Smiling So Much It Hurts

Update for Aug 15 - 19

This story is one of those stories that we live for.

 

Last Friday morning, Mrs. Kim Dornburgh, a 3rd Grade teacher at Alton Darby, came to me to ask a favor. With a smile, she gave me her “Dream” bracelet that our Superintendent, Dr. Marschhausen, had given to all Hilliard City Schools staff.  I was confused for a second - Was she turning in her dream?

Kim told me that her student had seen me wearing my “Dream” bracelet and said, “When I grow up, I want a dream like Mr. H”.  Without hesitation, Mrs. Dornburgh recognized a great opportunity to lift this student up.  

Kim had it all worked out.  She would give me her bracelet to give to her student when he was least expecting it.  I agreed, but only if she would email Dr. Marschhausen to let him know about the story.

So on Monday, as I am talking with a teacher in the hallway, I see Dr. Marschhausen walk by. When I caught up with him, he told me he received an email from Mrs. Dornburgh about her student wanting a “dream” and wanted to come by and drop off a bracelet to her.

What happens next is one of those moments that we live for.

A little later, I got the bracelet from Mrs. Dornburgh and went to find her student who was working in another room. I found him and asked him to come out into the hallway.  I told him that I had heard about his conversation with Mrs. Dornburgh about wanting “a dream”.  I showed him the extra bracelet and said, “I’m giving this to you so that when you wear it each day, it reminds you to work hard to make your dreams come true.”

He stood up a little taller, his eyes lit up, and his smile went from ear to ear.  

What happens next is one of those moments that we live for.

Here is what Mrs. Dornburgh shared with me about what happened next:

I had the opportunity to share my "Special" students story with my classroom.  I did not know how they would react.  

As it turns out, when we went to the gym for PE, “A-” was a minute or so late and this is what transpired.

Student: “Hey ‘A-’, what's that on your wrist?”

‘A-’: “A bracelet like Mr. Higginbotham's.”

Other kids: “Wow, ahhhhh,  cool, Can I see?”, etc.

The entire class surrounded him with love and support.

40 minutes later... “A-” was still smiling.  He hugged me and said, "My face hurts".

I said, “Are you OK?”  He said,  “Yeah, you smile a lot when you are so cool... My friends think I am cool.”  

This is one of those moments we live for.

Moments like this happen every day at our school. We live for these moments and need to celebrate them and share them with anyone who will listen.

What stories will you share?

Upcoming Dates --

Monday, Sept 15 -- International Dot Day! *See email for details -- Staff members should wear your new Gold 212 shirts.

Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:45-12:00pm CO Building Visit

Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE

Thu Sep 25, 2014 Picture Day (Gym)

October

Thu Oct 2, 2014
Mumkin Delivery
5:30pm - 6:30pm Market Day

Fri Oct 3, 2014
K-5 Interims Due
Newsletter Home
8am - 9am Building Advisory Committee Meeting

Tue Oct 7, 2014
8am - 9am Building Improvement Team mtg

Fri Oct 10. 2014
9:30-11:15am Kids’ EdCamp

Mon Oct 13, 2014
3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE
6:30pm - 7pm PTO Executive Mtg
7pm - 8pm PTO General Mtg

Thu Oct 16, 2014
Spirit Day - Wear your favorite team gear!
6pm - 8:30pm Tailgate Party

Fri Oct 17, 2014
Central Ohio In-Service Day - No School for Students

Video That Inspires -

Articles Worth Reading -

A Two-Gear Construct for Envisioning Blended Learning | Edutopia http://edut.to/1qtxSSu

Making Students Partners in Data-Driven Approaches to Learning | MindShift http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/09/how-students-can-be-partners-in-data-driven-approaches-to-learning/ … via @MindShiftKQED

Don't give up on your idea... http://www.justintarte.com/2014/09/dont-give-up-on-your-idea.html … via @justintarte

How can we all keep the kindergarten spirit? http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/10826  via @8Amber8

Recovery in Education

Update for Sept 8-12

This week's update is a guest post from Mr. Thom Wendt.  Please let me know if you are interested in being a guest blogger.  We are a community of learners and I would love to share your story of learning.

If you walk the planet for very long, you will be recovering from something.  We recover, or are in recovery, from hardships like ailing parents, the loss of a mother, a sick child, the loss of a pet, a rejection from a date, a lost game, a financial setback, a disappointment in a friendship, unspeakable hurts, and countless others.  We are creative beings and can learn a great deal from how nature creates, recreates and recovers itself in some of the most fascinating ways.  Life’s blessings and hardships allow us to experience our ultimate creation; ourselves.

As I approach 35 years of experience in education, I reflect on how my career has been created over time.  How in the beginning I was not aware of what I did not know, and as a result, I had less stress about the work I was doing.  I did not know that I did not know what needed to be done to leave my mark, or make a difference in the life of a student or colleague.  As I reach departure from a career that has encompassed a great deal of my identity, I realize that by the time I became efficient in knowing how to do my job, the time has come to check out of my profession according to the rules.  Now in my final year, every day a comment or observation is made about my retirement.  It is bittersweet, as I recreate how I will continue to teach, lead, serve, or survive.

I may joke about my age or experience, but seldom see myself as old.  My friends and family shake their heads that I single-handedly moved six ton of of gravel one day this summer with a wheelbarrow and shovel, and wanted to go for a quick slalom water ski afterwards.  It is my goal to leave knowing I owned every second that this world could give.  I know hard work (bullheadedness) is in my DNA from watching my father as a farmer and laborer in gainful employment for 72 years.  My father is like the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree.

 I recently discovered the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree and realized the lessons it can provide us, as we are mere infants in comparison.  The Bristlecone Pine is the oldest single living organism in the world.  They live in California and one has been dated to nearly 5,000 years old.  It has been alive since before the Pyramids and 3,000 years prior to the time that Jesus Christ walked the Earth.  They only live in the harshest of conditions.  Freezing nights, hot days, little rain, barren soil, pelting sandstorms: all are a requirement of their success.  They attain a great age not in spite of their harsh environment, but because of it.  A harsh environment is what turns a regular Bristlecone Pine Tree into an Ancient one.  The dense and resinous wood created by the harsh conditions make it resistant to disease and fire, the two great killers of all trees.  The only way to become an Ancient Bristlecone Pine Tree is to go through harsh conditions.

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine - The California Environmental Legacy Project

On a much smaller scale, I have witnessed how as educators, we have at times endured great challenges and hardships.  And as I look over my career and the school experience my sons have endured, I see some scars and gnarled practices.  Like personal recovery, the audacity of hope is what sometimes sustains us to face the next day.  As I observe where we are headed, I would rename “educational reform” to “educational recovery.”  Moving toward innovation, student interest, the whole child, teacher autonomy, shared leadership, collaboration, relationship building, the arts, recreation, and the joy in life long learning, allow us to recreate and recover what lead us to our passion in teaching.  

All those initiatives have been present, in our DNA, and in some cases, laying dormant.  They will emerge in a new form like fresh flowers in spring.  Like Death Valley, even a little rain will allow dormant seeds to recover and survive for awhile in the harsh environment.  So we must bloom where we are planted and embrace the beauty in recovering what lies within and ahead.  I will move on to a new season.  You will carry the torches of those who have left before you, and leave your mark.  We may be a million miles from a million dollars, but no one can spend the wealth we have co-created in touching the lives of children.

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk captures so much of what I have witnessed and value in our profession.  It will reaffirm what you already know to be true about what is gnarled and what constitutes a recovery or rebirth!

Sir Ken Robinson, How to Escape Education’s Death Valley

Thom Wendt is an Intervention Teacher at Alton Darby Elementary.

Up-coming Dates

Mon Sep 8, 2014

Mumkin Sale Ends

Team Time with Herb - During your team's planning time. 
This is voluntary, so please let me know if you would like to meet at this time.

6:30pm - 7pm PTO Executive Mtg

7pm - 8pm PTO General Mtg

Tues Sep 9, 2014

9:00am - 10:00am Mrs. Shively's students' Community Outing

Data Team / IAT Process Overview Meetings for 5th, 4th and 2nd Grade Teams during your planning time.

Wed Sep 10, 2014

Data Team / IAT Process Overview Meetings for 1st and 3rd Grade Teams during your planning time.

Fri Sep 12, 2014

Mumkin Orders due

Mon Sep 15, 2014

International Dot Day!

Teachers help me out put the color shirt for your grade level in your newsletters next week. We can wear our new staff shirt. We will start calling grade levels at 9:15. 

Fifth will lead followed by fourth, third, second, and first and then Kindergarten.

Wed Sep 17, 2014

10:15am-11:30am District Building Visit

Fri Sep 19, 2014

Mumkin Order Money due

Wed Sep 24, 2014

3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE

Thu Sep 25, 2014

Picture Day

Thu Oct 2, 2014

Mumkin Delivery

5:30pm - 6:30pm Market Day

Fri Oct 3, 2014

K-5 Interims Due

Newsletter Home

8am - 9am Building Advisory Committee Meeting

Mon Oct 6, 2014

Global Read Aloud begins! -- Click here for more information.

Tue Oct 7, 2014

8am - 9am Building Improvement Team mtg

Fri Oct 10. 2014

9:30-11:15am Kids’ EdCamp

The Importance of Expectations

Update for September 2-5

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success. —Henry Ford

The first several weeks of school were always my favorite part of the year when I was in the classroom.  It was the time when the students and I focused our efforts into learning about each other, working together and establishing our classroom community.

One aspect to building a classroom community that I didn't work as hard on during my first years of teaching was setting expectations in a way that were clear for students.  I have learned that this lack of attention to setting expectations was the source of so many of my frustrations when kids made what I thought was a poor decision.  The reality was that they probably didn’t really understand what my expectations really were.  

What I mean by this is that even though I would say things like, “We need to clean up at the end of the day,” my fourth grade students would still leave the classroom a mess.  I thought I had covered my expectations by simply saying “we need to clean up”. But what does that mean? And are we all actually thinking the same thing when we hear “we need to clean up”?

A couple of years later, I read an article that helped me understand that it was me and not my kids who didn't understand.  I didn’t understand that fourth graders, developmentally speaking, couldn’t just hear a command and then take care of it.  Fourth graders actually benefit from being taught routines with clear and explicit expectations and then practicing them.

As I visit classrooms each day, I can see that we as a staff understand what I did not as a new teacher. We understand that it takes time to develop routines; to explain them, to practice them and to truly understand them. We know that it’s okay to take time to do this because it will benefit kids and our classroom environments in the long-run.  

We are already addressing one of our Areas of Focus, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, and I am excited to continue building off of the work we have done in that area as we continue to build our learning community.

Upcoming Dates

Mon Sep 1, 2014 No School

Tue Sep 2, 2014 8am - 9am Building Improvement Team mtg

Wed Sep 3, 2014 3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE*

*Feel free to bring a chair for yourself

Thu Sep 4, 2014 5:30pm - 6pm Market Day

Fri Sep 5, 2014 Newsletter Home

8am - 9am Building Advisory Committee Meeting

Mon Sep 8, 2014 Mumkin Sale Ends
 TEAM Time with Herb (During Planning)

6:30pm - 7pm PTO Executive Mtg

7pm - 8pm PTO General Mtg

Fri Sep 12, 2014 Mumkin Orders due

Mon Sep 15, 2014 INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY!

Fri Sep 19, 2014 Mumkin Order Money due

Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:35-4:20 ADE/DCR Staff Meeting at ADE

Thu Sep 25, 2014 Picture Day (Gym)

Videos that Inspire

Articles Worth Reading

"You have to hit 'em in their 'passion!'” feedly.com/e/eQ4VREoS

"Digital Parent Volunteers" via @gcouros   http://feedly.com/e/9af71QuU

Seth's Blog: 'I made it my mission...' http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/08/i-made-it-my-mission.html#.U_-X5onwEi8.twitter

And So It Begins!

Update for Aug 25 - 29

This was the best first week of school in my life! I am absolutely amazed at how well this week went. Thank you to all of you who worked extra hard to make this week such a success.

Additionally, the amount of high-quality instructional experiences you all created within the first week - within the first day - was commendable. The dedication to your work was evident.

I appreciate all of the unique and creative ways you used to begin creating the learning culture of your classroom.  The time and effort we put into building relationships with our kids will set the stage for a successful year!

Opportunities to go GLOBAL!

I wanted to share with you all two global learning projects that will be taking place in the near future.  I want to bring these projects to Alton Darby and I want you to know that I will drop everything to help you make these projects happen for your students, if you choose to do so.

International Dot Day, September 15th  -- This week, I had the opportunity to visit with your classrooms to introduce myself and read Going Places by Peter Reynolds.  Reynolds’ books focus on the themes of celebrating uniqueness, creativity and divergent thinking - all characteristics of the learners I hope we can continue to develop at Alton Darby. I used that opportunity to help our kids see these themes and then challenged them to help us create a school that reflects the spirit of Going Places.

Participating in International Dot Day would be a step in that direction.

Reynolds describes International Dot Day as this:

Imagine the power and potential of a million people all around the world connecting, collaborating, creating and celebrating all that creativity inspires and invites. I hope you will join the growing global community of creativity champions using their talents, gifts and energy to move the world to a better place.

Please consider connecting your students to this great opportunity to celebrate creativity.  Reach out to our Darby Creek colleagues.  How big can you make this? How far will you go? How can I help you make this happen?

Start by visiting http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/ - a very user-friendly website for getting started.

Global Read Aloud, starts October 6th -- Pernille Ripp, creator of the Global Read Aloud, describes the Global Read Aloud this way:

And, one of the ways you can participate in the Global Read Aloud with other classrooms is to do an author study of Peter Reynolds!

Both of these opportunities lend themselves to our areas of focus, particularly the Blended Learning Framework --

I can’t wait to see where you take these projects!

Upcoming Dates--

Mon, Aug 25 --

Tues, Aug 26 --

• 9am Lit Coaches Meeting at CO

Wed, Aug 27 --

• Mumkin Sale Begins
• 5:30-6:15pm - K, 1, 2 Curriculum Night
• 6:30-7:15pm - 3, 4, 5 Curriculum Night

Thur, Aug 28 --

Fri, Aug 29 --

• 9:30am, Gym, “Buster the Bus” Program for Kindergarten
• 1:30pm, Gym, “Buster the Bus” Program for Kindergarten

Videos That Inspire --

Articles / Posts Worth Reading --

5 Things Parents and Teachers Need to Know About the New American Dream http://goo.gl/uN43AW  via @ajjuliani

Empowerment: The key to excellent teachers in schools http://smartblogs.com/education/2014/08/18/empowerment-the-key-to-excellent-teachers-in-schools/ … via @SBEducation

Growing Closer To Your Most Challenging Students http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/growing-closer-to-your-most-challenging-students/ … via @teachthought

The new imperative: Personalizing education http://smartblogs.com/education/2014/03/24/the-new-imperative-personalizing-education/ … via @SBEducation