Lonely Sailboat

As we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, Don walked around the deck getting his exercise. On one of his laps, he told me that he noticed a small sailboat in the ocean. Luckily he was able to get a picture of it.

This brought all sorts of questions to my mind like:

• What was it doing all alone in the ocean?
• How many people were on the boat?
• What if they have problems? How do they get help?
• Where did they start from?
• Where were they going?

This would be a great writing prompt for students. Students practicing conversation skills could discuss the possibilities.

I also wondered if that is how some students feel in school. Are they the lonely sailboat among huge ships that pass them by? Do they wish someone would stop and ask them how they are doing or do they prefer the solitude? Where are these students coming from? Do they have a support system in case they run into trouble?

Original photo by Don Hensley

Fading into the Background

A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Kyle talked about Where’s Waldo and how easy it was for people to fade into the background. Waldo and Jesus can be overlooked in all the “busy-ness” around them. He also talked about how the artist would draw in Waldo last but Jesus was different because Jesus wasn’t an afterthought. He is always with us.

This reminded me of my years when I was a student. I was very quiet and didn’t want any attention drawn to me. I wanted to fade away in the background. Sitting in the rows of desks, I would try to hide my body behind the person in front of me. I never raised my hand to answer questions even if I knew the answer. The reason I did this was that I was scared. For many years, I faced a lot of bullying and hoped that if the bullies didn’t notice me, they would leave me alone.

I was also afraid of failure and giving the wrong answer. If I did this, it would also cause the teacher to pay attention to me. I felt that my parents expected me to be perfect. Making a mistake would disappoint my parents and I would be crushed.

I just wanted to survive my school years and I feared that if I didn’t fade into the background, I wouldn’t make it.

This had me thinking about many of my students. I’m not talking about the students who act out or craze attention. Some of my students were very quiet and withdrawn. Many of my students were bullied because they had special needs. Other students picked on them because they were different. Some of my students had years of difficulties in school, so they saw my class as just one more year of more difficulty.

As a teacher, I would try to seek these students out. I didn’t want them to feel like an afterthought. I wanted my students to feel safe and not overlooked. If they were being bullied, I wanted them to feel safe. I wanted them to see that I noticed what was happening and would stop the situation. I also didn’t want my students to feel afraid of making mistakes. I wanted them to see that these were just learning opportunities. An error should not be a terror.

I wanted to be like Jesus and show my students that I would be there for them. They were not alone. I didn’t want my students to have the same school experience that I grew up with. I wanted to be their safety net and show them that learning opened the door to so many possibilities. I wanted to help them face the bullies and stand up to them. I wanted to help them face the fear of failure and overcome this obstacle that keeps them from learning.  Together, we can be successful because no one walks alone. 

Do you see these students in your classes? How do you help them? Please share.

Emotional Support

Recently I attended a stress webinar that was excellent. Even though I knew a lot of the things shared, I was reminded that I don’t always do the things I need to do in order to help myself. Like being on an airplane where you put the oxygen mask on yourself before you help others, I need to make sure I’m dealing with my own stress before I can help others.

One question asked was:

How many people are plugged into you?

This means - How many people do you support emotionally? Sometimes when you have too many people plugged into you, they are sucking out the energy and it is important that you replace this energy before you get depleted.

Giving occupations such as teachers, cops, firefighters, and medical personnel usually attract people who are very giving. They give so much that over time it can affect their health if they don’t practice self-care habits. When I was growing up, I was always taught that practicing self-care habits are selfish, I don’t think that people realize how detrimental that was, but I know that they hoped to teach children that giving was more important than taking.

I think we still can teach children the importance of giving but we need to teach them also about balancing with self-care. This is not being selfish. I think this will help people be more giving because they will have more energy and not feel overwhelmed.

I think it is important to find an outlet that you can do on a regular basis in order to recharge yourself. It may be a hobby or exercise, but you need to plan for it in your schedule and stick to it. It doesn’t have to be huge amounts of time and can be as short as 30 minutes every day or every other day. There may be times that you skip it but make sure these times are rare and your special time is not set aside for other things. Your special time is as important or even more important than anything else. When you set aside these times, don’t feel guilty about taking “me” time and when you do feel guilty, remind yourself that you are just recharging your battery so others can plug into you.

I try to take time every morning to write in my bullet journal. I include at least one thing that happened the day before that I’m grateful for. I also have a prayer book and will add a few things that I’m praying for today. I try to exercise for an hour at least 4 times a week and if I do more, I’m ahead of the game. I also knit which I find very relaxing.

What do you do to recharge your battery? Please share.

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Positive Emotional Environments

In The Importance of Emotions in Learning from @DavidGeurin Blog, David Geurin asks,

“What are ways you create a positive emotional environment in your classroom or school?  How do you set the tone each day for connection and care? What behaviors need to be addressed that are damaging the emotional environment?”

I think having a positive learning environment is important in a classroom and when I mentioned this to my husband, he asked me to explain what that meant. He is absolutely right. If I don’t know what it is, how can I create it or set the tone for it?

To me a Positive Emotional Environment is:

1.     A safe place to learn.

2.     A safe place to make mistakes.

3.     A safe place to learn from my mistakes.

4.     A place open to constructive criticism about my work.

5.     A place where criticism will not be personal.

6.     A place of understanding when our fellow students don’t succeed at first.

7.     A place to encourage our fellow students not to give up.

8.     A place to share information freely.

9.     A place to help fellow students figure out ways to overcome obstacles.

10.  A place to cheer our fellow students when they have a victory.

I think it is important to discuss this in the first class meeting. It may take a few days (or weeks) for students to learn that these are non-negotiables. This will set the tone for each day. Once students learn that this is important and follow these guidelines, I think our classroom becomes a positive learning environment.

If a student says negative statements about another student, I stop and explain that this behavior is not acceptable. If they have constructive criticism about other students work, they may share it and give suggestions on how to make it better. I also work on modeling these behaviors for the students. When a victory occurs, I have everyone stop what they are doing and have everyone give a round of applause. I explain to them that even though the individual victory goes to the student who did the work, everyone else deserves the applause for being supportive. At first, students feel a little uncomfortable doing this but by the end of the quarter, everyone is used to this and really gets into it.

How do you encourage a positive emotional environment? Please share.

Photo by Katrina on Unsplash

The Teaching Community

Recently the pastor of my church (Trinity Lutheran Church) gave a children’s sermon called “Linked Together in Community”. She asked all of the children to hold on to a rope and talked about how when one person pulls on the rope, everyone is affected. She talked about how our whole community is affected by one person’s actions. When she talked about this, I was thinking about how this also applied to the teaching community.

My teaching community consists of other teachers, students, and parents.

When my student fails, I always wonder what else I could have done to help my student succeed. I look towards my teaching community to help me look for ways to help this student. Many times, my colleagues will give me helpful suggestions. Usually, the parents are supportive because they want to see their child succeed and may help me look for strategies that work for this student. Even the student’s peers are willing to help if they can because everyone in my class benefits when one person succeeds.

Whenever a teacher does something outstanding, I feel so proud to be a teacher. When I watch the news and there is something negative about a teacher, I feel it reflects on all teachers. If a teacher does something against the law, it makes all of us teachers look bad even if we haven’t done anything wrong. It seems like the negative stories stand out more than the positive stories. A friend of mine says that negative news stories sell easier than positive ones.

I wish when we see these negative stories about our school community, that we can get past the blame and the pointing fingers. I think we need to change our mindset and ask, “What can I do to help move in a positive direction?” I had a principal once that said I was either part of the solution or part of the problem. I think all people have to be one or the other. You can’t be “nothing” because by doing nothing, you become part of the problem.

When we see a story where a teacher broke the law, it doesn’t hurt to send a supportive message to the school. Letting them know that you don’t brand all of them because of what one person did can go a long way. That whole school is hurting because they are a family. If someone in your family does something wrong, your whole family hurts.

If there is a story about a local school not meeting the standards as expected, think of ways you can support them in order to help them. Contact them to see how you can help. You may feel that you can only help a little bit but all the little bits of help by others can add up to a big help. Remember that anything you do can affect the whole community, no matter how big or small.

What are ways that you help your teaching community? Please share.

Photo by Stijn Swinnen on Unsplash

Townville Shooting

Two weeks ago a fourteen-year-old boy killed his father and then went to a local elementary school and shot two young children and a teacher. One of the children has died. So far, I haven’t heard of any motive that they boy would have had for coming to the school and acting so violently. The boy killed his father and then drove to the school ramming the fence through the playground. He then began shooting.

This horrible tragedy saddens me but I don’t know that the school or anyone could have kept this from happening. All of the school resource officers in the world could not have stopped this before it happened. No signs warning that “Concealed Weapons are prohibited” could have prevented this. Having all the school doors locked at all times could not have prevented this. Having metal detectors at every entrance way could not have prevented this.

There is evil in this world and sometimes there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

It will be hard for all of the students and teachers to ever feel safe again. The families of the little boy will never feel whole again. The shooter can never undo what has been done.

I think it is important to talk to students about this situation and not keep it all quiet. Middle and High School students can talk about what they think made the shooter do this. Maybe they can relate to some of the feelings that the shooter may have felt. Maybe by talking about alternative ways that they shooter could have resolved these feelings, may help a student in my classroom who is feeling desperate and alone. Even though I hope that they won’t shoot people, they might need this talk and the tragedy would give a way to open up this conversation. It would be safe way for students to express their feelings and fears. It would be a way to offer suggestions for handling these scary feelings.

It is a scary time for the families of the students at this elementary. It is scary for the community that surrounds these families. It is just scary for all of us because we pray it doesn’t happen to someone we love. Please keep this community and the rest of the world in your prayers because we need it.