Teaching Thoughts for Week 30 - Post Easter Edition
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter/Spring break. At LHS something wonderful happened, we transitioned back to fully in-persona learning. My heart was full as I had a classroom of 25 students again. If I never have to Zoom again, it will be too soon!
Inside this week's Teaching Thoughts, you'll find . . .
Image of the week - I saw a post on FB that read "It's been a year since most of you became afraid of dying, but in reality, you wasted a year being afraid of living." I get where this person is coming from, but I couldn't disagree with them more. My CC 2 students write a weekly On the Other Hand column for The Times. I bet half a dozen have focused on the past year (distance learning, lock down, quarantining, Zooms, distance learning . . .) and the students all chose to look at the positives that came out of the past year. I don't see anyone afraid of living. In fact, personally, we spent more time together as a family - eating dinner together (seriously, how often does that happen anymore), playing games, going for walks, and just spending time together - than we have ever before. It was so wonderful. Now, I'm not saying we should have lock downs for months on end, but I think it would be great if we had a mandatory lock down at least once a year for families to spend time together and forget about all the trivial things that so many other people seem to take for 'living.'
The World is a Fine Place - I'm not a dog person at all, but I might have to rethink that as Cash came home from Challenger and recounted this story that he saw on CNN 10. A person was out walking their dog when they suffered a seizure and collapsed. And what did their loyal companion do? It ran into the street and stopped traffic! A modern day Lassie if I've ever seen one.
Book of the Week - On Fire by John O'Leary. If you don't bother to read the book, at least look up O'Leary or tune in to his podcast. You won't regret it. I talk about O'Leary at least once a week in my classes. In fact, a few weeks ago I was talking about him to my fourth grade Sunday School class, and they were riveted. Check him out.
Teaching Thoughts - Check out Teaching Thought #131 on establishing a classroom culture.
Podcast of the Week - The Focus 3 Podcast - "How to Clarify and Implement a Culture."
Well, speaking of culture, here you go. Tim Kight and Urban Meyer drop so much gold on building culture that I can't believe we are getting all of this for free! My favorite line in the podcast is this - "You don't the culture you declare. You get the culture that you build."
Now thing about that. In whatever you role you serve - a principal, a school board member, a business owner, a teacher, a coach, a clerk . . . whatever. What is the culture you (or your school or company) declare(s)? If you don't know, then you don't have a culture (well, you have a culture just not the one you probably want). And if you have some nice, cheesy mission statement, then you don't really have a culture either. You can't declare culture. It has to be what you live and exude in your job every single day.
So what culture are you really building through your day to day actions at work?
Video of the Week - Keanon Lowe stops a school shooting
This is one of the most powerful videos I've seen in the last couple of years. This man is building incredible culture through his actions.
Give this a Try in Your Classroom - Individual meetings with each of your students to give feedback or answer questions.
I hope you have an amazing week. Looking at the calendar now, with spring break behind us, there is not a lot in the way of days 'off.' Let's get to work and make up for all the culture and relationships that were stunted during distance learning over the final 45 days of school.
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