Connect the dots

Today the pastor was showing the kids during the children’s’ sermon his ‘Connect the Dots Coloring Book’.  He said that there was a hidden picture but in order to see the picture, you had to start with A, then draw a line to B, over to C, up to D, down to E, and so forth until you arrived at the end and then you saw the picture.  “You cannot start and jump from letter to letter”.  (Don Guthrie, pastor First Baptist Church San Antonio November 14, 2010)  I started to think about Michael Fullan’s The Six Secrets of Change, rule number 2: Connect Your Peers with a Purpose.  People need to know their work is important and how it relates to other people’s work and at the end, you see the big picture. 

Leadership

Leadership is not on the organizational chart, nor a job title- leadership is a characteristic.

Responsibility

Some of our students will play the blame game by purchasing textbooks they don’t need and enrolling in classes not on their degree plan. They don’t graduate on time. And guess what? It’s all, my fault.  

I hear:

·         ‘This class fit better in my work schedule, than that one’.

·         ‘I’m a junior, and my advisor told me to take an upper level elective - so this 5000 level course won’t work?’

·         ‘My friend at another college told me something different.’ 

·         The prof told me blah, blah, blah’.

It is so nice to see certain people taking responsibility for their actions.  "I'm embarrassed. Of course I am," Jones said after the Cowboys' 35-17 loss to the Jaguars on Sunday afternoon. "And, to every fan, I should have and do take the ultimate, ultimate responsibility. I do. That's the way we're structured. That's the way I run it. There's no question that I have the plan and executing it to have the best players and the best coaching that we can have…  I'm very, very, very sorry to our fans. You should have better than this”. http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/news/story?id=5750167

Even if you are not an NFL fan, we should all take note: and not blame others and take responsibility for your actions.

Go!

Christmas is 54 days from today.  But many people who don’t want to hear that.  They say: “Christmas will come soon enough, don’t rush it”.  One Christmas hymns, is ‘Go! Tell it on the Mountains!’  As Christians, we are to Go! Tell the world about Christ.  As leaders, we obligated to ‘Go! and love our employees’.  We are required to ‘Go! and connect our peers with a purpose’.  We are involve to ‘Go! and learn new systems’.  We cannot be stagnant.  We have to get up and Go! 

So, what are you doing? 

Birkman survey

WOW!  I did the Birkman survey earlier this week, and Truett King, the consultant, today read me like a book!  I will not bore you with the details, but briefly: I enjoy working with others and I am respectful but not invasive; prefer opportunities to work on my own initiative but want some involvement in group planning and activities.  I am meticulous; I require orderly and systematic procedures ß left-brain.  I need tangible evidence of performance and achievement awards.  I must maintain a positive self-image and I tend to externalize difficulties.  When organizing or planning, I am both alert and easily distractible, but I am a realistic and restrained, but only within a framework that permits and encourages freedom of expression.  I am decisive and to-the-point, but I need time to consider important issues when new decisions are needed.

I do not see myself this way, but was surprised to see a high score in the artistic category.  I scored low in the outdoor category, (no surprise there).  I need to work on becoming more persuasive and working more with social services.  Truett said I did not show ‘strengths a mile wide, and an inch thick”.  However, I was more a mile deep and an inch wide; I like to look and delve into specific areas.   

I told you about me, tell me about yourself.

Today, October 17, 2005

October 17, 2005

An excerpt from my travel journal to Kenya… “today is a national holiday in Kenya.  Many people have the day off (no school or work).  We traveled in the van to a small village about 30 kilometers from Kissumu along the equator.  This village does not have a name.  It is my turn to share the gospel and I am doing simcom (simultaneous communication) today.  I spoke in English and signed ASL (American Sign Language).  Walter listened to me speaking in English and translated to Swahili.  The local pastor (gosh I wish I knew how to spell his name in Swahili) listened to the spoken Swahili and translated into the local native dialect.  William (Deaf) sat across the circle from me and interpreted in KSL -Kenya Sign Language (while watching me in ASL) to a local deaf boy (age 9).  Are you ‘Lost in Translation” ?  God is good and the seed was planted here in the small village.  The local pastor will have to follow up.  It is an honor for me to come and share about Jesus to the Kenyan deaf…”

I remember there were no limits (borders) for the mission team in Kenya as we shared the gospel to the Deaf.  We (Americans) had to be willing to go and do the mission / job.  The same is true for us today in the classroom, as we incorporate multicultural and multilingual aspects to the students and prepare them for a borderless world- Transnational Leadership by Fisher-Yoshida.

This is a test

If you see this this post, please leave a smile :-)

SAT

I was asked to proctor the SAT testing today for area seniors.  I kinda felt like the test administer Dr. Ramirez /Andy Garcia in Stand and Deliver as he gives instructions, observes, and walks around the room during the test.  Use a number 2 pencil, fill in the bubble completely, erase thoroughly, carefully read the questions, multiple choice answers, you will have 25 minutes for this portion of the test, you may begin the this portion of the test.  

Are the students of today ready to leave their adolescent and venture out into the world.  Are they ready for the next step?  As educators have you prepared them to go to college?  Am I ready for them to come to the university?   So many questions, eighteen years is so little time.  

Left brain, right brain

The Whole New Mind by Pink I read the sequential/simultaneous difference of the mind: the right hemisphere is the picture, and the left hemisphere is the thousand words.  I learn by seeing, I guess that is why I learned sign language.  (My husband says use a thousand words and that I love to talk, but that is for another blog J.)  I can see the whole thought through the sign(s) or picture. 

Most Sundays, a hearing church member comes after church to tell me they watch the sign language interpreter and listen to the pastor.  They somehow see the illustration better through pictures than just listening to the blah, blah, blah of the sermon.  Now, my pastor loves country music, and he has some illustrations that are specific for country music fans.  As an interpreter, my job is to decipher his message/words, interpret and put the words onto my hands to paint a picture so the deaf can relate the Bible lesson and the country song; not an easy task to incorporate music, culture, linguists, emotion, and meaning on your hands and not have sermon notes.  But with Pink, I have to remember “empathy builds self-awareness, bonds parent to child, allows us to work together, and provides the scaffolding for our mortality”. 

I enjoy interpreting and it allows me to interact with the deaf community.  I like the quote  Oprah Winfrey said: “Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives”.  Did you read that; not our lives, but their lives. Something to think about.

Online this week

This week, not only am doing homework for 3 classes at UMHB, but I am taking a week long class for work. Friday and next Monday I will attend a webinar for more classes online. These new types of classes are different than the traditional lecture courses I did as an undergrad. The class, along with technology via the keyboard, and relating stories, symphony, empathy as Daniel H.Pink writes in A Whole New Mind, is a whole new concept. I especially enjoyed the chapters on design and laughter. Students at the university (where I work) like to come into the bookstore because we are always laughing :-)