EDCI 325 at UVM has been less relevant to my teaching and more relevant to life. This is the second reflection that I submitted.
“Innovate or die.” Right in chapter one of the Innovator’s
Mindset. For me, the last several weeks have been less about learning to lead
people through tough changes that have to be made and more about learning to
come up with meaningful changes. Both of these concepts are very necessary
skills, but I have had less practice coming up with innovations and plans for
implementation. In the last year I have helped to lead part of my institution
through some very difficult and uncomfortable changes. The first few weeks of
this class caused me to reflect extensively on the experience. In many ways I
helped shape the change, but in many ways the transition changed me and my
mindset. That was the tough, necessary stuff, and we are through much of it
now. Now is when we must innovate to move forward. In fact, without innovation
I don’t think we can move forward.
I am still
fully grasping the extent of the change that must occur to successfully
integrate the farm where I work into the greater UVM Animal Science program. When
it is zero degrees, nothing goes according to plan, and I find myself doing
morning chores until noon, I start to feel overwhelmed. It starts to feel next
to impossible to get ahead. In week seven, as I looked through the vision
artifacts of others, I realized what I was lacking was a clear vision. Yes, I
had written a paragraph for voice thread, and yes, I had spent countless hours
day dreaming about this future, improved program, but I hadn’t actually sat
down and organized. My vision needed to be somewhere other than my brain. When
I started to see my vision on my screen while using OneNote, my motivation was
reinvigorated. I want this. In the Science Leadership Academy artifact, Chris
Lehman says, “we have to stop talking about it.” He was talking about using
technology as a vehicle for learning. People make a big deal out of using a
particular tool, but as educators we just need to make technology another part
of our learning spaces. I had put this quote in my notes and it only resonated
as I was creating my own vision artifact. I needed to stop getting so worked up
about the type of program I was using and whether or not I had worked in enough
elements of technology. I asked myself how technology could enhance and
communicate my vision and went from there.
For my
vision to come to fruition, I will need to continue to grow personally, in my
horsemanship and as a teacher. “Perhaps the amazing thing we can do is make
growth mandatory- for ourselves as educators, as well as for our students. That
is how we can truly serve our children” (Ch.1, Curous). It is never about me.
It is about something greater and that is not to be forgotten. So often at the
university level, I hear stories and see professors losing sight of the idea
that the university was created first and foremost for education. Research is
important, but freshman biology can’t be taught as an afterthought. It would be
so unjust for me to teach students to work with horses because it was a way for
me to have my own projects funded. Up until this point, most of the work I’ve
done teaching young, abused and spoiled horses, has been the horse and me. It
has been about the horse and helping it learn to get along with people and
think a little bit better. Note: horses are flight animals. Instinctively, they
don’t naturally think a whole lot. I have done a bit of work with people
students working with horse students and it is incredibly challenging. However,
it is my new reality. I must drop the notion that I will get all of the horses
taught as best and as fast as possible. They are a medium for the students to learn
with. The idea that I must embody is that the students will be taught to learn
from horses. The students will be taught clear communication and leadership.
Empathy will be required of them. If I can teach these students all these
things, the horses will turn out brilliantly.
This shift
in my identity as a horsewoman is powerful. George Curous wrote in chapter 2 of
the Innovator’s Mindset that “innovation is not about the stuff. It is a
way of thinking.” This isn’t about breeding the nicest horses to be worked with
by students in the nicest facility. It is about creating a safe space for
students to learn skills that will carry them through their lives with horses
and beyond. There is so much more to learn and innovate. This week one of my
classmates tweeted a quote from Jennifer Lagarde. “But that’s the thing about
learning, isn’t it?.... We do the best we can until we know better. Then we do
better.” I must continue to learn and to innovate in order to continue to do
better. However, my best right now will be good enough for today, just as long
as I don’t become content with this version of my best. One of the most
powerful parts of the last eight weeks has been looking at what I know now and
what I knew just a year ago. My knowledge and abilities have grown
exponentially. It is hard to even fathom what I might be able to know and
innovate five years from now. It is exciting and motivating.
As
educators, it is our duty to set our students up for a life of learning. Curous
writes of educators being a “guide on the side” to students to “support them in
a way that encourages them to find their own solutions.” Learning, reflection
and mindful practice have become entrenched in my life in the last few years.
New knowledge and ways to implement it are exciting. I seek out learning
opportunities. This is a hunger that I want to share with my future students.
Knowledge leads to empowerment and that is such a beautiful feeling. I want to
help my students build up their toolbox so they can walk into any situation
with a horse and flourish. Set them up, and then step away. Really, once one
can establish powerful softness and clear communication with horses, one can be
successful in most situations with people.
As I move
forward mindfully, as a guide, and not a manual of instructions, I will make
mistakes and students will make mistakes. Mark Rashid is a renowned horseman
and practices the art of aikido. He posted something on facebook last week that
really resonated. “While practicing kindness with our horses, it’s also
important to remember to practice kindness with ourselves. Mistakes are
learning opportunities, not the end of the world.” Sometimes we use up our
kindness and forgiveness on others and forget about ourselves. We lose a great
opportunity for growth if we don’t make mistakes and reflect on them. Innovation
is the unknown. We don’t know how new ideas will work out. We must be kind
enough to ourselves to say “hey that’s ok, let’s try again” or “I think we need
to adjust some things before we try again,” instead of “that didn’t work, I was
wrong.”
Over
halfway through this class and at age 24, I know where I want to go, and I have
very little idea of how I am going to get there. What I do know, is that I have
all the faith in the world in my ability to learn and find answers. I know that
I will continue to learn better and that I will use my ideas of today to build
on my ideas and mistakes of yesterday. I am empowered, and isn’t that what
matters?
Two of my students on two of my personal horses
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