Friday, November 11, 2022

Teaching Thoughts for November

 And just like that a quarter of the year has come and gone! I saw on social media that someone posted “Don’t forget to set your clocks from sunshine and happiness back to misery and despair this weekend.” I tend not to share that view point, but these last few years sure have felt like that. So here is to hoping this month’s Teaching Thoughts newsletter can extend some of sunshine and happiness awhile longer.

 

Inside this month’s newsletter you will find –

 

The World is a Fine Place and Worth Fighting For – See actor Jack Black take some time to grant a gravely ill fan a brief one on one performance as he sings a song for the young person from his classic, School of Rock.

 

Book of the Month – If you take nothing away from this newsletter, please take away this book recommendation (which Dr. Henry suggested when she spoke to my class a few weeks ago): The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. He has one of my all-time favorite TED Talks, and his book is an extension of that. Achor examines the backwards belief that success leads to happiness. He believes the constant drive to be successful and then changing the parameters of success to mean more success, which means longer hours, more sacrifices, less time with family . . . is really a recipe for disaster. And you can see that in the skyrocketing rates of depression, anxiety, and stress everywhere you look.

 

Teaching Thought for November – This tip works well with Achors’ book. If you’re a teacher, and you attend a professional development conference or find a new curriculum, don’t over extend yourself and try to implement too many new ideas. Aim for incremental improvements over the long haul. I have learned that lesson the hard way over the past 25 years.

 

Why I Love Teaching – Having a chance to make an impact. And I’ll be honest here, it is getting harder and harder to come up with these, even if I have reduced the number of newsletters I publish from once a week to once a month. So if you have examples of why you love teaching, please send them to me. I need the inspiration, and I would love to feature them in here.

 

Podcast of the Month – Entreleadership “How to Become a Better Leader and Stop Being Just a Boss.” You can rarely go wrong with the Entreleadership podcast. And this episode was just what the doctor ordered. The keys that doom leaders? Pride, lack of clarity, and fear. 

 

Video of the Month – Family Travels the World Before their Children Lose their Vision. This story is amazing. Talk about putting things in perspective. How dare I complain about something as trivial as not having more time to get our final grades in when there are families like this one sacrificing so they can cram a lifetime of images into the lives of their kids before their vision fails them!

 

Give This a Try in Your Classroom – Seminars. This comes from the amazing Jennifer Gonzalez and her blog/podcast The Cult of Pedagogy. Seminars are quick (10 minutes or so) mini-lessons that the teacher offers during class (and students are free to sign up for on their own if they need remediation or deeper content or to clarify a skill) while the rest of the class is working independently. I’m going to implement these in my CC 1 and CC 2 classes.

 

Article of Interest – My sister, Barb, sent me this amazing story. Again, talk about perspective. This article recounts a young man in California who graduated valedictorian while being homeless for his entire high school career! Again, I need to keep this guy’s plight in mind when things get stressful for me (like when our internet went out last week. That’s not a problem that a trivial inconvenience). What if we all had this young man’s grit and tenacity?

 

Bonus content of the Month – Think about implementing KRA’s in your classroom or with your teams. What are KRA’s? Key Result Areas. These help to clarify for students or your workers what areas they need to excel in – and thus what tasks or jobs they need to do in those areas – in order to be successful. Talk about a road map to success!

 

I hope you have a great second quarter. Enjoy it. Things are going to start moving quickly now with Thanksgiving coming up and then Christmas vacation. In fact, the day after Halloween, it was time to break out the Christmas songs!

 



PS – the background to this month’s newsletter is of Charlie Brown from his Thanksgiving special. I know technology is great in that my kids can literally watch any show any time they wish thanks to streaming services, but there was just something magical about knowing everyone in your neighborhood paused their nightly activities to sit around the TV and watch once-a-year specials like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and, in this case, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

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