Friday, September 9, 2016

First 6 days

I started writing this on Wednesday morning.  That's pretty normal for me.  But I must be honest.  The start of this school year has gone pretty darn well with the kids.  I have heard so many of you comment on our students- how nice they are, how respectful they are, how they get along well with one another.  Someone in one of the Voxer groups I am a part of said that she has had a great three week honeymoon with her students this year.  I thought to myself, "How can we keep this honeymoon going strong?"  A man I used to by fishing bait from year's ago would always reintroduce me to his wife, but he always referred to her as his bride.  He wanted to keep the honeymoon going.  It makes me think about how we can keep the honeymoon going with our kids.  Here are my thoughts, and I'd love to hear what ideas you might have.
  • Mustang Medals, especially if you can meet with the student to let them hear the reason from you
  • Kind words and reminders when students are doing their best for you and their classmates
  • Phone calls home
  • Fist bumps
  • High fives
  • Hugs
The ideas above really came from the words below, words I found in a brief blogpost from Sam Parker.  If you put out some light, the kids are going to respond positively.  So lets put out some light today, and every day, and the kids will continue their honeymoon with us.
Calendar
Tuesday, September 13th
  • 1st day of Homework Club 4:15PM
    • Please let me know if you'd like to facilitate.  You will be compensated!
  • 6th grade FIN 5:30PM
  • Annual meeting 7:30PM
Wednesday, September 14th
  • PLC Wednesday 8:00-9:10AM in the Little Theater
  • 5th grade FIN 5:30PM
Thursday, September 15th
  • Grade level meetings (FYI- I'll be sending out notes to all staff who work with specific grade levels after our meetings.)
  • Principals' chat 2:30PM
  • Homework Club 4:15
  • 7th/8th FIN 6PM
(from Pinterest)
Tweets, quotes, and blogs
Yet (from Pernille Ripp)
(from youtube)

(from #choose2matter)

2nd gear
It's time.  We have had 5 full days, with today being the 6th, to put in place procedures and expectations.  Relationships are taking hold, or growing stronger, and now it's time to turn our efforts to academics.  What's that one thing that you can do today to be the one for a child?  What one thing will make that math concept or musical note or physical skill or Spanish vocabulary really stick for a child?  And what if that one thing doesn't work?  What will you do next?  These questions will be the center of our discussion next Wednesday at our PLC meeting.  We'll also begin to add these questions to our team meetings on Thursdays.  Without breaking into song from High School Musical, "We're All in This Together", and that means all of us, myself included.  We started the year by talking about Being the One.  We will continue that discussion throughout the year with the addition of that one thing we can do to make a difference.  It's not one more thing.  It's doing that one thing differently.  I look forward to our meeting next Wednesday morning and our meetings next Thursday.

Be the one!
Jay
Take care of the kids.  Take care of each other.  Take care of yourself.
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