Monday Quotes....

DIY inspirational classroom posters

I need to do this.... they look so awesome and I feel like as uncreative/artistic as I have become over the years (I used to be really quite the artist.... you don't use it, you lose it I guess) I could probably do this...

http://www.loveteachblog.com/ writes:

THIS IS SO EASY, Y'ALL. I can't stress that enough. All you need to do is:

1) Pick a quote you want to use. 

2) Sketch out the quote on a piece of watercolor paper in pencil.

3) Paint over it in watercolor.

4) Erase the pencil.

This one's a little hard to read, but it says, "And above all, watch with glittering eyes the world around you." Roald Dahl wins again.  For this one, I wrote the quote first in white crayon (which is a little scary because you can't see it at ALL), then just painted over with watercolor.

Art Journal: Passion: Teachers

From facebook:
I belong to an art journalling group on FB (Journal52 if you want to join in). One of the latest prompts was passion and a member in the UK (Angela McOwan...she's given permission for me to share) posted this lovely piece. For a reminder that some people really do get what we do. #rayofsunshine

Connectivity and School Culture

Came across another great article I wanted to share, How Transparency Can Transform School Culture.

It talks about how leadership in a school can create connectivity and a culture of sharing of both successes and struggles. With social media, sharing becomes easier and more

“The culture offline or online has to say we care about being open minded to the rest of our learning community whether that’s local or global.”

Many educators have found connecting through social media and other online platforms is valuable for sharing resources and inspire one another. But some teachers are still wary of social media after a few high-profile incidents of teachers being accused of wrong-doing on the web, Mazza said. “Once teachers understand that the leadership is taking a risk, then they feel a lot more comfortable doing so,” he said

I encourage you to check out the article as it has some great points surrounding transparency and school culture, along with social media and how the connectivity is growing from it.



“When you’re using digital tools and other social media it’s like you’re yelling out the front door of your school because you are so proud of something.”

Read more here

What Stuck with you this Week?

I love post-it notes and use them a lot for various lessons, workshops, activities... I love this board... what a great idea!

Defining Ways Educators Can Tug Education Back in the Right Direction

I stumbled across this awesome blog post the other day and really enjoyed reading it. I found myself nodding, reflecting on things I do and don't do, and decided I needed to share it with you.

Take time to listen & learn every week 

Learn from intriguing people. Your energy and excitement is often in direct relation to the ideas you’re bringing into your life. Teachers learn best from other teachers and educators from other educators.

Teachers must be a living model of lifelong learning. To do this, we have to carve out time to learn. Administrators and others should leave behind the misconception that a teacher should always be working. Sometimes they should be learning if they’re going to be a great teacher. The best teachers are great learners.

Share your learning & inspire others

Educators who care, share. Take time to share your favorite books, internet radio, and resources to help inspire those around you.

First, share with your colleagues. Your peers don’t need a consultant — THEY NEED YOU. If you’re excited – you should be sharing.

Make copies of inspirational best practices and put them in the teacher’s lounge boxes.  Share something new you’ve learned every day with someone. Include people who don’t connect via social media. [Love this idea, I have colleagues not on social media and this is a brilliant way to share, sometimes I forget about how it was done pre-internet]

Second and perhaps most importantly, at least once a week share something you’ve learned with students. In my classroom these conversations will start like this:

• “I’ve been reading the book __ on __. I find ___ fascinating.’ or
• “When I learned ___ it blew me away (I’ll show the article on the board if it is online). What do you think?

Then, encourage them to bring things in they’ve learned too. “Show and tell” should become “care enough to share.”

Let’s be the lead learners in a society needing to see living examples of lifelong learning.

When you get the spotlight, grab a mirror

Some love the spotlight. But remember that hundreds of thousands of incredible educators are doing a great job every single day without encouragement or thank you. Most of us would agree that introverted genius teachers are under-recognized.  So, we can spotlight more teachers in two ways: grab a mirror or make more light.

Grab a Mirror

To be inclusive, when you gain a spotlight by winning an award or being given the chance to speak– grab a mirror. Shine some  light on those who inspire and help you. Point out teachers who deserve it. Mention your favorite teacher when you’re receiving recognition. Don’t teachers deserve some credit?

There are more ideas on the list at the original blog. Read the entire post here!

Monday Quote....

It is the long weekend here, so I am sharing TWO Monday Quotes...

Monday Quote...

Wonderful Things...

Mistakes....

Inspiring short Video - what is it that you desire most?

This is a must watch. I love it! So inspiring!

The Lollipop Moment

I went to see Lois Zachary at the mentoring conference last week. She opened with this video and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So powerful.




If you don't have time to watch the video, here is the commentary written (of most of the video, missing some at the end):

I want to start just by asking everyone in the audience a question: How many of you are completely comfortable calling yourselves a leader?

See, I've asked that question all the way across the country, and everywhere I ask it, no matter where, there's always a huge portion of the audience that won't put up their hand. And I've come to realize that we have made leadership into something bigger than us. We've made it into something beyond us. And I worry sometimes that we spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do that we've convinced ourselves that those are the only things worth celebrating, and we start to devalue the things that we can do every day.

I went to a little school called Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, and on my last day there a girl came up to me and she said, "I remember the first time that I met you." And then she told me a story that happened four years earlier.

She said, "On the day before I started University I was in the hotel room with my mom and my dad. And I was so scared and so convinced that I couldn't do this; that I wasn't ready for university that I just burst into tears. And my mom and my dad were amazing. They were like, 'Look, we know you're scared, but let's just go tomorrow, let's go to the first day and if at any point you feel as if you can't do this, that's fine, just tell us, we'll take you home. We love you no matter what.'"

She said, "And so I went the next day and was standing in line getting ready for registration and I looked around and I just knew I couldn't do it. I knew I wasn't ready, I knew I had to quit. And I turned to my mom and my dad to tell them that we needed to go home, and just at that moment you came out of the student union building wearing the stupidest hat I have ever seen in my life. It was awesome. And you had a bucket full of lollipops. And you were walking along and you were handing the lollipops out to people in line and talking about [a charity called] Shinerama. And all of a sudden you got to me, and you just stopped. And you stared. It was creepy. And then you looked at the guy next to me, and you smiled, and you reached in to your bucket and you pulled out a lollipop and you held it out to him. And you said to him, 'You need to give a lollipop to the beautiful woman standing next to you.' "

And she said, "I have never seen anyone get more embarrassed faster in my life. He turned beet-red and wouldn't even look at me and just kinda held the lollipop out like this." [shyly giving the lollipop] "And I felt so bad for this dude that I took the lollipop and as soon as I did you got this incredibly severe look on your face and you looked at my mom and my dad and you said, 'Look at that. Look at that. First day away from home and already she's taking candy from a stranger!'"

And she said, "Everybody lost it. Twenty feet in every direction, everyone started to howl. And I know this is cheesy, and I don't know why I'm telling you this, but in that moment when everyone was laughing, I knew that I shouldn't quit. And I haven't spoken to you once in the four years since that day, but I heard that you were leaving, and I had to come up and tell you that you've been an incredibly important person in my life, and I'm going to miss you."

And she walks away. And I'm flattened. And she gets about six feet away and she turns around and smiles and goes, "And you should probably know this too. I'm still dating that guy four years later." A year and half after I moved to Toronto, I got an invitation to their wedding.

Here's the kicker. I don't remember that.

How many of you guys have a lollipop moment? A moment where someone said something or did something that you feel fundamentally made your life better?

We need to redefine leadership as being about lollipop moments, how many of them we create, how many of them we acknowledge, how many of them we pay forward, and how many of them we say thank you for. Because we've made leadership about changing the world, and there is no world, there are only six billion understandings of it. And if you change one person's understanding of it, one person's understanding of what they're capable of, one person's understanding of how much people care about them, one person's understanding of how powerful an agent of change they can be in this world, you've changed the whole thing.

*************************

Remember to tell people who made your lollipop moment. Thank them. Chances are they do not know it. As teachers, we create lollipop moments each day and often never know it. Be the change. Be kind!

Monday Quote....

12 Rules for Classroom Heroes!

12 "rules" for classroom heroes! http://owl.li/uUgm0

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Book Hugging

[Source]

Monday Quote....