Day 181: It Does Not Work

Daily Blog Challenge Day 181/365

My basketball team drove me crazy with one phrase this season. "Coach, this play does not work." The reality if the matter was that they were not running it correctly.

How often do we dismiss ideas because we don't think they will work? Sometimes we may even try them and they still don't work. Is it the idea or is it how we are executing it?

This may be a simple difference, but it is a very important distinction. Is the idea bad or am I doing it wrong? I know I often say "that won't work in my class." 

How do you ensure that you stay open minded to new ideas and give them an honest chance?

Thank you for reading.

Day 180: Out of My League

Daily Blog Challenge Day 180/365

This school year has been a whirlwind adventure full of new things.  I started teaching a new class, I became a varsity head coach and my husband I are preparing for our first child.  I feel blessed and excited by all of these changes, but I often feel that I am out of my league.  Have you ever experienced this feeling?

I have looked forward to many of these new challenges for years, but yet I find myself unsure now that the moment of opportunity is upon me.  When I was in college one of the seniors on my softball team would always say "fake it till you make it."  Seems like a pretty simple motto, but it is one I have used often since my time in college.

I think most humans are filled with some amount of hesitancy and it is normal to doubt our individual abilities. Feeling like I am out of my league is fine in my opinion as long as I do not let it prevent me from accepting new challenges.  Feeling out of my league also helps push me to learn new things and to strengthen my skills/abilities so that I can find success tackling the new obstacles.

How do you hand the feeling that you are approaching a challenge that is "out of your league"?

Thank you for reading.

Day 179: Immersion

Daily Blog Challenge Day 179/365

They say that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture.  I believe the same should be true for any skill.  When you go to another ciuntry, your focus is not one hundred percent on learning the language, but the goal is to experience another culture.   

What if we brought this same philosophy to education? 

Instead of focusing on learning skills, we focus on the journey. We immersed our students in projects and activities that fill all of their senses.  We aligned baking, music, art and other activities to reading and math skills.  Instead of school being isolated skills, it becomes an experience. 

My fear with testing is that we are so focused on skills that we forget about the joy of learning. As an adult, I learn new things everyday and none of them occur while sitting in a desk inside a school.  Students have this same ability,  but they need to be given the opportunities and time to learn in this way. 

One of my goals this year is to make my classroom feel less like a classroom.  I want my room to be inviting and fun, more like a music store when we can learn by truly experiencing music.  I want to immerse my students in music and give them a full experience that does not just focus on skills. 

How do you immerse your students in the journey of learning? 

Thank you for reading. 

Day 179: Adult...

Daily Blog Challenge Day 179/365

At the beginning of this school year I attended CPI training for the first time.  Although the training is about how to safely restrain students, I took a lot away from the information that was shared.  Conflict often arises when a person is in an emotional state, which limits the ability to act and think rationally.  It is easy to forget that students are just kids and that they are not mini adults. Kids do not have the same tools that adults have and therefore they cannot deal with issues in the same manner. 

It is not easy, but someone needs to stay emotionally stable and help ensure that conflict is dealt with in a positive manner. This job falls on the teacher, who can model for their students proper ways to deal with challenges.  I know I struggle with this at times.  It is easy to get frustrated and not deal with issues in a positive way.  How do you make sure you stay emotionally stable during times of frustration?

Thank you for reading. 

Day 178: Media Class: Blog Project #1 (Technology)

Daily Blog Challenge Day 178/365

Technology Tuesday

I have been having students in my 5th grade Media Class use the blogging platform KidBlog.  I find this platform very user friendly and easy to use.  It is also safe and I can limit who sees the posts.  After a few months of KidBlog, I decided to try Blogger.  My district is a Google Apps District, so it was very easy to use this platform.  Part of my motivation to use Blogger was to give my students a platform to blog in a public space.  My hopes were that the public forum would help motivate my students to proof their work better and to increase their level of writing.  We connected with a class in Wisconsin and commented on each others posts.

I would like to do this again next year.  Writing posts and commenting took more time than I was expecting, so it was a little sporadic.  Next year I would like our comments and writing to be more frequent.

Blogger Permission Slip

How do you include blogging in your classroom?  Thank you for reading.

Day 176: Favorite Quotes

Daily Blog Challenge 176/365

I find inspiration and motivation in quotes.  As I prepare for this softball season, I am keeping track of sayings and quotes to help motivate myself and my team.  Here is a list of my favorites, both new and old.

"As if it does not matter how a man falls, when the fall is all that is left it matters very much"

"Prepare. Love. Honor the Game" - Sue Enquist

"A goal without a plan is only a dream" -Terri Mitchell (Marquette Women's Basketball Coach)

"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools." - Runner's World Website

"Dreams do come true and when you believe in yourself, anything is possible." -Jennifer Capriatti

"The world will tell you who you are, until you tell the world." -Freedom Writters
"You can work as hard as you can on your own dreams, or twice as hard on someone else's" Synergy Brass Quintet

"I hope I never know so much that I'm completely grown up. Not only is it less fun there, I
 think it's also harder than it has to be. Life seems to always be tough enough without our
 adding cynicism to the equation. My daughter vehemently endorses Santa; she says he's 
real if you believe him to be. And I am so with her. I like fairy dust. I like the inside jokes and practical jokes and uncontrolled laughter even when it's not entirely appropriate. And I love the possibilities that lie in a place like that."-Sherri Coale (University of Oklahoma Women's Basketball Coach.)

"You can't control what happends to you, but you can control how you respond." -Kay Yow (NC State Women's Basketball Coach)

"Escape tones are like stalkers, they creep before they leap."

"You can control two things in life: your attitude and your effort." -Coach Clark

"Come to the edge," He said. They said, "We are afraid." "Come to the edge," He said. They came. He pushed them . and they flew." ~ Guillaume Apollinaire

"Its ok to be afraid, but don't let fear stop you from doing what you want to."

"You don't need to apologize for the gifts you've been given," she says. "Only apologize for 
not using them."

Win the Day (Chip Kelly)

What are your favorite quotes?  Thank you for reading.

Day 175: Students Teaching Students

Daily Blog Challenge Day 175/365

This year I have tried to include more opportunities for my students to teach each other. I have seen many benefits to these activities: it helps students work at a pace that is best for them, it limits to opportunity to be bored and it helps students master content (there is no better test to see if you really understand something then by teaching someone else that concept or skill.

In music and media, I teach students who finish quickly how to start the next project and they help teach students who finish after them.  This helps keeping students focused and allows everyone to finish without being rushed.  I also try to "force" my students to ask at least 2 of their classmates for help before I help them.

How do you include students teaching students activities in youe classroom? Thank you for reading.