Day 36 - the sooner you take action, the sooner the fear is gone

An important part of my job is modeling risk-taking.  I consciously do this for my students and my colleagues.  For whatever reason, (that my mother let me run free like a wild child or because the planets were aligned a certain way the day I was born- who knows) I noticed that I am one of the lucky ones who can just go for it without getting too caught up in the fear. Yes, I get nervous and am afraid of failure just like everyone else- but those feelings just inspire me more - like signals that I must be doing the right thing if I'm afraid. Plus, the sooner you take action, the sooner the fear is gone. Of course, I'm not talking about jumping out of a plane or driving 100mph (I have done those but...), the risks I pay close attention to are personal risks. Some may call them professional risks, but to me my profession is very personal.
Today was a professional development day for teachers and the kids had the day off(although tons were on campus building homecoming floats and starting their UC and CSU applications). A colleague and I presented to our staff on Socratic Seminar and discussion in the classroom.  The staff was receptive and present, giving us hope that more teachers will bring this practice into their classrooms.  Besides my strong belief in how much these classroom discussions can impact students personal academic growth, I know presenting to my colleagues and taking risks in front of them influences them to take more risks, either with the staff and/or in their classroom.  Teachers need to be inspired just as much as students do. Have I said that before?

A-HA:
Choosing video clips at random from hundreds of minutes of video to a captive audience is not an effective use of time.  Next time I will select some various ability clips with more purpose.

Reminder:
More eye contact and don't be afraid to practice out loud, not just in my head.