Everything is connected. This is a phrase that i have heard for years but really never understood until this morning. I have always been told what is above is below, what is inside is outside. I never understood these concepts either. This Morning i listened to the Diane Rehms interview and hearing "everything is connected" explained by Mary Chapin as it relates to The Calling resonated with me
Let me try to explain this, for the last three weeks i have spent 7 hours a day in the classroom and more like 8 or 9 at work, preparing and training 27 people to be prepared to be Protective Caseworkers. Their jobs will be to keep children safe and investigate reports of abuse or neglect in NYC. I was prepared and trained to teach a model that placed me in the role of educator and coach/mentor. In return, i was provided a mentor/coach to give me feedback...So i prepared power points and rehersed the parts that I offered to deliver, i was in contact with my coach.....
Upon first meeting, she asked me "if i was willing to take a risk"....i answered her that I take chances....and i was pushed to take more and more chances. All while, i was thinking.....Why walk when you can fly.... My coach is kin to me in many ways, culturally, physically and is an avid NPR listener. She and her husband built a home and lived in woodstock and she raised two daughters. We became fast friends and this woman originally from Philly and involved in sustainable organic gardening is married to a man who owns a coffee house and is a pastry chef. Outside of Albany the NPR station plays Dar Wiliams so she is familiar with the music i listen to and has a love for the music of the 30s and 40s....She is warm and supportive and wonderfully skilled. its get to take feedback from her and to be free to make mistakes.
I entered the training room with like a burst of energy, she laughed when i exhausted myself and havent learned to temper my energy but she let me figure that out for myself....I would look over and she would nod and she when coached to proceed in a way at the last minute, and then i couldnt do the change, she shook her head because, there is no real mistake... I just couldnt execute and there was the day, that i couldnt get the words out and try to make my own changes midstream and i screwed up the exercise totally and "crashed and burned" in the delivery, she let me off the hook, gave me feedback and didnt let me beat myself up...just moved me on...
That is exactly what i have done with the group of participants, i was assigned to... I got the 5 most limited in talent and had to coach them on skills and get them through a video tape 12 minutes in length. Working wtih them in small groups, i modeled and demonstrated and gave feedback and supported and helped them succeed. it was amazing to see how they grew and developed and even more amazing how i grew and developed over the last three weeks.....
IN the middle of this training, i went off to Peekskill and then to Redbank ( good thing i didnt have any sections the day after redbank because i was shot) and i am done with the three week cycle....the next one doesnt begin until May... way after the MCC tour is over and before the summer one begins...
I wanted to give my coach a copy of The Calling and I think i will send her one as a thank you present for getting me through my first training with such support and helping me learn as much as i did.. I know where to find her and i will work with her again, and see her in the office and for dinner when she is in the City.....
As for the participants, they will be going on thier on the job training, then to another three week course leading them to a written test... If they fail the test, they lose their jobs.....i wa s pleased when the two that stuggled told me that they will practice the skills and hear my voice in their heads when they are working.... they are integrating when i have taught them, like i am integrating what my coach has taught me....
