Some of the happiest memories I have of my childhood were
spent on my Grandpa and Grandma Upah’s farm.
I can remember spending a week with them every summer and more holidays
than I can count. In the summers I would
wake to my grandma making a plate full of bacon and eggs. I would chase it with coffee that would be
heavily loaded with milk and sugar to the point it did not really resemble
coffee, but it was great! Then I usually was allowed to watch some cartoons and
the old school Adam West, Batman TV show.
Throughout the day my grandma would let me
help her pick food in the garden, feed the bottle calf, catch and tame kittens,
play with the dog, show me how to butcher chickens, and help her bake delicious
desserts (more on this to come). At the end of a long day in the field my
grandpa would let me ride the tractor with him to “help” him do chores, which
included feeding the livestock and pets.
After dinner, which if we were lucky included a trip to town to hit
Hardees and Dairy Queen, he would drive his orange and white ford pick-up truck
to his pasture so we could count the cows.
The best part of this drive was when grandpa drove up the steepest hill
in the pasture and then would hit the gas as we went flying down the hill hitting
all the bumps and laughing all the way down.
When we would return home he would show me the projects he was working
on in his wood shop, many of which are still in my house today. He is also the man that taught me how to fish
and we had many conversations while trying to catch the next big one. This man is one of the most special men I
have ever known and I miss him every day.
Sometimes at holidays I catch myself thinking about him sitting in his
rocking chair saying pockejtke (which
is Czech for, wait/hold on) when we would ask him for help or assistance in
putting a new toy together. After we patiently or impatiently did so he would
call us over and slip $5 in our pocket and tell us not to tell our mom and
spend whatever amount of time we needed with him.
The reason I share these memories is because of an event
that recently got me thinking about one of these experiences as it relates to our
role in education. My grandma used to
let me help her occasionally bake as I mentioned above. She often would make a Czech dessert, called
Kolaches. Every year Cedar Rapids, hosts
a Kolache festival and they too are very good, but they are not my
grandmas. I am sure if she wanted to she could still
make them the way I remember them. The
best part of the process was filling the “sweet spot” in the Kolache with the
different fillings – apple, cherry, prune, apricot, and my favorite – poppy
seed. Recently when I was at the Kolache
festival I got to thinking that in our careers all of us need to try to find
and function in our sweet spot as much as possible. Some authors and researches have called this
experience flow. Athletes most recently like Tim Howard of the
USMNT refer to it as being in the zone.
Have you ever asked yourself how often are you operating in
your sweet spot at school? To function at a high level we need to and as
leaders need to help staff members operate in their sweet spot for a great
portion of their day. This is really about being passionate and committed to
your work and having external barriers removed so that you can get there! There are some obvious challenges and
frustrating aspects about our work, but I love what I do and cannot imagine
being in a role that did not involve helping people in some way. If you are not operating in this zone then
ask yourself, why not? What is holding you back? How can you change?
Better yet, how can we change the experience for our
students? How many of them operate at this high level throughout the day? The
more I thought about it the answer is a little scary. I thought to myself pockejtke, I am not sure that many of them do for the majority of
the day/week at school. Rather how many do we hear say they are bored or disillusioned with what we ask them to do at school. I feel strongly about
the fact that we have to work to change this. We have to be better. We have to change. We have to give students a voice to channel their passion! They need to have the same opportunity to
work in the zone, flow, or sweet spot. Let’s
challenge ourselves to find our sweet spot and give students the chance to do
the same thing! Please share with myself and others what you are doing at your
school to increase these opportunities for students.
Be Great and Get Better!
Matt
