Here's Marlene!!!!!!!!

Since Shannon has decided write a novel to share about ACT (Applied Control Theory), I will try to keep this short and simple today. Ken texted me earlier to tell me to bring back all the answers; I reminded him that I already had all the answers. He agreed.

All joking aside, don't expect us to come back with the magical fairy dust to share solving all of our problems and concerns. To understand Applied Control Theory (or sometimes called Perceptual Control Theory), we have to be able to shift our thinking from "how can we make these kids do what we want" to "we can only CONTROL ourselves". Our ultimate goal would be to help the students learn to control themselves to be responsible and independent, but we will get to that later. We need to start with ourselves. What do I want? What kind of person/teacher do I want to be?

Another thing that I am thinking a lot about is making connections. How well are we connected with each other, let alone connected to the students or students connected to each other? It is amazing how "connected" we can be by just participating in a few activities. As a personal testimony, I will admit that even though I seem like a social person, I do not like to "socialize with people I don't know" at workshops. I hate the whole idea of small talk. But after being "forced" to participate in these connecting activities, I am finding that I am enjoying and being much more tolerant of my small group than I would have been otherwise. I even stayed after class today to talk in depth with a mental health director, but that is a whole other story. :)

I know many of you have expressed interest in what we will be learning and what we will bring back. As we share through this blog and when we start to talk about this when we return, I ask that you keep an open mind. This is not a warm fuzzy, I'm ok-you're ok kind of program. It is a theory, a different way of thinking about why we do what we do and what we want. I look forward to sharing these ideas with you.