Chapter 9 - Common Sense
This chapter discussed one of my favorite things….organization. I live to organize something…..And, I concur with Ron Clark that “it always baffles me how disorganized students can be.” When I help a child with his/her bookbag, desk or cubbie, I sometimes act like I am hyperventilating because of the paper explosion that sometimes erupts. How children keep their personal space always amazes me. Yet, it is also our responsibility to assist students and help them learn how to be more organized. I used to tell my students, “believe me, there is a method to my madness.” They would laugh, and some would even grunt, but when their projects, term papers, assignments were complete, they realized that I was correct. I tried to not only teach the academic content, but I also tried to teach them how to tackle the daily study and organization of “keeping on top of things.” With it being Back to School time right now, I liked Ron Clark’s suggestion of how he actually took pictures of the school supplies that students needed. That way parents knew exactly what to purchase. What a great idea! Also, as a school administrator, it is my responsibility to help nurture and retain new teachers to keep them from leaving our wonderful profession. I have 10 new teachers this year, and I help and provide assistance to them on a daily basis. I enjoyed our New Teacher Luncheon yesterday. These teachers are eager, excited, and inspired! And, I know that our faculty and staff will welcome and assist them in any way possible. Also, my motto is “work smarter, not harder.” While I do work hard, I feel that I often get bogged down in the details and paperwork. Thus, I pledge to follow Ron’s tips to work smarter and anticipate things which will help save time and allow me to be more efficient and organized in my daily school and family work.
On to Chapter 10…Appreciation! Get ready - the grand finale of our book study is coming up. Be sure to be finished with our book by Monday. We will be discussing this book in our Back to School Staff Development sessions as we build our vision for the upcoming year! Thanks for all you do, DME Dolphins!
Posted by in 13:14:12
Chapter 9 Wow, I think I needed someone to tell me to be aware that common sense is not always that common!! I am always amazed when I realize something that seems so obvious is something that actually has to be taught, learned and practiced. When you have done some of the “required tasks” for success in learning, for year after year, there is a big tendency to forget that you actually do this or that or that you had to be taught this skill yourself once. Remembering to give specific details and better yet, model what we are asking, is vital, at times, there may be only once student needing this or that task taught, but what a great time to get them up to speed and to re-enforce the concepts to those already somewhat comfortable with this skill. I found myself reminding my students that we can and should all be learning new things all the time and that even if we are good at something, we can always get even better!!
I tend to think or hope that I am a pretty positive person, however, I know that though it seems common sense to “praise” and to “praise more than critique” you can still catch yourself, being negative or even just less than positive, while trying to maintain a well disciplined environment and high goals for learning. I know there are times when I would be teaching a concept, whether a hard one or not, and then find students who didn’t get it, over and over. Then I would realize it was sometimes due to their simply not paying attention, following along, nor correcting along with the rest of us. Very hard to keep a positive tone at such times, however, it is important to keep control under trying times and still maintain a positive outlook and attitude. Finding a way to correct this lack of effort, but still not make the student feel bad about themselves, not always an easy task.
The reminder to tell our students that it is their responsibility and their privilege to “ask for help” as needed, I tried to ingrain that into my students, reminding them that no matter how silly they feel or how much they think they are the only ones who didn’t get it, that likely there are others who need the extra help and aren’t asking either. By asking they may help others and regardless, it is not okay to allow yourself to miss a concept and then struggle from then on, as you cannot build on a concept you have not gained. I tell them even if I as the teacher, am speaking in a manner that says, this concept is “easy” if it is not for you, tell me, because likely there is something small that you are missing that is keeping you from gaining that skill.
~Teri~
Wow…common sense…”let them (students) know exactly what we expect from them” and “take the time with children to develop skills”. Seems obvious, but what a profound statement.
Ron talks about how powerful words can be - so use words to lift up, support, praise, and acknowledge successes. In return you will see pride, confidence, and higher achievement. Now I bet you were thinking about students during that, but I thought about our entire school. I wrote a note while reading this chapter - love = DME. These statements are at the core of what we believe - for our students, the faculty (my peers), and staff.
Even after having taught for eleven years now, I am going to use some ideas from this chapter this year. (spirals for doodling, 5 extra points for test papers, & boxes to check off in the agenda book)
Though we in third grade don’t take alot of notes…I like his “Ten Tips for Tackling Tests”. I don’t specifically know why, but I have ALWAYS had horrible test anxiety. Therefore, I make it my mission with each new group of students, to teach them how to beat the test. It was amazing to me in earlier years, that the less I stressed the importance of the former “PACT” test, the better my classes test scores became.
Now, I tell my students that they don’t need to worry about that “test” we have to take, because it is my job to teach them everything they need to know before then. ALL they have to do is to put what is up here (pointing at my brain), on the paper - and I’ll smile at them and they’ll smile at me and we’ll go home. All I ask is that they do their best & I remind then that no one will know that - but them. This last statment may seem like a strange one to tell students, however I am also trying to teach my children the value of self worth and knowing (themselves) that they did their very best.