Many of my students are well aware of how poorly I remember names. I proved this weakness yesterday in the hallway when I blanked on a name of someone who I'd spoken with on more than one occasion. How embarrassing!

 

Now I've heard that one can improve their chance of remembering a persons name if they use it three times in conversation within the first three minutes of meeting someone new. Even this gimmick doesn't seem to help me much other than putting pressure on me to figure out a way to directly address a person thrice within a relatively short span of time. Did I use their name only twice or did I go over by one? Do I get extra memory credit if I say there name again? Oh, what was it that we were talking about anyway? ... Not usually a good way to started with someone new in my opinion.

 

So, if I look like I'm at a loss for your name, please forgive me and refresh my memory. This goes double for parents who stop me in the supermarket when I'm trying to decrypt Mrs. Kochis' notes that we need: "NO dbl fibe brd."  Bonus points for anyone who can help me with that. 

Nearly every year I participate in the Paul VI faculty rosary. Volunteers choose one mystery and say that decade everyday for the intentions of the Paul VI community. This year my mystery is The Wedding at Cana.

 

The Wedding at Cana is great! It's the start of Jesus' public ministry. It shows how He was obedient to his mother. And like all the luminous mysteries it points to Jesus as the Son of God.

 

But rather than comment on these points I'm going to make a simple plea: Pray for us! Pray for the students. Pray for the faculty & staff. Pray for the Paul VI community at large. We need your prayers. We subsist on the grace of God. It's easy to get caught up by the world and bamboozled by the noise that surrounds us. We have a lot of good workers here (students and teachers alike), but if it weren't for God's goodness, we'd be nothing. So, please pray.

 

Thank you.

I came across a thought this week that seems liked something worthwhile to blog about. Early on his book, "How to Study," Kornhauser addresses the point of motivation. His gist is that your motivation and your expectations are essential to success. If you want to succeed in learning something, you will need to first believe that you can succeed. Now I don't believe that this is anything novel, but certainly worth keeping in mind as we start a new school year. 

 

Have you ever started something thinking, "This is impossible. There is no way I can do this."? I don't think anyone would be surprised when they failed at such a task. As people, we're usually pretty good about fulfilling our own prophecies; both positive and negative.

 

I had the opportunity as an undergraduate to hear Alfred Bandura speak at my University. His topic was self-efficacy which is basically the term in cognitive psychology for your belief in either your eventual success or failure. At the time I was super excited and I invited my father to attend this lecture too. Well I experienced the lecture as extraordinary, very positive, and motivating. Leaving the lecture hall I asked my father what he thought. He shrugged noncommittally and simply stated that it was okay, but nothing really new. Well that kinda knocked the wind out of my sails.

 

In retrospect, today I see a little bit better why it was not so amazing to my father. To him this was common sense. Whether we call it self-efficacy or attitude doesn't matter. The basic message is just as true: If you believe you can accomplish something, more likely than not you will find a way to make it happen. If you do not believe you can make something happen, well... don't be surprised when you prove yourself true.

 

 

Okay so I haven't updated this blog since May, but I'm still hoping to find something to make this blog a useful tool for folks. 

 

We're certainly eager to see our students again on Monday. The summer was good, but to all things there is a season, right?

 

I'm in the midst of preparing myself for orientation. I have to decide what to tell my incoming freshmen in the morning. And I will also need to review my materials for seniors. Following that, the first week is still very busy: creating new files, teaching study skills, getting the Fall Guidance program rolling, and "other" duties as assigned.

 

That's about all the time I have presently for blogging. If you have any requests for what you would like to see me write about on this blog OR add to my website, please let me know.

I am testing out the features of this blog page.

 

Here are some of the blogs I read regularly:

Notes from Peabody II	The UVA Admission blog. Good to know what is happening at the flagship school of our state.
internationalcounselor.org	The posts on this blog tend to be very insightful/informative.