{"id":1009,"date":"2016-05-16T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2022-10-04T18:10:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T22:10:29","slug":"here-be-dragons-guest-written-by-rob-levit-joi-2016-presenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/here-be-dragons-guest-written-by-rob-levit-joi-2016-presenter\/","title":{"rendered":"Fearless Teaching: Here Be Dragons!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When lacking information on what was known beyond the visible world, ancient maps were inscribed with the words \u201cHere Be Dragons\u201d and frightening images to warn travelers to stay away. To be a creative individual and a master educator however, we must train ourselves to move beyond our own fears, limitations and perceived weaknesses to find the beauty and freedom in what I call \u201cThe Undiscovered Country\u201d where our old models of teaching and doing don\u2019t hold up anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Carta_Marina\"<\/span><\/p>\n

A perfect example of this in \u201creal life\u201d is dealing with a difficult student. From our \u201cHere Be Dragons\u201d perspective, we may shut down or, gulp<\/em>, admit that we don\u2019t like the student. We can even come home after a long day feeling exhausted and depleted and have it affect our personal lives. But what\u2019s the cost \u2013 to ourselves and to the student \u2013 when our energy is expended on staying away rather than navigating through? Anger or resentment can build up toward ourselves and the student. Why? Because we care, and because we are human. <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with this is that it may not be the child – but our own lack of tools, insights, and strategies to reach a child that desperately, and perhaps silently, wants structure – even though their behavior shows otherwise. The master educator recognizes the amazing and at times exasperating avoidance techniques that failing and\/or troubled students unknowingly practice. It reminds me of the famous quote: <\/span>\u201cThe child who needs the most love will ask for it in the most unloving ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/span>That\u2019s where personal creativity and arts integration come into play. To navigate successfully into \u201cThe Undiscovered Country\u201d we must first have mastery of the conventional, tried and true techniques. This requires personal honesty, assessment, and practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"LevitBlog4\"<\/p>\n

Beyond that, we need new approaches like improvisation, creating poems and songs on the fly, being confident and enthusiastic about our hidden talents, and embracing that our most difficult students need new ways of learning that are hands-on and experiential.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>I thrive on being a guide to \u201cThe Undiscovered Country\u201d and equipping teachers with confidence, tools, encouragement, and new skills to reach students. It\u2019s amazing \u2013 once teachers grab onto these approaches, breakthrough after breakthrough happens in the classroom and our difficult students, although still struggling, begin to emerge because we have recognized opportunity, freshness, and possibility in them. \u00a0What once looked like a frightening dragon turned out to be the harmless shadow of ourselves.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Rob Levit leading teachers at the Joan Oates Institute in 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a guest post\u00a0by Rob Levit,\u00a0founder and Executive Director of Creating Communities. <\/em>Rob Levit<\/a> is an acclaimed educator, creative artist and community leader. He has created award-winning, innovative \u201cLife-Skills Through The Arts\u201d programs for hundreds of at-risk youth and adults.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When lacking information on what was known beyond the visible world, ancient maps were inscribed with the words \u201cHere Be Dragons\u201d and frightening images to warn travelers to stay away. To be a creative individual and a master educator however, we must train ourselves to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2589,"featured_media":1817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222836],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-community-partner-spotlights","9":"post-with-thumbnail","10":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/files\/2016\/05\/Dragons_feature.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/pia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}