By: Diane Tuttle on January 15, 2024
In Mining for Gold, Tom Comacho explores ways for individuals to recognize their spiritual and personal gifts, their gold. The process for doing this can be for personal use or to assist others to find what inspires and energizes them through coaching. Reading this book brought a flood of thoughts that initially seemed independent of…
By: Jennifer Vernam on January 15, 2024
Some Leaders I Know Leaders that I work with do not have enough time to do their jobs. With every moment of their day scheduled, they are trying to address tensions, labor shortages, and financial constraints unlike any I have seen in my 25 years in the field. These mission-minded individuals are continually asked to…
By: Jeff Styer on January 15, 2024
No pressure here folks. Our second blog post, not fully confident in our reading and writing abilities and we are assigned Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold [1]. I picked up the book and read the comments on the back, I read a blog post I found online and then I read the reviews inside the…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 12, 2024
I have made multiple attempts to pen this premier blog. As a champion overthinker, I visited numerous rabbit holes to critically consider what a self-assessment means and what standard I compare. Framing my evaluation in humility may sound disingenuous, and efforts to incorporate humor did not seem as funny the next day. So, the cycle…
By: Jana Dluehosh on January 11, 2024
Identity. What a hard concept to nail down and at the same time a key part of every human experience. One of my past teachers stated, “we are the medicine, how well do you know that medicine?”. [1] This is a key part of my “why” I do what I do and who I am. …
By: Noel Liemam on January 11, 2024
As I try to give an assessment or an evaluation to the levels of reading, note taking and writing capacity, I come to terms with the thought there are correlations between my reading, note-taking, and writing essays abilities. Generally speaking, we could say that writing skills would improve by not only writing, but the practice…
By: Julie O'Hara on January 11, 2024
About 10 years ago it seemed that everyone I knew was obsessed with “Strengths Finder” as a self-assessment tool. It never excited me the same way that Enneagram or Extended Disc has done, but I still remember three of my top strengths were Responsibility, Learner, and Strategic. Those strengths, and their corresponding shadow sides provide…
By: Chad Warren on January 11, 2024
Literacy equals access. Access to what? According to the ancients, freedom. In “The Republic,” Plato first introduced the seven liberal arts, those arts which would set a human free, and he began with reading and grammar. In your first few years in elementary school, the goal is to learn to read so that, eventually, you…
By: Chris Blackman on January 11, 2024
Writing was and is my biggest concern in this program and was actually one of the things that prevented me from starting earlier. There are two things against me. Firstly, I am a self-professed standard writer, certainly not an academic writer. The second is that I have always been a slow word-for-word reader, and as…
By: Daren Jaime on January 11, 2024
Growing up as a child I was introduced to the popular saying, reading is fundamental. This simple but complex saying stayed etched in my mind throughout my life’s journey. It speaks to a highly valued skill that is essential for a person’s growth and lifelong learning. What I took from this saying is reading…
By: Scott Dickie on January 11, 2024
On several different occasions I had to remind myself that Yascha Mounk, author of The Identity Trap (1), was a self-identifying progressive and he was seeking to expose ineffective strategies to address real and important issues like racism, inequality, and free speech. At times, I found myself ‘reacting’ to some of his statements which struck…
By: Kari on January 11, 2024
Bold, wise, and courageous while being a minority are some of Daniel’s admirable traits in the Old Testament. Until this week, I never correlated his actions with his “learning and skill in all literature” as seen in Daniel 1:17 [1]. Perhaps it seemed more obvious as I have focused my own on reading, writing, and…
By: Elysse Burns on January 11, 2024
I remember watching films in which the main character, in a flash of inspiration, writes a literary masterpiece or reads all the resources on a given topic in a very short time, usually overnight. I don’t know why, but throughout my early studies I thought this method was a worthy practice. I think some people…
By: Akwese on January 11, 2024
To be honest, I was struggling to sit down and do this first assignment. The mere thought of delving into reading and writing with the knowledge that public eyes and comments awaited me was paralyzing. Although imposter syndrome had been discussed by others, it wasn’t something I truly connected with until now. That’s because when…
By: Nancy Blackman on January 11, 2024
Image created with Jasper AI Art As a lifelong reader and writer, it’s not the reading I’m concerned with, but my ability to retain the amount of information, not just for one semester but for the entire three years and beyond. When I was a kid I used to deep dive into books as my…
By: Jenny Dooley on January 11, 2024
The Identity Trap: A story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, by Yascha Mounk, offered a clear perspective on the discord and polarization I encountered when I returned to the USA in 2014. Something had drastically changed over the years that I could not put my finger on and left me fearful of speaking…
By: Joel Zantingh on January 11, 2024
I was a late bloomer when it comes to reading. I did not take to reading very well or very much until middle school, and didn’t take to writing very well until my Undergrad. But it seems that the techniques of linear writing processes were at odds with the way my brain is wired. In…
By: Esther Edwards on January 10, 2024
I entered high school in the late 70s with much apprehension and excitement as most teenagers do. A new high school had been built and my class would be the first class to attend all four years. You see, Cumberland Regional High School was beautifully designed with the hopes of bringing greater relief to the…
By: Christy on January 10, 2024
Entering into this semester, I have certainly felt a level of trepidation that has prompted doubts on my decision to enter into a doctoral program. My affinity for learning has always thrived, but as an oral learner and verbal processor, reading and writing are not my first choices for knowledge acquisition and expression. As reading…
By: Debbie Owen on January 10, 2024
When I was a school librarian and first started teaching middle and high school students how to do research in 2004, the information landscape was drastically different than it is now. Yes, they were using the internet, but Wikipedia was considered an unreliable, forbidden resource for any purpose at all (now, depending on your topic,…
