Afternoon Ti

Season Five: Episode 109 Summer Health Series 2020 Goal Review As a huge goal setter, this year has thrown me.  A lot.  In some ways things are looking great and I’m actually ahead of where I’d ever thought I’d be and in other areas I’m scrapping what I was dreaming and working towards.  We are about halfway through 2020 and now is a great time to look at goals you’ve set and do three things with them:  Reevaluate, Refocus, and Reach.   Last year I talked about these three words in my 2019 Goal Review on Season One: Episode 36.  They were something I heard talked about in a podcast by Rachel Hollis and I loved the positivity around this process.  No shame if you haven’t done what you’d hoped.  And only joy for what can happen in the future.  Here’s a short run down of what this looks like when you apply these three terms to your goals: We’ll start with Reevaluate:   If there’s a goal that you don’t feel that’s worth working towards ...

Season Five Episode 108 Summer Health Series Listening In: Racism and Injustice I like to take time to process difficult issues.  In matters of politics and hard conversation topics I often feel torn because I see aspects of both sides.  Truly.  And I find it hard to work out what is true.  I spend time reading articles from a wide variety of sources and books, listening to podcasts about things I agree with and things I don’t, and watching documentaries about people I admire and people I’m not sure I agree with at all.  Time praying and asking God to help me understand.  I am not conservative on all topics, but I don’t agree with all liberal beliefs either.  It makes voting challenging.  It makes conversations challenging - sometimes I feel like I say too little and appear to not care or that I agree with everyone who is talking or I say too much and offend those sitting with me as I try to verbalize everything that I’m processing inside and ...

Season Four Episode 107 Active Listening with Robert Franz Robert Franz Website Stella's Magical Musical Balloon Ride Ted Talk: Active Listening and Our Perception of Time Robert Franz Bio: Acclaimed conductor, Robert Franz, recognized as "an outstanding musician with profound intelligence," has held to three principles throughout his career: a commitment to the highest artistic standards, to creating alliances and building bridges in each community he serves, and a dedication to being a strong force in music education.  As Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, and newly appointed Artistic Advisor of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, he has achieved success through his focus on each of these principles. His appeal as a first-rate conductor and enthusiastic award-winning educator is acclaimed by critics, composers, and audiences of all ages.  Composer Bright S...

Season Four Episode 106 What's Next If you listened to any of the reflection episodes that I shared recently - episodes 101-105 to be more specific - you heard me share some ways to reflect on different areas of your life - virtual teaching, summer, focusing on today only, your mental/physical/emotional health, and what’s ahead for fall.  Reflection is important because it helps us see where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go.  I’ve finished teaching for this school year and this coming week at work we are finishing the school year out with teacher inservice meetings.  What’s next is several weeks of summer to take time to rest like we might not have ever done before.  Never before have I had a summer that is so wide open with literally not a single item on the calendar - except one possible short trip with my parents, but even that could change depending on what the CDC and the states decide.  Even over this past weekend I struggled int...

Season Four Episode 105 Reflection Series Looking at the Fall Reflection Guide  I like to have a plan and I like to have control over where things are headed, even if it’s just the illusion of control.  I feel better when I’ve prepared to the best that I can and have some ideas for how to move forward with curriculum, content, and personal goals.  As I think about the fall and how many different ways teaching could look at that point, I’ve tried to think about how best I can prepare myself for whatever might happen.  I realize this is impossible to perfectly plan for, but if I can understand some of my anxiousness and my hopes then I feel that I can move forward from those to thinking about how I might begin to think about content and things I can do.  There’s no perfect way to do this, but I feel better thinking about it rather than avoiding it until I am forced to think about it.  I thought I’d share the things I’m thinking about with you so I’...

Season Four Episode 104 Reflection Series Today Reflection Guide This past Sunday we met with our community group from church on Zoom and talked about how things are going.  Someone mentioned how they find that if they are able to focus one day at a time then they’re able to manage life better.  That if they think too far in the future it’s overwhelming, but they’re able to handle this time just one day at a time, which is something the bible talks about.  Matthew 6:34 says “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.”  In thinking about how I can better focus on one day at a time I thought I’d share the things I’m thinking about with you so I’ve turned all of my personal reflections into this five episode series that I hope will be helpful for you as well.  Each episode will be about a specific topic and I’ve created a simple guide that includes the questions asked within the po...