Monday Motivator #22 2021-22

Check out this great resource for behavior interventions and supports: https://www.ruralsmh.com/intervention-hub/

Monday Motivator #21 2021-22

A Checklist for Reflection

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

                                                                                   Soren Kierkegaard

It’s 4:30 p.m. on a Thursday in the dead of winter. I should go home and be with my family. Instead, I am still in the building. Thinking. I keep checking my email to avoid the inevitable disappointment from reflecting on a day that didn’t go as well as I would’ve liked. The work seemed unfocused and lacked direction. On my way home, I am still thinking about it and reflecting on how to make it better. My thoughts are in overdrive at this point. At home my distraction continues.

This pattern is not uncommon for educators. We reflect on our days, we ponder deficits, we acknowledge the wins, we consider relationships, and we constantly ask ourselves questions about teaching, learning, and our students. This isn’t always a good thing.

I felt it was time to rein my reflections in and get control of my thoughts so that I could continue growing in a positive direction. I came across some inspiration on Voxer. A few leaders were discussing “leadership scorecards.” The idea is that you can use several points to measure and reflect on your influence. This got me thinking about how this could apply to my role as a coach and how creating a scorecard might help me reflect and grow as an educator and coach.

The scorecard below highlights what is important to me; your creation may be different.

It needed to be a checklist of questions that reflected my core values in all phases of my life and work.

Reflection Scorecard

• Did I add value to others today?

• What lessons have I learned? How will I apply this new learning?

• What am I doing to get better? What’s on my growth plan?

• Did I save enough energy for my family?

All stakeholders in a school ask the same question: “Is what we’re doing best for kids?” This question is the driving force for everything we do in our schools. Allow the questions on your scorecard to be the driving force for your reflections. Don’t sweat the small stuff; focus on the most important areas of your work, and carve out time to reflect and grow.

At times I find myself reflecting on my day while driving home or thinking about my upcoming engagements early in the morning. The checklist centers me, and it helps me consider the most important elements of life and work. Perhaps you’ll develop a similar checklist and maybe even use it to write or plan professional development.

However you decide to use a reflection checklist, be sure it includes the most crucial elements from life and work. Then, in the quiet moments when you find yourself reflecting, use the checklist as a guide to focus your thinking.

Monday Motivator #20 2021-22

  Do's and Don'ts of Celebrating MLK Day

   https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/dos-and-donts-of-celebrating-mlk-day

Writing in The Washington Post in 1983, Coretta Scott King provided a vision of how the holiday honoring her husband should be observed: 
""The holiday must be substantive as well as symbolic. It must be more than a day of celebration . . . Let this holiday be a day of reflection, a day of teaching nonviolent philosophy and strategy, a day of getting involved in nonviolent action for social and economic progress.""
The list is divided into three aspects of daily school and classroom settings: displays, curriculum and discussions.

DISPLAYS
DO display inspirational images and quotes representing Dr. King throughout the school year and throughout the school building. His message of tolerance and nonviolence could be reinforced in P.E. classes and in the cafeteria — two locations that are most often prone to bullying and isolation. The Mix it Up program provides anti-bullying lessons and activities that support the tolerant message of Dr. King.

DON'T limit King's message to the classroom space nor to the months of January and February. Don't overuse images of King delivering a speech to a crowd; profile images; or images of King pointing upward toward the light. These images can be found anywhere and can limit his diverse character.

DO identify and display images of Dr. King in nontraditional settings. Search the Internet and picture books for images of King as a student in a classroom setting, in a library, relaxing with his family, reading a book, eating a meal, laughing or participating in some other leisurely activity.

CURRICULUM
DO incorporate service-learning activities as an effective tool for teaching tolerance and reducing student bias. Service learning combines community service and in-school curriculum. By pairing community involvement with classroom learning, service learning also increases the likelihood students will gain a more nuanced understanding of social issues, and that they will learn to empower — not "help"— often-marginalized communities.

DO introduce students to the many inspirational words of Dr. King dealing with many diverse issues. Search the Internet for speeches not often read in their entirety. Discuss the deeper meanings embedded within his messages. Decipher metaphors. Have students interpret King's messages in their own words.

DON'T forget that King's message went beyond "Black and White;" he also dealt with issues of gendered stereotypes, poverty and privilege. Don't overuse the more famous King speeches like: "I Have a Dream", "I've Been to the Mountain Top", "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". If they are your favorites, use higher levels of critical thinking to engage the students in dialogue and activities—move beyond the quotes.

DO Use books and materials which are written and illustrated by African-American people as primary source materials: speeches, songs, poems, and writings, which show the linguistic skill of a people who have come from an oral tradition. The National Council of Teachers of English has a list of African American authored books. Host an African-American Read-In on February 3rd to encourage additional reading.

DON'T limit your resources to the more traditional annual mainstream press reproducibles. Do not wait until the third Monday of January or Black History Month to discuss the great impact Dr. King had on our nation and throughout the world.

DO teach about the life and legacy of Dr. King as a part of your regular social studies curriculum throughout the academic year.

DO encourage students to discuss the legacy of Dr. King with elders who might have been alive during the Civil Rights era.

DON'T assume that all stories will be positive ones. Be prepared to debrief and debunk myths and opinions while maintaining the authenticity of individual opinion.

DO acknowledge that racism, bias and inequalities are ever present. As you include community perception about Dr. King and the struggle for Civil Rights, the voice of intolerance may be heard. Welcome the critique and teach students to challenge it with factual evidence.

DON'T treat racism and inequality as relics of the past. Hate still exists, even if it takes on a disguise.

DO invite elders from student families and the community to visit with the class and share personal reflections. If they weren't directly involved with the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement led by King, perhaps they remember hearing him live over the radio or on television. Maybe they recall what it was like to pick up their local newspaper and see him on the front cover.

DISCUSSIONS
DON'T assume that all Black children and their families are experts on the Civil Rights Movement and/or the life and legacy of Dr. King. Remember too that Whites were very active participants in the Movement, as were members of other ethnic groups.

DO explore the depth of negative insights about Dr. King if they arise. Use this teachable moment to discuss human nature and personal flaws. Have students identify personal strengths and weaknesses. Brainstorm on notable figures throughout our community, our government and in pop-culture who are held to high standards by the public but make mistakes nonetheless.

DON'T ignore their concerns and make Dr. King out to be an infallible creature. In doing this you might mislead students to believe that human "perfection" is attainable, causing feelings of low self-esteem.

DO emphasize Dr. King's message of nonviolence in all aspects of school, family and community life. Teach students about Dr. King's strong commitment to social justice and change through nonviolent protest despite the threat of violence against himself and his family.

DON'T let teachable moments pass you by. When students resort to violence as a response to hurt and anger, acknowledge their emotion and empower them with alternative means of expression.

Monday Motivator #19 2021-22

Belonging in a School Community

Suzy Kaback

Frank Lloyd Wright built houses that grew out of the land where they were located. His homes were of the hill, not on it. He once wrote the following:

I knew well that no house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.

I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about belonging. How that word suggests something different from equity and inclusion, something complementary, but also beyond and absolutely essential to the classroom communities I plan with my colleagues, with my students, and with their families and caregivers. It is not a new concept, but it seems particularly relevant to include in our thinking about teaching.

I can credit Lasana Hotep for nudging me to think more intentionally about belonging. Hotep was a panelist on a webinar series I watched about the teaching and policing of Black children. He was introduced as the “first-ever director for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging” at UC Berkeley. The word belonging, added to the more familiar trio of diversity, equity, and inclusion, caught my attention. I dialed in to hear what Hotep had to say. He explained that in addition to building a diverse workforce, developing equitable policies and practices, and ensuring inclusive opportunities for everyone, communities need to take one more step: They need to pay attention to people’s sense of belonging in that community.  

To me, as I consider the school communities where I work, belonging happens when people have ownership of what happens in a space. Belonging means a person knows their voice is heard, they have agency, they believe that if they are not there in that space, people will sense that something is missing.    

Think about yourself as a teacher in your classroom. You likely have a strong sense of belonging because you have agency around what happens there, and you have a voice, a belief that you make a difference in the room, that if you are not in school on a particular day, people will notice and feel a void. You can point to evidence that you belong where you teach and learn—your name on a mail slot, last year’s class picture next to your desk, inspirational quotes posted around the room, a favorite book queued up for read-aloud. 

Now think about the students in your classroom. Do they feel like they belong? How would you know?

In a recent professional development session I hosted with new teachers, belonging was on the agenda. We started by talking about what belonging means and how we, as individuals, know when we’re in a place where we feel like we belong. Then, because we all agreed that belonging was a characteristic we wanted to be evident in our classroom communities, we discussed some “look-fors”—what we see, hear, and feel when a learning space invites students’ sense of belonging.

We added our favorite “you belong” moves to a Jamboard—a new tech tool for our group. Some were ideas that teachers regularly used themselves, and some were ones they’d seen in other people’s practice. Here’s what we came up with:  

We tried a “list-group-label” process to identify patterns in our Jamboard contributions. Using everything on the board (our list), we grouped similar ideas and then gave those groups names. One pattern that bubbled up when we reviewed our finished Jamboard was that ownership is a defining characteristic of true belonging. Students can own what they read and write, they can own the caretaking of the classroom space, they can own the music and visuals people listen to and see, they can own where and on what to sit, they can own how and with whom to spend free time. Ownership encourages feelings of belonging.  

Wright’s philosophy of architecture is a useful way to think about how to build belonging in a school community. Who’s the hill? Who’s the house?  Who cares?

When everyone is of the school, rather than simply in it, when our ways of being, our strengths, our cultures, our interests, our needs, our loved ones, and our inspirations surround us, then we own our learning, happily together. We belong.  

Monday Motivator #18 2021-22

 

I recently received the email below from Stephanie Coronado (she gave me permission to share). It made me tear up. Her story demonstrates the power of ONE WORD to make an impact not only in your own life but in the lives of those around you. I hope reading it will encourage you as it encouraged me. If you haven't picked your ONE WORD for 2022, you still can. Join my free 7-Day One Word Challenge and I'll show you how. - Jon Gordon

ONE WORD IMPACT I am writing this as I prepare to close out the semester for our winter break. I am an Elementary School Principal in New Caney, Texas. This is my second year at this school, but I have been a school administrator for the past 16 years. I started choosing my One Word in 2014. I have worked at three different schools and with each one I encouraged teachers and staff to pick a word for the year. Several staff members have done this, in fact after all of these years I always get a message from some previous staff members that send me their word for the new year!   I am writing because my word for 2021 was Shine, this word came to me last December as I sat watching movies with my family. The strange thing is that even though my word is Shine, this has been the darkest year of my life.  In fact it all started on the morning of January 4, 2021. I had just read One Word for Kidsto my staff and told my story of how I believed in this instead of New Year's resolutions. I told them my word for the year was Shine, because I wanted to shine, I wanted my teachers to shine, I wanted the kids and my family to shine!  I walked out of that meeting and got the devastating news that my husband had not shown up for work that day. The rest of the day was a blur but sadly I lost my husband of 21 years. We had been together for over 30 years. He was my everything, I could not imagine how I would do anything without him much less shine. I will say that my friends and family swooped in and showed so much love and support... they certainly shined!  I took a few weeks off and when I returned my entire staff and some people from all over the district had the prettiest yellow shirts with SHINE on them. The staff had come together to make their own one word board. Through the year I have received signs, bracelets, figurines, pillows, etc. that all have SHINE in them as a reminder to me that even when we don't think we can, we can always Shine.  So even though this year has been the most difficult I have ever experienced, I do feel that my one word gave me more strength than I could have ever imagined. I have clung to it and recognized that sometimes the only thing I could focus on was the one way I would shine for the day.  Right now I am searching for my 2022 word: hope and joy seem to be coming up in different ways. I truly believe I will know by January 1st what my One Word will be mine.    Please know that I am a huge fan of your books and materials. I have heard you speak several times. Your life lessons mean a lot and impact many. I started writing this email seven months ago but It was too difficult. I am finally in a place where Shine makes me smile.   Thank you for your impact,  Stephanie Coronado