By Oskar Cymerman | @focus2achieve | BAM! Radio Network & Teaching Channel Blogger

I'm writing this one, because I'm slacking. I need to kick myself in the ass and get going again. Maybe I need someone else to smack me. I don't know.

You up for it?

I need to hold myself accountable. The best way I know how to do it is to tell you. Should you ask, I'll need to produce an answer. And, I do not want it to be I'm trying or Getting to it or It's been hard or whatever bullshit story I keep telling myself as an excuse.

I have a confession to make. I started blogs for my chemistry classes and I had students blog. Twice... And one of those involved posting their Who Am I Infographic...

Yep. I suck.

You see, the whole idea was to get students to reflect. Slow down. Learn about their own learning. Think about their own thinking. Do metacognition.

I know I'm missing an opportunity to help them grow beyond the confines of their current paradigms and the system. Learning is one thing. Figuring out what is really going on in your mind is power unleashed. 

So, I'm stopping this madness right now. Pulling my shit together. Excuses be gone.

Yep. I am in a funk and I need to slap (yes you read that right) myself out of it. I don't know about you, but it takes a few strong words for me. Not negative, just strong.

Tomorrow. Is. A. New. Day.

I read about motivational interviewing recently. I'm having my kids look within and blog about it. Some students are struggling in my class. Others in other ones. Life ain't no picnic for some. So I'll tell them to respond to these:

1. Rate your motivation on a scale of 1 through 10.
2. What would your life be like if you made a major change? What would the positives and negatives of that change be?
3. List your strengths. (If this is hard, think of the time you were successful at something)
4. What is the first step you can take to start changing?

Bam! Just wrote that game changing lesson plan. Now I'm feeling it. You feeling it too?

Oskar

PS. Whenever we can get our students to dig deep and reflect like this, they grow like mushrooms after rain. Except, they don't become soup or stew. They renew. But we have to keep bringing the rain. So they can process the pain. And gain. 'Cause that's the game.

You have the power to change the world. Use it often.