Monday, August 03, 2009

Change

Irony: Mr. McNamar giving the Steppingstone Faculty Talk this morning on the topic of "Fear Not: Change." I like routine. For instance, this morning I woke up 20 minutes before the alarm clock went off, showered, dressed, made my lunch, left the house at 6:30, stopped at Starbucks and ordered a Grande, non-fat, extra-hot latte and a cinammon scone. That has been my summer routine. Should an unexpected event disrupt that routine, I will suffer a great deal of mental anxiety and stress.
My Rising 9th graders will experience great change in a month's time. They will all enter high school, which is certainly much different from middle school. For some of those scholars, the experience will change dramatically as they will be leaving Hartford Public Schools to attend some of Connecticut's top independent prep schools where they will be reminded at every moment that they aren't in Hartford anymore. But even for those students remaining in HPS, I suppose their 14 months with our program should have created such a drastic change in their approach to school that they should stand out academically from their peers.
I intend to use a dollar bill as an analogy. You see, a dollar bill has value, but it isn't always useful in that form. Consequently, there are times when one must change a dollar bill for coins. The value remains the same, but the outward appearance changes. For our scholars, I want them to understand that change doesn't mean losing their identity or their value, it can simply meen adapting their new surroundings in a useful way.

4 Comments:

At 6:09 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really like that dollar bill analogy. Thanks for sharing!

 
At 3:10 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Mr. McNamar-

I hope this finds you well. I'm writing because I wanted to share a new book from Random House/Clarkson Potter, entitled "WHAT I KNOW: Uncommon Wisdom and Universal Truths from 10-year-olds and 100-year-olds." Just as it sounds, the book is literally a collection of life insights from opposite ends of the life spectrum, compiled as the author traveled all across the country to meet and interview centenarians and children alike.

I was recently introduced to your website, and I personally really enjoy visiting ahighcall.blogspot.com. So I particularly wanted to share this book with you as I think these unique perspectives on life and the stories behind them would be so intriguing for your readers.

Below I've included a link to the book website and I would encourage you to watch the video trailer on its home page - this gives a great sense for the tone and content of the book:

www.whatiknowthebook.com

From the site you can also visit our Twitter (twitter.com/whatiknowbook) and our Facebook fanpage.

I would love to find a time to speak with you and share some more detail on the book and the author's journey to complete it.

Please suggest a convenient time and number to reach you by phone or feel free send me any questions at this email.


Thanks for your time, and I look forward to speaking with you soon!

Zach
zach@whatiknowthebook.com

 
At 9:48 AM , Blogger Dr Pezz said...

The only constant is change. I can't recall who first said that, but I love that saying.

Great dollar bill analogy, too!

 
At 1:02 AM , Blogger berlinvale said...

Thanks for this posts!! It was very useful for me and I'va learned a few things^^

It's really good written!! I Like your writing style!!

Vale from www.berlin49.de

 

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