“Don’t think, Meat, just throw.”
A wise piece of advice from one of my favourite movies, Bull Durham. Tim Robbins’ character, Meat (or Nuke) is trying too hard to throw perfect pitches, so the catcher, and his mentor, Crash (Kevin Costner) gives him this sage advice.
That quote popped into my over-stimulated brain today, as I started to over-think everything about my inquiry project, our related website, my school’s vision (or lack thereof) for technology, how to narrow down my abundant ideas, how to actually begin implementing them instead of just gathering information, about the futility of life (just kidding)…
Thinking too much can derail you, paralyze you and be so counter productive. It’s related to paralysis in perfectionism – I want to do ‘it’ (use technology) so well! So perfectly!
In the movie, Meat the pitcher on the Durham Bulls baseball team, has a 100+ mile per hour fastball, but, thinking too much causes him to lose control of it. So, I return to my theme (this week) of needing to HARNESS and CULL… and just DO. That is: STOP looking for neat ways to use technology creatively and authentically in my classroom. instead just START doing one new technology ‘thing’ in my classroom (and hopefully one day, library). Start small, add one more small thing, Change one more habit and make it more technologically integrated.
Maybe I’ll make a poster: “Don’t think, Bodt, just throw.”
BUT: I’m not going to look at 7 different poster-making websites and apps first.
And, in my quest to not over-think… I’m signing off now.
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Some great insight and advice Christine! I think as teachers we can all tend to over-think things. We want to try new things and can take on too much and, yes, make it perfect. You are right, we need to take a breath and start small and integrate one new thing at a time. I have learned that in this course – focussing on one item was a much more productive process. I can’t wait to check out all the uses of iPads app suggestions on your website!
Ahh, the trials of perfectionism. How well I know them! The fact is that there is no perfect way to do anything, there is only learning and trying again, hopefully improving with each new effort. This is certainly true when it comes to incorporating technologies into education. There is no perfect way to do it. There is only doing it, and learning.