William Glasser theorized that an individual’s “total behavior” was made up of four elements: feelings/emotions, physiological responses, thoughts/statements, and actions. While thoughts/statements and actions tend to be more voluntary, feelings/emotions and physiological responses are mostly involuntary. In this set of activities, we’ll use these four lenses and a “guided visualization” process to recall some of your own experiences as a student. In the guided visualizations, you’ll be prompted to recall your own voluntary and involuntary responses to two experiences of your own selection: an experience with your “worst teacher” and an experience with your “best teacher.”
After each of the guided visualizations, take a few moments to record your notes in the corresponding “Total Behavior” survey. Once both are completed, spend some reflective time composing a form poem (at the bottom of this page– AND…it doesn’t need to rhyme) titled “The Best Teacher” that communicates in some way, what you’ve learned from your experiences as a student about what makes a good teacher.
Give yourself plenty of time and space to accomplish this set of activities. It would be best to download the guided visualization mp3s (“right click” and “save as”) and place them on an ipod or mp3 player. Find a comfortable place. Have a journal or notebook handy. Each visualization will take just a bit over 10 minutes to experience. You can record your immediate reflections in your journal or notebook or however you’d like, and then transfer what you’d like into the appropriate survey on each guided visualization page.
You may want to experience the guided visualizations more than once to be able to relax into these memories and recall more details. I’ve also included an “Unguided Visualization” that has no guiding narration at all. You may use this in a self-directed way to choose beforehand the experience you’ll visit, and then use the sounds and music as a background.
AFTER you have completed BOTH of the guided visualization activities, then go on to complete the “Best Teacher” poem activity below.