Anchor Quotes for the New Year

I’d like to share 10 quotes that this year will anchor my professional practice, keep my mind open, and remind me of my most deeply held beliefs. I hope you will find them sufficiently rewarding on their own, but also that they will encourage you to check out their sources as well.

I’d like to share 10 quotes that this year will anchor my professional practice, keep my mind open, and remind me of my most deeply held beliefs. I hope you will find them sufficiently rewarding on their own, but also that they will encourage you to check out their sources as well.

For teaching

• Priority #1 for any class is: Do not create hate for the subject…Sure, not everyone is going to love skiing (or cooking, or math), but they shouldn’t detest it. Temporary understanding is not worth permanent aversion. Kalid Azad, Honest and Realistic Guides for Learning
• The work that is expected should never be a mystery. However there should be latitude wherever possible for students to develop their own voices and exert autonomy. John Eckert, The Novice Advantage: Fearless Practice for Every Teacher
• We want to see patterns in the world and to understand the rhythms of the universe. Jo Boaler, Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching

For classroom management

• There’s no gauge to tell us when we’ve become stuck in a stress cycle that is rapidly draining our fuel tank and overheating our engine. Negative feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are those signals. They tell us when we’re overstressed and running on empty. Stuart Shanker, with Teresa Barker, Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (And You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage With Life
• People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. C.S. Lewis, quoting Dr. Johnson, Mere Christianity

For teacher leadership

• Great teams need windows on the world, but biases mean that we mostly get mirrors. Margaret Heffernan, Beyond Measure, The Big Impact of Small Changes
• The answer clearly lies in the Slinky itself. The hands that manipulate it suppress and/or release some behavior that is latent within the structure of the spring. That is the central highlight of systems theory. Donella H. Meadows, Thinking In Systems: A Primer

For perspective in these turbulent times

• It would not be too much to say that American politics is characterized not by two dominant political parties or philosophies but by two competing enemies lists. Kevin Williamson, The End is Near and it’s Going to be Awesome
• Errors come in opposites and we spend a lot of time thinking about how to avoid the worse, instead of keeping our eyes on the goal and finding a path between the errors. CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

And to be human first

• Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6, English Standard Version

Please be so kind as to share your own anchor quotes, I’d love to read them and check out their sources as well.