Is there time for everything?
Chapter 5 of The Excellent 11 says there is.....When I do my daily walkthroughs at school, I ask teachers, "What can I get for you? What do you need?" One consistent response each day is "more time." Chapter 5 addresses the need for balance in our lives. I enjoyed the opening paragraph and actually thought about my own son. Last year, I noticed that he was not reading for pleasure as much as he did in third grade. After repeated badgering on my behalf, he politely, yet demonstratively responded, "Mom, I have straight A's. I play football, basketball, baseball, take guitar lessons, volunteer at church, do my chores, do all my homework, stay with you at school all day, and when I come home, I am tired." I just sat there and looked at him. Well, he is right. He does work hard in school and in all of his extra-curricular activities. He is a shining star, and I do ask a lot of him (and expect that, too). He does read, but picking up a book to read "just because" is not his cup of tea. So, I backed off. As Ron Clark noted, "....our children don't have it easy, either" when it comes to balance in life. "They are trying to keep up their grades, play sports, be involved with clubs, make friends and fit in, complete their homework, clean their rooms, do their chores, and stay out of trouble" (p. 108). When I read this paragraph, I reflected upon my own son, and I was glad that he felt that he could respectfully share his concerns with me. As a "bargain," we began to read together each night - me a page and then him a page. And, we read the first Harry Potter novel together of which he took an AR test on and made 90! I was so proud of him. We are reading The Call of the Wild right now and playing READO for Mrs. Long for our summer reading assignment. Doing this reading together has been our balance and has brought us closer together as he "grows up" into a young man.
On a professional level, this chapter hit home with me, too. As a former English teacher, on page 111, Ron Clark discusses teaching writing. As a teacher, I loved to teach writing. This is one aspect of the job that I particularly miss. I hope to co-teach more this year with some of my teachers - if they will allow me to. I would love to work with children to help them develop their individual style and voice of writing. Many of my former students - who are now teachers - I reflect upon their journey as writers. They are magnificent writers - who have grown their craft and intertwined their skills into their careers. I beam with pride when I see them in action in the classroom passing along their knowledge to their students.
Finally, I hope that all of you have heeded Clark's advice this summer and allowed yourself to recharge. "Recharging is necessary, and it will make us a better teacher and also a better person." I have received postcards from many of you who have traveled this summer "recharging" with family and friends. As for myself, my summer has been a bit different from the days of old. Working each day this summer has allowed me time to recharge in my role as principal and prepare for the upcoming school year, but I have not had as much time to spend with my children. Yet, being the eternal summer girl that I am, when I get home from work after 5:00 each day, my second job begins....being a mom. We pile in the yard with all the neighborhood children playing games, sports, and exercising....then ride the golf cart until the charge runs out each night. We long for the next sunrise to begin our days all over again. Finding balance is necessary....for work, for family, and for personal health and state of mind!
Have a great weekend. On to Chapter 6....Compassion
no
On a professional level, this chapter hit home with me, too. As a former English teacher, on page 111, Ron Clark discusses teaching writing. As a teacher, I loved to teach writing. This is one aspect of the job that I particularly miss. I hope to co-teach more this year with some of my teachers - if they will allow me to. I would love to work with children to help them develop their individual style and voice of writing. Many of my former students - who are now teachers - I reflect upon their journey as writers. They are magnificent writers - who have grown their craft and intertwined their skills into their careers. I beam with pride when I see them in action in the classroom passing along their knowledge to their students.
Finally, I hope that all of you have heeded Clark's advice this summer and allowed yourself to recharge. "Recharging is necessary, and it will make us a better teacher and also a better person." I have received postcards from many of you who have traveled this summer "recharging" with family and friends. As for myself, my summer has been a bit different from the days of old. Working each day this summer has allowed me time to recharge in my role as principal and prepare for the upcoming school year, but I have not had as much time to spend with my children. Yet, being the eternal summer girl that I am, when I get home from work after 5:00 each day, my second job begins....being a mom. We pile in the yard with all the neighborhood children playing games, sports, and exercising....then ride the golf cart until the charge runs out each night. We long for the next sunrise to begin our days all over again. Finding balance is necessary....for work, for family, and for personal health and state of mind!
Have a great weekend. On to Chapter 6....Compassion
no
I think it is a weekly, or even daily challenge to find the proper balance, because when you are enthusiastic about your job, you want to go wild and can find yourself exhausted without even realizing you are overdoing. Our minds are consistently on our students and what we hope to do with them, so many ideas go through one’s mind, and realizing that I cannot do all of them, is a toughie. However, as Ron points out, not every paper has to be graded, and not every idea has to be utilized, so learning to let go and see when it is time to do so, is a trait I am working on learning.
I also believe that a benefit to integrating all of the different learning styles purposefully into our classrooms, not only benefits and ensures success for all of our students, but it also keeps things fresh. As we move from teacher directed moments to partner moments to using manipulatives and so forth, this keeps the classroom atmosphere automatically more energized and balanced and learning more exciting. Our staff is so great about sharing ideas, manipulatives, worksheets, and visuals, along with those from our curriculum coach, that teaching to all learning styles is much easier to accomplish!
~Teri~
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I think it's important to make sure we do take some time for ourselves, however, to "recharge" so we can come back strong, feeling rested and peaceful.
Ron states an important truth in describing that you have to just let some things go and be OK with that. I've been working hard to try to say no to some requests. This is really hard! However, I know that burning the candle at both ends quickly melts your candle.
As Ginger and Teri both described, we (at least I know I do) need to get better at asking for help and accepting help when it's offered. We have so many wonderful resources at our school in our staff and school community and everyone is always so willing to share. I think we just forget (or feel embarrassed or get too busy) to ask for help sometimes. Sharing jobs/team teaching a skill (Like Ginger, I'm always up for that too!) can help to create balance in our lives and the lives of our students and help us to do our jobs better and more efficiently.
Betsy (Comment this)
Time to recharge our batteries is very important - something it has taken me awhile to completely understand and actually take the time to do. People like to call me the Energizer Bunny but believe me I do run out of "juice" from time to time.
My own two children are growing up so fast, my son will officially be a teenager in less than a month and my daugher already thinks she is one!! I look at them and ask where has the time gone. I try to spend as much time with them as possible and soak everything in because they are changing so quickly.
I love to offer to help but need to really work on being able to ask for help. I tend to just get it done so I don't have to bother anyone else. Definitely need to put this on the "to-do list" for this school year. Letting somethings just go won't be easy but it really is something I need to learn how to do.
Jakki
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This was very hard for me do in my first years of teaching,. I wanted to be the students friends and have them like me. I thought that if they liked me then things would be easier and they would listen and learn from me. WRONG! Since teaching longer, I have reliaze that that is not the case. Finding the balance between being thier teacher and being their friend is very hard and only comes with time. I look foward to "balancing" all of this in the coming months.
Stephanie D. (Comment this)
Balance in your teaching well that comes from knowing your students and their needs. Ron talks about demonstrating how to answer a problem or a writing prompt, writing in many different ways (using all different types of techniques), and presenting information to the students in a way that they enjoy. I have always thought that writing is my weakness. However, my students have scored higher than other teachers to whom I credit with being outstanding ELA teachers. Honestly, this phenomenon has baffled me. I am begining to see that though I may see writing as a weakness of mine, I simply teach/approach it differently than the majority of my colleagues.
One of my favorite lines to use with my third graders is, "There are lots of roads to get to Lugoff. As long as you get there, it doesn't matter how." In this statement my students learn that it doesn't matter which method you use to solve the math problem (addition, mulitiplication, or another), it is that you got the correct answer that counts. Every student is different. Therefore, trying to teach using only one style or teaching only one way to solve a problem (sometimes over and over again) - is illogical.
Ideas I loved from this chapter: Musical Marathon, parents who are fun, kind, supportive - yet consistent and firm (w/their children), and that sometimes I need a break and I shouldn't feel guilty about it. :) (Comment this)