A while back, I created a post called What is the point in blogging where I referenced the development of my core beliefs. Very quickly, this is what it said:
By really working on my reflection skills, I was able to develop what I consider to be my core beliefs about education. I only realized that I was even doing this after I had written awhile and noticed some patterns in my own thinking. I can now rattle these beliefs off at any point, and I bounce every decision I make off of them. Developing these beliefs has also made me more engaged in my profession. I know what I stand for. It is incredibly powerful to understand what it is that makes you tick and holds you up when it comes to certain ideas and concepts in education, especially in the face of adversity. There are times when these beliefs are my lifeline and assure me that I am making the right decisions when they align to these philosophies. I am also more bound to my thinking when I write about it and put it out there for the world to see. Similar to writing down actionable goals, I feel like if I want to be who I say I am, I need to live the ideas that I write on my blog.
I often speak of my core beliefs. I even address them in my keynotes. While I believe everyone has core beliefs, I don’t know if many people develop them over the course of time by reflecting and actually writing them down. What I find when I speak to people about it is that they are often fragmented thoughts put together on what they think they believe. I know that I developed mine over the course of keeping my blog and looking for patterns. I am positive that, for me, deep reflecting needed to come in the form of writing things down, hence my blog. For this kind of reflection and developing your core beliefs, there needs to be some sort of catalog of thinking to see the patterns, whether it’s blogging, journaling, creating reflective videos that are private or public…but something that can be reviewed and common threads can come to light.
It’s super important to understand that when I began my blog, not only did I feel like I didn’t have ideas that anyone else would want to hear, but I also wasn’t convinced that I even had that much to say. More importantly, I did not consider myself a writer. Not. At. All. I never found solace in writing poetry when I was younger, I did not write short stories for fun, I never did any of those things that would lead me to believe that I could maintain what I was attempting to do. Like most new attempts at a project, it took practice, failure, and actually realizing that I was writing my posts for myself and my own reflection and ceasing to write for what other’s might want to hear for me to become more comfortable with the discomfort of writing. When I grasped that completely, my posts because significantly easier to produce. Because I did not consider myself a writer and never had ambitions to write publicly, I am convinced that anyone can begin the journey of reflection through writing with practice just like I did.
I believe what I wrote about developing core beliefs in What’s the point in blogging with every bit of my professional heart. I am more steadfast in my decisions because I know the basic tenets of what I believe. I can list them off and I can give you information as to why I believe that just off the top of my head because they have become embedded in who I am as a professional. Developing these beliefs has been one of the best “gifts” I have given to myself. They have occasionally been my lifeline when I am unsure of myself and what I am doing, and they have tethered me to education and students in a more concrete way. Most importantly, they are mine. They are a direct result of me taking the time to reflect and find what is important to me. While people might agree with my core beliefs, they may have their own for their own reasons, and that is exactly the way it should be.
Because I believe so strongly about developing core beliefs, I have decided to do a series on mine, not only to discuss what mine are but how I found them and use them hoping that it will inspire others to do the same. They are in no particular order, and no belief, to me, holds greater weight than any of the others (ie the first one I post is no more or less important than the last).
Core Belief: We need to teach people to do the things we ask them to do
My best example of this is when we ask kids to reflect. If you have children of your own and you’ve ever told them to go to their room and think about what they’ve done, you know that you walk in ten minutes later to them playing with their Barbies or Legos most likely completely oblivious to what they were supposed to be doing when they were sent there. They probably sat on their bed for three minutes and rewound the situation in their heads, wondered how long mom or dad would be angry, and then began playing with their toys. At most, they may have thought about how angry they were at their brother/sister for getting them in trouble. They probably did not reason through what they could have done differently to avoid getting into trouble unless you, as a parent, walked them through that process.
The same holds true for our kids in school no matter the grade level. We often ask them to reflect, whether it’s about a goal or assignment or even their behavior with another student, but we never teach them what that looks like. We rarely give them examples and walk them through role play situations with an external dialog of internal thoughts. How to not start your reflection with what someone else did or blaming circumstances out of your control, but instead what role you had in the situation and what you could have done differently. I am positive that I did not learn how to be truly, deeply reflective until I was about 38 years old, and it was only because I taught myself and practiced, not because I was taught in school.
We do this with teachers and professional development as well. We say things like, “Use Twitter” or implement a new initiative but then don’t give them the necessary professional development to learn it. I once had an administrator say to me, “Teachers should be able to learn on their own because they are professionals” to which I responded, “No, teachers should be willing and open to the learning we provide them because they are professionals.” There’s a difference. We need to provide educators with an abundance of (not only the necessary) professional development and follow-up support to do the things we ask them to do with students.
This first core belief has spurred me onto finding additional ways we can provide professional development support to teachers, and has made me aware, as an administrator, of what I am asking teachers to do and if they need additional help in getting there. It may be in the form of buy-in or developing a new skill set, but I try very hard not to ask if I’m not willing to provide the learning. I have learned to never assume. This same idea can be carried over into the classroom. It’s one of the reasons that I practiced everything with my students before releasing them to do it on their own. We practiced procedures at the beginning of the year, for example. We role played and we worked through reflective practices together. While I hadn’t developed my beliefs to this extent at the time. I realized later that this has been an embedded belief even back to my classroom days, and still continues to drive me in my current role.
So, the first “lesson” of developing core beliefs is to begin to write. Even if that “writing” is jotting down three thoughts a day that you had at some point that seems significant. They don’t need to be mind-blowing or deep thoughts. Just three thoughts. You’re not necessarily looking for an epiphany, you will develop your beliefs by looking at patterns. Another option: begin a blog. Whether it’s public (which I recommend) or private, or written or a video blog (vlog), begin to chronicle your journey. The patterns you find after time will help you develop your core beliefs.
You can find the next post in the series on core beliefs here.
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