Teaching and Learning Consulting Network, LLC
Contact us
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Connect With Us
    • Costs
  • Professional Learning
    • 7 PL Standards
    • Adult Learners
    • Change Models
    • Leadership
  • Curriculum
    • Curriculum Design
  • Vicki's Blog

Vicki's Blog

My thoughts on education, improvement, and life itself.  Enjoy!

TLC Home

Bridging the Gap Between Knowing & Doing

6/11/2014

4 Comments

 
Picture
When I was a kid, I had a bad habit of saying, "I know" when my dad would talk to me about something.  He would then say to me, "Well if you know, then why aren't you doing it?"  How often do we "know" but fail to "do?"

After spending the morning in a planning meeting with the executive director of Learning Forward (a professional learning organization for educators), I began to think about the bridge between knowing and doing.  She challenged us as a state organization to get busy, with no excuses, and move from knowing to doing in order to impact the direction of professional learning for educators in our state.  Schools and organizations are notoriously slow to change because we often don't want to leave our comfort zones or fail to provide the necessary education and support to facilitate effective implementation of the desired change.  But schools are not alone in this problem.

I think about how many times we know better, but either don't do what we know we should, or do nothing at all!  The other day when I went to teach my college class, it was seriously raining, yet there were so many cars who didn't have their lights on!  In Kansas, it's a state law to turn on your lights if you are using your windshield wipers.  There are blinkers on every vehicle to signal your intent to turn, yet so many drivers fail to do this simple step.  All these things are designed to keep us safe, to let the other drivers know you're around or your intention to make a change, and yet although we "know," we don't follow through with the "do."

Sometimes we "know" a lot of stuff, but we don't know when or how to use that information.  When we know how to do something and when to do it, then we are applying our knowledge and skills.  The knowledge becomes more than useless trivia, it becomes useful.  When we ask students to do more than memorize and perform rote recall, we are deepening their understanding because now they can actually use what they know.

Doing requires sufficient motivation to act.  No one can make you do anything!  So maybe the first thing we should examine is WHY do we avoid the "doing?"  Sometimes it's because doing means we will become accountable or responsible.  Doing means we have to stop gathering information and move forward. Doing might mean we make a mistake.  Doing makes us uncomfortable when it's not what we usually do!  We know we should be exercising and eating healthy choices and portions.  But we often do - or fail to do - what we know to be the right thing.  Doing may require some discipline on our part, and sometimes it just isn't fun.

But doing is also active and engaging!  Doing makes us feel useful and worthwhile!  The more we do the more experience we gain and the more confidence we build.  Talking about doing something happens all the time and is usually just an exercise in futility.  Letting others do it for you makes you feel helpless or unworthy and offers you no investment.  But doing WITH others is also beneficial too.  No one expects you to do it alone.  Doing requires you get dirty, sweaty, and involved.  And in the end, you can smile and say "I/we did it!"

So instead of just thinking about it, or talking about it, or know you probably should, - just get up and do it!   Cross that bridge from knowing to doing and see what results you get on the other side!   

                                                              **************************

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and putting one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. 
                                                                     Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet


Action alleviates anxiety.
                                   B.J. Gallagher, Power of Positive Doing


Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.
                                                                         Victor Kiam, businessman


4 Comments

    Author

    Vicki Bechard, 
    Owner and Lead Consultant

    I express myself best when I write, even though most who know me think I talk quite a bit!  

    I'm an educator first and foremost whether my students are kids, teachers, or my own children and grandchildren.  

    Archives

    August 2017
    July 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Anniversary
    Anticipation
    Attitude
    Beginnings
    Be Present
    Blessings
    Bloom
    Bridges
    Change
    Circumstances
    Common Core
    Curriculum Planning
    Doing
    Endings
    Expectations
    Failure
    Fear
    Fight Or Flight
    #ForeverRoyal
    Foundation
    Friendship
    Fun
    Graduation
    Headlines
    Healthy
    Joy
    Kansans Can
    Kansas
    Kinda
    Kindness
    #ksleg
    K State
    K-State
    Leadership
    Lean In
    Life
    Make A Difference
    Memories
    Mom
    Moments
    NCAA Basketball
    Nurses
    Optimism
    Persevere
    Pets
    Photographs
    Play
    Positive Intent
    Prairie Burning
    Pro Bowl
    Productive Struggles
    Professional Learning
    Purpose
    Reflection
    Relationships
    Relevance
    Resiliency
    Resolutions
    Respect
    Response
    Rigor
    Royals
    School Improvement
    School Shooting
    Sorta
    Spring
    Success
    Surviving
    Taken For Granted
    Teachers
    Teamwork
    Thankful
    The Dash
    Understanding By Design
    Weddings
    Why
    Winter
    World Series

    RSS Feed

Contact us at [email protected]
20064 K-92 Hwy, McLouth, KS  66054
913-796-6241