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Clifford Zimmerman's avatar

I like the reset and returning to start concept. For me, both guests and reset are all about personal narrative - our story and its arc. For guests in class, I ask them to share their story from when they were where the students are now to where the guest is now. This first part inevitably hooks the students and naturally leads into the topic for which the guest was invited. For us, we can reset as well by revisiting, reexamining, and rethinking our personal narrative. There is no better way to re-center oneself than to go back and ask ourselves questions like: How did I get here? Why am I here? Do I like how things are going? These are variants of the questions I ask students all the time (and repeatedly): who are you? why are you here? what is important to you? The answers reveal personal narrative, values and moral development, and goals and ideals.

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David Thomson's avatar

Cliff, what a great reflection. So good to ask guest speakers to tell their stories. Usually, by default, I do an intro/bio of them. But it would be better to have them introduce themselves. I will do that in the future! And the key questions - that's a great way to get reset for the new school year. Love it. Thank you!

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