Wishes, Wonder, Work

 I'll do one more short one. Some celebratory news. I think it was just last week, as I was feeling deep gratitude for being able to do this work, that I noticed I felt a bit more confident in myself as a therapist. Part of one of the things that I do differently from most therapists is track the client's progress, as measured by themselves. Through that objective measure, and the people I'm working with's self report, it genuinely seems like what I'm doing is making a positive difference in people's lives. I think it took me this long, to see enough different people, and for long enough, to confirm for myself that it wasn't just a fluke. This is a wonderful feeling, and makes it a bit easier to convince myself I don't need to spend quite so long planning and taking notes, because I can see and feel what I'm doing that's working, and it's not about writing copious notes. (though I do believe thinking deeply about my clients and coming up with possible next steps and trouble-shooting are some of the the things that really help.)

It's also really satisfying, getting feedback about what's working, and what's not, and then working to change things, and seeing positive results from the changes. It feels like what I'd always wanted from my teacher training, but never been able to get.

That's something worth inventing: a system for training teachers that includes a simple, well validated way to quickly measure how students are doing after a lesson, both academically, and socially/emotionally. Did they learn it, did they enjoy it? How could it be improved? And same for classroom atmosphere/culture. My friend deliberate practice and Anders Ericsson. I wonder if that would work to improve teachers skills? I would have loved it. Though I also would have loved a clearer synthesis of what factors actually make the biggest difference in student outcomes. Though I don't care only about academic outcomes, I would want to know if school is helping them become better human beings as well. Otherwise what's the point?

OK, I'll end there for today. Hope you're enjoying the lush summer greenery out there. The fireflys are out in force these nights, and it's magic to behold.

Wishing you well, wherever you are,

Isaac