2017 Post Australia Blog #1
Today I would like to talk about …
Hello Elementary Friends,
It feels like forever since my last blog posting! It’s really only been 6 weeks, but a lot has happened in the past several weeks since I have returned from Australia. Furthermore, since I was in such a habit of posting weekly for the year I was away, I have actually missed recording observations and happenings since my return. I have had some time to reflect upon many things over the past few weeks, and I am eager to start blogging again, but this time with a slightly different focus and intent.
One of the areas of my reflection has been upon the act of blogging itself. What is it about writing down one’s thoughts, activities, endeavors, struggles, celebrations, opinions, and ideas that is fulfilling a need to stay focused toward personal and professional goals and pathways? I have thought a lot about it, and have come to some conclusions. Before I share those, however, I want to share with you that are some reasons for blogging that I am hoping to stay clear of – I am trying to keep my intentions healthy for myself and my readers. Even though I am writing about events and activities in my life, I do not want to come across that my life is in any way more interesting or exciting than anyone else’s life. We all have different activities that we find ourselves involved in, and because I choose to spend some time in written reflection does not in any way indicate that I “have this life figured out” – quite the opposite is true. I also hope to stay clear of negativity toward any particular groups or individuals. With the current divisiveness in our country it would be easy to use a forum such as this to create more division. I hope to focus on the positive and on endeavors that will provide hope and optimism for myself and those around me.
Throughout 2016 the readership of this blog averaged about 225 readers each week. That was, of course, not always the same 225 readers. After being in Australia for a while, I started getting a nice following of Aussies – mostly my school colleagues and families. The readers from the United States came mostly from family, friends, a few elementary school principals from Texas and Colorado, and the Mortensen Elementary School community. My main purpose of writing last year was to create an electronic journal of the experience and to give interested readers a glimpse into my year on an educator’s exchange “down under.” Every week I was learning new things and experiencing things that I knew would be interesting to others, so my topics of discussion were easy to come by. Now that I am home it would be easy to fall into the trap of “my life is boring again, so no one would want to read about it.” I am not allowing myself to think that way, and let me tell you why – One of the main things that I learned while I was away is that “we should never stop learning!” I was on such a steep learning curve for most of the year, and I have determined that it was SO good for me. I am committed that I will continue to learn something new each week (at least) and strive to share the learning with those around me for the betterment of my little part of the world (which now includes some amazing people half-way around it)!
Listed here are my conclusions that using this format for regular blogging is good for me:
- 1. At this point in my life sharing thoughts every so often in this format is meeting a personal and professional need to put into words various ideas, plans, endeavors, and possibilities. Recording random thoughts brings some order to them – makes them more likely to take a concrete shape.
- 2. Knowing that I have even one other person who might read my blog will hold me accountable to my learning and the assimilation of thoughts and ideas that might come to fruition.
- 3. Regular writing will help me stay focused on commitments that I make to myself and others.
- 4. By viewing my daily activities as opportunities for learning, I will keep my mind open for new possibilities and the ideas of others. Who knows – we may all learn some new things about our own world, country, state, and local community this year!
- 5. I want to keep and expand my Aussie readership – hopefully I can urge a few students or staff members from Beaumont Road Public School to consider an American school experience in the coming months or years!
So, with these conclusions in mind – I commit to you that I will post 2 blogs each month for the remaining months of 2017 (22 total)! It’s now down in writing, so I better not go back on my promise!
This year I hope to have this blog focus around 4 main topics – some weeks all four will be discussed, and some weeks maybe only one or two. As you noticed in the 2016 entries, I will usually speak about things going on at my school, things happening in my personal life (family, church, friends, etc.), travel that I am engaged in, things that I am reading or researching, and things that are happening in my community, state, nation, or the world. Here are the main ideas for the 2017 blog posts:
- 1. Something I Have Learned (Maybe it will be new learning for you too)
- 2. Something That “Fills My Bucket” (Term from the book How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath, 2004)
- 3. Something That Will Make You Think (I’ll try not to be too preachy)
- 4. Something Worth Celebrating or Laughing About!(It is so important that we take time to celebrate)
LEARNING – Tried and true teaching strategies really do work!
As I progressed through 2016 with my 23 Aussie Year Two Students, I learned so much about myself as a teacher, my students as learners, the content that we were learning, and how I would ensure that my students could demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the skills independently. Anyone who has ever taught any subject in a Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade classroom will probably tell you that teaching the skill of written communication is a challenge for even the most experienced English/reading/language arts teacher. Reading and writing, of course, go hand in hand and are foundational to ensure a literate society. In school we often use the phrase that “until third grade you are learning to read (and write) and from third grade on you are reading (and writing) to learn.” Reading is necessary for any content that you encounter in school and then, obviously, in life. This is why we place such a strong emphasis on it in the early elementary school years. Throughout my years in public education I have attended and engaged in multiple professional development opportunities on the teaching of writing. There are countless specialized programs that profess to have just the right “key” to unlock the child’s ability to write properly, fluently, and effectively while ensuring that we keep the individual child’s voice and personality at the center of focus. I started out the year with my students just encouraging them to write about what interests them. My thought was that they would write more if they had some personal “buy in” to the topic. The students each had a journal, and on Mondays they were to write about their weekend. The genre of “narrative” is one of the key types of writing that is emphasized in both countries for this age of a student, so I felt that I had at least some background knowledge to draw upon as I set expectations for the writing. At the first of the year, I just wanted to see what they could do on their own. And – as you may have guessed – they were all over the place. Some were already writing multi-paragraphs while others could not get one sentence down on the page. For some, the skill of handwriting got in the way of their written fluency, while others had beautiful handwriting, but not a clue about how to form a sentence. Hence – we started with the mini-lessons on what makes an appropriate journal entry about your weekend – lots of modeling about what makes a complete sentence, lots of thinking out loud about what should come first, next, etc., and finally, what the piece should actually look like on the page in the journal. With very young narrative writers it is important for them to understand the basic concepts of:
- 1. A simple opening statement about what you are going to “talk about.”
- 2. A sequential retelling of events or activities using words like “first, next, last, etc.”
- 3. A closing sentence that “wraps up” your narrative with some sort of feeling statement.
- 4. All sentences must be complete with a capital letter at the beginning and proper punctuation at the end. (of course it took me the whole year in Australia to call the period a “full stop!”)
As Term One progressed, I was so pleased to see the narrative writing skills of my students grow and progress. Each week I would read and respond to journal entries that would begin … “Today I would like to talk about the fun things I did on my weekend. Firstly, I … Secondly, I … Thirdly, I …” I would smile knowing that they were assimilating an understanding of the structure and purpose of the writing. I knew that adding vivid descriptions through their voice and complex sentences would come in time once they had the basic structure down. It was not long before I could tell that several of them were ready for a lesson on the “Five Paragraph Essay.” I was a bit concerned one week when a boy’s sequence of events held the last sentence of “Seventhly, I went home, brushed my teeth, and went to bed.” It was at that point that I knew we needed a lesson on interesting transition words like “in the first place, subsequently, afterwards, and of course (in Australia) straightaway.”You can imagine my glee when I began to read closing sentences like this: “As you can see, I had the most brilliant weekend. I wish they all could be like that!”
What did I learn?
Students can learn new concepts if we first make the learning very clear and visible to them. They need to “see” what they are learning and how to attach the new learning to their background knowledge. They also need to understand the relevance of the learning – how it is related to their lives outside of school and why it is important to learn. Subsequently, with clear models and expectations, we need to ensure that our students do not give up until their work production is commensurate with the standards of their grade level. And finally, once they hit a target, it is our job to help them set the next one!
FILLING MY BUCKET – More than a few people missed me while I was away. That Fills My Bucket! Thank you!
At Mortensen a few years ago we conducted a short term project based on the book, How Full is Your Bucket?, by Tom Rath. Here is some information on the book if you are not familiar with it:
The book is an illustrated adaptation of the long-running bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket? (more than 400,000 copies sold) for kids — told through the story of a boy who learns a valuable “bucket filling” metaphor and watches it come to life as the day unfolds.
Every moment matters.
Each of us has an invisible bucket. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it’s empty, we feel awful. Yet most children (and many adults) don’t realize the importance of having a full bucket throughout the day.
In How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids, Felix begins to see how every interaction in a day either fills or empties his bucket. Felix then realizes that everything he says or does to other people fills or empties their buckets as well.
Follow along with Felix as he learns how easy it can be to fill the buckets of his classmates, teachers and family members. Before the day is over, you’ll see how Felix learns to be a great bucket filler, and in the process, discovers that filling someone else’s bucket also fills his own.
Of course we emphasize to students how to fill the buckets of their classmates, but as adults, we encourage each other to remember the importance of doing those things that will fill our own individual buckets, as well – taking care of ourselves so that we are better supports for each other.
How has my bucket been filled?
Since my return to Mortensen there have been many instances where my imaginary bucket has been refilled again and again. Here are some photos of displays in the hallways that greeted me upon my return. I feel so “full” and grateful for such an amazing community of learners – adults and students!
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT – Where is my mind, right now?
I think I mentioned in a late September blog that I was fortunate to attend an Educational Leadership Conference in Melbourne, Australia. This conference was presented by an organization named the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. Here is some information on ACEL from their website which you can access here:
As Australia's peak professional organisation ACEL is a forward thinking, relevant and responsive agent of change and innovation. ACEL is a not-for-profit company and a 21st Century learning organisation that is continuously improving its practices to harness national and global opportunities. As the premier provider of resources and experiences for educational leaders, ACEL's membership continues to grow with over 6500 members actively connecting and participating in regular professional learning opportunities.
While at the conference, I attended several sessions that were of interest to me. One session focused on what it means to be a “mindful” school leader. There is a body of work and research on this topic that is of interest to the field of leadership both in educational settings but also in many other large organizations and corporations. The book that was featured in the session is:
Of course I bought the book at the conference and then did not have time to read it before I came home. I actually mailed it to myself and just received it a couple of weeks ago. So, I am reading it now. The main ideas of the book are:
- · School leaders face unparalleled trials as they lead multifarious and fluctuating organizations.
- · “Mindfulness helps leaders respond more productively to the stress of dealing with these challenges. The result? They become more effective leaders and calmer and more focused people at the same time.”
I have been trying out a few of the mindfulness practices that are outlined in the book myself and in my conversations with my staff members, family members, and friends.
I especially like the “Mindfulness Practice Aid 1.1 S.T.O.P. (Stopping Pausing, Observing, and Proceed and be Present).” The idea is to put on hold whatever you are doing to realize what is going on with you. It functions like a reset button so you can proceed refreshed. It is particularly useful during times of stress, panic, or an impending deadline. The acronym outlines the steps: (S) Stop, (T) Take a breath, (O) Observe, acknowledge, and allow what’s here, (P) Proceed and be present. It is recommended that you consider setting a twice daily time to remember to do this.
I am certainly not an expert yet, but it has helped me to focus on where my mind is and if I am utilizing my mental energy for the building and maintaining of relationships of those around me.
Now – you can imagine my amazement that when I returned to my church, Saint Andrew United Methodist Church, in Highlands Ranch, Colorado and discovered that the Senior Pastor, Mark Feldmeir's sermon series for the next several weeks is “Be Here Now.”
Here is a description of the several weeks’ series:
“We live in an age of distraction and fragmentation. Yet one of life’s sharpest paradoxes is that our brightest future hinges on our ability to pay attention to the present. Too often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what’s past. “Be Here Now” will lay out concrete steps we can use to live in the present, pay attention to what’s important, and become more available to God and to the people in our lives.”
When “something for me to think about" surfaces in more than one area of my life, I tend to think that someone or something in the universe is trying to tell me something. It is then, apparently, time for me to take notice! Reverend Feldmeir shared in his sermon on 1/22/17 about a columnist by the name of Arthur Brooks who wrote a column in the New York Times last year (01/10/2016) suggesting that the happiest people are those who think about their death. He says that contemplating our death is the key to better living. It makes us aware of the transitory nature of our lives and stimulates a realignment between momentary desires and existential goals. It makes us ask, "Am I making the right use of my scarce and precious life?" Brooks suggest living as if it were your last year of life. Root out activities, small and large, that don't pass the "last-year test." Consider what you'd do for a week if this were your last opportunity. With whom would you reconnect and spend some time? If this year were your last, would you spend the next hour mindlessly checking your social media, or would you read something that uplifts you, or call a friend to see how she's doing?
I am sure that most of you will agree that the atmosphere right now in our country makes it difficult to not get caught up in the craziness of what is going on around us. It is really hard to stay calm and focus on the good we can each do in our own small patch of earth. I can name several Aussie friends who are doing just that on the other side of the Pacific Puddle. I hope to join them here, and I hope you will too!
Mark Feldmeir also shared a poem by Mary Oliver (in "When Death Comes") that sums it up for me:
When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Thank you, Mark for speaking the words that I needed at just this moment. I will continue my contemplation of what it means to be "mindful" and to Be Here Now.
Here is a link to one of Mark's sermons that I found especially meaningful in my efforts to be more mindful in all aspects of my life.
Something to Celebrate!
I try to focus each day on finding something to celebrate. It can be as simple as during our Fire Drill the other day the entire school exited the building in under four minutes! Or, it could be that we passed our semi-annual fire inspection with no critical violations. It could also be that one of my sixth grade girls came in first place in the Area Spelling Bee this afternoon! And it could be that I have had only one parent complaint in nearly two weeks! It could also be that I am back in close proximity to my daughters and son-in-law, my niece and her sweet family, and all of our other family members and friends. Yes, it could be all of these things and so many more.
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| John Wesley Quote at Church |
What I hope to do in 2017 is to be mindful enough each day to be able to truly celebrate this beautiful life that I am fortunate to live.
Next blog promises to share some funny kid stories, so stay tuned!
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