This video that I watched in a counseling course this week reminded me of the Art of Possibilities.
9. Lighting the Spark – The authors give the example of needing 50 cents to pay buy air to inflate a bicycle tire order to get to a museum. Today someone asked me at a gas station for 50 cents to get to Orange County. I gave him the $3 dollars I had. He said, “Sweet!” and thanked me. It was an interesting story of trying to find solutions and that can sometimes seem hard to do when faced with needing to negotiate. This week I began observing a severely disabled student in a classroom to find a solution to some undesirable behavior. I was concerned that the classroom aides may be unwilling to cooperate fully. The student demonstrated the behavior immediately which was useful and a few minutes later he tried again. This time he was unsuccessful in his attempt. The interesting part was that he communicated (though he is nonverbal) to the aide that she needed to mark on a tally sheet that he had made the attempt. When I mentioned after class, that I believed the tallying might inadvertently be reinforcing the behavior, the teacher immediately responded by moving the sheet from the student’s line of sight. By just being there I have changed the environment, the aides began discussing the behavior openly which led to the revelation about the tally sheet. It made me think about how every environment we enter is changed by our presence, hopefully for the better.
10. Being the Board- a somewhat difficult concept but not so much if you have faith. When you have faith, you have to believe that what happens in your life has meaning or leads you to where you may not have planned for yourself. I already know I am not in control of my life and trying to understand the world from my experience is an important part of realizing that. When difficulties arise then it is time to accept that you need to change.
11. Frameworks for Possibilities – this chapter speaks about stating visions. I had to write mission and belief statements this week for a model school counseling program. They included such things as: all students are worthy of love and respect and deserve to be cherished, and all students have the ability to achieve. I agree with the authors that a broad vision opens things up to possibilities and helps give us a direction.
12. Telling the We Story- I am always aware of the “we.” Groceries do not magically appear on shelves and roads are not paved by magic. We are intricately dependent despite the lone cowboy mentality that drives our country's identity. I almost laugh when I deal with people who believe they are independent. That is just not the truth. Understanding our interdependence is key to compromise and seeing the greater good.
Lori,
I love the video you posted. It was so cute. Last year, we used the Fill Your Bucket as a school theme. All the staff and faculty made "buckets" out of plastic cups and they were hanging in the hallway on the way to the office. Staff was encouraged to take slips and "fill each other buckets". Then at Thanksgiving everyone was giving a turkey and people went around passing out feathers to put on it with why you were thankful for them. It definately brought around a good feeling. During summer school, one of the lessons I did with all the classes was about filling buckets. I read the story and we generated a list of ways to fill people's buckets. Then we would take time 2-3 times each week to write out a slip a fill a bucket. The children really enoyed it. The Fill A Bucket movement is spreading. Last week I drove pass the local school and the outside banner had on it: "Have you filled someone's bucket today?" For the record Lori, everytime I ichat you….you always fill my bucket! You have to be one of the kindest people I have ever met!
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