Gratitude Leadership Continuing Training
Donation protected
I have started a journey. This journey is professional and personal. This journey started when I attended the first part of a leadership program entitled Gratitude Training. In this training I came to realize that I have the potential to be a powerful leader in professional and personal relationships. My entire life I have slowly tinkered with this idea of being a leader.
My first experience with a leadership role happened in 2008-2010 when I became the Lead Teacher for one Pyramid Health Care's (Altoona, PA) adolescent group homes. In this role my mind was opened to a new possibility of education. This possibility was one where a student’s mental health needs were considered in conjunction with their academic needs; the conventional "walls" of education started to slip away for me.
My second experience with leadership is an on-going experience I have had with the School District of Palm Beach county starting in 2012-2013 academic school year when I joined the Positive Behavior Support Committee (http://www.palmbeachschools.org/ssci/SWPBIS.asp) as a tech aide and archivist. In the 2013-2014 academic year it was suggested that I become coach of my local school's PBS committee.
During my time in both these roles I have seen more "walls" of education fall away. Students are human, we are all human. We are all learning all the time, why do we live by the convention of limiting education to subjects in separate classrooms? Why are we not educating the whole person? Why do I, as a Social Studies teacher, limit myself to being contained by my subject and my classroom? Why can't my subject and my classroom be a vehicle for lifelong learning? Why not!?!
My most current experience with leadership has taken place since completing Gratitude Training Part 1 of 3 in the first weekend of May, 2014. Since this training I have been living the "Why not"? I just mentioned above. I've stopped teaching and started coaching my students. I started using, living, being, life experiences in my classroom. Infusing science, math, technology, sociology, and philosophy into my Social Studies Curriculum and I have started to see lifelong learning manifest itself in my classroom. I witnessed the first time in nine years of teaching a student do a presentation to the class and another student raise their hand and exclaim: I got it!" the presenting student turned to me and stated: " I just taught that person." And for the first time in my life I was; I became a teacher.
I also began to use the concept of "being the training" and used the concept of gratitude to help my students build a community and not just a classroom. This community, through gratitude, is starting to realize that learning takes place beyond my subject and beyond my walls. In this environment students have begun to connect to why they are gracious for the chance to learn, to become educated, to be at school. In these moments of grace I have had students tell me their grace comes from: being a survivor of early childhood cancer, or having a twenty percent chance to live because they had their skull split open in a tragic fall in elementary school. These moments of grace has transcended my classroom and traditional concepts of education even further and here I am still on the edge of, in the act of "Why Not?!?
So what is the next leadership role for me and what does this have to do with me being on gofundme? The next role for me is to complete part two and three of the Gratitude Training and continue to work with the idea of lifelong learning in education and finding ways to make new things happen within the system, or help create a new system. The incorporation of multiple curriculums has started to take off most notably in the STEM movement (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). My vision is to ask the questions: "Why is Social Studies not in this movement? How can it be in this movement? What other disciplines can be in this movement? and How can a movement be created to do this if need be?"
The money raised through this campaign will go directly into the cost of the Gratitude Trainings Part Two and Three. If more money is raise than what is required; then that money will be used in education coalitions that promote the education of the entire student.
What I can offer:
- Tutoring in: Social Studies, Study Skills, SAT Verbal Prep, Academic Reading, and Beginning Math.
- Physical Work: Grass Cutting (if you have mower), Furniture Moving, House Work Labor, etc etc
-Motivational Help: not certified but have experience in running and cross training for 5-6 years on a personal journey of losing 100lbs and keeping it off the last 3years. So being running or gym buddy I can do and enjoy (I belong to Jupiter Fitness, Indiantown Rd).
-Big Brother/Mentor: with summer approaching if you have a young person in your life that could benefit from experinecing some guidance from a "Big Brother"/Mentor in this time period let me know!
If you have read something that spoke to you or sparked an interest please consider making donation ether: monetarily or with another form of love or support like (shares, likes, fwds, reposting, words of support, understanding, expression of similar experiences, or collaboration on similar goals). Also if you have questions about my experiences so far or for my vision please ask! Thank You for your love, support, time, energy, and grace.
Genuinely
Aaron Jones
My first experience with a leadership role happened in 2008-2010 when I became the Lead Teacher for one Pyramid Health Care's (Altoona, PA) adolescent group homes. In this role my mind was opened to a new possibility of education. This possibility was one where a student’s mental health needs were considered in conjunction with their academic needs; the conventional "walls" of education started to slip away for me.
My second experience with leadership is an on-going experience I have had with the School District of Palm Beach county starting in 2012-2013 academic school year when I joined the Positive Behavior Support Committee (http://www.palmbeachschools.org/ssci/SWPBIS.asp) as a tech aide and archivist. In the 2013-2014 academic year it was suggested that I become coach of my local school's PBS committee.
During my time in both these roles I have seen more "walls" of education fall away. Students are human, we are all human. We are all learning all the time, why do we live by the convention of limiting education to subjects in separate classrooms? Why are we not educating the whole person? Why do I, as a Social Studies teacher, limit myself to being contained by my subject and my classroom? Why can't my subject and my classroom be a vehicle for lifelong learning? Why not!?!
My most current experience with leadership has taken place since completing Gratitude Training Part 1 of 3 in the first weekend of May, 2014. Since this training I have been living the "Why not"? I just mentioned above. I've stopped teaching and started coaching my students. I started using, living, being, life experiences in my classroom. Infusing science, math, technology, sociology, and philosophy into my Social Studies Curriculum and I have started to see lifelong learning manifest itself in my classroom. I witnessed the first time in nine years of teaching a student do a presentation to the class and another student raise their hand and exclaim: I got it!" the presenting student turned to me and stated: " I just taught that person." And for the first time in my life I was; I became a teacher.
I also began to use the concept of "being the training" and used the concept of gratitude to help my students build a community and not just a classroom. This community, through gratitude, is starting to realize that learning takes place beyond my subject and beyond my walls. In this environment students have begun to connect to why they are gracious for the chance to learn, to become educated, to be at school. In these moments of grace I have had students tell me their grace comes from: being a survivor of early childhood cancer, or having a twenty percent chance to live because they had their skull split open in a tragic fall in elementary school. These moments of grace has transcended my classroom and traditional concepts of education even further and here I am still on the edge of, in the act of "Why Not?!?
So what is the next leadership role for me and what does this have to do with me being on gofundme? The next role for me is to complete part two and three of the Gratitude Training and continue to work with the idea of lifelong learning in education and finding ways to make new things happen within the system, or help create a new system. The incorporation of multiple curriculums has started to take off most notably in the STEM movement (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). My vision is to ask the questions: "Why is Social Studies not in this movement? How can it be in this movement? What other disciplines can be in this movement? and How can a movement be created to do this if need be?"
The money raised through this campaign will go directly into the cost of the Gratitude Trainings Part Two and Three. If more money is raise than what is required; then that money will be used in education coalitions that promote the education of the entire student.
What I can offer:
- Tutoring in: Social Studies, Study Skills, SAT Verbal Prep, Academic Reading, and Beginning Math.
- Physical Work: Grass Cutting (if you have mower), Furniture Moving, House Work Labor, etc etc
-Motivational Help: not certified but have experience in running and cross training for 5-6 years on a personal journey of losing 100lbs and keeping it off the last 3years. So being running or gym buddy I can do and enjoy (I belong to Jupiter Fitness, Indiantown Rd).
-Big Brother/Mentor: with summer approaching if you have a young person in your life that could benefit from experinecing some guidance from a "Big Brother"/Mentor in this time period let me know!
If you have read something that spoke to you or sparked an interest please consider making donation ether: monetarily or with another form of love or support like (shares, likes, fwds, reposting, words of support, understanding, expression of similar experiences, or collaboration on similar goals). Also if you have questions about my experiences so far or for my vision please ask! Thank You for your love, support, time, energy, and grace.
Genuinely
Aaron Jones
Organizer
Aaron Jones
Organizer
Jupiter, FL