Glass in the Nest

If you look up into the trees at this time of the year, you will see the remnants of the nests that the birds have left behind as they headed for a warmer climate.  That got me to thinking about how much time a bird puts into building a nest and how diligent they are in doing so.  Really, their little engineering feat is a marvel.  Birds, as you know, are limited in space and not designed to hold an entire family of birds for a reason.  At the instinctive time, the baby birds are literally booted out of their new cozy little home and are sent off with “I hope you can conquer gravity” mindset.  Most make it…some do not.  This lead me to think about what someone had said in a presentation –“ If you want to improve, then you’ll need to put a little glass in your nest.”  The presentation was on expanding yourself, setting higher goals for yourself, getting out of your own personal comfort zone, getting out on the ledge… that kind of thing.

We build our little nests inside schools as well.  Kids build their nests.  Principals build their nests. Teachers build their nests. Heck, we all do.  We take kids in, care for them along the way.  We teach them what they should understand quite well and we move them out.  Sometimes we have to give them a nudge.   We also build our own personal nest.  No, not a “nest egg” for retirement.  That’s not what I mean.  This is the comfort zone nest.  This is the nest of always doing things the same way.  This is the nest of never trying anything new.  This is the nest of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. .  This is the nest of not going deeper in your level of classroom questioning.  This is the nest of just using the assessments that come with the textbook when you know they don’t come close to covering all of the levels of Bloom’s.  So, while we are should always be thinking about ways to better challenge kids- just understand that the challenge often begins inside of us.  We have to get out of our comfort zone and try some new things to make it click.  Don’t be wary of doing that.  Grab a vision and run – you may just create a lesson that others will follow.  First, you have to put a little glass in your nest.