Who is a Teacher?
Have you been part of a child’s life? Have you watched YouTube videos to see how to do something? Have you helped a colleague figure something out? Have you given directions? Have you mentored someone? Have you helped a teenager learn to drive, or operate a piece of equipment, or use tools? Have you trained a pet? Have you helped someone new get to know your neighborhood? Have you contemplated a scene, and simply wondered?
There are so many ways to ask the questions, but there is one answer. We are all teachers. We teach ourselves. We teach others. We explore, explain, discover, share… The simple definition of teacher — one who helps to learn — defines our experience of growing through life.
Official “teachers” — those who work in schools — carry the burden of imparting the core knowledge of civilization, but we all share the opportunity to expand and enhance that knowledge and engage in lifelong teaching and learning. Fundamentally, the truths that guide the best experiences of teaching and learning in school settings are universal, explaining how our minds and others’ minds function optimally across all of life.
We have put together a series of courses for teachers, using the metaphors and examples of school because school is something we all share. The courses point to the explanation of how our minds work, and how we access the innate source of wisdom, insight, common sense, creativity and joyful learning common to us all.
If you’ve noticed “Resiliency in Teaching” as a CSC offering, and been curious about it but perhaps thought it didn’t have anything to do with you, we’d like you to reconsider.
We all have times when it feels like we just can’t cram anything new into our heads. We all have times when we are in a flow of “Aha!” moments, seeing beyond what we thought we knew. In the first case, we feel stuck and discouraged. In the second case, we feel inspired and exhilarated. Both are perfectly normal feelings, the product of the way we are holding and using our ability to think. When we understand how our minds work, when we understand the nature of thought, when we understand that we are all capable of clear-headed, high-spirited, enthusiastic, joyful learning and teaching, those “stuck” moments diminish, and when they occur, we know they will pass. We are just free to be.
So, if you’ve noticed “Resiliency in Teaching” as a CSC offering, and been curious about it but perhaps thought it didn’t have anything to do with you, we’d like you to reconsider. There are four courses in the series. The first, “Redefining Mental Health,” is critical to understanding the assumptions of the rest of them. but it is about how an understanding of the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought is changing many of the prevailing views about mental health and mental illness, generally. “What is Resilience?” addresses the nature of resilience, and how our access to our own innate resilience is related to our understanding of thought. “Problem-Solving” uses examples of common school situations (which are common to life, as well) — such as bullying, distraction, anger — to show how our varying states of mind are related to behaviors, and how addressing states of mind changes behaviors. “Resilience in the Classroom” describes the way in which understanding the Principles changes our experience of teaching and learning. All 4 courses can be taken together as a certificate program.
When our minds are free and clear, every moment generates joy and appreciation for our wonderful capacity to be awake to learning.
Judith A. Sedgeman. EdD