Remembering the Old in the New

Well, I can't believe 2010  has gone by so fast. What I have to show for it?  Hmm.  I have to be honest this year has not been my finest.  Much of has to do we the amount of change that took place in my life during the year.  I am not trying to make excuses for it but I need this year to realize a few things about myself.  I would like to share a few of them with you in this blog so hopefully, you don't have to repeat my mistakes in 2011.

For starters, I realized that routines get you through the weird times.  This past year I gradually became committed to framing my daily work with well worked out schedules.  The more I stuck to it when things were good the more it will be useful to me when things weren't so great.

I also realized that not to do lists are just as important as to do list.  I can't take all the credit for this one because I got the idea from a great article, but I did make it my own.  It is very easy to become consumed by the need to do more.  I learned the hard way that the ability to do more is not as good as the ability to do more quality work.  It was hard, but forcing myself to identify the things that I needed to stop doing caused me to reflect more on the impact of my actions.  As a result, I could recognize what were the true ingredients to successfully completing higher quality work.

Lastly, I realized that you have to always remember who you are and what you make you good at what you do.  This may sound unpractical, but surprisingly it is very helpful when done correctly.  Who doesn't have work-related stress, demanding clients, and looming deadlines? Well in all that it is easy to lose sight of what makes you successful or what do you actually do well.  Both of which are needed when times are tough and the workload is piling up.  It does not hurt to keep a record of your successes and acknowledgments. It could be as a simple as box or folder that you collect artifacts supporting your "genius".  Maybe it would be easier for you to keep an electronic record, regardless of your preference, just do it.  Now you can't stop there, you will have to review it from time to time to keep it fresh.  After all, if you keep up with your successes who will?

Well, I know that I will have many more lessons this year and I look forward to learning them all! Try these out and hopefully you will be able to move on to bigger and better lessons this year. May you have a blessed 2011!

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

"Happy Thanksgiving."   This is something I am sure we all hear often this time of year but does it really mean anything to anybody any more.    Just look around, the economy is in shambles, many people are without jobs, the government is divided, and the Dallas Cowboys lost!  Personally, I have a job that challenges me every day, a healthy growing family,  as well as tests and trials, so what should be my mindset on Thanksgiving?

When I look around me I don't things are not always "black and white" when it comes to having a Thanksgiving mindset. This country has become accustomed to so much material wealth and prosperity that even in times of financial crisis we continue with many of the lifestyle habits that not only contradict a true Thanksgiving attitude but also contribute to the financial downturn.  Ironically, over the years we have moved further and further away from giving thanks on the day of Thanksgiving.  Think about it, what would Thanksgiving be these days without our fixation on turkey, football, gluttony,  and Black Friday?

Personally, I am tired of the cycle.  This year I am going to be thankful for my faith, family, friends, employment, health, and everything else that comes along with them even if it kills me. I refuse to fall into the trap of overeating and regretting it on the scale.  I refuse to be glued to the TV watching football while ignoring all of the family members sitting around me. I refuse to be influenced by the commercials and advertisements dead set on getting me to want more and buy more of the latest greatest gadgets.  I also refuse to continue wasting precious time away from what matters most in my life.  First I will strive to live a thankful week.  Then I will look forward to experiencing a thankful month.  Ultimately, I am going to try to avoid all of the things that have come to symbolize Thanksgiving.  Now I am not talking about the things we say this day represents, but the things that have come the represent Thanksgiving today.  Here is to really giving thanks on the day of Thanksgiving!

Black Science Teachers' Motivation on Black Students-Part 1

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African-Americans have made many advances socially in the 20th century, from segregated schools to an African-American president of the United States.  Through all of the great accomplishments of African-Americans over the years remain a vast educational and professional chasm to the field of science.

Here, in the 21st century, we continue to see a shortage of African-American science teachers, and consequently an extreme shortage of African-American students going into the hard science courses or science careers. Smaller proportions of African-American students tend to complete advanced science course compared with whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders. (National Science Board 2004)  As a concerned educator, I desired to change the status of black students in the field of science.

The first years of my professional experience as an educator were spent teaching physics and mathematics in the inner city with predominately low socioeconomic, African-American students.  My motivation for teaching in that environment came from my desire to make a difference in black students' achievement in the hard sciences and to give them exposure without turning them away from careers in science or engineering.  Mostly, I wanted to let them know that it was okay to be an African-American and like science. From my personal accounts, I recognized an elevation in student attention but no significant increase in achievement.  I began to wonder if I was making any significant impact. This intrigued me deeply and inspired a study to examine the part a science teacher's ethnicity impacts the motivation of African-American students to take courses in the hard sciences.  My intentions were to identify specific areas of influence African-American science teachers have on African-American science students.  In a future blog entry, I will share some of my findings and their implications.