The Art of Resting

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth – He went to a sunny island in the Pacific where he could find endless, long days of happiness, coupled with the sunshine that brought joy to the soul. There he would stay at the beach, sand between his toes, happy to sit in a comfortable lounge chaise on which to sit and a mystery thriller to read.

He has gone to rest on the island….Hmmm. what does that conjure up in your mind?

He has gone to take a rest. Had you said this to me in my college years, I would have thought you were talking about someone who had died. Rest? I thought that meant taking 18 credits and running a marathon and that was taking it easy.

Obviously I was really “special” in my thoughts about how to take it easy and rest. As I have gone through my career, I have often found that careers and climbing the corporate ladder seemingly have taken precedence over listening to our bodies or calming our minds, relaxing the soul and enjoying people around us.

Rest is not something we talk about often in the Western world. We talk about getting ahead, finishing projects, completing research papers and the like. Many of us have completed a final exam, we rush to the apartment or dorm room to clean up and get ready to head home for Christmas and for the New Year. Dirty laundry in bags (hopefully not waiting for someone at home to clean!), books returned to the library, gas in the car, cash for the trip home, we rush around like little mice on a mouse wheel, turning and turning, so quickly that it insidiously takes over our life, hidden behind the veil of good intentions.

We hurry from one subject to another, from one person to another without giving thought to give our body and mind time to rest. Sometimes we might even take some time out for exercise but even that is beyond our ability to really do what is needed. Don’t get me wrong, exercise is excellent for our health but jumping into it and “getting it done” isn’t the intended purpose. Enjoy the exercise, enjoy the struggle of finishing the workout with intensity and the feeling that you’ve accomplished something genuinely needed by your body and mind. Without exercise to the mind and heart, we would be lost souls grasping for any bit of advice, any wisdom that would carelessly come out way.

How often we trample over another’s thoughts, we are careless to discharge the subtle wisdom of those around us, especially those who are senior to us. Grandparents, parents and aunts and uncles often have already experienced the rhythms of life, with children, finances, and stressful jobs. But in their company, we disregard the very useful advice that is free to utilize to gain insight into the acumen of life’s experiences. How often do we have an answer before even hearing the other person’s thoughts before we interrupt and answer without regard to the latter part of their ideas.

This holiday, enjoy the wisdom of your elders, stop and listen with your heart, you might just find some astute knowledge which you so long for.  Have a restful and relaxing Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

 

What’d ya say Sonny?

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth– Imagine your world if everything you heard sounded like gobbledygook.

Your friends just invited you to attend a football game that would last 2 hours yet you thought you heard them say that you were invited to a cookout. You were thinking food while they were thinking of hard core tackling. You showed up ready to eat and they showed up with sweats and football gear.

What if you missed 75% of conversations around you?  Would you isolated, as if you are missing out of life and friendship altogether?  What if someone cracked a joke and you stood there wanting it to be repeated? Then once repeated then began laughing…it might seem a bit awkward huh?  If people don’t speak, enunciating each syllable words sound like a muffled noise that resembled a foreign language from a distant island.

Just think of how it feels constantly to say, “Could you say that again please?” or “Would you mind repeating that again?” People would look at you as if something were wrong, and guess what? Something Is!  Beyond the physical appearances of “looking normal,” people have misconceptions about what it is to be hearing impaired. I may “look normal” but have hearing deficits that are significant. When people walk away while talking, cover their mouth when they talk or mumble, it is almost impossible for a hearing impaired person to hear.

Hearing impaired people look at body language, find innuendos in conversation that are almost imperceptible to the hearing person. To us the body language speaks its own body’ese” and tells us our gut instinct about a person. In a crowd a hearing impaired person might talk louder in the hope of showing others to speak up more loudly with the insidious background noise. Multiple accommodations are utilized throughout the day to try to understand the spoken language.

While eating in a restaurant, my mind raced attempting to fill in syllables I couldn’t hear with the din of noise swirling around the conversation. I watched my friend’s mouth intently hoping to pick up any kind of syllable or sound as the exterior noise pressed in and pushed her voice away. I fought to stay engaged in the conversation when other noises were louder and therefore more blatant, more attention getting than hers.

After a two hour conversation, I felt exhausted, I had just spent the majority of time trying to grasp the words that were shared and gather the meaningfulness of the conversation.  My mind was numb after attempting to gather information, my brain nitpicking the words apart to see if she meant “ba” or “da” or “puh” or if she said “that the train is coming around the corner” or if I misunderstood it as “the rain is coming down harder.”

It is with great effort that I live my life in a hearing world.
This all happens while wearing my hearing aids!

The noise intensifies and sensory overload occurs. But I my blessings abound.  How often I wish that I could be “normal” BUT, I can walk, think, speak, see, and have intelligent conversation. Do me a favor today, plug your ears and listen to your friend speak. Could you hear them? Could you hear where they were going to meet you or what time your group study was? How did you feel when all you heard was muffled noise, compounded by surrounding background noise. You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it.

Be grateful for the gifts God has given you, especially the ones you take for granted.

It’s An Honor to be your Teacher

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth – Recently, a former student, Melissa, talked with me about her progress in high school. She is excited and spirited about the endeavors in her life. She is painting a mural for one biology teacher, playing first chair in flute (as a freshman!), in marching band, and energetically pursuing opportunities in her new environment that would help others and hone personal and interpersonal skills in herself.

Her enthusiasm is indicative of the freedom she sought, the freedom she was given by her parents to peruse subjects with endeavor, the freedom with which she sought out educational opportunities with her teachers. She uses her positive leadership attributes and dovetails them with these opportunities to continually find avenues to utilize her talent.  These opportunities are exhaustive, but the creativeness that God had given her was immensely undergirded by the support to continue to seek them. She has received many awards for her artwork and continues on her road to success.

But one piece is missing here.
Many think that this success comes from just talent that she was “given” these opportunities and she just was there to receive them. Contrary to popular belief, those who succeed in life are those who work VERY hard, those with a consistent work ethic, those who have goals each and every day of the week to hone skills that still might have burrs that need to be ground off. They often experience failure many times over before they experience success.  

Just Be Yourself: Halloween Lessons

 By Maureen Look-Ainsworth — I remember when we were children in the early and mid 1970’s trick or treating in our costumes around the neighborhood in full fashion for what seemed like an entire day.  We were so excited we talked about what we would wear weeks ahead.

Just having moved to Milwaukee from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, my brothers were RCMP’s (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) known as The Mounties.  Dark, blue trousers with gold strapping on the side, knee high patrol boots, accented by the belted red patrol jacket with an open collar stretched its way where the pants puffed out at the top of the thigh.  I was a doll, with large rosy circles painted on my cheeks, and my older sister, was a Raggedy Ann Doll, who wore a blue dress most certainly down at a modest length, with a small apron accenting the striped socks and her adorable dress shoes. We paraded from house to house with our large paper grocery sacks acquiring more candy than anyone should ever be allowed to eat in a lifetime, much less two months before the Christmas candy was delivered!

Sometimes to get ready for Halloween, my friends and I would dress up in adult bridesmaid dresses bought from Goodwill (probably size 0 by today’s standards) and masquerade, laughing in a silly girl-like way knowing that others could see through all the terribly applied makeup and the flowing, ill-fitted gown in adult high heels we thought we would never be able to fit!

We pretended as if we were royal girls not being cordial or saying hi to anyone who we might really know in “real” life.  I will always be amazed at our imaginations in which we really thought we became the clothes we were fitted with!  How easily my imagination ran wild with foolish thoughts about how I became that princess or bridesmaid! I was fooled by the resolve that I could really become someone else who was not me, just someone who looked like me. I tried not to show my real self.  I tried to hide so that the light of my human side, the flaws, the imperfections would so tastefully just disappear!

How easily can we can all fooled by our imaginations to believe that the very car we drive, the money our parents have or the clothes that we wear might change the condition of our human heart that is flawed from the fall of man into sin. We seek to amend that sinful self and desire someone or something that might be more amenable, acceptable or presentable to others around us. We are worried about judgment from others who place us under high power magnification to reveal the flaws as only a microscope could. How simple life would be if everyone would just be themselves, without pretense and misguided perception to show the world around us that we, as believers in Christ, are real believers, guided by a Divine hand leading us to understand that we are really in search of God, not hiding behind the falseness of the material world around us.

Under Pressure: Gaining Perspective from the Experiences & Advice of Others

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth –  In many ways, teachers perform under pressure. We are called to read and study for class, prepare papers and often teach throughout this process. It is a difficult task to perform in everyday life, even more difficult to manage family, children and all of the above.

In a pressured situation, I find solace in reading books that give me ideas, provoke food for thought, and give me inspiration, and ideas from other exemplary educators. As educators, we read a lot. We seek answers to just about everything we can!

I would highly recommend the following books for both the new or experienced teacher. These books have the potential to springboard personal learning into greater depths and offer new perspectives on the teaching profession.

The Third Teacher (2011), gives teachers inspiration to understand how the environment presents “challenges and opportunities” beyond what we can think or imagine today. Do you desire to help the next generation to survive or thrive in an environment that will demand imagination, creativity, critical thinking skills, the ability to take risks and the need for educators to think of what tomorrow will look like and help those who will graduate from high school in the year 2025? Look at this book to gain insight into statistics, facts, interviews and anecdotes from a variety of venues.

Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that put students on the path to college (2010) written by Doug Lemov, endeavors to show the essential techniques of teaching and helping students get the most out of reading in critical skills. A DVD is included that highlights and utilizes the experience of 25 master educators that employ their skill in showing lessons that have been proven useful in this data driven culture.  The essential skills in this book seem “mundane and unremarkable” but they are “intellectually startling” in the delivery of material and content. This book is a quick, fantastic read that I wish I would have read years ago when I first began teaching.

Rocket Boys written by Homer Hickam is an inspirational book that is the platform upon which the movie October Sky is based. Homer Hickam writes about his life as a boy living in a coal town in Virginia.  Like many in his town, he was expected to become just what his father was, a coal miner. Yet, Homer saw through the difficulties in life and stretched himself to envision a landscape of opportunity for both himself and his friends.  Homer writes from a perspective to which even today’s students can relate.  We all have challenges that must be overcome in order to succeed in an ever-changing world. The book is a must read, and October Sky, the movie based on the novel, is a must see.

Today,  Homer Hickam, writer and NASA engineer, is an motivation to us all to become more than we thought we ever could become. Instead of believing you are just going to be a teacher, see yourself as a world shaker, as a people motivator, as a flash that ignites fire under the lives of those you teach.

The picture above is of Homer Hickam and myself.  When we met, he wrote in my book:

To all the Wisconsin teachers, you are my Heroes! I encourage to forge ahead and continue in this profession and you will see just what you were meant to become, a great facilitator, a great teacher, a great human being leading others to do just the same!

Space Camp: Turning Blunders Into Best-Practice

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth, Wisconsin Teacher of the Year – Imagine spinning in a Multi-Axis Trainer, experiencing microgravity and similar experiments that the astronauts went through in training to go into space!

I got a chance to participate in these activities as the 2011 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year at SpaceCamp in Huntsville, Alabama, one of the nation’s education space centers for NASA. Teachers of the year from around the nation and 14 international countries participated.  

In one of the experiments, I put on a space suit (not quite the large bulky one that astronauts use), I was tethered to a chair, put on real space gloves and attempted to piece together a scaffolding of rods and center pieces with 16 holes, somehow managing to hold onto the spacecraft as we experienced microgravity. I tried but was sometimes unsuccessful, floating helplessly, profusely sweating inside the suit, losing seconds on the clock as I blundered my way through this new experiment.

I took this last activity to heart as I prepared for the upcoming year of teaching at a STEM academy in a new, unchartered position. 

Sometimes I blunder my way through my education whether it be the lifelong learning or throughout university experience (perhaps we all blunder…).

I found refuge in a book that I am reading, “Brain Rules” by John Medina, that might also help you in preparation for this upcoming year in your educational endeavor. My endeavor is to be the most effective, highly trained educator I can possibly be and to meet the needs of the learners in my classroom as much as I can.

I see the start of the new school year as a way to create innovative, new activities that would qualify as zany and outside the box. I read books to satiate my desire for learning.  In this book, I read a highly informative yet humorous account that yields current brain research and how best to care for our brains. The author highlights 12 rules that assist us to live more effectively. We desire to become highly trained educators, to satisfy the requirements of courses and achieve the highest goals.  Basically, I want to only study half the time, with double the retention rate. Don’t you? That is an attainable goal using strategies from this book. Here are the “Brain Rules” that John Medina writes about:

• Rule #1 Exercise boosts brain power. Getting out of your bed and walking to the coffee pot doesn’t count!
• Rule #2 The human brain has evolved too.
• Rule #3 Every brain is wired differently. Study the way you learn best.
• Rule #4 We don’t pay attention to boring things. Is this boring yet?
• Rule #5 Repeat to remember. What is that girl’s phone number?
• Rule #6 Remember to repeat. How old am I?
• Rule #7 Sleep well, think well. Ahhh, sleep is never underrated.
• Rule #8 Stressed brains don’t learn the same way. Exercise the stress away, then study, remember and repeat.
• Rule #9 Stimulate more of the senses.
• Rule #10 Vision trumps all other senses. Make visuals, word webs, write on your friends’ T-shirts…
• Rule #11 Male and female brains are different. (radically!)
• Rule #12 We are powerful and natural explorers. Two year old tantrums actually are just a way for toddlers to explore the world.

In conclusion, take a look at your life, be honest about what lifestyle you are living, be self-reflective and give this year your best shot. Get sleep, exercise, eat balanced meals, study while walking, talking and generating words and you will find that studying will take half the time with twice the retention! And yes, I am a mother of 6 kids and out of our family of eight, five are in college. And Yes, we survive very well.

_____________________________

2011 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, WI National Representative and Middle School Teacher of the Year, Maureen Look-Ainsworth, graduated from Marquette with a bachelor’s degree in human development and education. She earned her master’s degree in inquiry and brain research from Carroll University in Waukesha and is now seeking to complete a master’s degree in educational administration at MU.  Maureen taught  8th grade science and engineering at Horning Middle School for many year.  This year she will assume teaching 5^th grade at Randall STEM Academy in Waukesha.

Why I Chose Marquette: They Saw Promise in Me

By Maureen Look-Ainsworth – As the 2011 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, I walked through the West Wing of the White House on May 3, 2011, I saw portrait after portrait of each president of the United States. I was lined up to shake the hand of the current president, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office.

I cried tears of disbelief as I passed each of these portraits and realized the monumental moment. I was about to shake hands with the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world!  The day before I had met Dr. Jill Biden, second lady of Vice President Joe Biden, at her home. Surrounded by Secret Service staff, we were checked and rechecked as we entered the private residence of the Biden’s and the White House. I could only think back and see that my undergraduate education had begun at Marquette University.

With two master’s degrees achieved, I am an 8^th grade and 5^th grade science and engineering teacher in a STEM academy.  I will soon undertake another master’s degree in education at Marquette.  This time, I’ll earn my certificates for principal and curriculum and instruction at my alma mater — an institution known for its rigor and excellence in creating a collaborative, positive, state of the art education program.

As an 18 year old, I signed up to parallel the Physical Therapy program back when it was a regular 4-year bachelor’s degree. I saw the prestigious Marquette University from the standpoint of a disadvantaged-but-knowledgeable youth who saw promise in a university that took a chance on me.  Marquette served to provide for the education of the whole me, not just the academic me, but all that encompassed my growth as a young adult entering college: spiritually, emotionally, socially and academically. It served to surround me with caring adults/professors who took time to engage with me as a person, who saw to it that I was a person who mattered, a person who COULD make a difference in this world notwithstanding the lot in life I had been served.

My degrees in education are really a tribute to my Mom, Jeanne Novak, who sent 3 of her 4 children to Marquette and instilled this same message of assurance and desire to succeed in each one of us. My two brothers, Chris who became a mechanical engineer and returned to achieve his degree in patent law and Guy, who graduated with his electrical engineering degree and now has his master’s in microwave optics.

My Mom always said, “Find something that you will love to do, something you are really good at, then you will always be able to find a job and be marketable.”

Halfway through my sophomore year, I decided that I could make more of a difference by entering the math and science education program at Marquette. I had always seen the field of education as the time-honored, respect-driven profession that could help others see potential in themselves and give to others as they had given to me.

Wherever I sought an interview, they asked where I received my degree. I answered “Marquette University.”  Just verbalizing the name Marquette University opened so many doors that otherwise, I believe might have been closed. I am here today because of the promise that Marquette University and my Mother saw in me — the promise to achieve great things.

Marquette Hosts Wisconsin Teachers of the Year for Round-Table April 14

This fall, a panel of educators, parents, and community leaders selected four 2010 Wisconsin Teachers of the Year — three of them Marquette University graduates.

The College of Education is pleased to invite all three outstanding alumnae to a reception and roundtable discussion on Thursday, April 14, 2011 during which they will share their experiences and expertise as some of Wisconsin’s finest educators.

Chosen for their demonstrated instructional innovation and leadership, community involvement, and an ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, the 2010 Wisconsin Teachers of the Year are:

• Middle School Teacher of the Year, Maureen Look-Ainsworth, Arts ’86, is a teacher of seventh- and eighth -grade science at Horning Middle School in the Waukesha School District. Maureen was also nominated as the official Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, and will represent Wisconsin at the National Teacher of the Year program this spring. [Read more about Maureen Look-Ainsworth]
• High School Teacher of the Year: Claudia Felske, Arts ‘90, is a ninth- through 12th-grade English teacher at East Troy High School in the East Troy Community School District. [Read more about Claudia Felske]
• Special Services Teacher of the Year: Peggy Wuenstel, SP ‘80, is a prekindergarten through fifth-grade speech and language pathologist at Washington Elementary School in the Whitewater School District. [Read more about Peggy Wuenstel]

Join us for an event honoring these outstanding Marquette University Educators!

Wisconsin Teacher of the Year Reception and Round-table Discussion
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
6:00 p.m.
Marquette University’s Tony and Lucille Weasler Auditorium
1506 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Reception from 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Roundtable begins at 7 p.m.

Event is free and open to the public.

Parking is available in the Marquette University Parking Structure at 749 N. 16th Street for $3 after 5pm on the evening of the event.

For additional information, please contact Lori Fredrich at lori.fredrich@marquette.edu or 414-288-0659.