A miracle non the less.

This has been a very hard week for me. A dear friend and close coworker of mine laid to rest her three and half year old daughter. The doctors have yet to identify the ailment which caused her sudden demise. While attending the memorial services for this precious little angel I began to try to understand the meaning of it all. It was at a moment in the middle of the service that I realized that as painful as it was to loose her, as much as it hurt her family and friends, that her ailment and death brought us "all” at Schreiner to our knees. I can not recall a time in my three years here at Schreiner were we as a community came together for a common cause. We have had sporadic instances were we would join together for a cause but for the most part it was only pockets of support here and there. Mariel's life and death brought us all together to pray to our God.  We all prayed for a miracle recovery and as odd as it may sound that is what we were receiving all along. Mariel’s performed a miracle for us all. She reconnected us with God. I have seen people pray for her that at one point stated that they were atheist. Mariel although only three and half has completely changed the environment here at Schreiner.  Thank you for your life and your miracle Mariel.

26 in 3

Capacity building, not judgmentalism, is a hill-climbing secret. The formula is simple, but difficult to implement: start by taking the stigma out of the picture, and let pressure do its far more powerful work through the actions and interactions of the six secrets. The pressure that results from our secrets is more organically built into cultures. When peers interact purposefully, their expectations of one another create positive pressure to accomplish goals important to the group. (Fullan 2008, p.63)

I think this describes Cohort 4. Our goal is for UMHB to graduate 26 doctors in 3 years (well about 2.5 years now). That is positive pressure. I know I do not want to let you all down and I believe you all feel that same type of positive pressure. That is why we work so diligently and purposefully to complete our assignments.  I know this journey will be a bumpy as life may get in the way but we will weather is storm together and "all 26" of us will have the honor of calling each other Dr. (place your name here). Remember to claim it as yours in Gods name. See you all in a couple of weeks.

All the beautiful trees!!!!!!

I have been at Schreiner for three years now and I walk around campus all the time, but today was different. Today I have noticed all the trees on our campus. I had never really paid attention to them before, but I noticed them today because of all the shade they were offering me from the retna burning sunshine.  I began to notice all the different types of trees from oaks to pecan to crap-apple trees. I then began to wonder to my self. I said self, my self said Uh? (Mr. Brown fans get it) I started to wonder how often we do we not pay attention to the beauty around us until it has something to offer to us. For instance how often to we ignore those gifted and bright students until they score well on the TAKS test? Do we teach to the lowest common denominator? Why? Would it be better to expect those “slower learning” students to try harder and keep up? I know my thoughts are bias as I have never had to deal with the bureaucracy of the public school education system. At the higher education level it is a sink or swim mentality which now that I am reflecting in action has its down falls as well. What are your thoughts on this?

The choice to choose.

In Dr Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, one of the main premisis of the book is our choice to respond to any situation no matter how difficult it maybe. The one thing that can never be taken from us is our choice to choose our response. We can be stripped of everything, dignity, wealth, food, family and love but we still have the choice to respond with a positive outlook knowing that as bad as things are they can always be worst. Have you ever seen someone laugh when you know they are in pain? Have you seen them smile when their world is crumbling around them. It is people like that that I believe have truly embraced the meaning of life. What have you seen in your experiences either personal or professional that makes this ring true to you?

Enjoying it all and looking forward to the furture.

After our session Thursday with Dr. Bawcom, I am even more excited about our program now then I was when I was first accepted into the program. I have drawn so many parallels between Dr. Bawcom's career journey and mine. He let me know that it is ok not to always be the "life of the party. " I know I have a long ways to go before I reach his status and accomplish even a fraction of what he has accomplished. As he stated numerous times during his presentation success is about being in the right place, at the right time and knowing the right people. I know our program is the right place; we are going through it at the right time and you all are definitely the right people to know. I am really enjoying taking this journey with you all.  God Bless.

response to Keith Morgans post

I also could not post on Keiths page so I am going to post my response here.
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Love it!!!

That resistance to change mentality is not just at your level it happens at the University level as well. Faculty (at least my university) is really resistant to anything that will take them out of their comfort zone. I do believe that as the digital-aged student mature and replace our current faculty positions over the next few decades this resistance will diminish and change for the better will become more acceptable. Let’s pray it happens like that.

??????????????????????

You know as I sit here in front of my computer considering what to type, my mind is full of worry about the things I need to do, the things I want to do and the things that have happen to me. It has been hard for me to focus this week, especially this weekend with everything that has happen to me personally, but as I worry about these things I reflect back upon my life and look at everything that I have overcome and realize that at any point in my life I could have ended up in a totally different place than I am right now. I have done things in my life that I am not proud of, I have hurt people, I have lost LOVE and love ones and I have been back stabbed and used. I am saying all this not to gain sympathy or for a pat on the back for my superficial accomplishments. I am saying this because now that I am thinking about my life, I wonder about yours. I know we have all been through trials and tribulation; we have all experienced heartache and pain. We all have our own stories to tell and experiences to share with the world. Let your experiences inspire those around you so they can be better then what they have been. Teach them to learn from YOUR mistakes. Educate them beyond the books. Show them the love that the world is missing so they can multiple it and inspire generations to come. Remember this LIFE thing is bigger then us all.

Self-filling prophecy

In Leading with Soul, Boulman and Deal (p.88) wrote that if you show people you do not care, they would return the favor.  Show them you care about them, they might surprise you. I find this statement is similar to that of a self-filling prophecy.  I have found that when I expect my staff to fail they normally do and when I encourage them and show them that I care about their efforts and circumstances that they supersede levels previously reached

The Art of Storytelling !!!

Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories - Roger C. Schank. 

I think this statement speaks volumes to the nature of the human being. From the beginning of history man has pasted down information and knowledge from generation to generation via the story. Storytelling is the best way to convey information as the act of story telling triggers the visual and emotional senses that embed the information in the mind heart and soul.  

Hooray!

Love your title, The Future Dr. Jason H. Smith.  I will be there on that day to celebrate with you.

Hello Cohort 4!

Friday  is almost here! I can not wait to get back in the classroom and see everybody!