Resourcefulness at School or Work

Resourcefulness at school or work

Here at True Balance Karate in Downers Grove, Illinois, we have a social emotional learning program called True Character. I’m Master H, the owner and chief instructor here at the studio. I have two master’s degrees in education, which has helped us develop this curriculum to best meet the needs of our youngest students who are three or four, and our oldest student who is 85.

This month, we are talking about resourcefulness. We started off the month defining it as having a creative, positive way of overcoming difficulties. Using things around you, figuring out what you need to do, having confidence and awareness, is what a resourceful person would have, and then it allows you to solve a problem, fix something that needs fixing.

And then, last week we talked about what resourceful people look like. They know who to go to, they know how to read the signs. They have their head up and they’re looking around and they’re practicing that awareness everywhere they go. That’s what a resourceful person would do to be able to solve any problems; be confident, share ideas, listen, those types of things.

Today we’re talking about using our resourcefulness in school or at work, and when we’re talking about the younger kids, early on I gave the example about teaching math and asking the kids what’s the math poster resource in the room that they could use to solve the problem and find the answers, and they would look around the room and some of them would see it and some of them wouldn’t. But it’s that explicit teaching of you have posters that you can look to.

We take notes together all the time and we would write them on these big posters and hang them up all over the room because I taught first, second, and third grade at the time, and that’s what we did. They didn’t know how to do note taking skills. When I started teaching the older students, the sixth graders, the junior high kids, then it was, pull out your notes, what’s going to help you figure this out? Yes, I am a resource and you can ask questions, and when we’re at school, asking the teacher is what a resourceful person would do. But there’s also the textbook, there’s also the notes that you take. There’s also old worksheets, and old assignments and old tests that would help jog your memory and point you in the right direction.

I remember when I was teaching the younger kids, and sometimes a kid from the junior high would come down and sit in my classroom and work on some assignments at the time because there’s nobody distracting in my room for them. They’d ask me a question and I wouldn’t always remember the answer or know the answer and I’d say give me your book. And then, I’d sit there and look through their book until I found the answer and I’d be like, “Here’s what you’re looking for, I needed the resource as much as you did.” And then, we had this conversation about how we needed to find the right answers.

When we’re doing homework at home with our kids and they go, “Hey, how do you solve this?” Or, “What’s the answer to that?” A lot of times I turn around and look at them and I say, “You tell me.” Have them teach you, which is causing them to think, and then they become the resource for you to remind you of how they’re learning it, but it’s also jogging their memory, and then they learn it a little bit deeper and a little bit better. And then, as they get older and they’re in high school, the resources are still the same; textbooks, notes, sometimes the internet. My own children have used videos of how to solve a problem or how to look up a specific science vocabulary word, that kind of thing, so as long as they’re finding the correct information, that’s all that matters along that line.

And then, when we’re at work, our resources wind up being our colleagues, wind up being our boss, wind up being the internet again, the computer, the systems that we use, lawyers with law books, doctors and medical professionals with medical books, coding books. I’m not entirely sure of all of the different textbooks, if you will, that all the different professions would use but those are all resources. I remember going into the vet one time with my dog and he was going through something. The vet had actually pulled out their vet textbook, flipped to it, pointed to a picture of it, and said, “This is what he has, this is what we’re treating it.”

And so, I knew he had the actual answer because it was coming straight that way, he pointed it out. So being confident enough to say, “Hey, I might not have known the answer but I knew where to find it, and here’s where it is,” that’s a good thing to have. It’s a good resource to demonstrate because it just helps everybody’s knowledge grow and develop. So when resourceful at school, when we’re resourceful at work, we’re asking questions, we’re doing research, we’re figuring out the answers, we’re being confident, and we’re being creative in how we solve any difficulties that we’re facing.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the mat!

True Balance Karate was founded in 2012 by Master Sue and Paul Helsdon.

We offer kids karate lessons for pre-school children ages 3-6 and elementary age kids ages 7 and up. These lessons are designed to develop the critical building blocks kids need — specialized for their age group — for school excellence and later success in life.

Our adult martial arts training is a complete adult fitness and conditioning program for adults who want to lose weight, get (and stay) in shape, or learn self-defense in a supportive environment.

Instructors can answer questions or be contacted 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week at 630-663-2000. You can also contact us here. True Balance Karate is at 406 Ogden Ave Downers Grove Illinois, 60515 (next to CVS) Check out our Facebook!