My Teacher Forever (revisited)

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 “my teacher” 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 —

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Feb. 3-7 - Family Life Week Mon. Feb 3 - Teacher Training Day, our at 1:15 - meet at Crimson View Elem. @ 2pm.  Wed. Feb 5 - Dudes and Donuts 8-9 am Thu. Feb 6 - AES Culture Night 5:30-7 Fri. Feb 7 - Divas and Donuts 8-9 am	Mon. Feb 10 - PTSA Mtg 12:15 pm Fri. Feb 14 - Science Fair Assemblies
Feb 17 - President’s Day Feb 24-28 SEP Week  Online Scheduler is up for you to make changes as needed. Feb 10 parents can start setting appointments.

Favorite Article This Week —

8 Leadership Lessons from a Symphony Conductor

My dad was a music teacher. I always loved watching him conduct his orchestras and bands. We are conductors in our classrooms. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you to our Chinese Language teachers. I am always amazed when I come into your rooms, or even just stand outside your rooms and see the work you do. All the activity and engagement students do in your rooms. I am amazed at how well students speak, read, and write in Chinese. I hear parents talk about how they love that their student speaks and writes so well. I then think about all the work you put into your lessons and activities to help your students learn. That you for all you do for the students. To give them this opportunity and help them know they can accomplish hard things. Thank you for making our school amazing because you are here. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

Bonus Video

“This is incredible. Time to take another vacation from my excuses…”

This man is Blind. Inspiration for the new year. Anything is possible for us and for all our students.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

Ignorance Project (revisited)

Teachers,

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

Ignorance Project —

I watched a video this week from TED Talks. It talked about data and how we look at it. There was some great information that I think needs to be shared and discussed. Hans Rosling is a Data guy from Sweden and he talks about misconceptions we have as a society. Hans talks about how we as a population look at data and think things are getting worse. The kids are getting worse, or are they? He shares a couple graphs that show that the world is not getting worse, but it is getting better. It is all about how we look and think about our situations and the situations in our world. He discusses misconceptions society has and how we need to change how we look at things. In a nutshell the video taught me that I need to look at things more positively. The data does not show that things are getting worse. I constantly look at my situation I was in when I was younger and I have to remember that life is different now. There is so much more happening and we are so much further than I thought we would ever be. Life is better. We have so much more at our fingertips. Attitudes are better around the world. We are closer to every part of the world. We know so much more. Life is good. The bonus is that we are in the trenches making it better. You are a huge part of the progress happening in our world. Check out the video here TED: The Ignorance Project.

Quote I’m pondering —

“To a disciple who was forever complaining about others, the Master said, ‘If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.’”— Anthony de Mello

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Mon. Jan 27 - Community Council 12 pm Tue. Jan 28 - 5th grade to Lava Ridge Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 4-5 Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 1-3	Feb. 3-7 - Family Life Week Mon. Feb 3 - Teacher Training Day, our at 1:15 - meet at Crimson View Elem. @ 2pm.  Thu. Feb 6 - AES Culture Night 5:30-7

Favorite Article This Week —

100 Percent is Overrated

I revisited this article last weekend. It reminded me not to call students smart and why. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Jen, Jo, Julie, Stacie, and Alma. It is tough to have the same sounds, letters, stories, and answers read to you a hundred times. I appreciate your help with Acadience. Getting every student possible tested. I know it is time consuming and monotonous, but with each child there is a smile and a cheerfulness to help them feel comfortable as they sound out letters, read and summarize. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your work. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

And Now A Thought About Fluency

Teachers,

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

And Now A Thought About Fluency —

I have been at a lot of trainings this week. There was a part of the training that was an ah-ha moment for me. It reminded me about the literacy training I did a couple years ago. In the training I read about Fluency and how important it is leading up to comprehension. Fluency is not only how fast a text is read out loud, but it also includes accuracy and prosody. Students should read as fast as they talk. There is a WPM guide that tells us how fast that should be according to grade level, but a generally it should be as fast as a student talks. Faster than that, they are just reading as fast as they can and comprehension suffers. Accuracy brings in words, vocabulary and context and provides meaning to words students recognize as well as context to the text. If words are missed or misread, the meaning of the story could get lost. Prosody is the way stories are read. The voice fluctuation, the raising and lowering of the voice, sounding like the voices that are speaking the words on the page, and reading not only the words, but the punctuation. Storytelling. Put all these things together and we get fluency. Without each of these things, comprehension goes down. Now to the ah-ha moment. As we learned about all this, we thought about how we read books with students and listen to them stumble over words, help correct them if they say a words or sentence wrong, and in the end have them tell us what they read. If the student is reading a book they are not fluent in and are struggling reading words and do not know the vocabulary, should we expect them to understand what they read each time? They need to work on comprehension, but fluency is a big part of being able to understand the meaning of a text. So what do we do? If they do not comprehend what has been read, is the fluency getting in the way? Would choral reading help them understand better as they listen and read? Just a thought. If a student does not comprehend what is going on in a story, it might be because of their fluency. I know you are all working on amazing things with your students. This was just an moment of clarity for me. You just happen to be on the reading end of my thoughts. Thank you for bearing with me.

Quote I’m pondering —

“In order to change skins, evolve into new cycles, I feel one has to learn to discard. If one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects. They reflect one’s mind and psyche of yesterday. I throw away what has no dynamic, living use.”
— Anaïs Nin

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Mon. Jan 20 - MLK, Jr. Day No School Wed. Jan 22 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning) Thu. Jan 23 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning)	Mon. Jan 28 - 5th grade to Lava Ridge Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 4-5 Wed. Jan 29 - English teacher DLI Training grades 1-3
Coming up: Cultural Night beginning of February. More information to come.

Favorite Article This Week —

Quality and Effort

I love Seth Godin. There are some thoughts that have made me think about my systems.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you k-3 grade teachers for your flexibility with the Acadience testing. It is always a nightmare trying to gauge how long the testing will take for each grade level. I understand the inconvenience it places on you when these tests come up. I really appreciate third grade for moving your test to the next week. It is nice to get through these needed things and everyone just works through it. Thank you for your help and understanding. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

In Memory of Persistence (revisit)

Teachers,

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

In Memory of Persistence —

My best friend from high school passed away 3 years ago. He was pretty amazing. He was the kid in school that always had to do everything differently. It drove his teachers crazy. It was fun for us to watch. After he graduated he had many different jobs and adventures. He taught English in Japan for a year and when he came back he opened a clothing store with his own designs. He painted and drew art that he tried to sell and eventually took a job in the graphics arts field. He worked for a couple different newspapers and marketing companies while starting his own marketing company. He decided he wanted to help others so he became a life coach while still painting, using his graphic arts skills, and keeping up with his marketing company. All this while he raised his small family. He was a pretty amazing guy. The one big thing I learned from him was persistence. No matter what happened, how bad it got, or the roadblocks that showed up in his path, he went on to the next thing and made it work. Shaun had persistence. What I saw was that he did not get stuck if something went wrong, he pushed through it and found something that worked.

So how do we teach persistence with our students? Have high expectations and relate them to the students. Push them, but know when to stop. Persistence needs to be worked on like anything else. It takes practice. How can they push through problems if they only see problems that take a couple seconds to answer? Introduce problems that take time and might have more than one step are needed. Teach what to do when the going gets tough. Model what to do and have them practice it. Teach students to be positive and to tell themselves they can do it. Being negative teaches students they cannot do something that is hard. They can get that negative talk anywhere. We need positivity. Convince them they can do it. Students need to know there is a future that they control. Some cannot see past next week, or even the next few days, but we can expand their view with education. Show them where they can go. Give them a road map and take them on the trip. When they persist and succeed, point it out. When they persist and don’t succeed, praise the persistence and show them the map of where they are going. Give them the confidence that they can do anything with education. That builds persistence. Thank you Shaun for the road map you showed me. You were truly my life coach.

Quote I’m pondering —

“We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are ”

-Anaïs Nin

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Mon. Jan 13 - Pie with the Principal 9:30am Mon. Jan 13 - PTA Meeting 12pm Tue. Jan 14 - STEM, Music Char. Ed start up Wed. Jan 15 - Acadience Testing All Day (see schedule on your email) Wed. Jan 15 - Chinese PD 1-3 All day Thu. Jan 16 - Chinese PD 4-5 All day	Mon. Jan 20 - MLK, Jr. Day No School Wed. Jan 22 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning) Thu. Jan 23 - Acadience Testing at Santa Clara (aides gone morning)

Favorite Article This Week —

What’s the Real Origin of “OK”?

The precursor word of LOL, OMG, and WTSH. I love words and their origins.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you teachers for all the love and kindness and competition. It is so much fun to be a part of a staff that is all in when it comes to activities, lunches, and games. Thank you for all the fun you bring to school each day. I love being a part of such a wonderful school. Keep doing what you are doing. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. 

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.