TL;DR:
- A new learning series, Best Intentions, aims to support, connect, and inspire educators’ desire towards self-improvement. It begins on January 31st in the Teach Better Team Private Facebook Group.
- Best Intentions is designed to help educators explore self-development in the pursuit of living our most intentionally authentic lives in and out of the classroom.
- The LIVE monthly conversational-style interviews with world-renowned experts, authors, and speakers will be tackling themes like mental health, wellness, leadership, social-emotional learning, and culture through the lens of purpose.
Each January offers me a post-holiday time to examine the ridiculous amounts of food I manage to consume during winter break. Despite all my best intentions to eat in moderation, I frequently fall back into enjoying the holiday cooking a little more than I should. Luckily, the new year provides me temporary resolution to correct my waistline and all other misgivings. But if you’re like me, you need regular doses of accountability to stay on track and empower you to be BETTER.
“We need to be reminded more than we need to be taught.”
– John Norlin
Perhaps, this year’s propensity to overindulge coupled with a strong desire to reflect and reimagine my own upcoming actions is what recently reminded me of a classic organizational culture fable: The Pot Roast Story.
While attending a dinner party, a guy notices that his friend has cut off the ends of the pot roast. Met with this unusual preparation, he asks the host, “Why do you cut off the ends of the roast before cooking it?”
The woman quickly retorts, “That’s the way my mother taught me to cook a pot roast.” Filled with growing curiosity, the man stumbles on to the host’s mom and welcomes the opportunity to follow-up on this puzzling family tradition.
“Why do you cut the ends off your pot roast, ma’am?” he queried.
“That’s the way my mother taught me,” the mom explained. At this point, the man’s mild curiosity had built into a full-fledged unsolved mystery as he beelines for the host’s grandmother across the room.
“I’m dying to know—why do you cut the ends off your pot roast?” he utters, slightly out of breath.
“That’s the way my mother taught me,” she justified pointing to the kitchen.
Turning his attention back over to his friend who’s now standing with an elderly woman, he slowly meanders back over their direction, only to realize that the sweet old lady visiting with his friend is the great-grandmother.
“Ma’am, your recipe for pot roast is absolutely divine—but all night, I’ve been trying to pin down the family secret to this spectacular meal. Why do you cut the ends off your pot roast?” he said.
The great grandmother chuckled. “I had a very small roasting pan, so I used to have to cut off the ends to make it fit in the pan.”
The pot roast story cleverly reinforces to us that just because something is the way we’ve always done it, doesn’t make it the most impactful, efficient, or desirable.
Yet, how often does education seem to lag behind the science of human behavior? For years we’ve known the research behind reaching the whole child yet it’s taken many of us a global pandemic to pause and reimagine best practices.
Intentional educators become hungry for an exceptional culture and climate that models Character, Excellence, and Community under an umbrella of personal and professional growth.
Oftentimes inquiry-based reflections feed thoughtful educators desire to Teach Better. Are you…
- Doing the same things over and over again, simply because you’ve always done it that way?
- Asking yourself the why behind your routine actions?
- Challenging yourself to push outside of tradition and comfort?
I’m absolutely thrilled to announce a new learning series to support, connect and inspire educators’ incessant desire toward self-improvement which we’re calling Best Intentions.
Best Intentions is a cutting edge learning pathway designed to help educators explore self-development in the pursuit of living our most intentionally authentic lives in and out of the classroom.
In these LIVE monthly conversational-style interviews with world-renowned experts, authors, and speakers we’ll be tackling themes like: mental health, wellness, leadership, social-emotional learning, and culture through a lens of purpose. As an exclusive to the Teach Better Team Private Facebook group, you’ll enjoy free access to these inspiring conversations to support our shared pursuit of BETTER—and who doesn’t want to be a BETTER version of themselves?
'Creating an Award Winning Culture starts with implementing a Teach Better mindset for daily practice of Best Intentions.' @HansNAppel #AwardWinningCulture #TeachBetter Click To TweetEach month, I’ll be hosting these LIVE interviews as we dig into how to become intentional educators who are driven to elevate the learning culture for every student. Furthermore, I’ll be writing a monthly follow-up blog peppered with insights, resources, and key takeaways from these impactful conversations. By batching meaningful educational and life strategies together, we’ll be supporting the WHOLE EDUCATOR to better serve the WHOLE CHILD.
We’re no longer using an undersized roasting pan. To cook up an unforgettable array of learning, it’s time to explore BETTER ways.
Join us January 31st at 8 p.m (EST) on our Teach Better Team Private Facebook group and learn how to put your Best Intentions into action to dramatically impact your learners!
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About Hans Appel
Hans Appel is an educator, speaker, and writer deeply committed to inspiring the whole child. He’s the author of, Award Winning Culture: Building School-Wide Intentionality and Action Through Character, Excellence, and Community. Additionally, he’s the Director of Culture for the Teach Better Team, co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast, and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture.
Hans is also a member of the Teach Better Speakers Network.
