Welcome Back!

Our spirits are in desperate need of rest and encouragement. I truly hope you were able to refresh and renew over spring break.
It's easy to groan and drag ourselves out of bed as we head back into work. But I hope you come back to your classroom with a spring in your step and remembering that your fellow teachers are feeling a similar longing for the pace of their vacations and the comfort of their homes.

It doesn't matter where you teach, you can address these needs of your fellow teachers. You can be the welcome mat that makes work feel more like home. Remember birthdays, pay attention to what is going on in their home lives, and visit their classrooms once in awhile and comment on something positive they do with their students. Focus on one another's strengths. Appreciate one another's talents. And finally, show compassion to those who may not be the best that they can be just yet.

The soul of a teacher is intimately connected to the school in which it operates. We all desire connectedness. Reach out to one another in love. Remember the saying "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Consider this then - if the teacher ain't (isn't) happy, ain't no student happy." We may receive the initial benefit of encouragement but its impact reaches out to our students. The welcome mat can set the tone for the entire home, the entire classroom, the entire school, perhaps the entire community.

Spring Break

Take time this week to refresh, renew, recharge. You deserve it. No matter where you are, this week is a gift. Not all of us can afford to head south to the tropics or an ocean view, but we can allow a new fresh horizon to appear in our souls. Relish the time with family and time to rest. Don't waste it by trying to rush through getting everything done that's been piling up. Slow down and allow yourself the gift of time. Again, you deserve it!

Mine, Mine, Mine!

There are two characteristics common among teachers that get in the way of helping one another. First, teachers are territorial. These are my kids. This is my classroom. We defend that territory primarily by standing guard at the gate and growling at anyone who dares to enter. We don't handle criticism very well. We don't share well. If someone asks for supplies because they've run out, our first reaction may not be to offer them our own. The very value of sharing we seek to teach our students is somehow lost in the shuffle from the classroom to the lounge.

Second, teachers isolate themselves. We are very comfortable closing our classroom doors. It is not uncommon to walk through a hallway and see every door closed, with construction paper covering a window that might happen to exist in the door. If we struggle with teaching, we tend to keep it to ourselves. In this age of accountability, showing weakness is discouraged. So we may sit in our misery or confusion alone for a very long time.

We can encourage one another. Who better knows what your life is like than another teacher? Offer another teacher food for thought. Is someone on your faculty working towards their master's degree? Is there a way you can help? Is someone struggling with staying organized and it is your strength? Offer practical tips without sounding high and mighty about it. Does a teacher wrestle with a student that you taught the year before? Partner with him or her to come up with strategies to reach that student. There is not only safety in numbers, but joy!

Food for Thought

As educators we spend a lot of time assessing and discovering how we can motivate and encourage students to learn. We are aware of those with special learning needs and differing learning styles. We make sure they are fed with free breakfast and lunch programs. We offer after school care. But the most important key to a child's learning is the teacher.


Teachers have needs that if left unmet affect how well they teach. Low teacher morale is a problem at epidemic proportions. If you don't feel good about what you do, chances are you won't do it very well. The soul of a teacher is just as important, if not more important, as her credentials. We can wait for society to wake up and appreciate and encourage us, but better still we can appreciate and encourage one another. Feed the soul of other teachers through mind, body and spirit.

Pendulum

If you haven't read "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, I highly recommend it for your upcoming Spring Break reading. Even if you aren't skipping off to Florida, it will provide the vacation you need!

Everyday, we are faced with many challenges as teachers and plenty to complain about...and we often vent to our fellow teachers in our need to release the toxins of frustration before we head back to class. But there are studies that show that you can actually train your mind to be grateful. What if we can swing the pendulum from complaint to gratitude? Would we discover a hidden joy we didn't see was there all along? Ann Voskamp made a list of 1000 things she was thankful for, and it changed her life. I challenge all of us this week to write down just a few of our "gifts" per day. Here are some of mine...

1. the kids
2. those hidden smiles from under the "I'm too cool for school" looks
3. friendships with other teachers (sometimes just the silent looks of I don't know what to do with them either . . .)
4. the total unpredictability of day to day life of a teacher (at least it's not a conveyor belt at a factory!)
5. holding on to the dream of bringing our the best in each student
6. that "I can't believe I really just did that- I didn't think I could do that" look.
7. summer break, spring break, winter break, prep period, time to refresh and renew
8. creative ideas for lessons that trick our students into learning
9. an opportunity to show love and encouragement in a world that tells kids they're just future screw ups
10. the lessons I learn from THEIR stories


“Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant—a seed—this plants the giant miracle.”
― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

More than A Number

A great reminder from the point of view of a high school student:

I am more than a number.
I am someone’s child, will be someone’s parent.
I am Someone’s creation.
I came into this world chasing knowledge, ready to try anything.
I stacked blocks and counted to ten, but fall asleep in your math class.
I lived for trips to the zoo, but failed Biology last semester.
I sang my ABC’s to smiling faces, but my essays are covered in red.

I am more than a filled desk.
I have fears, questions, memories.
I have a Creator.
I came into this world with innocent dreams, innocent needs.
I said I would be an Astronaut, but will be lucky to get a diploma.
I couldn’t wait to show my Batman lunch box, but hate my levis when Abercrombie’s walk by.
I have a dad who rocked me to sleep, but he kicked me out again last night.

I am more than a label.
I have hidden talents, a future career.
I have a divine purpose to be here.
I came into this world with my fingerprints.
I kicked a ball at recess, now I am a dumb jock.
I wrote the wrong letter on the board, now I’m a slow learner.
I got quiet after the divorce, now I’m just another "goth" in all black.

I am more than an absence.
I am somewhere, may not be coming back.
I am “God knows where.”
I came into this world with a family who anticipated for months, years.
I had a decorated nursery four months before I arrived, but your classroom looks like a jail cell.
I saw happy tears when coming back from camp, but they sigh when I ask for make-up work.
I had thirty neighbors searching when I toddled down the street one day, but now it’s just “unexcused.”

I am more than a statistic.
I listen to you, have someone I want to be.
I have a calling.
I came into this world by myself.
I have a mom from Venezuela, but I’m just another Hispanic male.
I live in a small house that was always big enough for me, but my “economic status” made me “at-risk.”
I didn’t have a dad growing up, but now I’m just another pregnant girl with no self-control.

I am more than another student.
I have a past, a future.
I was placed in your class by two kinds of Counselors.
I used to be “a delightful child”, now I “show no apparent interest in learning.”
I used to get my sandwich sliced sideways with no crust, now I am a bar code.
I used to be mom’s “precious little angel”, now I’m an ID number, a class rank,
and one of thirty empty faces.

You failed me.
Oh, yeah . . .
I got an F, too.

"In any large corporation, rank-and-file workers who put forward truly new ideas have the deck stacked against them right from the beginning. Most companies are peppered with people who are very quick to say 'no.' Most newly-hatched ideas are shot down before they even have time to grow feathers, let alone wings...One 'yes' in a sea of 'no's' can make the difference." Gordon McKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Perception AND Reality

Just a little note this week to say "Me too." Hang in there! You can thrive not just survive today and this week! Keep up the good work!

"The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth." -- Dan Rather

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." --John Cotton Dana

That Winter Scowl...

Happy President's Day! We hope you are able to enjoy some self-renewal time today! If not, you might find yourself looking similar to the picture above! : ) Like the Presidents we are celebrating today, you too are leaders who need some much-deserved time to reflect and renew! Our students deserve a sunny classroom even in this, gray cold season. Here are the top ten qualities of a self-renewing person. Hope these can be helpful tips, especially in these winter months.

Ten Qualities of Self-Renewing Adults
By Pamela McLean, Ph.D.

1. VALUE DRIVEN
Primary anchors within self
Time gets organized around critical priorities
(Remember the "who" and "why" are much more important than the "how" and "what")

2. CONNECTED TO THE WORLD
Caring and Communicating Listen and Empathize Networking and Seeking
(Find ways to give your students and families time to express themselves as well as listen and connect to each other)

3. CREATE SOLITUDE AND QUIET
Removing oneself voluntarily from one’s habitual environment promotes understanding and perspective that transcends day-to-day life
(set aside at least 15-30 minutes a day for quiet time to reflect)

4. GOOD PACING
Life is more than work, work, work, do, do, do... It is QUALITY rather than schedules, INTEGRITY rather than applause
(Set aside one hour a day and one day a week where you can just "be" instead of "do")

5. CONTACT WITH NATURE
Nature is a universal resource for renewal – Use It!
(Bundle up and take a walk for some fresh air.)

6. CREATIVE AND PLAYFUL
Staying alive by taking life in
(Find a way to incorporate an interactive, competitive game or a creative expression activity in your lesson, model it for the kids by doing it yourself as well.)

7. ADAPTIVE TO CHANGE
Allowing ourselves to pursue best options
(Explore some alternative learning style activities to mix up the flow of your activities.)

8. LEARN FROM THE DOWN TIMES
Learn more from our failures and our down times than from our long and sweet plateaus
(On bad days or failed activities, take a deep breath and reflect over what you could do next time to improve.)

9. ALWAYS IN TRAINING
When learning, we feel drawn to new possibilities
(Learn and listen from your students as much as they learn from you. What are they saying, teaching you about life?)

10.FUTURE ORIENTED
Look for challenges to deepen our experience and make a difference in the world
(Remember the seeds of kindness you sew with your students and families will have a ripple effect!)

Show some....

Happy Valentine's Day from Teachers 4 Teachers! We know this is a tough time of year. Winter is cold. Students are restless. Spring break seems so far away. On this week of celebrating love, we want you to know that even though you don't hear it enough, if ever.--your community loves you. We're grateful for all your hard work. We know that every lesson planned, every test created, every activity led, every copy made is a little act of love for your students. A little love note that says "You can do this." And we believe the same about you.

Love is not in the curriculum, but it is a staple for every teacher. Think about a coach, mentor, family member or teacher who inspired you. Most likely, you learned from that person because you knew they cared about you. It's amazing how love can motivate, isn't it? Below are some great reminders about the power of love from Mother Theresa, a great teacher for many. Our students our families, our friends are all longing for the same thing we are. Love can brighten any lesson, any relationship, any classroom-- any season, even the long ones. : )

"The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread."

"We can do no great things; only small things with great love."

"It is not how much you do, but how much Love you put into the doing that matters."

"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love."

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own home. Give love to your children, to a wife or husband, to a next-door neighbor. (to your students, your peers, your administrators...) Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier."

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand."

"Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other–it doesn’t matter who it is– and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other."

Happy Valentine's Day! Show some love to your students and families this week. It has a way of bouncing back to you! : )

Pom-Pons

In all the red tape of behavioral referrals, , redline test scores, and red pen slashes for wrong answers, it's easy to get bogged down in the "what needs to be..." What needs to be fixed, corrected, admonished, and scolded. But what if we could look around and see red Pom-pons instead? What if we look for chances to cheer them on?

We are your cheerleaders as you cheerlead your students. You are a gift to your students and our community that is rarely celebrated. In the US, we tend to be known for our spirit of entitlement and complaint. But what if we could model for our kids a spirit of celebration and gratitude? Let's swim upstream this week!

For some of your students, you are their only advocate. The only one who might take a chance and believe they can truly be the best version of themselves. The one who holds that red pen, hoping not to have to mark wrong answers and hoping to put that %100 at the top of that paper. Rules in your classroom cheer them on to be a kinder, more generous, more loving generation. Just like on the homework, it's easy to focus on the wrong answers, the ones that need to be fixed. But this week, let's try to catch our kids doing something great. Shoot them some words of praise, cheer them on. Let them know we believe in them, care for them, and cheer from the sidelines that they can take that next step toward the best version of themselves. Each student is a gift to be celebrated.

The Pom-pon challenge: At home or at school, when you find yourself with a complaint on the tip of your tongue, try to say out loud something you're grateful for instead. A gift to be celebrated. Whether it's our students, administrators, support staff, spouses, kids, family members, or friends, what if we look for chances to cheer others on this week?


"Stay awake to the wonder of this world. Great thinkers are the grateful thankers— the real greats live gratefully... Love is the laying down of it’s own wants to lift up the will of another. Love let’s go of it’s plans — to hold on to a person." AnnVoskamp, One Thousand Gifts

"Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own." -- Nikos Kazantzakis

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." -- Goethe

Untangling the Mess

Welcome new teachers! We hope you are able to enjoy the items in your red totes! They were packaged with love and appreciation. We know you often feel overwhelmed, underpaid, and under appreciated. But what you do matters so much! You are the silent heroes of our community, and unfortunately you hear most of the complaints! From parents, students, administrators, state boards of education... But you are the ones in the trenches, and we are eternally grateful for all you do for the students of our community. We wish we could give you more than a red tote, but it's a start! This blog is a place where teachers in Michiana can come and share of few "Me too" moments and strategize how we can help each other in the trenches!

We know what it's like! We're teachers too! There are certain parts of our job that we love ... namely, the students. We want our actions, our words, our promises, our lives to scream to them "You matter! You are not an accident! You are not someone's second thought. Someone's punching bag. Someone's scapegoat for their own lost dreams. You have a reason for existing and a part to play in the good and beautiful side of this world. The sky's the limit . . . "

But our voice competes with the cold square bricks of concrete, the upcoming state tests, data team meetings, funding issues, students' homes where basic needs aren't met, our own homes that vie for our attention as well, and evaluations that remind us to to "stick to the standards." But are we ok with the standard that our students often feel like another filled desk, another word on a faceless roster, another bad kid waiting to get caught, another ID bar code to scan in the lunch line, another test score waiting to land on a graph? Of course not. But we often feel overwhelmed by what seems to be a system that is a tangled mess!

Good news, in the middle of this tangled mess is one simple fact. You love your students. One by one you are brightening their world, their minds, and their futures. Can we single-handedly untangle the tangled mass of issues facing public education today? No, but what we can do is take the few strands we have and weave them together to make something beautiful and strong, so we can hold on to each other in the middle of the mess. One strand, one day, one lesson, one class, one student at a time.



"If we are to achieve the quantum leaps the future seems to be demanding of us, we must risk to leave our containers-turned cages and find grace to dance without stepping on toes. . . Many of us choose security over freedom to such an extreme that we confine ourselves and profoundly limit our experience of life. Maximum safety, minimum existence."
Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

"I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior."
Jesus (Luke 16:8b (Msg))

Getting to the Root of Things

It happens every day. Kids are cruel to each other, snapping insults back and forth. We correct. We make them apologize, and then it starts all over again. Then we find our own voices and bad attitudes added to the mix. Our nerves have been frayed, emotions are raw, and our patience levels are falling like snow in these winter months. We're left longing for spring break which seems too far away. But sometimes it's ok to stop the lesson and dig down deeper to get to the root of things. Maybe that's where the real lesson begins.

That kid that is shoving, fighting, sleeping his way through the day. What's going on at home? What's really going on in his head? This rotten apple you're afraid might spoil the whole bunch. Sometimes it's easy to fall into thinking that the instigator in your classroom is the villain to your hero story. But he's really just a kid confused about right and wrong, and most of all, who really cares. Maybe we take him aside without the ears of his peers or outside the classroom for a few minutes to find out. Many times we'll find there's a deeper issue. Every student deeply longs for friendship, connection, trust, peace, even when it looks like they do their best to run from it. This "me first!" demand might actually be a question "Do I matter?" If we start to love them, root for them, and correct them like we would our own children, it's amazing what fruit they begin to produce. We just have to dig deep to find out what's really happening at the roots. Roots before fruits, and then have fun watching them grow up to surprise you.


“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia

"In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years." ~Jacques Barzun

A Day Off to Dream

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, I can't help but remember the beauty of the diversity in my classroom..his dream come true. We're closer, but we teachers still have to break up fights in the hallways and help them unclench those fists of anger and I took time a moment to reflect so I could connect...

I am from blonde pigtails and Mr. Rogers
and old hymns that sang me to sleep
but You didn't just live in my cookie cutter world
as I read, listen, and dive into
the stories of my students
I learn so much from the colors of their world
where Nikki Giovanni's phrase rings true
"Black Love is Black wealth"
where Carmen Tofolla's abuelo
passes down his wisdom like tools in his rusty toolbox
that she wasn't allowed to touch in "Mi Familia"
Langston Hughes speaks of rivers
and dreams of dancing in the sun
"to whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done."
hands raise that never would before
angry stories of getting followed in the mall
or women clutching purses and the
thunk, thunk of door locks as they walk down the street
Brent Staples says "Black men trade tales like this all the time"
we are studying multi-cultural America
but the room is the real textbook
each with their own unique story to tell
quilted patchwork squares of bold patterns
until they finally came together
"red and yellow, black and white
they are precious in Your sight"
ALL of them.

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Day by day our lives are woven into a giant narrative, and every moment we become more and more the story of who we are. We are stories. And we only connect with other people when we know their stories. The more intimate we are, the more our stories intertwine . . . and each one of those stories, each one of those people, mattered so much to the Author of Life that he left heaven and began the dreadful trek to the cross . . . The storyteller entered the tale. The author stepped onto the page. The poet whose very words had written the cosmos became part of the text of this world." Steven James, Story

A New Year, A New Question

Let's get real. As teachers, we get drilled daily on the "hows" and "whats" of all we're expected to accomplishing a class period, a day, a grading period, a semester, a school year. Staff meetings, evaluations, strategy meetings and red tape drain us and leave us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. We get home to our families a leftover version of ourselves when they are asking for our best. We have only so many pieces in our pie and we unintentionally dished them all out between 8am and 3pm and it leaves us feeling pretty crumby at the end of the day. In the fog of fatigue, we start to lose sight of the joy of what made us choose this crazy calling in the first place--the why.

Good news: We are your cheerleaders! We want you to come home to your families with a bounce in your step. We want teaching to feel more like playing for you! You've come to the right place!

Buried underneath the data, test scores, piles of papers to grade, totes stuffed with clutter like their minds, is the why behind all the "what" that weighs us down. The reasons we started teaching in the first place. That look in our students' eyes when they realize "I didn't think I could do that! Look what I did!" The lightbulbs, the joy, the fact that no matter what their age, each one of our students is someone's baby.

But these faces gets buried each day in the stress of the piles in the day to day details of the how and what. We are forming a group of teachers that is determined to keep the "why" at the tops of our piles, the fronts of our minds, and the center of our hearts. Join us and rediscover the why!

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.To him he's always doing both." James Michener

"What's your red rubber ball? What's your source of joy? What topics do you love to discuss and ponder? What dreams to do you chase? ... After all, where do dreams start? They start when we're playing, when we're free to run and romp around. That's when we imagine we're something bigger than we are. The red rubber ball represents play to me. It's any activity,topic or purpose that makes you excited about the day..." Kevin Carroll, Rules of the Red Rubber Ball