank you too for sharing your thoughts and experience so generously too, others have and are benefiting from your thoughts and comments and advice. We said right at the beginning that the workshop is about far more than just ticking boxes, and your engagement throughout is much appreciated.

As you know, you can continue to access the workshop for 6 months so you will have more time to revisit the conversations and resources.

I wish you, your school and your students every success, enjoy telling those stories.

Do keep in touch.

With best wishes,

J

The Lighthouse Diary #33: What We Tell Ourselves During Tough Times

 

I am back to wearing the Adviser's Hat this academic year. One month into the term, I am still adjusting. How I wish it was like riding a bike again after a long while. Ah, the value of muscle memory. It is not the same with teaching children and students, or with trainig people in general.

What keeps my spirit up is the support of colleagues and co-advisers, as well as the honesty and diligence of my students. How admirable that they all could manage to show up and do the work as best as they can. This energy is evident in the online environment too. I discovered, it is not less real or inauthentic. There are signs to watch out for. Cues and clues to catch the sincerity from engaging with people online.

Suffice it to say that we are learning and adapting to this new normal. If anything, this change can bring about new ways to relate with people. What remains is the eagerness and the need to connect, to communicate and to create.

This self-care/self talk poster I made for my advisory class is aimed to remind my students that they are not alone in online distance learning. The quotes written on each block are words they wish to hear from me and from themselves during tough times.

At the start of the academic year, when we had our first group advisory session, I told them that the Diploma Program is rigorous. So, before we identified personal goals, we accepted that there are difficulties to face, eventually. Fleshing these out can come in later or in mid-term when submission of requirements and deadlines are pilling up on top of the other. So, I asked my advisees what they want to hear from me when things get really tough. What will they tell themselves?

The poster is evidence of their resilience, empathy and grit.