Teaching Others to Help Yourself – Chris Cade

"We teach that which we most need to learn." ~ David Bach Some version of that quote has been used by leaders for as long as I can remember, and for good reason. While it's wonderful when we learn something new, the best way to integrate new knowledge and make it stick in our lives is to teach it. This is because teaching challenges us to really understand what we're learning. It challenges us to understand it with such clarity that we can effectively communicate it to others. Teaching also exposes us to feedback from others, and that feedback is helpful (and sometimes even necessary) for us to understand something deeply enough to integrate it into our lives. Those are just a few of the benefits you get by teaching something. Studies have shown that when you are first learning something, that if you teach it to somebody shortly thereafter, you'll remember what you learn more effectively and understand it more thoroughly. In fact, some teaching methods ~ ironically ~ require students to immediately turn around and teach others what they learn. The beauty of this approach is that it doesn't only deepen learning; it also creates more effective leaders…

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Can You Please Help

What is Donors Choose?  Donorschoose.org is a nonprofit that connects public school teachers with people who want to support classroom learning.   My Students: Some students love school and love learning and have everything they need to be successful learners. I want my students to have what they need to be successful learners. My students are in a special education program in an urban school. Half the time they come to school hungry, never mind with proper school supplies. Free and reduced lunches gets them the food, it's up to me to get them the supplies they need to become active learners. My Project: My students come to school with nothing, no notebooks, pens, pencils or paper. What they have, I've provided. They can be successful, but they need the basic tools. They are also so creative, and providing them with art supplies can channel their creativity to appropriate projects. We also just got two computers in our room, but we had nothing to put them on, so we had to use our existing student tables. The computer carts will give us a place to use the computers and give us back our tables to use for seating. My students…

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Triangles of Inner Happiness and Outer Distraction – Chris Cade

by Chris Cade 24 hours in the day. Doesn't seem like much does it? Doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep. So we're down to 16 hours a day. Most mortals spend at least 3 hours a day buying, preparing and eating food. 13 hours left. And if you work 9-5... that leaves 5 hours. Five hours isn't bad. Sadly, there are probably many people in the world who'd cut off a finger for ONE hour a day of free time. They'd give their whole hand for five hours. In five hours, you can easily improve the three corners of the Triangle of Inner Happiness... Develop your body Optimize your mind Progress spiritually ...and still have two hours left over for sanding the corners on Triangle of Outer Distraction... TV shows and novels Facebook and Twitter Conversation and socializing Thing is... most people spend all five hours being distracted. Life is way too short for too many distractions... Am I saying you should cancel your internet connection? Should grab some pork and beans move out to cabin in Northern Alaska? No. Nothing wrong with technology. Nothing wrong with people. It's really a matter of what are you doing with people. Are…

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A Reason, A Season or A Lifetime – Chris Cade

email from Chris Cade Below is a slightly modified passage which has always resonated with me because it illustrates the significance of understanding and accepting that people come into our lives for different purposes and for differing amounts of time. When we become still and tune into our intuition, we gain insight into the nature of those reasons and how we might embrace these peoples' presence in our life more fully. "A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime" -- Author Unknown People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.…

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My Own Personal Thoughts and Growth

I was  reading this post over at The Daily Love, and it was like getting hit over the head with an anvil a la Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.  Parts of it were like reading my own life story.  Think Positive 30 started out on Live Journal.  One of my dear friends and I were kvetching about how miserable our lives were and she commented that she was feeling really negative.  To compensate, she was going to post one positive thought a day in her LJ.  I thought it was an amazing idea and I made a community on Live Journal called Think Positive 30.  I figured there were probably other people that felt that way.  The community was small (very small).  It’s concept was post a positive thought for 30 consecutive days and get in the habit of thinking or finding positive things in your day.  Then we got made a spotlight community on Live Journal and membership EXPLODED.  I used to try and comment on everybody’s posts and be supportive, but when we were spotlighted, it stopped being fun and became hard work. (more…)

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You get what you give

The other day, I read this blog post called You Give What you Get and Get What You Give at mommythisandthat.com  and it really resonated with me.  Because I work with kids, I see a lot of selfish attitudes all day long.  This is in part because their teenagers, but also, the kids I work with have such challenging lives that they tend to hold on to whatever and whomever they can and never let go.  They very rarely, if ever do something nice for somebody else, and if they do, it's with because they're thinking "What's in it for me?" Now I'll be the first to admit that my students take this attitude to the extreme, but the I started thinking about myself and other people.  There aren't too many people out there who do things for people strictly for the sake of doing it.  It's kind of a shame really, because the feeling you get when you do something for somebody "just because" is the most amazing feeling. I don't have a lot in my life.  We don't have a lot of money, or a lot of things, and God knows being a single parent of two teenagers,…

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Have a Brighter Outlook

Have a brighter outlook on life - open your eyes to the possibilities and move forward toward exciting new directions. Every day, I'm surrounded by people tell me their life sucks and they have no chance of going anywhere or achieving anything.  I'll admit to feeling that way sometimes myself.  But I feel so bad for people who get trapped into that mindset.  There are ALWAYS possibilities.  They may not be the possibilities you want, but there are possibilities.  Open yourself UP to those possibilities, for they can open even more new and exciting possibilities and adventures for you.  You are NOT stuck in that same place or in that same life.  Sometimes you have to ask for help, and sometimes you just have to look around and see the opportunities that life has for you.  Remember today is full of limitless possibilities!

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The Right Direction

Whatever way you're going, you're headed in the right direction to reach your dream. Your goals are your goals. Your dreams are your dreams. There is no right or wrong way to reach your goals and achieve your dreams. So why is it that everybody seems to know the best way for us to do everything. We start out with our parents teaching us and telling us what to do and how to do it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because we need to learn. Then we head off to school and we have educators telling us what to do and how to do it. Again, not a bad thing. We are also faced with peer pressure and we often find ourselves doing what everyone else is doing the way they are doing it to fit in. Again, this isn't a terrible thing because a little conformity is not a bad thing. From there, we join the workforce and our bosses are telling us what to do and how to do it. When do we get the opportunity to decide what we want to do and how to do it? It's a challenging question without an easy answer. If…

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Time to Relax

Take time to have a cup of tea, put your feet up or do nothing – downtime can work wonders. We  live in such a busy time.  We're always on the go.  Our children have schedules that are as jam packed as that of any adult.  Even when we relax, a lot of us do it by exercising, or doing some type of arts and crafts type of activity such as knitting or scrap booking, or even surfing on the computer.  How often do we just sit, and do nothing.  Sit with our feet up and a cup of tea in our hands, or sit out in the sun and watching the birds fly by? Why not try it, just take some time and sit back and relax and do nothing.  I'm not suggesting that you ignore things that need to be done, but somewhere, in your schedule there is something that can be delayed for a time while you take time for yourself.  Maybe the dishes won't get washed right away, or the laundry will sit in the dryer for a little bit longer.  It's okay, get rid of those misplaced feelings of guilt that are plaguing you and…

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