Back Into the Swing of Things

We have made it through the first week!  It is exciting to think about where these next 35 weeks will take us.  We all have BIG goals for our students and ourselves.  We must look at our practices and what we are doing to have students meet educational goals.  We must be willing to think outside the box, see problems in a different way, and put in some extra hours to ensure success...isn't this EXACTLY what we ask our students to do?

The link below list habits of highly effective teachers.  These are things many of us are doing, but at the beginning of the year, it is always good to have a little refresher on what can do to ensure student success!

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/25-things-successful-teachers-do-differently/

Welcome Back

New year...new goals...new insight.  What are you going to do this year to inspire your students?  Inspire each other?  What will it take to make you "the teacher"?  You know...the one who all the student talk about, even after graduation?  The one who students say "I learned so much from"?  For me, it was Carol Hefling.  I don't remember all the vocab words from her class or how to diagram a sentence, but I remember what she saw in me and cultivated in me.  She knew I had gifts in areas that were not athletic and in activities that were not on everyone's to do list.  She pushed me...she yelled at me...she picked me up when things didn't go quite right...but she encouraged me every step of the way.  I am unsure if I would have discovered that side of me (or one of my all time favorite books "To Kill a Mockingbird") without her.

See the link below to 23 defining traits of your favorite teacher.  The GIFs with these show some of the best teachers to hit the big and small screen.  Are these defining traits part of you?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/defining-traits-of-your-favorite-teacher

Let's have a great year!

PS...I wrote this blog the last week of July.  I waited to published it until we got closer to school.  Yesterday, Robin Williams died.  He gave perhaps one of the most powerful performance of a teacher out there.  If you have NOT seen "Dead Poet's Society", SEE IT.  It is amazing.  You should watch the clips in the link below in the following order:  the last clip FIRST and the first clip LAST.  The text contains additional quotes from the movie that are inspiring.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/robin-williams-best-dead-poets-society-quotes-carpe-hear-it-carpe-carpe-diem-seize-the-day-boys-9663800.html