Attitude is a Choice

In Gloom (and doom) from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin shares,

”Doom is inevitable. Gloom is optional.”

On Monday mornings, I can go on social media and see so many people whining about how it is Monday. They hate Mondays. Everything goes wrong on Mondays. It is hard to get started back to work on Mondays after a nice weekend. And on and on it goes!

I was always amazed on Mondays when my special education students seemed happy to be back at school. They reacted the same way after holidays. While other students hated coming back, my students looked forward to the return. You see,  my students like a routine and liked thing they could depend on. Weekends and holidays usually had no routines and could even involve a lot of chaos and confusion. Many of my students liked knowing what was going to happen before it happened. Most families don’t plan their weekends and holidays because they enjoy the escape from routines and planning.

Every day my husband wakes up and declares how glad he is to be alive! He is the most positive person I have ever known. He always makes me smile when he says this, and I realize that I’m glad too.

When I worry about things that might happen when we go on a trip or we want to go on a new adventure,  he talks about it with me and lets me talk about the worst thing that could happen. Other than dying, we talk about solutions if those things ever happen (which they usually don’t ever but I feel prepared if they do.) This is his way of compromising and allowing me my fears but not letting it stop us from having fun.

It is these times when I realize that my attitude is a choice that I can make. I can choose to be gloomy and discouraging or I  can choose to appreciate the life I have. If I choose to be negative, the self-fulfilling prophecy will probably make my thoughts come true. If I choose to be positive, I will look at my day in a better light and expect the best.

I want to set a good example for my students in the same way my husband does for me.

How do you teach your students to have a positive attitude? Please share.

Photo by Thomas Young on Unsplash

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dear Friends and Family,

We have had a wonderfully busy year this year and wanted to share with you the things we have been doing. As you will be able to see, we have done a lot of traveling which we enjoy.

In January, we went on a 12-day cruise to the Caribbean on the Holland America Koningsdam.

In February, we went to Myrtle Beach for the South Carolina Council for Exceptional Children’s Conference. We also went to Florida to Disney World.

In March, Pat spoke at the Converge Autism Conference about Tips and Tricks for Teachers. Then we did a spinning demonstration at the Bellfest Festival at Devil’s Fork State Park.   On Easter weekend, Natalaya, our young friend who is a student at Furman came to spend the weekend with us. We took her to the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiking in DuPont Forest.

In April we went on the Carnival Elation with Dyanna and Earl to Bermuda. Before coming home, we stopped at Disney World. Then we went to the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Smokies, but the rains came, and Don blew out a pair of hiking boots!

In May we went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival which was fabulous! Before coming home, we spent the day at Six Flags in Baltimore. The rest of the month, Dyanna came over a lot and helped me work in the yard and flower bed. Pat published a shawl pattern.

In June we spent 2 weeks camping in the Smokies and 1 week with Nancy and Ray at Oconee Point on Lake Hartwell.

During July Pat taught her Furman class which she teaches every year during this month.

In August we went to Disney again and it was so hot! Pat also published another sock pattern.

In September we went on 2 Caribbean cruises. One on the MSC Seaside and then the Carnival Conquest. Of course, we stopped at Disney again on the way home. While on the cruises, we negotiated a book deal with a publisher and Pat is writing a book!

October was a rainy month because Hurricane Michael hit. We didn’t have a lot of damage other than tree branches in the yard. But due to the weather, we had to cancel our camping trip to the Fiberglass RV rally. Pat also published another shawl pattern.

November arrived, and we went on a 2 week Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze with Dyanna and Earl. We celebrated Earl’s 50^th birthday on the cruise. Then we stopped at Disney before heading home.

Most of December was spent getting over the colds we caught at the end of the cruise. All of us caught the cold and other people on the ship did too.

So, as you can tell, we did a lot of traveling and cruising this year. We hope to do a lot next year too!

We hope this holiday season brings you lots of good health and cheer. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!

Love,

Don and Pat

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

S is for Successful

During this holiday season, I thought it would be fun to use the word Christmas and apply it to education.

Today’s letter is S and S stands for Successful

As a teacher, we want our students to be successful in our classrooms and in their futures. So do their parents. We need to work together to help this student be successful. We are a team. We can’t do it alone.

In order to work successfully as a team, we have to learn to communicate with each other.

I need to be able to share with the parents what the student is doing in my classroom. I need to let them know what he is able to do and what he is struggling to do. I need to share my observations with the parents but I need to let them know that I care about this student and want to do what is necessary to help him. I also need to share the student’s victories with the parents so they can see progress in his learning.

The parents need to share with the teacher some strategies that work in the home. The parents were this student’s first teachers. They may know specific things that work well with their child and what doesn’t work well. There is no reason for the teacher to reinvent the wheel if the parents have such valuable input. Parents also need to share how the student is doing with his homework when he is home. Does he understand what he needs to do? Is he doing it carefully? What study habits does he have at home?

The student needs to be honest with the parents and the teacher about what he needs. If he is struggling, he needs to let them know.  He might need for them to help him think of ways to overcome the obstacles in his way. If he thinks he knows of some way that might help him do better, he needs to give his input to his parents and teacher. They, in turn, need to really listen to his input. He needs to know it is okay to be a self-advocate. He might have some suggestions that his parents and teachers haven’t even thought about.

How do you help your students be more successful in the classroom? Please share.

Photo by Evelyn on Unsplash

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 12/21/18

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Try Engineering – “TryEngineering.org is a pre-university engineering education resource geared towards teachers and students. Our goal is to raise interest in engineering careers, improve access to high-quality educational resources, and show students how engineering can be a part of their future…Here, teachers will find access to over 130 free hands-on, low-cost, engineering lesson plans. Each lesson plan targets specific age ranges and aligns with education standards to allow teachers and students to apply engineering principles in the classroom. We give teachers all of the resources they need to teach engineering and the tips and tricks to keep their students interested.” (L:G; SA:C)

Geostories – “GeoStories are interactive slideshows that combine dynamic maps, pictures, video, and captions to take viewers on tours of places and topics. The GeoStories Publishing Platform is used by educators, organizations, and journalists to embed place-based multimedia stories in their websites and apps. The format applies National Geographic's lens of media, maps and narrative to inspire and inform people about the world.” (L:G; SA:A)

World Digital Library – “The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world. The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.” (L:G; SA:A)

The History of Wall Street – a digital timeline of the development of Wall Street. (L:H; SA:SS)

Theme Poems – “In this online tool, elementary students can write poems based on shapes from five different categories: Nature, School, Sports, Celebrations, and Shapes. Within these categories, 32 different shapes are included. By selecting a shape, students are learning how to focus their writing on a particular topic or theme. In addition, as part of the online tool, students are prompted to brainstorm, write, and revise their poems, thus reinforcing elements of the writing process. Students can save their draft poems to revise later. See the 5-minute video tutorial Saving Work With the Student Interactives for more information on have to save, e-mail, and open a file in any of the ReadWriteThink Student Interactives. The finished theme poems can also be printed and colored to display in the classroom or at home.” (L:E; SA:LA)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

A is for Active

During this holiday season, I thought it would be fun to use the word Christmas and apply it to education.

Today’s letter is A and A stands for Active.

Don’t make students sit in desks and listen to you speak for long lengths of time.

Find ways to get movement into your lessons.

Is there a rhythm in some facts they learning? Have them do some jumping jacks, hopping on one foot, or clapping their hands in time to the learning.

Assign different students a specific word and when you or someone is reading a paragraph, the student has to jump up when their word is mentioned and then sit back down. This has them paying attention to what is being said.

Have students throw a sponge toy to the next person who is going to speak. No one can speak unless they have the sponge toy.

If you have a math game, assign each person a number. Sit in a circle and when a problem is solved and their number is called, they have to catch a beach ball. They throw it to the next person who is the answer to the next problem.

There are so many videos that have learning songs and dances for all ages of students. If the students are older, have them find one that they can teach the rest of the class.

Students will remember things if they are active when learning. Passive learning leads to boredom and disruptions. Retention of learning may even be harder.

How do you keep your students active while learning? Please share.

Photo by Evelyn on Unsplash