Spiders in my hair

Spiders In My Hair

Kneeling in my tomato garden I notice a web. Glistening in the sun light it's wet from the recent rains. It's hard to see though beautiful. I search and scan. Looking up and under the leaves for the host. Then, I see her. Scared at first. I'm frozen. We eyeball each other. My two on her. Her eight on me. I continue my purpose as if I hadn't noticed. She waits as I harvest. Try as I might, I work hard not to disturb her craft. She sits and ponders my existence. I wonder about our probable contact. I wonder about a spider in my hair. Will I freak? Will I scream? No, I am instantly calm. Something comes over me. A wave, like a blanket of warmth. I wash my worries away with dreams of the future. Spiders in my hair. I cleanse myself of all death from the past, Of all deep purple webs of hate and impatience. With spiders in my hair I welcome the wonderful adventure of change through College Unbound!

More ways I Work resilience into my life

The one concept that I forget to use when dealing with stress and the feeling of failure is Taking Deep Breaths. I have had feelings of anxiety and I forget that I can step out and take five breaths in and three breaths out. It was nice to read this part as a refresher course for dealing with stress and feelings if failure. I use lots of ways to feel better about situations. Using the Me/Not Me thinking and the Always/ Not Always thinking. So I didn't feel I need to say I learned something new when I didn't.

My Resilience

I couldn't view the whole video by Angela Duckworth. It broke up on my 4 minutes in. Even though the video was very short, I did like what she had to say. I liked the readings very much. One concept I liked, and I liked them all, was the idea that post traumatic stress could cause people to experience failure. In my own life I had experienced a feeling of failure. Years ago my husband left me nine days after my second daughter was born. He remarried less than two years later. I didn't think he would move on that fast and replace me which made me feel very depressed. It took many years for me to recover from that feeling but once I did I felt I was more resilient because of the divorce. My daughters and I had so much fun when I got back on my feet. We traveled, we danced we lived life to the fullest! I can relate to JK Rowling. It was almost as if getting a divorce, falling on my face, this close to being homeless really helped me become a better mom and a better woman all around.

Some of the other concepts I agree with are the four basic dimensions: achievement, community, spirituality, and legacy. I also liked the idea Robert Emmons expressed, when one is lost the others get stronger. Love that! To rebuild is another concept I like. To rebuild your life is to start fresh to gain independence to experience what it means to refresh your life. I liked the connection to the great cities of Chicago and London and the great fires they had to suffer through which Made them a better place.

Nine ways to fail better:
I appreciated the nine points to pay attention to when dealing with failure.
My favorite of the nine was ways to cultivate optimism. Emotion awareness, impulse control, multiple respective thinking , empathy all help me calm in the heat of fire where the thought of failure might rear its ugly head. I value the idea that you can change the way you view a situation to help you achieve a better outcome in the face of failure.

I do harness the Bridget Jones Effect!
I started blogging to help me with problematics situations and hard times in my life. When I started College Unbound I had to start a blog for school. It was like just adding another leg to the table. Extra support and easily adapted. I am here, I am strong, I am resilient. I can do anything.

Thinks to remember;
Don't blame yourself
Don't say ALWAYS
Don't say CAN'T
And don't say NEVER

Chickens and Horses

Question A
On a farm there are chickens and horses. There are total of 118 heads and 298 legs. How many chickens are on the farm?
Show how you know!  
118 heads. 31 of them are horses. 31 x 4= 124.
 87 chickens with two legs each = 174
totaling 298 legs on the farm.

A Pre-Schooler and Self Assessment
A Personal Review
After my presentation on A Pre-Schooler and Self Assessment and after the feedback I received I came to the conclusion that I need to engage with my audience more. I had two people hand in feedback from my presentation and they both noted my need to read less and engage more. I took from the readings that it’s very important to be honest with yourself because this is the key to being honest and true to others. When you are honest with yourself  it would come organically when engaging with others. On that note, I will begin by being honest.

The direction for the project was to allow my photographs, videos and quotes from my project to speak for themselves. I didn't anticipate myself as the focus piece for the project. My project was designed with a huge projector in mind. When I heard that I would not be projecting my project onto a big screen, I felt that a monkey wrench was thrown into the mix. The problem was that it was too late to change it. I had already finished my work. I needed a plan 2 for mishaps. However, for this project I feel that I didn’t take into consideration that things would turn the way they did. I understand the feedback and I appreciate them.

In my learning plan I added Communication as part of my growth and learning with RWU and College Unbound. I am still working on being able to feel comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. The moment I opened my laptop that night, I felt unsure of my own abilities to speak about something I already know so well. Teaching preschoolers, it’s what I do and I do it very well.  I will practice talking without reading from notes and learn how to reach down deep into my own knowledge and heart to share what I have to give.
In conclusion, I agree with my critiques when they said I need to engage my audience. I will work harder next time to give space and time for the paradoxes of life.