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Life in Perspective

5/23/2013

Today was not one of my better days. It started out ok but then a series of events made me feel like going to bed and waiting for Friday. But then I read a blog post from a high school friend of mine that helped me breathe a little easier. After replying to her post, I decided to share my experience here:

Your post had perfect timing. I had a mini-meltdown when I got home from school today due to:
*my morning sub gave me a bad behavior report
*my oil pastels were missing (which I had bought with my own money, then loaned out to someone who didn't return them, then found in the school art supply room in a state of disaster) and I wasn't able to do the art I wanted to do today
*rain+traffic+lame drivers=seriously, slower traffic move right!!!!!
*accidents on the carpet due to dogs locked up because they bark during the day (which we recently discovered through a mean letter sent by a neighbor after they complained to one another but not to us so that we had no idea this was happening because we WORK ALL DAY!!!!!)
*my phone freezing up just when I wanted to text someone so I could rant out my frustrations!!

...and then I read your post.

*My students will be better behaved tomorrow. Subs make for a weird day.
*The oil pastels were found and can be re-organized by my students when we use them tomorrow.
*I should have slowed down and practiced a little bit of patience while driving. It was raining pretty hard.
*Our dogs are awesome and it's only carpet. Plus they were really happy to see me even when I was a jerk.
*My phone un-froze and I could text successfully. Ranting was unnecessary.

Life has been put into perspective. Thank you.

I guess sometimes we all need a little perspective. This one came to me just when I needed it most!! Happy day everyone!!

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Sing with Me

5/21/2013

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I strongly believe that teaching the character traits is just as important as teaching reading, writing and math. I have been so fortunate this year to have a class that has really engaged in the character education curriculum with me. As we approach the end of the school year, I have been looking for ways to continue to teach character education in a fun and memorable way.

One activity that we have really enjoyed is singing the monthly character trait songs from my website. This month we are focused on Perseverance. Every morning after announcements, we pull up the music and the lyrics and we sing along with the song. Afterwards, we have conversations about how to use the character trait in our daily life. The students usually request that we sing it twice, and on Fridays, we review the songs from the past months.

It is a very simple addition to our morning routine but it is one that we all look forward to. During this calm activity, we are connected to one another as we sing the words. We each have our favorite lines and we laugh together when someone sings the wrong words or off key. It has become a lovely way to start the morning and a great reminder of how we should treat others since we will spend the next six hours together.

I really enjoy this time with my students. It makes me feel good that they like singing the character trait songs and it supports my philosophy of providing character education to my students. With only fifteen day left in this school year, this will be one of the activities that I will miss most during the summer.

--To listen to the Character Trait songs, click here. Then send me a message--let me know what you think!

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Goal Setting Challenge

5/6/2013

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I love having goals. Goals give me something to work toward and they give purpose to whatever it is I am doing. However, I am not so good at writing them down. I have good intentions, but then I get busy or I forget to do it. As I continue reading The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, I am reminded that writing down goals is much more important than I had thought:

Unsuccessful people carry their goals around in their head like marbles rattling around in a can...
--Darren Hardy
The Compound Effect, page 71

Yikes! Does that describe me? I decided that I was going to do something to change my bad habit of not writing down my goals!

A few months ago, some friends and I discussed goal-setting and the different ways that we go about doing it. One friend suggested an acronym that might help us organize our goal setting system: CO-FISHES. The letters stand for:

C--Career
O--Organization
F--Family
I--Intelligence
S--Social
H--Health
E--Economics
S--Spiritual

These represent the different areas of your life that need to be developed and nurtured. If one part of your life is out of balance, then eventually all the other areas will be affected as well. This seemed like a good system to start with and, since Career is something that I spend so much time doing, I decided to focus on that area first.

I started by organizing my notebook into the eight focus areas. Then, in the Career tab, I set my Career goals. These are the things I want to accomplish in my Career and why they are important to me. This is my WHAT and my WHY. On the second page, I wrote how I am going to achieve those goals. What steps do I need to take to be successful in this area? This is my HOW.

I only got through the C and O today but already I feel like I am closer to reaching my goals. Writing them down and articulating what I want helped me find clarity and focus. In just one day, I feel calmer and more organized in my life and, as I reflect on and continue the process of setting goals, I will be better able to monitor and adjust them. Already, the simple act of writing down my goals is making a positive difference!!

--Do you write down your goals? What challenges do you face when it comes to goal-setting? Share your experience here!

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Owning 100 Percent

5/1/2013

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Inspiration comes at odd times and from surprising places. Sometimes it sneaks upon you and other times it hits like a ton of bricks. For me it all started after spring break....April was a busy month. Testing has been in full-swing and the pressure is on to get everything done before the end of the school year. Unfortunately, to add to my stress, my students have not been behaving in a respectful way. I tried being nice, then I tried being mean--and finally...just when I felt myself ready to snap, I read a passage from The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy that changed my thinking entirely.

In his book, Hardy writes that even small changes to your routine or your thinking can have a huge impact on the future outcomes. In chapter 2 of his book, where he writes about choices, he says:
If I always took 100 percent responsibility for everything I experienced--
completely owning all of my choices and all the ways I responded to whatever
happened to me--I held the power. Everything was up to me. I was
responsible for everything I did, didn't do, or how I responded to what was
done to me.

This was what I needed to hear to snap me out of my funk! I was playing the victim.
I was frustrated with my class and was blaming them for their poor behavior....and yet, deep down, I knew that I was at least partly to blame--Had I been consistent? Had I followed through with consequences? Was I being a good model of positive behavior?

I decided right then that I was going to change the way I responded to my class. I would give them 100% even if they gave me nothing in return. As I reflected on the past month, I realized that I had been focusing on their negative behaviors instead of the positive. I had been telling the kids everything they were doing wrong and I was forgetting to tell them what they were doing right!!

So yesterday I walked into my classroom with a new jump in my step. I bought a roll of blue tickets (and called them Caught-ya Cards) and some small prizes for my new prize drawers. For the whole day I was going to catch my students doing the right thing!

When students walked in the door, I shared my plan with them. I apologized for finding all their faults; I intrigued them with my prize drawers; I complimented them on their wonderful behavior. And do you know what happened?

We had the BEST day!! Kids and Teacher were happy! We worked together in a way that I knew we could but hadn't seen in a while. The power of taking responsibility for my own actions and using positive reinforcement to engage my students changed the energy in my classroom almost instantly.

Today will be another new day. I look forward to seeing my students this morning and continuing what we started yesterday. Although April seemed to be the month that would never end, May looks bright and sunny. I will give 100%!

--Thank you for following my blog. I apologize for the inconsistent postings. As I get better at blogging and creating a schedule for myself, I hope to improve the consistency of my writing! Thanks for hanging with me!!

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Life in Perspective

Sing with Me

Goal Setting Challenge

Owning 100 Percent

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