It’s also National School Counseling Week. Thank your school counselor!
I’ve always harbored a personal abhorrence to pork rinds - simply for what I thought they were. Today I decided that I should do a little research to see if I was overreacting. Nope. Still not going to choose to eat deep-fried pig skin. Interestingly, however, they are found in cuisines all over the world. In Brazil, they are torresmo. In Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico, they are chicharrones. In Newfoundland, they are scrunchions, and nearby in Quebec they are oreilles de crisse (Christ’s ears). Big Idea: If you are a longtime reader of JumpStart, you’ve probably noticed that I’m all about strategies, through the ‘This week, try this’ section and the weekly Educator Resource. Today, let’s focus 100% on a strategy, Root Cause Analysis, that is a component of Curiosity, one of my Top 3 SEL Strategies. As a kid growing up in Western Montana, Spotted Knapweed was The Enemy. Originally from Eurasia, this plant quickly found root in the dry hillside of the state. It took over the grazing lands of the cattle ranches, pushing out native species and being inedible to cattle and just about everything else. My mother, a staunch home environmentalist, learned that one of the best ways of control was to pull them up before they could set seed. The challenge was that knapweed bloomed at the height of summer which is also the driest time of year, which means that the soil is rock hard, which means that it was hard to get the taproot, all of which made it’s eradication from our little acre a prime candidate for the annual Summer Chores List. One summer, Mom put a bounty on the knapweed on our property: 10 cents for each confirmed taproot. Ever the opportunist, I found the easier ones to pull, developed a pretty successful strategy for pulling, and would head out in the morning before it got too hot. One fine morning I headed out determined to make some cash. Within an hour or so, I had wilted knapweed plants neatly stacked in piles of 10 with their roots all facing the same direction for easy counting and verification. Mom came up the hill to check my progress and was a) pleased at how much had been eradicated, and b) not pleased at how much this was going to set her back (this was the 70’s, and we were living on a teacher’s salary). That morning, I was heartily praised, and she ended up lowering the offered price, and moved to a price/job model. Just like with knapweed, the only way to really get rid of your problems is to attack them at the root. A common example is this: let’s say you ran a red light and got a ticket. Who’s to blame? How can we make it so it won’t happen again? The easy solution would be to get on social media and type up a rant about traffic and the police and your boss, etc. until you felt better. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Instead, let’s employ the 5 Whys Strategy. With this tool, you keep asking why (generally takes about 5 times) to determine the root cause of something that has happened so that you can take action. PROBLEM: I got a traffic ticket for running a red light. WHY did you run the light? I was late. WHY were you late? I overslept. WHY did you oversleep? My alarm didn’t go off. WHY didn’t your alarm sound? My phone was dead. WHY was your phone dead? I didn’t charge it. Theoretically, you could keep asking why for a long time. It takes common sense to stop at a point where you can take action and prevent the problem from recurring. This Week, Try This: The next time something happens and you’d like to place blame, ask ‘Why?’ five times. Most likely, you’ll end up with something that is tangible and workable. Quote: "Problems are not solved on the level of problems. Analyzing a problem to find its solution is like trying to restore freshness to a leaf by treating the leaf itself, whereas the solution lies in watering the root." (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) Educator Resource: 5th Annual Women in Leadership Conference: March 5, 2024 (registration at 8:30), Double Tree Inn, Mt. Vernon, IL. $125, 5.5 PD Hours. Join ROE #3 and ROE #13 for our fifth annual Women in Leadership Conference! We will gather to learn, engage, and grow through networking opportunities, viable breakouts, an engaging panel discussion, and our inspirational keynote, Sara Boucek. This conference will be held on March 5, 2024 at the DoubleTree in Mt. Vernon, IL from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. The cost to attend this conference is $125/person and lunch and a light breakfast will be provided. Registration and breakfast will begin at 8:30 a.m. Payment needs to be remitted to: ROE #3, 1500 W. Jefferson St., Vandalia, IL 62471. Dad Joke: I got hit in the head with a can of soda. Luckily, it was a soft drink.!
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AuthorSEL Coach Matt Weld creates and delivers in-person and online SEL-related content. Archives
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