Your path is your character defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming into focus.”
—Jodie Foster
Tag: students
On Graduating and Growing
Your path is your character defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming into focus.”
—Jodie Foster
Samuel Adams
My fifth-grade class was conducting research on Loyalists vs Patriots pre-Revolutionary War. Students were assigned Benjamin Franklin, Lord Dunmore, Tom Hutchinson, Mercy Otis Warren, or Samuel Adams.
One of my students was perplexed.
“I have Samuel Adams and I don’t understand this word: ‘lager'”.
Excerpt from “Kevin the Complainer”*
Ms. Meretta was teaching a new math lesson.
Kevin looked out the window. The storm subsided and the sun was out. He wished he could be outside, playing Kick and Cover.
“Kevin, pay attention. You need to learn this,” Ms. Meretta said.
Sighing heavily, Kevin muttered, “I knew this was going to be a bad day.”
*my second self-published children’s book – check out “Esther, Mia and the Stars“!
Tired of Starting Over?
Today’s motto (for me) is “just do it.”
I’m in the middle of the National Board of Certification process and one requirement is to take two 15-minute videos of myself teaching and to analyze them. In order to do this, I must view the videos. Repeatedly.
Ugh.
I do not like to hear myself – alone see myself – on screen.
At last, I did it. And you know what? It wasn’t terrible.
So, today, I encourage you to “just do it.” If it needs to be done, but you dread it, know that it’s OK.
If you need a more aggressive motivational message, watch Shia below:
What is School for?
I’m a teacher and I’m usually loathe to listen to any non-teacher who criticizes education. However, Seth Godin is a teacher in his own right and what he has to say makes perfect sense.
Godin published an education manifesto and I think everyone should read it. It’s made a deep impression on me and I’ve made immediate changes to my teaching. Rote memory is ridiculous. Deducting points off for trivial things is dumb. Let’s teach students how to learn and then CREATE things and take ACTION!
Please, read some of his manifesto or watch his podcast (Stop Stealing Dreams) if you care about education.
Just because it’s hard to make change doesn’t mean we should give up.
Calling Home
He talked as I taught the lesson. I asked him to stop.
He talked some more during work time. I asked him to stop.
I changed his seating – nestling him between two quiet students. He talked out loud instead of getting his work done.
I called him to my desk. His parents’ phone numbers were in front of us.
I rarely call home.
“Who shall I call? Mom or dad?”
“Mom,” he said.
“Dad it is!”
