I happened across Simon Sinek on YouTube talking about Millennials in the Workplace and found what he said to be right on point. I could relate a lot of what he said to what I was seeing in my classroom. I was guilty of many of the parenting fails he mentioned. Forming relationships and forming trust are something we are missing out on these days, we are missing out on the opportunities for innocuous interactions that lead to meaningful relationships. Seeing this video led me to Googling him and finding his book Together is Better. "What are you going to do with your life? What are you doing with your life now?" "Do you have goals? A vision? A clear sense of why you do what you do?" I have given this wonderful fable to many of the important people in my life, both young and old. What better feeling is there to have than to be inspired. Wake up each day and feel inspired by what you do. There have been school years where I have woke up and dreaded my day, I haven't even consumed my daily coffee or changed out of my PJ's and dread was eating me up. I sat down and had to reflect upon my decision to continue on this path, and tell myself if you dread your day so much, change what you do. Well I didn't want to change what I do, I love kids! I love all my kids! I had to change how I dealt with the parts of my job that I did not like. I had to realize there were aspects beyond my control and learn how to reconcile those things and ponder on how to better react to them. Instead of fighting against something and focusing on the thing I hated, I started to fight for something and focus on the thing I love. I love the kids! Paperwork will never go away. I hate it. Documentation will never go away. I have to do it, so I am focusing on just doing it better. Finding ways to tie it to my daily instruction more effectively. Exploring how it benefits what I do not how much time it eats up. Grades, that is a whole other blog post as well, I hate them. Parents who don't see eye to eye with me, well, do I see eye to eye with everyone? No, I didn't necessarily agree with all the teachers who my children had over the years. I can't fight the parents, I can't stop them from saying mean things about me and pointing out the flaws they see in me to their friends and to their kids. I have to look at things from their perspective, they love the thing I love about my job more than I do, they love their kid. I can't change them; I can just focus on the thing I love, teaching their kid and trust my team to help me navigate obstacles as they occur. I vowed to not let anyone question why I do what I do, the dread will never get in the way, it is gone, I will fight for something and focus on the kids. That is where this book fits in. "When we are closed to ideas, what we hear is criticism. When we are open to criticism, what we get is advice." I have become much better at taking what people are offering as advice. Maybe they are criticizing me, but I don't allow myself to see it that way anymore, I see it as advice. As a teacher and a department lead I offer advice all the time. I try to be empathetic to those I am giving it to and understand why they are reacting to it the way they are. Is it my delivery? So I have turned that around. I cannot change the way a parent, an administrator, a colleague, a student are speaking to me, and I cannot change their message or their delivery. What is within my power is to change the way I receive it, and take it as advice. We are a team, working for a common goal, the education of children. What do I love about what I do, the kids! On page 9 there is the quote "Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge." As a teacher I see myself as the leader and this is why we build our social contract, (see the previous blog post). I don't want my students to see me as the one in charge; I want them to know that I am taking care of them. Yes I am teaching you math, but I see that as secondary to making sure you are OK. Physically, emotionally, socially.....the list goes on. How can a kid learn if they are not OK? I can try and teach you all the maths in the world but if you are not OK not very much learning can go on. Together is Better is exactly what it says it is "A Little Book of Inspiration" I find the message it offers transfers many aspects of my life and hopefully will inspire all the special people I have shared it with and if you pick it up hopefully it will inspire you. Not to mention the scented pages, Ethan Aldridge’s delightful illustrations and there is a song by Aloe Blacc! "What good is an idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world." -Simon Sinek Hmm, I feel like I just wrote a book review. Mrs. Jones
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I ditched the word "rules" a few years ago and have used a Social Contract instead. How should we treat one another? There are still rules, on my Course Overview it states we must follow the student code of conduct, that is a non-negotiable. We discussed how we all may not agree with what is in it, but there are laws we all must abide by that we don't agree with, it is just a fact of life. Dress Code is the one they all balk at. Knives, they all think they can bring a knife if the blade is a certain length. No!!!! My car is my car why can't I store my gun in it? No!!!! So I guess there are rules, but in 1.206 we have a Social Contract.
I have found that by using a social contract that the students are active participants in building it helps foster classroom rapport and teamwork to create a safe, trusting learning environment. I have also found that it helps build motivation and helps the students take responsibility for their actions and performance. Ultimately The Social Contract is designed to let all participants in a classroom know what behavior is acceptable and what is not. It is an agreement of behavior to promote a self managing class. The primary questions I consider when developing our social contract are:
The kids come up with the same words for the first 3 questions for the most part, respect, kindness, listen, tolerate, kind words.....you get the idea. This year my Freshman struggled with the violations. "Send them out" was the big one. I had to pry and pry to get something that we could do in the class, like apologize, say nice things....They are a sweet group and maybe they are so nice all the time there will be no violations. I learned about Social Contracts 10 or so years ago at Capturing Kids Hearts, and have used it ever since. In conjunction with the contract there are the four question for misbehavior, they work like a charm.
I have found if you get buy in treat them as mature young adults that they will start to act like mature young adults. This is their class and they should feel safe and want to come here everyday!! I love the first day of school!! By far it is my favorite day of the entire year. This year I decided to save the boring syllabus stuff to the second day and focus on team building and start building how to work in effective teams. I usually inherit a group of Freshman who have already spent 3 years together in the same math class in Middle School. They know each other, I am the one who needs to learn how they work. Sometimes I get 10 kids who are so sick of each other that the class is like a group of siblings. They are so comfortable around each other that they have no filters. I have learned that we need to establish our class culture immediately. There is always at least one Negative Nelly that I love to turn around. This year did not disappoint. We started class immediately with an activity called 1 to 100. I liked this activity because it is just a page of numbers. The kids are on a pretty level playing field barring a sight impairment. I did have a student immediately announce their dyslexia and I told them that is OK that is why we have our team, you are not alone. Let's see how your group works with your specific skill set. That youngster rocked and actually led their group. Another youngster announced I don't work well in groups, and once again that ended up being my leader and he/she had a great time. I found this activity on Sara Van Der Werf's site and modified it a bit for my group of learners. When I asked if anyone had found a pattern they all said no, but as I watched them work I noticed that they had subconsciously figured it out. We moved on to The Tower of Cups, another activity that did not involve any math ability. I left the students in the same groups so they could build on the rapport they had already established. I had almost 100% participation, even the most timid learners were chiming in. I had the pleasure of having a college student visiting me and he joined a group. He didn't immediately figure it out and I think it made the kids feel good that they could hang with a Texas A&M student in a game. I loved watching the one group try to move their cups with just the string. There was a learning curve but they got it done. We debriefed and did some discussion questions as a whole group. Overall it was a great first day! One down and about 178 more to go. We are on a new type of block scheduling so there is a 5 day gap till I see my B'day kids again. We'll be working on our social contracts and setting up our Interactive Student Notebooks (ISN), more class culture and getting to know one another. I have found spending this time up front makes for a more functional class culture throughout the school year. Mrs. Jones What was I pondering as I sat outside on a picnic table with my coworkers.....I WISH I WAS SHARING THIS WITH MY STUDENTS!! Darn DSISD, we should of had school today! My brother teaches in Lake City Florida and if your child stayed home today it was an excused absence, what is the thought process in that. Today proved the Earth is round and it is obvious it did not end because I am rambling. He lives in an area where they had 88% obscuration and he noted the crickets chirping and the bats coming out midday, how cool would that have been to see with my kids. Yes guys, I miss you and really wish today was a school day. A couple of cool observations from today, some teachers were totally geeked out about this, others could of cared less. Custodians got in on the fun too. Wicked cool shadows on the ground, crescent shaped leaves. Geometry ruled today!! It got eerily cool out at 1:09pm, I noticed because I had been sitting out in the sun for about an hour at that point. I am going to ask you all on Wednesday and Thursday about your eclipse experiences, I am so hoping you all had some. My son chose to miss out and my daughter who lives in a 90% zone was in class, I really hope she stepped outside to marvel at the pure awesomeness of the event. Eclipses are not actually that unusual. Solar and lunar eclipses occur a few times a year somewhere on the planet, but usually over the ocean or at odd times, like 3 a.m. Total solar eclipses over the United States are relatively rare. The last one was in 1979, and the next one will be in 2024. Guess what guys, Dripping Springs will be in the path of totality! Well almost, maybe a trip to Waco is due. I just hope school is in session so I can share it with young minds and maybe just maybe get them to geek out a bit. Am I hoping the eclipse turns kids on to astronomy, if not astronomy another science field. It is my hope every day that we do something as educators to turn kids on to astronomy or any other field. Astronomy is ancient, it is beautiful, it is bigger than all of us. Astronomy can lead us in to so many other subjects. Let's think about those poor bats in Lake City who flew the roost midday today. I end this post with a photo of how I spent the eclipse! This might inspire someone or possibly frighten you. 2 days and you all will be back and let's see who will laugh at me first. Mrs. Jones I know this student, I am actually the mom to one of these students and once again why didn't I stumble upon this information sooner. My procrastinator thinks he is not smart, thinks his friends are all smarter than him and this article sheds some light on one reason he may procrastinate in some subjects. I know it was the culprit in Physics Junior year. The title of this post is the title of an article I came across in Education Week. Evie Blad states that: "Some students engage in so-called self-handicapping behaviors not because they don't care. Rather, those students care a great deal about success and they are trying to protect themselves from the negative emotions they might feel if they fail at an academic task. So they put off studying for the big test, giving themselves an excuse in advance for a low score. And they might not always realize why they are doing it." Do we want to engage in an activity that is going to make us feel bad about ourselves, no. I know I tend to avoid activities that are going to frustrate me. Not practicing, not studying gives you an excuse up front for failure. An athlete might not practice as hard, well of course I lost I didn't practice. "Students are more likely to self-handicap if they perceive an outcome as certain when it's actually uncertain. The combination of a low sense of control (inability to do well on a test) over a situation and a high regard for the outcome (wanting a high score) can lead to a fear of failure." Boy do I know this kid, he sits in my room every year. Sometimes there are more than one of them. I usually catch on, but sometimes I do just think they are lazy or unmotivated. Then I feel really bad once I realize that this is their coping mechanism. So what do we do as teachers? The article brings up Growth Mindset and the movement towards encouraging students to learn from their mistakes, normalize failure. Students won't be so scared if they know it is OK to fail they will have a chance to learn from the mistakes and succeed. What do you think? Does this describe your child? Students, do you think you do this? Teachers is this kid sitting in your class. I look forward to approaching this student in a different way this year, maybe sitting them down and talking to them about what I have observed. I'll let you all know how it unfolds. Sometimes I feel I come across an article at just the right time. I had recently praised a child for their hard work, they failed miserably at the task and they totally called me on it. You are just trying to make me feel better. I highly recommend you perusing this article in the Atlantic, "How Praise Became a Consolation Prize" by Christine Gross-Loh. She is interviewing Carol Dwek about Growth Mindset and how many of us misunderstand what it means and how to implement it in our classrooms. Just because I have a Growth Mindset doesn't mean I can automatically transfer that to my students, it is not something they just pick up. I have read many articles by Carol Dwek but had not come across the idea of "false Growth Mindset' before. "The mindset ideas were developed as a counter to the self-esteem movement of blanketing everyone with praise, whether deserved or not. To find out that teachers were using it in the same way was of great concern to me. The whole idea of growth-mindset praise is to focus on the learning process. When you focus on effort, [you have to] show how effort created learning progress or success." (Carol Dwek, The Atlantic) Once again I have reflected upon the past year and realized that I have been guilty of this, and especially in my own life. I hated to see my children discouraged and frustrated, if I could have a mommy do-over I would be more mindful of how I praised my children. In class it is something I will be super mindful of this year. "Many parents and teachers who themselves have growth mindset aren’t passing it on because they are trying to protect the child’s confidence, focus on the child’s ability, and kind of boost the child’s view or protect the child from a failure. They’re conveying anxiety about ability." (Carol Dwek, The Atlantic) This is will be a balancing act for me, I still want to focus on their abilities, some of my students have encountered a lot of failure, but how will I accomplish this without "conveying anxiety about ability". It is in my nature to want them to feel good about themselves. I look forward to analyzing how focusing more of my praise on the process vs. the outcome effects students this year. I wonder how this works with other adults, how I praise my team, am I focusing on outcomes or process. My personal children are off at college this fall so not sure if I missed the boat on this with them. It is like Mila Kunis character in Bad Moms says, "At least once a day, I feel like the worst mom in the world, and I cry in my car." They both made it to college so I didn't mess up too bad. I hope you enjoy the article, I did. Adrienne Jones
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