AChristian

How Full Is Your Bucket continues in chapter four with a personal story from Tom Rath, the grandson of the coauthor, Donald O. Clifton.  Tom's story talks about the type of family he grew up in and the advantages he had over his friends because his family was a very positive, extremely encouraging, helpful and loving family.  His parents and relatives always focused on his strengths and constantly assisted him with anything he was interested in pursuing.  As a result, when he was diagnosed at a young age with a disease that causes tumors to grow throughout his body without  any warning, he was able to remain positive, though apprehensive, and focus on what could be done to manage his health.  This story was included in the book to show that positive emotions help to buffer against challenges encountered in life.  We are not all faced with major challenges like this, thank goodness, but I'm sure we know people that have been.  I know from my own experience that the ones that try to remain positive and take each day one day at a time and surround themselves with positive people are the ones that are able to face the hardship.  The book then continues with a list and explanations of five strategies to utilize in order to become a "bucket filler."   

This book is my favorite so far.  It has made me think about the  impact a positive approach with students can make.  We really have no idea the struggles many of our students face day in and day out.  Many of them have no positive influence or emotions in their lives and therefore they do not know how to approach others in a positive way either.  Their challenge may just be negative parents that focus on what could be improved and not on what they do well.

I really believe that if we followed the strategies outlined in this book it would have a positive impact on every aspect of our school, even our test scores.

The end of this book reveals all three steps involved in bringing your vision to life.  A group of workers from the sixth floor of Good Samaritan return to the sushi restaurant to find out what came next after you had discovered your IT (vision).  Living your vision and allowing yourself to be coached by others and being willing to coach others were the steps Ishy revealed to them.  After trying to get things going the group returns and wants Ishy to provide a list of things or suggestions of things that worked for them at the restaurant.  Ishy said that that was not possible because it was up to them to discover a plan that would accomplish the desired environment on the sixth floor.

One of the things I take from this book is that in the work place things will not gel unless everyone works toward the same goal or vision.  We are in the business of educating children and even though we have our own classrooms and sets of students, we still need to work together to take each and every child from kindergarten to sixth grade.  If anyone teacher fails to do his or her part on a daily basis, we fail the child.  Another point I have learned from this book is no matter how long we have been teaching, each and everyone of us can improve and become a better educator.  We need to be willing to try new programs and ways of doing our job.  We also need to take the time to help others and share what seems to work in certain situations.  I thingk we often fail to realize that just because it worked once doesn't mean it will work in every situation.  Now, I'm off to try and live my IT.

Rhonda, a nurse at the Good Samaritan Hospital, has been promoted to manager of the sixth-floor nuro ward..  The previous manager, Madeleine, began a new program that made the sixth floor a better place to work and was so successful that other people in the hospital and even other hospitals along the East Coast wanted to know about her program.  Madeleine left to become a consultant and now Rhonda had her position.  Rhonda questioned her ability to do as good a job and was worried that things had already begun to unravel under her leadership.  She sought the advise of a dear friend, Margo.  Margo took her to a sushi bar in New York where a woman she knew was the only female sushi chef and a very good one.  The chef, Ishy, and her sushi chef husband had built a very successful business.  Ishy had also helped Margo with the same problem at the bank where she worked that Rhonda was facing at the hospital.

The beginning of this book brings to my mind the new beginning of each school year when a new set of students come into our classrooms eager, most of them, to learn what they need to be successful in that grade.  What we teach them should excite them and leave them begging for more.  The energy we put into our jobs as teachers should motivate our students to put as much energy into the work they do.  We should take the time to meet their every need so that each one can be successful and crave for more of what we have to offer them.