reframing your emotions

 

The Baltimore Ravens were a big underdog in the first round of the NFL playoffs.  They were playing with a back-up quarterback against the Cincinnati Bengals, one of the most talented teams in football.  However, in the fourth quarter, the game was tied, and the Ravens were two yards away from scoring the leading touchdown.  At this point, Tyler Huntley, the Ravens’ back-up quarterback, tried to leap over the pile to score.

As Huntley stretched out his arms, a Bengals player knocked the ball out of his hands, picked up the ball, and ran it in for a touchdown.  Instead of the Ravens leading by seven, they were now behind by seven. That wound up being the final score and the end of the Ravens’ season.

As the game ended, my friend asked me what I thought John Harbaugh, the Ravens’ coach, said to his quarterback.  I told him that Harbaugh probably realized there was no reason to emphasize the final play.  During the season, you are going to make good plays and bad plays.  What was important for the team was what would Huntley do the next time he was put in that position.

What Harbaugh probably did was call the team’s video coordinator to put together clips of all the great plays Huntley had made to get the Ravens to that point.  The goal, of course, was to restore the quarterback’s confidence so that he would perform at a high level the next season.

When facing adversity, it is easy to fall.  What is more important is how you bounce back.  Take a moment to think about all your successes that helped get you to where you are today.  Do not live in the negative world. Rather, reframe your situation.  Instead of thinking, “This is the worst I have ever been,” change your language into “This is extremely challenging.”

The challenge for all of us is to make sure that we neutralize our negative emotions in a way that allows us to find future successes.

Learning to love the process

 

After every basketball game my team lost when I was young, my dad would ask me what I could do to help the team win. My first response usually was to blame another player, but that was not an acceptable answer to my father. He wanted me to reflect on the game, think about my performance, and then decide what I needed to do to help the team win.

When I had identified something that could have been improved, his next question was, how you are going to fix it. As a result, I spent many days at the schoolyard shooting jumpers or thinking about the proper way to defend a player.

This practice of identifying improvements is one I have kept my entire life. After finishing any project or teaching a class, I think about what I need to change the next time. It has become second nature for me to admit my failures and learn from them. I have even taken the process a step further by asking students to evaluate me after every class.

When I grew older, the question became how I could help my teammates become better players. This forced me to think about their strengths and how to use these strengths to help us win. Again, I had to reflect upon what was happening on the court.

What I started to realize is that if you really want to win, you need to analyze the process. The process is going to change depending on different variables, and you need to be very flexible with your thinking.

The challenge for all of us is to open our minds to change. Remember, the best time to change is when things are going well, because you usually have the confidence and resources to make these changes work.

As always, I appreciate your feedback.

My New Years resolution to flip flop

The New Year brings, of course, New Year’s resolutions. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to become more of a flip-flopper. When I have told this to people so far, they look at me like I am crazy. There is such a negative connotation to changing your mind—but after all, isn’t that what learning is all about?

Ten years ago, when someone told me that they were allowing their students to retake quizzes, I thought they were crazy. “Why should we allow them to retake the quiz?” was my quickly retorted. “If they do badly on the quiz, then they should study harder the next time.”

As I started to open my mind to the idea, I realized that it does not matter when the student learns the material as long as they learn it. Sometimes, factors beyond their students’ control impact their performance, so giving them another chance seems reasonable. This is one example of how flip-flopping benefits student achievement.

Recently a friend of mine asked, what is more important, the situation (class environment) or the student? If we think a student is lazy, is that student just lazy in my class? Is that student not good at math, or are they just not good at math in my class? Can a change in the situation totally change the student's performance?

These questions are what I am going to try to think through this year. I am going to ask former and current students about the characteristics of a classroom that allow them to reach peak performance. I hope that some of these ideas will get me to flip my previous beliefs and allow my students to become more successful.

The challenge for all of us is to open our minds to change and realize that new information can lead to new decisions. I am hoping that at the end of the year, when I tell people that I am a flip-flopper they will congratulate me.

There are many students and teachers who read this; I would be very interested in your thoughts.