Energy Drain: Activated!

When does playing with or learning with your students start to feel like a chore? When do Mondays seem to drag? When do the meetings outweigh the fun? When do the planning hours that zipped by ruin your day?

I think those days happen to me when I am drained! When my kiddos have been having a pretty gruling day, when my stress levels are out of control when I just don't have the energy to go on.

So why not share that with the kiddos. Explain to them that you get energy off their behaviors and the better they behave the more you can do for them.

What happens if they are having an exhausting and draining day? You take that away from them. You have given them the knowledge, you have explained your reasoning and when you take something away because you don't have the energy to keep it up, they will learn.

Explain to them "Uh oh! How sad! You forgot how to listen today and you drained my energy. Now I don't have the energy to take you outside. I KNOW you will do better tomorrow!"

Let their actions dictate yours! That way they are the bad guys! Not you.

How can you use Energy Drain in your classroom to help communicate empathy and understanding in your classes?

I like spending time with kids, do you?

Think about this: Why do you do things with your students? Why do you teach them soccer? Why do you have holiday parties? Why do you bring them breakfast when they forget, help them with a project or talk to them?

Why do you plan exciting lessons? Read adventurous books? Why do you encourage greatness and accept mistakes?

Sometimes we are teachers forget why we do things for our kids. It is easy to say "We want them to be great kids, we want them to have the best." But really are we that altruistic? Not at all!

We do it because we like to! We all enjoy it! Sometimes, we may forget that, sometimes we get down and we feel like the mundane things we do, just don't connect to the children. But generally, we like to spend time with the kiddos and we like to have fun! And the more we can bring that out for the kiddos, the better it will be.

Sometimes, it can be helpful to share that with the kiddos. Explain to them that you like to do things with them and for them and that you have fun doing it!

This is a great way to build better relationships with children and explain to them that your happiness is dependent on them! Keep them happy and they keep you happy. What a wonderful empathetic relationship!

Uh oh!

Mistakes happen. No one goes through life mistake-free. Some children feel so much pressure and anxiety do to mistakes, they think their respect and love is on some sort of see-saw that if there are too many mistakes they won't be able to swing that love and respect back up.

In reality, your students are going to make a lot of mistakes. It is a part of your life and it will be a part of your kiddos' life. So how can we help our kiddos be comfortable making those oopsies?

We can be there for them. We can share our experiences and our mistakes. We can make mistakes in front of them and show them how we triumph. We can show them how we improve. We can share our experiences with them. And when we make mistakes that involve them, we can apologize  and we can show them that all we can do is learn from them too.

What mistakes could you share with your students to help them feeling a little safer about their own?

Don't have a conversation

What an interesting concept!

So I went to my first Love and Logic seminar and I was told a lot of interesting ideas that could make sense (that I, personally, can't wait to try) and I think should be taught to every parent but I found them so interesting on a teacher standpoint.

One of the points that stood out as the most shocking is NOT to talk about why the kiddo got into trouble, what to look from here. Just be empathic. You don't talk to your pup when he does something wrong and ask him to explain himself, you just reprimand him (I use timeouts) and then you love them after that all the same as always. You don't hold grudges, you just go with it. And you show them how much you still care about them.

My "discipline" technique goes like this:
A) Try to think of every way you have seen the kiddos screw up and think of every way they have in the past pick 3 of them and remind them not to do those.
B) If they are caught doing them do the 1-2-3 count
C) Try to redirect them with other toys, objects or ideas
D) If none of that works, time-out
E) Have a conversation leading out of timeout (normally with a hug, high five or hand shake). We talk about what they did, why they did it, what they could do better next time and what my expectations are.
If things escalate from there we can call mom, if it seems out of control.

This class has taught me to ignore E all together basically. To give them a hug, tell them you believe they will do better next time and drop it. Maybe they are right, maybe my conversations are too long and look like an added version of punishment, also I know some kiddos spoon feed me lines because they know what I like to see from them and how they consistently get in trouble.

I am interesting in trying this new technique and seeing how my kiddos respond.

Breakthrough moment

Ah-Hah moments are just a precious piece in time where teachers can actually see the students grasping something new and exciting. The way the students faces light up and eat the information in front of them is just awe-inspiring.

As a teacher those are the moments I crave. I love when students finally understand something and begin to think critically about something in a brand new way.

As a student, I had my very own Ah-Hah moment in my ESL class. I am currently learning about the SIOP model and trying to get my head around it. There is a lot more work for learning this model then for some of the models I have used in the past. I can see the benefits to this model already and one big Ah-Hah moment made it all the better.

The SIOP model is meant to help CLD (ESL) students grasp the lessons a bit easier, it helps teachers think about langauge as its own category and work specifically with differentiation. But my big Ah-Hah moment isn't just to tell my students the lesson and spend extra time learning about it. But with the now minimally 4 objectives (2 content, 2 language) we should be sharing them with the students. That way the students will know exactly what they are learning, exactly what will be on the test and exactly what is expected of them. There will be no need to worry about the rest and the students' confidence should skyrocket.

I can't wait to start doing this even in my preschool classroom. I expect to see results instantly! :D

Let them Learn

When I look back to my own educational experience, I realize that I was always a little different. I was such a reader (and such a teacher) growing up that I looked for lessons in everything I did. And it kind of became my theory on life.

I remember throughout middle school and high school, teachers would ask for the "main theme" of the book. And I thought that was always stupid. How could there just be one theme? One thing we could possibly learn from that whole interaction. I always came up with the lesson I learned, not the one that the book was about. Who cares about love conquers all if everyone dies in the end?

I think that for my students I want them to grow in individualized ways. Ways that make them think and expand their own learning. I don't want them to tell me something that they will forget (or could care less about).

And I will never tell my students "That's not right" when their lessons still apply. I think its important to question and ask them more. Like "Why do you think that?" "Oh isn't that interesting. Can you tell me a bit more?" Give them the floor to explore their own thoughts instead of telling them to follow some robotic scheme.

My goal as a teacher is to step back and watch the learning take place. To push them, encourage them and excite them about learning. I want them to solve the problems and I want them to create their own learning. I want my students to watch, listen, learn, question, answer, explore with the right amount of guidance and the right push. But I want them to seize the moment and give it their best.

And if they fail? They can learn from that failure and they can try again. And they can live life, like I do. Looking at every experience as a learning one. Every book, a way to make us better people. Every relationship, a way to figure something new about ourselves. Every adventure, a chance to explore. And every interaction, a way to share our excitement.

Let the students learn and teach them how they can learn from everything and maybe we can make some lifetime learners and some Supermen and Superwomen of our own.

Personalized learning

I absolutely love the idea of personalized learning. Finding a way to bring the student and their own lives into the classroom in a way that matters to each individual student. I love seeing students eyes widen and heart grow as they realize that the education that is happening involves them and changes them.

Students are the artwork and our connection is the easel where our artwork holds. Sometimes we connect in left over paint marks and sticky glue, other times in dents of continuous use and at times the place of memories where you made a piece of perfection.

Those students deserve to experience a learning that is made for them and one that helps them grow and its our job to make this learning experience one that isn't made to standardized tests, but one that is unique and special just for them. That's what these kids deserve.

The Gift of the Child

I had parent teacher conferences recently and one of my parents told me some shocking news. One of the best students in my class was a terror at home, in ways, I would never have guessed.

So what did we do? We made a behavior chart for at home to bring to me. It will be nice to be the parent at this point and see the progress from the other side.

Sometimes it is hard for teachers and parents alike to remember that the students we have are blessings. They make each day interesting, each day exciting and they leave us exhausted but fulfilled. These students deserve the best and they deserve an education that promotes their positives and strengthens their strengths and that is what I hope to do for every student that walks in my doors. They are our gift and we give them the gift of knowledge and power.

Superbowl Monday

Since I am way out here in Japan, my Superbowl was on Monday morning at 8am. While most of my parents opened up a beer early and settled down in their PJ's for a trample of a game, I got to go off to work like any other day.

I had 2 meetings Monday that added on more work onto my already busy schedule.
The first was a EDIS meeting so I could schedule a screening for all my kiddos. This lasted 45 minutes when it was supposed to last 15.

My second meeting was with the school owner. In my school there is an owner. One man who supports this school and believes, he should make money from it. (This is a joke.) This meeting lasted 3 and a half hours and sadly it was mostly about his bad business moves and my exemplary ones.

But I walked away with more jobs and more to do. I walked away with a simple idea as well.

My translator would ask about a question I would have and then would ask what solution I had for it. What an incredible way to lead life. Don't just think of the problem but come up with some ways to fix it. For most of the problems, it took me another 12 seconds to come up with a feasible solution. The ones I didn't have solutions for was because the problem was the boss so I said that I was stuck on that problem and needed his help (which I had already given him a list of things to do for solving it but he didn't do it yet).

Just a tip, I thought I'd share.