Thoughts on Education, Leadership, and Life from an Outsider
Not every organization begins through an order from on high.
Some of the greatest change comes from groups of people who share a common vision and a desire for change.
These groups make change happen over time, building a case for their views and influencing others.
Change takes time but when driven organically, it stays.
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I’m sure when many professionals look back on their grad school experience, there are a few things they’d tell their past selves.
“Slow down.”
“Pace yourself.”
“Take care of yourself.”
Face it, grad school requires a ton of time and effort. And many grade students are working full-time while they’re in school, adding to the pressure and lack of time to complete school work.
Yes, there’s lots to do in grad school, but taking time for yourself is still important. Doing well in grad school is important, too, but if you don’t take care of yourself, your accomplishments in school are for naught.
So, let’s get back to your reading habit.
Reading books can help you develop new habits, stay motivated, and increase your energy levels. And reading keeps your brain engaged more than binging 17 seasons of your favorite shows on Netflix (although, sometimes, you need a binge).
I have lots of reading to do in my studies. Let’s face it: most reading for grad school is NOT fun. It may be interesting and, hopefully, informs your work, but it’s not stirring anything deep in your soul.
Should you read for pleasure when you’re in grad school? OF COURSE!
Even if you get in just a few hours a week of reading your favorite genre, you will benefit. Don’t overlook the benefits of jumping into another world for a few hours and forget about the pressures of grad school.
Let’s take a look at some books to help you in your grad school journey. These books cover the writing process, productivity, self-care, and some fun reads.
If you’re having trouble making headway with your writing, you might want to check out “How to Write a Lot” by Paul Silvia. It’s not going to turn you into Shakespeare or anything, but it can help you build good writing habits and make it easier to separate your writing time from your personal time. The book breaks the writing process down into bite-sized chunks, making it easier to tackle and giving you plenty of opportunities to celebrate your progress. Definitely worth a shot – you might be surprised at how much you can get done.
This book is a total classic, and it’s all about how to write and how to get over writer’s block and all those pesky mental roadblocks that get in the way of writing. It’s not specifically about grad school or academia, but it’s on this list because it’s basically the bee’s knees when it comes to writing advice.
The title comes from a story the author wrote when she was a kid about writing a paper about birds. Like “How to Write a Lot,” this is all about taking it slow and steady, tackling one small task at a time.
A unique book that can help snap you out of typical academic writing mode “…thus the present findings elucidate a novel method for exploring the behavior and interactions of…”
Almost poetic. Almost rhythmic. Straight to the point. The author explains in free form the fallacies and illusions of forming sentences and getting them onto the page. This will force you to re-think your mental process resulting in better sentences and better papers.
The end of the book covers examples of common sentences and calls out the superfluous wording, re-writing it with only the essentials.
If you’re lacking motivation, struggling to get started every day, or
are completely overwhelmed by the massive task at hand, give this book a look. It doesn’t offer any real advice on the details of a dissertation
but instead aims to instill confidence in the reader. The author guides
you through setting daily page goals, storing ideas, and getting
something–anything–down on the page each day. Essentially a personal
confidence coach for writing, applicable to more than just a
dissertation.
Starting your literature review is the hardest part. It feels like a
daunting task without a clear path to success. This book helps break
down each step in the process into achievable goals supplemented by
strategies for efficiently and effectively approaching each one. The few
hours spent reading this book will be paid back to you in saving time
researching and writing later. It will help save your sanity and reduce
anxiety approaching your first literature review.
This book has been instrumental in maintaining my sanity. Hal Elrod’s book shares his technique of six popular morning routine practices: exercise, reading, journaling, visualization, affirmations, and meditation. He started doing all of them every morning after a near-fatal car accident left him physically and mentally impaired. He refined the timing and intentions around each practice and shared it with friends, which exploded by word-of-mouth. Eventually, he wrote a book to share the technique with the world.
This book is highly recommended for anyone with a self-driven and self-structured workday, like a typical grad student. Read it soon to see how it can greatly impact your life.
In my mind, this book is the bible of productivity.
“The Getting Things Done (GTD) program is designed to help you do the things you have to do with less time, energy, and effort so you can do more of the things you want to do.
The crux of the GTD system is to store every task, reminder, and note bouncing around your brain in an external organization system to free up your mental energy to actually focus on the task at hand. Your brain is great at creating and processing things but not at remembering them, so trying to keep track of everything in your head saps your brainpower from doing what your mind does best.
For more great books for grad students, check my ever-growing list right here.
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To become an expert at something, you have to practice that something.
Doctors and lawyers often use the term “practice” to describe their daily work.
Educators are the same. We practice every day. And we get a little better every day.
So do our students. Provided we allow them to practice.
This idea is at the heart of student-centered instruction. We serve to guide them along their path; they choose the path.
And they choose how long they stay on that path. The more passion they have, the longer and harder they will work.
The more we walk all over their practice time with test prep and meaningless teacher talk designed to keep us in control, the less engaged our students will be.
Less engagement means they practice other things. And so begins the cycle.
Let them practice; let them learn.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!
“Anyone can face ease and success with confidence. It is the way we face trouble and misfortune that defines us. Self-pity goes with selfishness, and there is nothing more to be deplored in a leader than that. Selfishness belongs to children, and to half-wits. A great leader puts others before himself. You would be surprised how acting so makes it easier to bear one’s own troubles. In order to act like a King, one need only treat everyone else like one.” (Joe Abercrombie, Before They Are Hanged)
Since its founding in 1917, the Pulitzer Prize has recognized excellence in journalism, arts, and literature. The Pulitzer Prize winners for 2023 have been announced, and they represent some of the best and brightest in their respective fields.
Among the winners are journalists who exposed corruption and abuse of power, authors who wrote moving and thought-provoking works of fiction and non-fiction, and musicians who created groundbreaking new compositions. The Pulitzer Prize continues to symbolize the highest achievement in these fields, and the winners serve as inspirations to us all.
You can see the winners in all categories, including 15 Journalism categories, on the Pulitzer website. You can also watch the ceremony in full on YouTube below.
Here are the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winners in the Books categories.
“Demon Copperhead,” by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
“Trust,” by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead Books)
Finalist:
“The Immortal King Rao,” by Vauhini Vara (W. W. Norton & Company)
“Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power,” by Jefferson Cowie (Basic Books)
Finalists:
“Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America,” by Michael John Witgen (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture/University of North Carolina Press)
“Watergate: A New History,” by Garrett M. Graff (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)
“G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century,” by Beverly Gage (Viking)
Finalists:
“His Name is George Floyd,” by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking)
“Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century,” by Jennifer Homans (Random House)
“Stay True,” by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)
Finalists:
“Easy Beauty: A Memoir,” by Chloé Cooper Jones (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)
“The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir,” by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Doubleday)
“Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020,” by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
Finalists:
“Blood Snow,” by dg nanouk okpik (Wave Books)
“Still Life,” by the late Jay Hopler (McSweeney’s)
“His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking)
Finalists:
“Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern,” by Jing Tsu (Riverhead Books)
“Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction,” by David George Haskell (Viking)
“Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation,” by Linda Villarosa (Doubleday)
“Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.” (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)
“The first step toward becoming rational is to understand our fundamental irrationality.” (Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature)
I had no idea that Wil Wheaton graced my home state with his presence back in March at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. I can’t tell you how bummed I am that I missed seeing him speak.
Neverminding my failure to stay on top of cool things, Mr. Wheaton was nice enough to post a copy of his remarks on his site. I’m just a few years younger than Wil and not only empathize with his childhood experiences but can say I had my own version of them.
I also totally agree that “the library is a safe place” for everyone.
In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That’s where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It’s where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, “What do you like? What’s important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?”
That moment was so special and meaningful, not just then, but for years after. When I got older, I began to learn that so much of what had been presented to me as truth in school wasn’t just false, it was propaganda. I remember the first time I saw a banned books display at a bookstore in the mall when we were on location for Stand By Me. I wanted to read all of them, because I’d figured out that if They didn’t want me to, there must be something pretty great inside.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird, and began thinking about racism and injustice.
I read 1984 and Brave New World, and began thinking about autocrats, and what it meant to be truly free to choose our own destinies.
I read Johnny Got His Gun, and All Quiet on the Western Front, and saw firsthand the horrors of war.
– Wil Wheaton
You can read his full remarks right here.
As educators, we are constantly bombarded with new ideas, insightful quotes, and pieces of information that can inspire and improve our teaching practices. The challenge is finding a way to capture and organize these gems so that they can be easily accessed and applied when needed. Enter the commonplace book, a time-honored tool for doing just that.
Saving the minutiae of everyday life isn’t a new thought. People have been doing it for thousands of years and continue to do it even today (Pinterest, anyone?).
As Seneca said,
“We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application–not far far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech–and learn them so well that words become works.”
A commonplace book is a personal repository where individuals collect and organize quotes, ideas, anecdotes, and other pieces of knowledge they come across in their daily lives. It’s not just a diary or journal, it’s something you can refer to over and over again. It is a space for reflection, inspiration, and creativity.
Commonplace books take many shapes and forms, both physical and digital. Whether you keep a journal, binder, scrapbook, or even a Tumblr blog (yep, it’s still around!), the commonplace book can be an essential part of your life. Heck, even this blog is a form of commonplace book.
By keeping a commonplace book, educators can harness the power of the thoughts and ideas they encounter, making it an invaluable resource for personal growth and professional development.
Educators are lifelong learners who are constantly processing new information. Writing down ideas, quotes, and insights in a commonplace book allows us to engage with the material on a deeper level, enhancing memory and recall. This practice can be particularly beneficial for educators who want to remember important concepts and strategies they can use in their classrooms.
Commonplace books are a breeding ground for creativity and innovation. As you collect and organize ideas, you naturally begin to make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, sparking new insights and approaches. Educators can use these connections to develop innovative teaching strategies, create engaging lesson plans, or solve problems they face in their daily work.
By curating a collection of thoughts and ideas that resonate with us, we can create a personalized roadmap for reflection and growth. Educators can use their commonplace books to explore their own philosophies, values, and beliefs about teaching and learning. This practice can lead to greater self-awareness and help educators grow both personally and professionally.
A well-maintained commonplace book can serve as a conversation starter and a networking tool. Educators can share their collections with colleagues, fostering collaboration and camaraderie. A shared passion for learning and growth can create strong professional bonds, leading to more productive and enjoyable working relationships.
By keeping a commonplace book, educators model a commitment to learning and growth for their students. This practice can help create a culture of curiosity and intellectual exploration within the classroom, fostering a love of learning in students that can last a lifetime.
Creating and maintaining a commonplace book is a simple yet powerful practice. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
In conclusion, a commonplace book is an invaluable tool for educators, offering numerous benefits that can enrich their professional lives. By capturing, organizing, and reflecting on the ideas and insights they encounter, educators can cultivate a more creative, innovative, and self-aware approach to their work. So why wait? Start your own commonplace book today!
Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!
Hey gang. It’s been a bit, but life has been… crazy. However, I’m rounding the bend on a number of projects and have breathing room again.
I did manage to find about an hour each week to watch the final season of Picard—by far the best season—and a quote from Captain Shaw in the final episode really struck me. His recorded review of his first officer, Seven of Nine, described how she was reckless and a rule breaker. But, very often, the rules she was breaking were probably already broken anyway.
My message to you, keep breaking the rules that are already broken. Trust me, there are plenty of them out there.
And now, for this week’s 10 Things…
Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you’ve enjoyed the insights and stories, consider showing your support by subscribing to my weekly newsletter. It’s a great way to stay updated and dive deeper into my content. Alternatively, if you love audiobooks or want to try them, click here to start your free trial with Audible. Your support in any form means the world to me and helps keep this blog thriving. Looking forward to connecting with you more!
