GingerSnapz!

I’ve been playing a little bit and want to share with you! 

I drew this little dancer in about 3 minutes and now she’s groovin forever!  Have fun playing a LITTLE bit, but I wonder…

What would be a really cool use for some little dancer like this?   

Sometimes I’m as as bad as my middle schools students in not wanting to fully complete a job. I’ll get all the essentials finished, but sometimes, well, actually, OFTEN…Oh, I’ll just go ahead and admit it to myself: very rarely do I like to go in and put the finishing touches on the event, work, whatever.  I hate it. I abhor it. It’s truly distasteful work. I’d prefer to be on to the new. Not the “been -there-done-that” project.

So what’s the lesson for myself today?
Every single job really does deserve to be completely finished. 

This includes the proverbial crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s.  This includes adding the final coat of varnish.  This includes not only getting the contact info for someone and calling it once, but following through and actually setting up the event.  I’m not so good at that and I excuse my behavior by saying “I’m a big-picture thinker.”  I often rely on others to tie up loose ends. 

Would I accept that behavior in my students? Nope.  Why not?  Because IRL (in real life) we let people down when we don’t finish out the job, or we make more work and/or stress for ourselves, trying to scramble well beyond the acceptable amount of time.  We should’ve finished, but we didn’t.  We just went on to the next job and things went haywire because we didn’t finish it properly. Or worse, the poor finish reflects as if I’m a poor worker, which I most certainly am not.  

Since they say a picture is worth a 1000 words, I think we really ought to look at a few pictures to quickly illustrate this point:

While that situation is funny to us sitting comfortably in our chairs, imagine the fallout from this.  You know there were carts damaged and they can’t send out damaged goods to stores.  You know the truck driver is on a time schedule and needed to be somewhere, or at the least, for productivity costs, NO ONE should load a truck twice. 

Yet so many people neglect to finish jobs.  It’s time to start; if I’m going to expect my students to finish their jobs, I really need to be the very best role model there is.  Actions speak louder than words, right?  Even wrong actions speak loudly and that’s not what I’m trying to say. 

Take a breath, make your to-do list.  Then make another list: a finish list.  It’ll do everyone some good!

I’m trying to get a better blog going with the help of a terrific resource from Steve Dembo, called How to Be a Better Blogger in 30 Days!  I sure hope that you check out his advice and also let me know how I’m doing with my blog as we go!

Any input is appreciated; just be gentle!