More thoughts on happiness

Today, I simply want to pass along a quote that's been popping up in my mind over and over, ever since I heard it:

"I've decided to be happy because it is good for my health." - Voltaire

This is your life. You only get one and it's happening RIGHT NOW.

Go be happy.

Year books

Yearbooks bring back memories, a member of my FaceBook community, who I thought I only knew through a third friend, posted a picture of himself from his time at Simon Fraser University. We had been at the university at the same time. As soon as I saw his picture, I recognised it from the 1966-67 yearbook. I then realised that I knew him because of the activities we both had been involved in at the university. 

A few weeks later I had a Message from a person that I went to Elementary School with who had seen me at our high school reunion and although we did not have a chance to talk, reminded me via FaceBook of some of the good times we had when we were very much younger.

On another occasion I went to lunch with a few people I had worked with as a beginning teacher, some I had not seen in about 10 years. One of the people in attendance was the person who hired me, and who I had not seen since 1975. Neither one of us recognised the other. I had changed as he had. He looked good for 90 and as we talked, he spoke fondly of his time at the school and in the district. He was enjoying retirement and was looking forward to his next trip. He also brought his yearbooks from his time at the school, and everyone at the table was enjoying looking back. I found my picture and showed it to him and he laughed and said, I would never have recognised you.

I wonder how many use posts and groups on FaceBook or their yearbooks and from high school or university to bring back or sharpen our memories. I know that from time to time I do, and I enjoy the experience of remembering. 

Stella Awards

Thanks to Colleen for these
If these are actually true…well, they speak for themselves….

It’s pretty amazing that there are juries and judges out there who agree with these people who have a warped sense of their entitlement as compensation for their stupidity!  I just shake my head………….

It's time again for the annual 'Stella Awards'!

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy...

Here are the Stellas for this past year -- 2011

*SEVENTH PLACE

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

Scratch some more...

* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more...

Double hand scratching after this one..

*FOURTH PLACE*

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you're getting a bald spot..

* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching...

*SECOND PLACE*

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ...

* FIRST PLACE *

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

If you think the court system is out of control and America has lost ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!

Celebration of life

Recently I went to a celebration of life for a family member, and as I listened to the speakers talk about the deceased, I noticed a theme. The theme was the importance of the relationship each speaker held with the deceased. 

Family members talked of her love and support, friends talked of her support. One person talked about a time in his life when he was going through a very hard time and the fact that the deceased was the only one that had faith in him and supported him.

As I talked to my nephew. after the speakers had finished, he talked about the stress of balancing family life and work. I was impressed that he was committed to putting more time into family than into work. 

I talked about the generational gap, his father and I belong to a generation that allowed work to define who we were/are. 

His generation has moved away from this position, which is a good thing. I am not sure if my generation were as bad as our parents for allowing work to mold, shape and identify the way we saw ourselves, but many of us still see ourselves as our job title.

At the celebration of life, no one talked about the work of the deceased, except to mention the how well she treated everyone at work, and how she stood up for the ones who could not stand up for themselves.

At the end of the day, it is our relationships, not our work that define how and by whom we are remembered. Make the relationships you have work for others in a positive manner.

An Interesting idea from Patrick

Spend more time thinking about what YOU want to do and less time thinking about what they might do. 

Take 30 seconds and ask yourself who are they, what do they mean to you, why are you letting them affect your life, why do you think you can control them?

If you're able to do this, you'll have greater peace of mind and a better quality of life.  After all, your thoughts, words and actions are the only ones you can control.

Anything else is like trying to teach a cat to bark. (I still love that quote from Byron Katie!) 

Don't mess with mom

The young man sat in front of his computer staring blankly at the screen, as I walked by. I asked him what he was working on during the block. He immediately volunteered that he was not in the class, but had been sent down by because he and the teacher had a personality clash. I asked what class and he told me; I knew the teacher and understood that there could be some issue for some students. I waited and he continued to elaborate and he talked about the computer program being used  in the class, and pointed out in his mind it was not relevant or used in his career field. I suggested that the teacher was using the program and relying on building skill sets that could be seen as transferable. The young man politely disagreed. I asked him how the problem would be resolved. He said that if he wanted to stay in the class he would have to apologize to the teacher and accept the teachers rules as well he would have to learn the software and complete the projects.

He then said that he was going into a meeting at 1;30 with the counsellors, the admin, and his mom to try and get a resolution for the issue. At 1:30 the student, his mom came in followed by a team of adults--all female. I knew the young man realized what he needed to do and that he was wrong, so I thought it would be a short meeting. I was wrong.  I could see through the window when I walked by the teachers desk, the young man sat and the women talked to him, and they talked at him. From time to time the level of noise rose so that other students in the classroom looked up, I could see from the students expressions they were glad they were not in the room. I could see into the meeting room and as the meeting went on the young man sank further and further into his chair--trying to become invisible.

At 3:00 as I was leaving  the meeting was still not over, but the noise level had changed from rather angry tones, to some laughter. Another young man came in to the classroom and I asked him how I could help. He said he was waiting for his friend who was in a meeting with the counsellors and the admin. I said the meeting was not over. The young man said "full of bravado", that if the meeting was not over by 3:30 he would go in and get his friend and he was not worried about the admin being there. I said, "oh, by the way your friends mother is in the meeting". The young man stopped, thought for a minute and ask me again"his mother is in the meeting?" I said yes. The young man looked at me, thought for a minute and said,"Well, if his Mon's in there I better not get him." I said, :I thought that was a good idea". As I was leaving the young man sat down to wait.

Even young men know not to mess with another friend if you would embarrass him in front of his mother.

Preventing Stress make a decision

Make Decisions - here are two techniques:

 A. Can't make up your mind? Maybe your subconscious can help you.

1. Before going to bed, think about your problem and the various choices you could make. Think about each choice clearly in your mind. Tell yourself you're going to make the decision while you sleep.
2. You may not name the solution the next morning but if you keep trying, you will eventually awaken with your mind made up.

B.Sit down with a pencil and paper and make some lists.

1. List your options.
2. List the consequences of each option.
3. Write your response(s) to this question: What will happen if I don't choose at all? If you don't make a decision, that's a decision in itself and it also has consequences. Once you realize that something is going to happen whether you make a decision or not, you may find the decision easier to make.

C.  Avoid Procrastination

1. If procrastination causes stress in your life, learn to stop putting things off. People don't do their best work under pressure. However, some people convince themselves that if they do so they can avoid dealing with their habit of procrastination.
2. Make a weekly schedule and fill it with lots of time for leisure as well as work. That way, you'll enjoy your playtime because you'll be doing it at the right time, not when you should be working. And when you are working, you won't resent it because you'll know that your leisure time is coming up soon.

D.  Delegate

1. People who haven't learned to delegate often feel needlessly stressed. Some are poor delegators because of too little or too much ego.
2. Delegating isn't a matter of dictating to others; it's asking others to assist you by doing tasks they can handle. This gives you more time to do those tasks that perhaps only you can do.

self esteem vs self improvement

Do you live under the illusion that you are "not good enough"? I have heard it said that many of us, when we listen to our self talk only hear the negative voice, which drowns out the positive affirmations we need. Sure we are all flawed in some ways, but this idea that there is something inherently wrong with us is absurd. If you believe that there is something wrong with you how did you come to this conclusion? Who in your life is holding the measuring tape that you are looking at and seeing the negative. I suspect that it issome authority figure, organization or religion that is trying to control you by attacking  your self-worth.

Self-improvement can say to some that you are broken and you need to be fixed rather than I am good and need to get better. Some of you come to this idea because you are striving to be something or someone other than who you are.

Self-worth is needed before you can improve. Self-worth is knowing that you already have everything you need and that you are the person you've been waiting for. There is nothing to reach. There is only BEING and LIVING who you are.

You are worthy of love, belonging, wealth, because you are one with All That Is. You need "self-improvement" but only after you have accepted yourself and believe in your self-worth. If you believe in your self-wortt, then you can start to improve who you are -your Authentic Self.

The goal in life is not to BECOME who you are, but to ACCEPT who you are. Said another way, if you believe where you are today isn't good enough, then nothing you can do or achieve will ever be good enough. You can't be fixed because you are not broken, but once you accept that you have self worth, then you can begin to grow and reach your capacity..

Let's go back to the metaphor of the acorn and the oak tree. The acorn is complete, but it still it is not an oak tree. It contains the BLUEPRINT of the oak tree and by realizing its CAPACITY to be an oak tree on a day-to-day bases, it grows into the fullness of that inherent blueprint. We are like the acorn and
each of us has the ability to embrace the perfect blueprint of our greatness.

The ONLY way you can eliminate the feeling that you are "not enough" is to declare RIGHT NOW that you have the CAPACITY for greatness and that you are enough just the way you are and then start to live that on a daily basis.

What is important to remember is you have self-worth.Once you accept that you are worthy and accept your self, your sense of self-worth will  naturally expands to make room for the capacity that is within us all.

What is a developmental opportunity?

The following is from a newsletter I receive called Resistance-Free Change newsletter and I thought it was interesting and could help you with the small steps one has to take to find, love and trust yourself again as we all look forward to a wonderful 2011

Developmental opportunities are a situation, relationship, condition that puts pressure on you to develop your:

 Skills - so you can take more powerful, courageous actions in the world

• Character - so you can more completely and authentically express your gifts
• Consciousness - so you can resolve obstacles in ways that promote greater personal integration and collective solidarity

 It's an experience that comes into your life unbidden (at least as far as your conscious mind is concerned). It pushes, challenges, and causes you to grow in ways that you never anticipated, and it is an experience that you do not usually like to be in, while you are learning from it.

It's a full court press that corners your soul and demands that you dig deep to bring forth untapped resources and unexpressed ways of being in the world and many times during this opportunity, you want to chuck in the towel, and give in. While it's happening, a developmental opportunity causes more gnashing of teeth and shedding of tears - than outpourings of gratitude. But, when you're through it - you'll see that it was happening for you, not to you

It's only when you're on the tail end of the process, when the learning's have been integrated, that you're able to appreciate and recognize the value you've gained.

My question is . . . why wait?
Why wait until the end of the process to appreciate it?
Why grit your teeth and struggle through, when you could, with a bit more clarity, move through the developmental process with greater ease?

You don't need positive thinking to accomplish this move. You simply need to change your perspective from seeing what is happening to you in order to see what is happening for you.

Complete this exercise:
Identify your developmental opportunity:

Complete these phrases:
This event is happening for me so that I can develop the courage to . . .

And develop the skills to . . .

Merry Xmas to all

For my friends and family, may this day be filled with joy, love and laughter and may your souls be filled with the energy of love and life
Royce

Values

There are many human instincts which have been finely tuned over the centuries. They revolve around man's desire to know himself and to cherish his values. They do not depend on mental acuity or sophisticated social systems for they deal with the part of our consciousness which is not exclusively interested in, or satisfied by mere survival. Instead, they are concerned with needs and desires which exist within each of us, in addition to, and in spite of the disabled condition in which we find ourselveve

We sometimes find ourselves shying away from moving into this awareness of I am.   Our limited ways of thinking may bind us, but they are a comfortable, familiar bondage that lets us always think we know who and what we are, simply by asserting a verb or adjective after the I am.   Nevertheless, just because something is comfortable, doesn't mean it is true or even good for us.   If it were, we could all lie around on the couch every day watching mindless sitcoms while eating potato chips and drinking milkshakes (ahem, well, maybe some do!).   

So if we lose who we are, do we lose our sense of values? The curse of memory loss is offset by the gift of being forced to go to essence. Your self-worth, your legitimacy, your self-image emanate from integrity, your integrity, the essence quality of your being. We all bellieve thjat we are a person of integrity who grapples with the truth, even and especially the devastating truth of memory loss, of uncertainty about seizures, of inability to easily sequence and focus, of a body wired with damaged receptors and transmitters, of a healing body and mind that lose ground as they heal. Clearly, comfort does not always equal health--whether mental, physical or spiritual.  

 Your instincts are still intact, perhaps buried under denial and incapacitated by fear. Ultimately you will have to rely heavily on them to guide you. With knowledge, understanding and self-acceptance you can begin to trust in your basic instincts again and find the courage to build and shape a new reality.

Growth is painful, almost all the time, but when we suffer memory loss or loss of self, we are given a new chance to rebuild our life throuigh a series of small painful steps.

New wine for Seniors not Boomers

My daughter send me this as we are starting to appreciate all things Australian, and she thought we would like this NEW WINE For Seniors

I kid you not... a New Wine for Seniors!!

South Australian vintners in the Barossa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines, have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic!

It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the toilet during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as

(wait for it)

PINOT MORE

A Note from the Universe

From time to time I will share Notes I received from the Universe,  and I will share the more interesting ones here. If you like the notes then you can join at the link above.
Little can ease the suffering or stem the pain over lives lost and careers  halted, Royce, but human nature is every bit as resilient and courageous as mother Earth, and we are simply awed by what we see unfolding from here. All hail... before humankind.

On the very bright side, Royce, never in peace time history has there  been such a gallant effort, by so many people, spending so many billions of dollars with no end in sight, to rapidly clean up your environment.

Never before have numerous heads of state and representatives of a corporation as large as many smaller nations, pledged to work together, sharing expertise and resources to get a job done.

Never before have so many prayer and meditation groups suddenly formed, amongst and in between every religion and those belonging to none, to foster healing of your precious planet.

Never before have finger pointers, conspiracy theorists, and blame mongers been so idle and unnecessary in the face of such a tragedy.

Never before have industry titans across every sea chosen to reexamine their own safety procedures, revisit their own environmental safeguards, and expend their own fortunes to voluntarily reflect upon and demand that they do an even better job from this day forward.

And to top it all off, Royce, your planet has a loving, brilliant consciousness all her own, and of her countless balancing acts, healing herself is one in which she truly shines.

Of this, and so much more, you can be very, very proud.  Yee-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The Universe

Teaching Stories three

My friends and I were talking about responsibility and how we did our best to instill this into the young minds that we had the opportunity to serve when we were teaching.

One of my friends related the story of when he was teaching in a small interior town, and coaching basketball. His team was playing in the semi finals for the season on a cold wintry, early Saturday morning game. If his team won the game,  they would be in the regional playoffs for the BC championships. So on the Friday night after the game, he held a meeting and talked about responsibility and making sure that everyone should get enough sleep and show up full of energy in the morning. Everyone on the team was pumped and they were all there in the morning except for his star defense man. The young man lived about 30 miles outside of town and had no phone. The first half was a very tight game, and my friends team was down by a couple of baskets at the end of the first half.  The star defensive player showed up just before the half. At the break my friend who was very upset, took the player aside and gave him holly hell for letting the team down and not showing up in time. My friend then told the player to get dressed and the young man played the second half. My friends team one the game by a very close margin.

After the game, the defense man came and apologized to my friend who by then had calmed down. So my friend asked the boy what had happened. The young man replied. Everyone at home had gotten drunk on Friday night and there was no one available to drive him into the game, so rather than let the team down, the young player had run into town in the cold wearing only a light jacket, which my friend had not noticed when the boy had first showed up.

My friend said, there was no need to teach this young man responsibility, as he had it in spades, but what he learned as a teacher was to ask questions and listen to explanations before passing judgment. A good lesson for a new teacher to learn early in his career.

Friends just happen?

The following is from Patrick Mathieu who has a blog, choose the life you want, which makes some interesting reading from time to time.

For many people, friendships “just happen”. People come in and out of our lives all the time; and some of them stick around as friends. Jim Rohn once said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

I want you to think about your friends and consider that quote. Next, I want you to think about the path you are on in your quest to Choose the Life You Want. Is there a fit?

Are your friends firmly in your corner, supporting you through your evolution? Or do you have the kind of friends who want you to stay the way you used to be in “the good ole days”? Do they look at you now and say: “Wow! You’ve really changed! I hardly recognize you anymore!” (said with enthusiasm)? Or do they look at you now and say “Wow… you’ve really changed! I hardly recognize you anymore!” (said with judgement, suspicion and disapproval)?

As adults, it can be very scary to think about facing the disapproval of old friends. But that fear serves no one. Keeping someone in your life just because they’ve been there for ages, doesn’t serve either of you if you are moving in different directions. People change, people grow and sometimes friends grow apart.

I want to leave you with a quote from Marianne Williamson.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Teaching stories two

As the stories over lunch, flowed about how we learned our craft, I thought about when I was a student teacher, in Port Coquitlam, working with a Preston. Preston became a good friend and was a wonderful mentor to me. I was sure of myself, some might say arrogant, others might say I was caught up in my own importance. I thought I was serious, dedicated and going to change the world. I prepared my lessons I was confident in front of the students. I had learned the rule of the day for new teachers. The rule was (Do Not Smile until Christmas). The thinking at the University was that if you wanted to maintain classroom control, you had to be strict and unyielding in the use of your power.  I followed that rule in my first week of teaching the classes and I thought Preston and the other teachers were impressed.

What I did not know at the time was that I was too serious, too unyielding, and forgetting about the reason I was there, which was to reach children and help them learn, I was not there to just teach the curriculum. The first day of my second week at lunch, Preston said he wanted me to try some multimedia in the Consumer Ed class I was teaching. He had this record that he wanted me to play for the students. I wanted to preview the material, but Preston and the others said there was no need. All I needed to do was to impress on the students how serious they should take what they were about to hear and to pay close attention as Preston would test them on what they heard when I left.  Feeling full of self-importance for being given such an important task so early in my student teaching, I did what I was asked to do, and I really laid it on thick. I then put on the record. The recording was of a serious of jokes about passing gas with all of the prerequisite sound effects. The class started to laugh and I did as well.  I lost control of the class, but I did reach the students.

Preston told me after class that he believed I needed to relax and to focus on the students, which I did and I also learned to not take myself seriously either in the class or in life. One of my other classes a grade 12 accounting class was first thing in the morning and every class I had a student fell asleep about 30 minutes into the lesson, the first time it happened I woke the student up and gave him a detention at noon. After the class I talked to Preston and he told me that the young man was working two jobs to help his family and he only had classes in the morning. By noon he was finished. The young man worked  from 3 to 11 at a gas station in town and then worked from 12 to 8 at the mill but since this was his final semester and would be the first to graduate high school from his family, Preston had allowed him to sleep. Preston said that we were lucky that the young man could make it to school.  I thought about that and when I talked to the student when he came into detention, I said I would allow him to sleep but the only condition was that if he snored I would have someone wake him up.  The rest of the time I was teaching him, the student always fell asleep after about 30 minutes, and I learned that my voice had some power, but not the power to keep one awake if tired.

I was able to enjoy the time I spent with Preston as his student teacher and whenever I saw him in my professional career, I was reminded that as teachers we always have to put students first. I only regret that I never did get a copy of that record.

Teaching Stories

We were sitting after golf and the conversation drifted around to stories about how we had learned our craft, (most of us the hard way). One of the younger teachers told this story.


He was instructing his Math 10 students in his portable on a rather stormy and rainy day. As we was laying out his solution on the board, to the problem that a number of students were having difficulty with, he said he was thinking about how easily he understood the problem and how simple the solution should have looked to his students. Now my friend said he was a young teacher at the time and he believed in strong classroom discipline and control, which meant to him, not to allow students in his class to correct the teacher.

One of his students, spoke up and said quite strongly that the solution given by the teacher was wrong. My friend said he gave the student a chance to change his mind, but the student was very strong in his assertion that the teacher was wrong. Sensing that the class was getting out of control, my friend said to the student although he was entitled to his opinion, in this case, the student had to accept the logic of the teacher as the teacher had proven the solution. The student continued to argue, so my friend said he had no choice but to put the student out of the class, to maintain order. It was raining hard, so about 20 minutes later the student knocked on the door and my friend opened the door and talked to the student, and asked him if he was willing to accept the the teachers solution was he correct one, the student refused, but since it was raining hard, my friend allowed the student to get his jacket and the student stayed outside for the period.

My friend phoned the parents of the student and talked to them about their son's disrespectful behaviour in his class. The father was quite upset with the son for his behaviour but more upset that his son had disrupted the class by knocking on the door later (The fact the son was wet and cold had no bearing on this the Dad said). The student came into class the next day and apologized to my friend.

In the Math staff room at lunch, my friend was talking about the student and one of the other Math teachers asked about the problem and what the solution my friend had suggested, my friend told her and she laughed and pointed out that my friend was wrong and the student was correct.

I asked what had reminded him of that story, my friend laughed and that he had been reminded of the incident by the same student (10 years later) as the student was a now a Science Teacher at a school in our district and he had seen him at the pub. Another of my friends said, you know that the new young Science teacher was probably telling that story to his friends but with a different perspective.

My friend said as a result of that incident he learned to accept that he was not always right, and that things we do sometimes live for a long time.

From the Heart of a Teacher

From: The Heart of a Teacher "A Parent's Note to a Teacher" by Anonymous

I'm the voice of a grateful parent
whose child was in your class...
the one who needed help to find his way

You've been a special blessing
as you helped my child succeed
and I'm thankful for the part you had to play

You gave her so much more
than just the lessons in the books
you gave him wings...so she could learn to fly

You ignited a flame within his soul
a passion to learn and grow...
to never give up and always be willing to try

Your encouragement inspired her
and your kindness was so real
but the thing that thrills my heart the most is this...

By building his self-confidence
you changed his life this year
she believes in himself...and a brighter future is his!

IT'S UP TO ME by Haim Ginott
I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.

Coping With Stress

Book stores are filled with books that tell us how to cope with stress. Each of these books offers its own perspective on stress along with various coping techniques. To make the most of the information on coping skills, you need to understand what coping is all about. Coping is simply a way of short-circuiting the stress cycle: stopping the stress response.

There is no single right way of coping with a given situation. Each of us must figure out what works best for us. What works best will depend, in part, on your coping style. There are three main styles. None of these styles is better than the other and some people use a mixture of them.
 The first step in coping is to know yourself. Begin by deciding which of these may be your style.

•  Task-oriented: you may feel comfortable analyzing the situation and taking action to deal directly with the situation.
•  Emotion-oriented: you may prefer to deal with your feelings and find social supports.
•  Distraction-oriented: you may use activities or work to take your mind off the situation. Keep this style in mind as you read the information on coping skills.

UOP (University of Phoenix Vancouver Campus)

The Vancouver Campus closes its doors today and as with all endings there is opportunity for new beginnings that start with the goodbyes.

I started with the UOP in April of 2000 to help set up and teach in the Faculty of Education Masters of Education program. It was an exciting time, new programs, changes, great people both students and Faculty. Many of the first students in the program were the innovators, willing to try new adventures as were many of the Faculty.  It was exciting to work with and to watch the change in attitude, focus and type of students who I worked with over the last ten years. In the first years the students were mostly innovators, who challenged us and then moved on to other adventures and other new ideas.

As the reputation of the university grew, the early adopters took their place and while they challenged us, they also helped us to create courses, process and procdures that would help them. In the last few years we started to see the early majority start to enrol and we were headed to be the largest post secondary institution for teachers seeking their Masters degree in BC.  Then the UOP had a shift in focus at the National level and we closed.

Most of the first Faculty were, I believe innovators but I was one of the second group hired (the first were hired in 1999 and the second group was hired in 2000). The second group of faculty were a combination of innovators and early adopters and that combination worked well as we were willing to take a chance on a relatively unknown (in BC) University that catered to working adults. Over the next ten years I was fortunate enough to help redefine our program to meet the needs of Canadian (BC) teachers, to help market the program and work with and help to hire and mentor some of the best faculty in education in BC. In 2005, I moved from being a adjunct faculty to being Area Chair for Curriculum and Instruction. I was one of the first people trained in the online teaching (FlexNet) module and helped lead several training sessions on how to teach online.

I loved the opportunity to interact with the teacher leaders of tomorrow and wish them well and from their feedback they enjoyed working with me. Here are two comments received through the end of course surveys from my students.

Royce was extremely hardworking, knowledgeable and very respectful. I think he truly loved what he was doing and really cared about the success of his students.

He definitely knew a lot about curriculum and passed the knowledge to us.

Over the past ten years I have taught over 84 courses with small class sizes and because of that I had the opportunity to work closely with well over 1,000 teachers who are just now starting to move into leadership positions in their schools. I appreciated the opportunity to provide some leadership in education and I look forward to new challenges and opportunities.

Thanks to Darren, Joy, John, Mich, Cathy, and to all of the hard working staff and students who made the last ten years fly by in a blink of an eye.