I am the Bowtie Teacher. Might as well do a week in bowtie review.
Dr. Seuss Day. Happy birthday.
Kinda stretching the matching pattern thing here. I’m not a pattern person.
Keep it basic, Jason.
It was cold today.
Breakfast with dad Day at Taylor’s school.
Taylor being herself. Love this kid.
You all know I enjoy CrossFit, but joining a CrossFit gym won’t make you stronger. Going into said CF gym and working your butt off, listening to your trainer and eating better will make you stronger. You’ve got to work in order to get stronger. Just like this example, carrying a book bag, a book, sitting at a desk will not make you smarter. Even wishing and hoping won’t give you a grasp of the content. You’ve got to apply yourself in order to get better.
I mention this, because, I’ve found that most of my students are serious about FAITH. They believe that they’ll have a great life, full of riches, fame and success. They also are convinced that they will not have to do a lot of work to get it. They’re just going to “be ok”. Or the really sad response is the blank stare. Most adults realize that this isn’t a good strategy. Most successful people know that this is a horrible idea. But how do you get someone excited, bought into working hard?
To me this is one of the biggest issues. I have to find more ways to get my students excited about learning. Not sure if making them do burpees and our power cleans for time would be a good idea. I’ve located a HUGE area for growth across my entire class. Reading. Next week I’m zero-ing in on their specific shortfalls. We’re going to have a Readers Bootcamp. More details to follow. I just want this school year to be a real demarcation point for my class. Something is going to have to break free this year.
We all have the same amount of time, but the feeling that “this weekend went too fast” is a valid emotional response.
That being said I’m up for the challenge of a new week. I’m expectant that this week is going to be outstanding!
What about you? What are you looking forward to this week?
My first published blog was a bout running. Business was the theme of second go at being a blogger. I feel I did a good job on the running blog, while I feel I did a much better job on the business one. I like little businesses and talking about the customer experience. I still like talking about how small biz makes a ripple in the huge ocean of commerce. Here are my questions I ask about businesses;
My personal questions are
1. Is it a service I like?
2. Does it create a memorable experience?
3. What do I feel like as a customer using this product/service?
4. Do I want to tell people about it?
All that being said I had the pleasure of running into Divas yo yo yarn on Instagram. She makes outstandingly cute crochet hats, gloves, scarves and as you can see coffee cup warmers! She does more than that, too. So anyway. I’ve just found this cup warmer so adorable that I had to get one. So I ordered one in my Morehouse colors along with my initial. Simple is a very good description of the ordering process.
I became a true fan before I even got my well made koozie. A day after my order I got an email that there had been a problem with my order and that the package I would receive wasn’t complete. Arrangements were made and the complete order was sent just a few days later. I truly appreciated that she was proactive of the situation and didn’t wait for me to have a negative experience when I opened my package. I sincerely appreciate that!
Some how I have to tie this into teaching. Since Teachers are known to drink coffee/tea and OTHER things, I think I’m going to order some of these for my teammates and a few of my Sunday school teamies. Yeah, I teach Sunday school, judge me!
https://squareup.com/market/divas-yo-yo-yarn
How was your week? What do you like to do to unwind and relax after a long week of teaching and learning?
I usually don’t tie up for workshops, but I wanted to throw things off a little. Learning about Common Core today.
The ties of the week
It’s been a very easy going week. I feel relaxed but focused. I know the kiddos need to make up major ground after all the weather days we’ve had. So is on me to create a few miracles.
We’re wrapping up our money unit. A lot of the lacking skills are going to have to be addressed in centers, anchor charts homework and prayer. Just because I like money and want to make a lot of it, doesn’t mean my class shares the same excitement.
Tell me what you understand
Most kids have started just being purely honest when I ask them to rate themselves. They used to try to impress me, but ow they just say, “I’m lost.”
Centers, these are going to have to become my best friends. We’re not going to be able to meditate on every skill like we have been doing. It’s taking to Ling and we have a lot to get through. This year with all it’s craziness has been an adventure.
How was your week? Let’s hear how you’re going to make a difference next week.
I’m not the best at teaching centers. Maybe my class management is off. Anyway, I took the plunge today.
We made our own currency. They had to have 2 bills of any denomination or amount. Very fun results.
We later worked on counting out change. We need to practice counting on from a random starting place. This seems to be a really tough concept.
They did better than I expected, but we can certainly use the extra practice.
This might be a long blog post shared over many, many days. As most teachers know the holy grail of teaching is creating “want to”. How do I get kids to want to learn/do better/hope/plan?
How in the world do we create a desire in kids to WANT to do better? Not even sure if this question can be answered, but it seems to be what we’re all trying to solve day in and out. I got to get these kids to want to do better than they did or have seen ever before. No small task. But how do we do it?
What do you all do to get kids to WANT to learn? Games? Tricks? Bribes? Begging? I’ve seen some great teacher blogs out there and there are some really outstanding teachers in this field. But what do you do when the kids don’t?
Last week this time the weather was sub 30 & lots of snow and freezing rain was falling. Needless to say today the weather is 55 + and sunny. How much a week an change things.
Thinking about my 2ndgrade students I wonder how much has changed with them over the last week? Will they come in tomorrow frozen solid? Or will they be a little sluggish, but moving? Maybe they’ll arrive excited about learning and chomping at the bit to get new information.
I plan to be the bright sun shining down education energy tomorrow. So no matter what I’ll find out just how much sun I need to be for my students.
Now back to cleaning off this DVR.
No team, Professional, College, High school, T-ball would expect to be successful without really understanding roles and what’s at stake. There’s team building, there’s good will, but most importantly there’s some degree of victory/success.
Teaching is a group effort. If it’s left to the players, coaches, GM’s or any particular singular entity the season will end in a dismal failure. First let me outline the roles.
Sadly most of the time everyone in the organization is playing against others in the same organization. They see other ON THEIR TEAM as enemies! We’re not against each other. We’re all working for the same goal, victory. To often GM’s work against the Fans. The Players don’t work at all. While Trainers and Coaches are at each other’s necks. No one expects an organization in complete disarray to win a championship.
Teaching can be just like a team on a self destruct path. As a “coach” I need everyone in the organization to help me get my players prepared and ready for the game, day in and out. At least we’re not the USA speed skating team at Sochi. IJS!
The Most Dysfunctional Team in Sochi
