Camp Snowball Day 3 . . .

We started the day with a team meeting continuing our discussion to establish goals for the week that carry over into the school year.  Thus far we have discussed the following potential goals.

• Implementing a model to support teachers in embedding systems thinking into our science and social studies curriculum.
• Intentionally establishing structures that give students a genuine voice in their Tahoma education.
• Continuation of our focus on sustainability that includes Establishment of a system structure for coordinating and supporting the work of our green teams.

Today was a day of new learning for me in the Intergenerational Leadership session.  The focus continued to be on personal and shared vision, but the activities were new and placed me in situations that forced reflection and examination of my level of commitment to the vision.  I am no longer thinking about wanting the vision, I now see the importance of committing to the vision.  Commitment requires some form of action to move closer to the vision and that is the  where learning and growth will take place, in the journey moving closer to the vision.

Some of the activities that we are asked to do are difficult for me because they require engaging with people I don't know in behaviors that are foreign to me.  An example are the centering activities designed to get in touch with one's inner self, to become more aware of in the moment.  My mental models towards these activities are not positive so it takes energy to commit to engaging.  Sometimes they work for me and sometimes they don't making it difficult to change my mental models.  Watching our two students engaged and sharing their thoughts has, however, made me aware that I must suspend my assumptions and consider using some of these techniques in our leadership work.