It’s a New Year

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.

It’s a New Year —
Each day brings many opportunities for us to see what we need to do to be a better person. We should be encouraging ourselves and others to be better. Becoming a better person is what making resolutions is all about. What can we do to better those around us and ourselves? Traditionally we put together a few resolutions to get the year started off right and within a few days or weeks or even months, the resolution becomes part of the history of our lives. Something we look back upon that just brings us to the realization that we are who we are and there is no changing our habits and patterns.

We just need to set goals that will help us in our lives. Resolutions get broken. Goals are achieved. We need to set goals. We all have a few goals that we want to help us do better in our daily life whether it be exercise, eat better, stop a bad habit, or start a good habit.

I listened to Hyrum Smith, of Franklin planners, a few years ago give a talk about how to manage finances. He pulled out picture of what he called the spending matrix. He also uses it for time management. He told me he uses it for many decisions he makes. I have started doing the same with many of my decisions.

Draw four boxes on your paper. Label above the two top boxes, Urgent and Not Urgent. Next to the left side of the boxes label them Important and Not Important.
Urgent/Important= Crisis, deadlines, pressing problems=Needs.
Not Urgent/Important=Prevention, Values, planning relationships=Needs.
Urgent/Not Important=Meetings, activities, some pressing matters=Have to do.
Not Urgent/Not Important=Trivial, Time Wasters, “Escape” activities=Wants.

We will work from left to right, top to bottom and write in all the resolutions on your list into the proper boxes. What have you written in what boxes? Are there things that you think are urgent to change or improve?

Life gets itself made up one way or another. We should set goals that will help our lives get made up the way we want it to be, not to have it made up for us. I will encourage you to use the matrix if defining the urgent/important things in your life. Concentrate on the top two boxes. Those are the most important resolutions. Place your creation somewhere you will see it. most of all, write some goals.




Quote I’m pondering —
“What people need to keep their morale up to par is the ability to throw away their dime store glasses and begin looking through life with the long lenses of eternity. We need to acquire the power to live beyond the “terminals of the day’s happenings” and in the words of Emerson, “to hear what the centuries say, not merely the days and the hours.”
― John Miller

What I’m watching —
Mapping out the Shape of a Story
Graphing out a story based on what you are learning in class. Fun. Exciting. Mathematical. Amazing. Try it.

Favorite Article This Week —
So You want to do Mystery Skype
Mystery Skype is a lot of fun. If you just want to do it with Kim or I am sure we can work it out. There are a lot of classrooms and people around the globe that will do it also. I love technology.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Kim. I have learned a lot about being an administrator, but especially being an administrator of a school that in not your run-of-the-mill-traditional-classroom school. Dual Immersion is tough. It has schedules that can be nightmares for administration, and two different language and need to be one for team teachers. I have learned about budgets and meetings, and working with parents and families, and taking care of families in need, and so much more. Thank you for taking me in and letting me learn. I love being here. Thank you Kim. Thank you for working with me. Thank you.

I appreciate every one of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful New Year.

Time for a break

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.

Time for a break —
Christmas break is a needed time for all educators to take time and reflect on the year you have had. It gives us two weeks to have fun with our families and forget some of the things that have happened in the first five months of the school year. When students come back from Christmas break they seem to be a little different. Most of the time they are a little more mature. They do come back ready to see their friends, teachers, and get back into school. Please take the time to enjoy your holiday. Don’t spend too much time at the school preparing, especially new teachers. You need the time off. Enjoy your time with your family. Enjoy time away from school. Enjoy the season. Enjoy life.

Quote I’m pondering —
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.”
― Anne Lamott

What I’m listening to —
Radio Garden
Just in case you are missing home and want to hear a radio station from anywhere close to home. I love the Hawaiian and LA radio stations, but they have many here from around the states and around the world. Check out Barrow, Alaska. Then look it up on the map. Yes, there is a radio station there. Put on the headphones and go home.

What I’m watching to —
12 Days of Christmas
This is great version of this song. Have a great holiday vacation.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you teachers. I appreciate all that you do. I am in awe of the amazing things you do with our students in the little time you have with them. I know it feels like there is no time and very little getting done, but in the end, the students remember the teachers who gave time to them and loved them. The academics is important, but the learn better when they are loved. Thank you for loving the students. They are better because of it. You are wonderful. Thank you. Just Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful Christmas break. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

My Teacher Forever

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.

My Teacher Forever —
I was participating in a #youmatter chat on twitter and a comment came up that interested me. It was from Justine Tarte from St. Louis Missouri. He said "Highly effective teachers don't just have students for one year; they have students who view them as 'their' teacher for life...". I thought about this for a moment and it is true. The teachers I remember that I consider "my" teachers are the ones that really had an impact on me. Mrs. Durbin my kindergarten teacher took time with me and helped be start out to be a pretty good reader. My third grade teacher Mrs. Fanning really helped me understand math and we had some great waffle parties. Sixth grade was Mr. Neighbor and he pushed me to do better. I wasn't fond of him because he was mean, but he was "my" teacher because he pushed and I grew. I had others but the one teacher I call mine was Mr. Frieberg. High school music teacher. I had him for 3 years and my friends and I got to know him pretty well. He took time to explain life to us. He scolded us when we were making bad choices. He praised us when we were doing well. He took time to find out who we were and we found out who he was. He took time. I don't remember most of my teachers. I would have to look back to see what they even looked like. So who are "your" teachers? Who made an impact on you? And what are you doing to make an impact on your students so they will consider you "their" teacher after they leave? What a badge of love to get from a student. My teacher forever.

Quote I’m pondering —
“Don't look—you might see. Don't listen—you might hear. Don't think—you might learn. Don't make a decision—you might be wrong. Don't walk—you might stumble. Don't run—you might fall. Don't live—you might die.”
― Anti-Risk Campaign Poster

What I’m watching —
Through the Eyes of a Teacher before Christmas
Kim showed me this and I thought everyone can relate to this in fact this is usually what happens during a full moon. Enjoy and laugh.

Favorite Article This Week —
6 Potential Brain Benefits Of Bilingual Education
I read this and found that our kids resemble these benefits. One other thing have read is that the benefits of dual immersion show up more as the students grow older. We are doing an amazing job teaching dual languages to amazing students. They will benefit. We are hearing about the benefits from former students. It will be more evident in the years to come. Keep up the great work.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Cynthia and Teryn. Having the whole day classes, you are doing an amazing job. Seeing the successes you are having and the growth with your classes is exciting to watch. Being in a full day class with one group of kids after being in half day classes with two groups is a daunting task. It is a huge schedule and curriculum reset. But you have taken the task and have done some pretty fun things that most classes are unable to do with half day classes. Thank you for doing such an amazing job. Thank you for all you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

Little Things

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.

Little Things —
I am a huge fan of the band Van Halen. I have been since a friend played me their first song on their first album. They were a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners type of band. They innovated and created their own path through rock and roll history. But there is a story about them that always intrigued me. It goes something like this (From entrepreneur.com, ):

Buried amongst dozens of points in Van Halen’s rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M’s candies in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single candy, a promoter could lose millions…
To ensure the promoter had read every single word in the contract, the band created the “no brown M&M’s” clause. It was a canary in a coalmine to indicate that the promoter may have not paid attention to other more important parts of the rider, and that there could be other bigger problems at hand.
Whenever the band found brown M&M’s candies backstage, they immediately did a complete line check, inspecting every aspect of the sound, lighting and stage setup to make sure it was perfect. David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to prove a point — reinforcing his reputation in the process.
Van Halen created a seemingly silly clause to make sure that every little detail was taken care of. It was important, both for the experience of the fans and the safety of the band, to make sure that no little problems created bigger issues.

As teachers we need to look for the little things that need our help. There are times we find something amiss in a student's learning and we need to search every aspect to find what is needed and address it before it becomes a bigger issue. The band did not put that clause in to be funny, they put it in to make sure the experience of the fans and the safety of the band was taken care of. Everything we do is about the experience we give our students, the learning we design, and the opportunities we create for our students and their future. It’s the small things we sometimes lose track of in our lives. Even the little things like a smile or a positive comment makes a difference. A little thing like a smile at any given moment can make a student feel good and know that someone cares. If things do not go right you don't get to trash your room, but you can check and recheck what you are doing to make sure you are doing the little things, because those are things that can help as our students learn.

Quote I’m pondering —
“If the cat wishes to leave the room, he makes no fuss about it and does not annoy you with vocal opportunities; he selects a position near the door. Now you may change his position, but you cannot change his purpose: his purpose is to leave the room; and he knows that opportunities come to those who are ready.”
― William Lyons Phelps

What I’m watching —
What Homeless Keep With Them
We have a small population of homeless in our school. This article with accompanying videos put more of a face and background on who we are working with when it comes to the homeless.

Favorite Article This Week —
10 Things High School Teacher Can Learn From Elementary Teachers
This is more of a reminder of all the things you do as an elementary teacher. Nice job.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Kindergarten. I love that you problem solved how your grade level would increase your imagine Learning usage. We appreciate that you came up with a solution and then came to ask its that works with the schedule. First grade also mentioned how well the students are coming to them more ready for first grade. Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you Amanda for the Shoe project. It went so smoothly and the students had the biggest smiles on their faces. Thank you for taking care of our students and helping to keep them warm, shoed, and giving them a place to feel listened to. thank you for watching out little ones.

An one more thank you to Fourth grade for having everything put into CSIP and putting together a plan to get it put in each week. That really makes our meeting more about the students and not about entering numbers into CSIP. Thank you.

There is so much going on in our school that is wonderful. thank you for all everyone does. Thank you.

I appreciate you and your the work you put in for the students. Have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. I just wanted to use Van Halen in one of my messages.

Do You Know Where You Are?

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.

Do You Know Where You Are? —
Here is another tech lesson that you might want to know, or not. On your phone is a wonderful program that helps locate where you are. This is very helpful when using maps so you can find someplace, when using the Krispy Kreme app so you can find the nearest Krispy Kreme, and if you have the right app, it can help you find out where your car is parked in the Walmart parking lot. The helpfulness of this program changes when you find out that it might be geotagging your pictures, tagging where you are on Facebook or Instagram, or other location options for apps you use. I see the problem with this being that anyone that has access to that picture can see where it was taken. Where you are on vacation, at the local hangout, at your house... the geotag actually is part of the picture. So to disable that you need to turn off the location services on your phone.

On an android phone it is all combined so when you turn it off, you will also turn off the location services for maps and apps that you want to help you using location services. You can turn it off in Settings>Location. There is history that keeps track of where you have been and Reporting that gives apps access to your position. Turning off history will prevent it from keeping location information. If you turn off reporting, it will not geotag your pictures, but it will also not let you see where you are on the map.

On an iPhone you go to settings>privacy>location services and disable specific location services for specific apps. It will give you options like never, while using app, and always. Always means if the app is in the background it will use your battery while keeping track of where you are. You will want location services for maps, weather, find my iPhone, and magic guide if you are a Disneyland fan. Photos, Facebook, Instagram, twitter, camera and other social media apps should be set to never.
If you have a windows phone, you will go to settings>location services and turn it off. It is similar to android that when you turn it off, it turns off the maps location services.

Remember to pay attention to the pop ups on your phone when it asks if you want apps to monitor your location. Most apps do not need it. Game apps have started to ask for location services so they can see if there are players near you. That also shows others where you are. Don't get freaked out about this, but be security minded, especially if you have kids that use a smart phone.

Bonus: there are apps to help track your kids. Make sure those apps have location services a turned on. My kids know that their phones are trackers also, and they do the same to me. Location services are awesome when you going somewhere and you want to use the maps feature, but can be a detriment when others can see where you are. Have a safe and secure day.

Quote I’m pondering —
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." -Steve Jobs

Favorite Article This Week —
Teaching Text Structures
Text structures is huge when reading everything, except narratives. I found this article with its accompanying video and slideshow. I hope you enjoy it.

Second Favorite Article This Week —
DOK in Content Areas
I know, two articles? Where is the video to make us better people? I loved both of there articles. Sorry Here are some charts that help show what DOK looks like in different content areas. I know some of you are working on DOK questions in your lessons.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Alma. Thank you for all the work you put in for everyone to be better teachers. You always have a full schedule taking care of coaching and finding resources for teachers. We know how hard you work make if everyone better. We appreciate all the time you put in and the help you give. Thank you for all you do for our school. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.