After a year of less than stellar discipline in my running life, I have recommitted myself to my running game for this school year. Of course, I always seem to make decisions like this at the LEAST desirable times! For example, the high temperatures lately have been in the low 100s to high 90s. Even running in the morning, it is still a balmy 80ish degrees with swampy levels of humidity. To put it simply, it is the hottest time of the year to be training for a race.
Thinking about what a slog it is each morning that I get up and run, made me think about what the start of a school year can be like. Not because school is undesirable, but because it can really take a long time before new learners especially build up the mental and emotional muscle to make it through the school year. When I'm getting back into a running routine, there are days where I question my life choices and have to talk myself through to the end.
To get me through these difficult starts, or through a hot season, or a lack of motivation, habits end up anchoring me to my goals. For running, I have to set my alarm, have my clothes and gear already laid out the night before, and have a goal in mind for how far I want to run that day (or how many times I'm going to run in a week). These are all habits I have to be mindful of because I am the only person making myself get up and run. I decide what races I'll sign up for and how far I'll go.
For our 9th graders, I think about what habits they need to be successful in high school and what we can do to promote those. In some things, our learners choose their goals, how far they want to go, and whether they are going to get up every morning and give it their all or simply check the day off. In other things, the course is set for them and they are left to execute the state graduation requirements and whatever else is necessary to make it to the graduation stage four years later. Whether goals are chosen or set, it is part of our job as educators to help learners develop the skills to attain those goals on both the days where they feel motivated and the days where... they just don't.
This Friday, I'm going to try my hand at convincing some of our learners to use and keep up with a paper planner. I came across this article from a little while ago in the New York Times and I know that talking high schoolers into following through with a paper planner will be a lot like my hot morning runs, a slog. Why use paper when you can put a deadline in your phone or write a note in an app? And don't get me wrong, I do all of that stuff too. There are some tough questions to ask about why it could be important to organize yourself in a digital and analog life. However, if there is one thing I've come to understand about my success in keeping my running regime going these past few months, it's that doing hard, difficult, and even repetitive things will pay off.
Thinking about what a slog it is each morning that I get up and run, made me think about what the start of a school year can be like. Not because school is undesirable, but because it can really take a long time before new learners especially build up the mental and emotional muscle to make it through the school year. When I'm getting back into a running routine, there are days where I question my life choices and have to talk myself through to the end.
For our 9th graders, I think about what habits they need to be successful in high school and what we can do to promote those. In some things, our learners choose their goals, how far they want to go, and whether they are going to get up every morning and give it their all or simply check the day off. In other things, the course is set for them and they are left to execute the state graduation requirements and whatever else is necessary to make it to the graduation stage four years later. Whether goals are chosen or set, it is part of our job as educators to help learners develop the skills to attain those goals on both the days where they feel motivated and the days where... they just don't.
This Friday, I'm going to try my hand at convincing some of our learners to use and keep up with a paper planner. I came across this article from a little while ago in the New York Times and I know that talking high schoolers into following through with a paper planner will be a lot like my hot morning runs, a slog. Why use paper when you can put a deadline in your phone or write a note in an app? And don't get me wrong, I do all of that stuff too. There are some tough questions to ask about why it could be important to organize yourself in a digital and analog life. However, if there is one thing I've come to understand about my success in keeping my running regime going these past few months, it's that doing hard, difficult, and even repetitive things will pay off.
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