Originally inspired by Stephen Covey’s book… expanded later to cover other books as a personal record…
Book 1: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Here are a few key sections/quotes/thoughts that I gathered from a very brief flick through the book. I read the first few chapters more carefully, but was well overdue in returning it and so skimmed through the last sections…
Overall image sourced from p.53. A helpful overview and worth pointing out one of my favourites (also brought out strongly in last Emerging Leaders course):
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”
Interesting insights from Covey’s own experience with son…p.16f – struggling in school, socially, athletically etc. They had desire to help him. Realised significance of how they saw him and treated him, i.e. Actions were communicating that they thought he wasn’t capable. Focused attention on their own motives and perception of him. See his uniqueness potential…they needed to affirm, enjoy and value him.
p.54 discussion on P (production of desired results) versus PC (production capability, asset that produces). Need a balance in maintaining/preserving both. Particularly, Covey later says (p.58) with regards to employees. “The PC principle is to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.” Treat them as volunteers – indeed “they volunteer the best part – their hearts and minds”.
In ‘Habit 1’ discussion of proactivity, discusses value in being proactive, driven by well thought out values etc, rather than reactive, driven by feelings, circumstances etc (like the weather!) In responding to others influence/affect on you, Covey quotes Eleanor Roosevelt – “No one can hurt you without your consent”. Our consent hurts us more than what happens in the first place. Choose my response!
Table sourced from p.78 showing proactive versus reactive type responses.
IBM founder T.J. Watson quote on p.91:
“Success…is on the far side of failure”.
Ties in well with the growth mindset idea! Need to have a go, fail first, to reach success.
Book 2: Everyday Christian Teaching
(by David Smith)
This is not as much a book review as more a collection of some of my thoughts that I wanted to note down before I pass on my loaned copy of the book to someone else! I have really found it a helpful read to consider a Christian approach to teaching that permeates right through my practice, not just looking for ways to ‘add on’ a Christian element or verse or the like to an otherwise non-Christian lesson. For me, a key idea I’ve taken from the book is to consider how broad the consideration can be to account for this – ie. how a general Christian worldview can shape teaching in ways outside explicit Christian statements or Bible verses. For example, how can we teach ‘charitable reading’ (caring about the authors/subjects), or reading with humility, patience, justice, charity and justice; how can we show ‘hospitality’ in any class or even to others outside the class; how can we take time to slow down, how can we develop helpful rhythms and ideas like this… Anyhow, on with some particular things I wanted to recall. From page:
6: on ‘hopes’ e.g “patterns of practice are extensions of what we believe”, not just add-ons etc.
9: “we get better at the thing we practice”, not just for nothing
9: “need enough theological understanding and biblical literacy” – encouragement about teaching staff
11: end of paragraph 1: good questions to guide staff meeting (e.g. in PL’s), e.g. when seeing something others do, asking “Does this example help me to see possible ways for faith to inform my teaching practices?”. Also third paragraph of p.19 and bottom of p.20 around what students pick up from how we begin and communicate and “how might we communicate humility?”. Also 2nd point on p.21 exercises and questions on the bottom of p.27 around testing – will it help reduce anxiety and enhance learning? for eg. Also p.52 and so on and so on. Almost all ‘end of chapter’ questions helpful. Made particular note of p.70 being great! (this was around homework that might actually encourage dialogue with adults). Also p.38 final two dot points helpful. P.44 ones were about how you can open a course with comments/activities that help communicate (implicitly or explicitly) a Christian conviction you hold about students and their needs.
29: top of page – we do this often! (ie. communicate that what counts is ‘diligent rule following and individual performance’. Is that what we want?? Mid page – interesting example (on homework!)
30: “care taken with the syllabus pushes me to explicitly articulate some of the deep hopes…” Have I ever considered unit outlines in this way?!?
43: end of paragraph 3: doesn’t mean…[what he did was best, but] does mean… “my choices were informed by my faith” – what might I choose?? And final paragraph: “Being intentional about how we start is one way of stating what we value”
50: Is it a ‘never thought’ for our students that they could help their classmates!?! Even in terms of ‘the academic wellbeing’ of those sitting around you.
56: good example of intentional grouping for collaboration/ care etc. ie. put in groups of 4, throughout semester, when one person away, the others help take notes, check in etc. Page 57: mid page – has some practical steps of actually then doing it – e.g. giving them a few minutes in class to sit together and talk about personal and academic well-being.
64-5: encouragement to make things a ‘specific focus’, not just assume things in background – e.g. humility
66: great challenge… on to page 69, bottom of page: “tasks we assign outside class… communicate what we value”
83: end of paragraph 1 summary on teaching: “prayer for our teaching to [not] merely be accurate or efficient…or a Bible verse added… [but] somehow reflect something of the face God turns to the world“
111: on good reading and questions – e.g if reading for humility, patience, justice and charity, don’t rely on tasks that ask for skim reading and quick searches for answers.
114: on communicating about an assignment, connecting to deeper hopes. Take time to talk about:
- how you want them to engage in the assignment
- how you think this engagement will help them grow
- why you think that
130: “When efficiency replaces attentiveness, it can undermine learning as shortcuts take over from thought and engagement”
133-4: Some practical/example ideas on assignments that encourage slowing down – e.g. going and sitting to look at a tree or watching a snail video!
137f: on pauses, including an idea for devotion (sitting down on floor, asking how they are feeling, reading a Psalm, return to seat), noting later in the chapter, not all pauses are necessarily good.
154-5: what do our prayers/speech reveal about what’s important?? E.g. do we only pray for the pastors and missionaries? What about the scientist and construction worker. What about the biographies in our library??
165: end 2nd last paragraph: student comment about what they felt after a semester of intentional assessment – “teachers [not] trying to catch them out… show what they can do”! Good task outcome!!
175: 2nd paragraph summary on endings – important! i.e. “Until relatively recently I gave much more thought to how my classes and courses began than to how they ended…it matters what happens in the end”
179: paragraph 1 for language teachers – purpose!! Smith relates language learning to “the biblical call to exercise hospitality to strangers and to love our neighbour as ourselves…not just to bolster our career chances… or have better vacations…”.
179-80: tough questions to consider, around how we end, what we assess etc., and what that shows students we value.
185: bottom of page: Heschel’s idea on time/purpose…”shaping our movement through time together to reflect and nurture our faith rather than just crunching in mechanical increment from one task to the next”. Does our faith affect how we shape time??
Summary of books purpose: trying to offer “concrete ways of getting used to thinking about faith and teaching, ways that do not boil down to praying in class or trying to be a nice person… to show how starting from Christian beliefs and instints can shape the choices we make and the pedagogical homes we construct” (middle p.190)
196: last 2 sentences: great comment on collaborative PL – “none of us think well alone”!
Note the resources he lists on p.192-3 as well…