Pride: We as One

I retweeted a tweet yesterday and got a question back.

@PastorMark @dropstepdunk how would this perspective on pride influence what we do in schools? #edchat
— Alan Stange (@stangea) August 29, 2013

I didn't think I could answer it in 140 characters, so I decided to blog about it.

When I collectively look at the youth of today, at least in my area, I see the brightest, smartest, most creative, most technologically advanced youth of all time. But through all of this, I also see so much self-indulgence. I see kids wearing the Nike and Under Armour shirts with sayings that basically say, "Bow Down and Worship Me. I Am the Best Thing This World has Ever Seen."

Some self-pride is good. It's needed. It builds confidence. Strengthens individuals. But. (you knew there was going to be a but.) Too much confidence leads to a feeling of awesomeness in which you can never do anything wrong. This includes things as simple as tripping and falling and as elaborate as failing out of a university. What I fear in all of this is the very moment when these students do make a mistake. If you see yourself as superhuman and then that moment happens when you find out that your flesh bleeds just like the rest of us, it's going to be a hard fall. When those mistakes happen, are the kids of today going to be able to get up and try again, or are they going to sulk in their own self-pity because the world owes them something because they are "all that?" Do they understand that mistakes are a part of life? That building something worthwhile takes time, commitment , and sacrifice?

Back to the original question that Alan asked- How to fight self-pride and independence in schools because @PastorMark said that Satan's primary motive is pride. I agree that Satan's number one goal is for us to think of ourselves as best, while shrinking Jesus to less and less. That's true in schools and out of schools. In offices. In factories. Everywhere. Satan wants us to put ourselves as high as we can. I had a conversation with a girl in one of my classes about Instagram. She said that her main goal was to have as many followers as possible. I didn't get the chance to ask her why. I'll put that on my to-do list. I'm interested in hearing her answer.

So, how do we combat that? We create independence with boundaries with help from mentors, more than likely adults, who shape lives.  I say adults because adults have a "big picture perspective." Their views encompass more. Mentors who know that life has ups. More importantly, that life has downs. Everything isn't honky-dory every fleeting moment of every day.  Mentors that show the youth how to get up from that hardship. To press on.  That hard work is still virtuous. That going on a reality show, winning, and making a million bucks is not hardly, even remotely, likely. At all. That humility is what drives relationships. Leaders need to create cultures of collaboration while celebrating the strengths of individuals and showing and modeling how those individual strengths propel ALL of us along. That no matter what, we are all connected. That WE is more important than Me. WE need to share our lives with others so that we hold each other up. Be a servant leader. Serve others. Be humble. Model all of these things. Turn selfish into selfless. We as One. 

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Noise Level Codes

I've really gotten into Phoster for some reason. I got it when it was free, though. Here's some Noise Level Codes. This is the new set. I had a typo in the first set and I didn't like the yellow.

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Classroom Posters

I used the app Phoster to create some posters for my room. I think it was easy to use and the posters are modern looking. Some school posters just look corny to me. Maybe it's my design background.

For my futon/couch area:

For my reading nook area:

iPad rules:

For my tech job person at the end of the day:

My "Can you throw this into the trash can rule sheet." :

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Are We Teaching Life?

So, I read this article today. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/lifeline-law-there-to-save-underage-drinkers-when-theyre-in-trouble. In short, a college freshman at IU, fell down some stairs at a party. She was seriously hurt. No one called for help for at least 6 hours. She passed away. No one knows yet whether alcohol played a part in her death. There was alcohol at the party. Some blamed the "failure to notify" on being scared of the punishment for underage drinking.

Please don't misunderstand where I'm going with this. I feel horrible for this girl, her family, her friends, and everyone involved. It's just that this news story's focus is on the Lifeline Law. The Lifeline law is this:

The Lifeline Law provides immunity for the crimes of public intoxication, minor possession, minor consumption, and minor transportation alcohol to persons who reveal themselves to law enforcement while seeking medical assistance for a person suffering from an alcohol-related health emergency.

I think the law is good and let's people help others, but obviously the law was developed because there were emergencies that people weren't reporting. What's sad is that they had to create a law to offer immunity. To me this is teaching that it's ok to underage drink and party because if anything happens, we can call for help and nothing will happen to us. It seems like stories like this are becoming all too common. Are our youth not leaving home and going off to college with a learned responsibility-ness to understand what is beneficial and what is not? Are we doing our jobs to help educate students about the dangers of underage drinking? Forget underage drinking. Let's replace that last sentence with destructive decisions. Are we doing our jobs to help educate students about the dangers of destructive decisions? Are we doing enough to educate about unselfishness, accountability, responsibility, and humility instead of selfishness, independence with zero consequences, arrogance, and self-importance? Are we hammering home the don'ts, but not educating about the dos?

I've always been taught that nothing good happens after 11:00pm.

Please think about your actions. Please do that thinking before the action. I attended a basketball coaching conference a long time ago and Coach Don Meyer was the speaker. He hands these cards out to his players so that they can carry them in their wallets. Maybe you could carry one as well.

STOP & THINK
1. IS THIS A RISK I CAN AFFORD TO TAKE?
2. HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY FUTURE?
3. HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY FAMILY?
4. HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY TEAMMATES AND COACHES?

A great presentation by Coach Meyer is here as well -
http://www.coachmeyer.com/Information/Handouts/Coach%20Meyer%20Powerpoint.pdf

I met Coach Meyer and we chatted about his book and life. He signed my copy. 

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SS Interactive Notebooks on Culture

I plan on blogging about our Interactive Notebooks this year. Our first chapter will be in culture. We started with reading a handout on the 5 elements of culture. Then, we created mind maps of the five elements and added some personal "swag" to them.

Here's some samples.

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Off to a Great Start

This last week was our first full week of class. We're off to a great start. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of my students. My home room class is a little smaller this year, which I love. (I think classes should have a cap of 15 by the way.)

This was my tweet after leaving school on Friday.

I have left school everyday this year so far with a humongous smile on my face [via textbyvoice.me]
— Matt Miller (@dropstepdunk) August 23, 2013

Have a great day!

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Pursue - My One Word for this Year

http://getoneword.com/ is where I got the idea. Jon Gordon is a phenomenal author. I highly suggest reading his books.

The word. 

Pursue.

I found my One Word for this year. Some people do this at the new year in January. I choose to do it in the summer because my "years" tend to go from August to June because of school. I had it down to two words. Seek or Pursue. Then I spent a week at Camp Allendale with the 225 middle schoolers of Hazelwood Christian Church and Plainfield Christian Church. As Keith Parker headed up the week with the theme of "Pursue," it made the decision pretty easy. God pursues us. We pursue him. We screw up and become selfish. He is selfless. I want to be more like him. Decision made. Pursue. 

The logo.

I used the "s" in pursue as what I would consider a crossroads. It's life. It's the decisions I make on a daily basis. It's messy. It's curvy. It's filled of wrong choices and setbacks. It's anything but straight. In each decision I make, I make a choice of where I will head. I want to pursue Christ. This year, I want to be closer to Him. This year, I want my decisions to make Him draw closer to me.

The verse.

Matthew 6:33. "He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern." NLT. I like how the NLT words it. He is the provider of only of what I need over what I want. Pursue him. He's first. I am second. All of my decisions should be based on the Kingdom.

The picture.

A hiker in the woods. Pursuing whatever he is after. No one hikes without a destination and a guide. My destination is closer to who created me. My guide is who created me. The path is laid down.

Pursue.

Education wise - 

How does Pursue fit into my classroom? 

I think it goes as showing love through Christ to my students and fellow educators as much as possible. It's probably not What is Love from Night at the Roxbury . Ha.  

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End of Year Student Survey

After my students took their last SRI test (a test that gives their current reading/lexile level) of the year, I used a Google form that I had made. I shared it with them all and asked them to fill it out for personal feedback for me. I told them to be honest as this would help me become a better teacher. I stole the idea from an article on Edutopia. I can't find the exact one. If I do sometime, I'll link it up. It consisted of three questions. Short and sweet. Not too long for the 6th grade attention span.

These are the three questions the form asked.

1. If you were the teacher in this class this year, what would you do the same or differently than I did? Please be specific.
2. Write 5 things that helped you learn this past year. Please be specific.
3. Write 5 things that made it hard for you to learn this past year. Please be specific.

These were their responses  - Here.  I changed some of the names if they used them to protect the innocent :)

I learned an enormous amount from the survey. I feel that I did a lot of things well this year. I also felt that it was too loud this year. The students agreed. I did have an extremely loud class. I'm not going to do a whole refection on it right now. Mainly because Game 3 of the NBA Finals is about to come on. I'm rooting for the Spurs by the way.

I'll take the feedback from my students who are in the room daily a little higher than administrators who occasionally come into my room. Not that I don't value my admin's feedback. I just think that my students' are more authentic because they see me "do-ma-thang" everyday.

I need to do this student survey at least every semester, if not more often. It gives me really good info.

I'm leaving you with a quote from Dick DeVenzio. A basketball coach. I have loved all of his books. I want to attend PGC one day.

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Interactive Notebooks in Social Studies

Last summer, my colleagues and I stumbled upon interactive notebooks. It was odd because we each came together at an iPad training conference all of us were attending in our district and said, "Hey, you gotta check this out!" All three of us didn't know that the others had stumbled upon the same thing. Anyway, long story short, we decided to use interactive notebooks in social studies this year. We collaborated on them. KP did a lot more than I did. :) I really liked it. The students really liked it. Or at least the majority of them did. :)

We all somehow stumbled upon this and this, from www.themiddleschoolmouth.blogspot.com and Mrs. Gannon's site of this all within the same week. We decided that we should do it. That was that.

For a nice overview see below or here for the nice Prezi presentation by Susan Rubin that gives a pretty good overview of them.



The year before, we basically did packets per unit. (The packets were borrowed/stolen/given/whatever from our fearless team leader, Kim P. Have I ever mentioned how much she took me under her wing? No. Well, I'm eternally grateful. Other people I'm eternally grateful to include Amy C., Chris D., Connie B., John D., and Sonna S.) I digress. The packets were good. A lot of the packet material found its way into the new Interactive Notebooks. We just thought that we got tired of rerunning the packets for the kids that lost them. So, our solution was the Interactive Notebook.

You can see from the Prezi above that the INB (they say ISN in the Prezi) is divided into sides. The right side is the input side. What I would consider the "teacher side." This is the side that anything the teacher goes over. Maybe it's notes, questions that  you must answer, essential vocab, chapter reviews, etc. Also, what others typically call it is the "Testable Material" side. Anything that is on the right side is fair game to be on a test/quiz. In other words: know it.

The left side is the output side. It's basically how students make sense of the right side. I typically call this the "student side." I also would consider it the "creative side" because the students create things to show their knowledge of the topic.

After doing it for a year some suggestions that I have come upon.

1. I really like the composition notebooks over spiral bound notebooks. None of the pages fall out. 
2. I'm going to put a data sheet in the front next year. That way all the students can keep track of all their grades as we go through them.
3. I took a grade on the notebook after they took their test over that unit. All in all, if they do the notebook their test grades were always very high. Use can use the activities as exit slips as well. You can grade them daily. It makes it really easy to do informal assessments from yesterday's work as they are working on today's assignment. 
4. Students don't really have any excuse to not understand a given topic because they will go over the material 4 times. All in different ways that hits on different learning styles. 
1. They will probably read something (more than likely from their textbook)
2. They will then respond to some of the important questions on the teacher side of their notebook. 
3. They will then participate in a class discussion on the topic. 
4. They will then complete an activity on the left side demonstrating their knowledge of the material. 
5. Typically, we would do a lesson a day. (Chapter 7, Lesson 2) But, I think the students can do more. This was our first year doing it. We also switched to block scheduling. One day they are in SS, the next day in Science. So the students have 2 days to complete the work. You just have to plan accordingly. 
6. I like glue sticks. Another teachers likes Elmers liquid glue. No matter what, you're going to need more than you think. 
7. Cutting and gluing - I cut and glue the day's activity every day. Another teacher has her students cut everything out and glue everything for the whole unit on day one of the unit. Either way is fine. You just have to decide. 
8. This can be used as a textbook for them to take with them as they progress through grades. 
9. I used the same notebook for the entire year. It ended up being about 135 pages. 
10. I make a notebook as well. I cut and then glue everything in. Actually, I tape mine in. It's a lot quicker that way. My notebook can be used for the absent students to look at. I don't fill mine out until after both of my classes have put them in. I will fill out the questions on the teacher side so that when we discuss in class they can check to make sure that they have the correct answer since it is "testable." 
11. I run off everything I will need for an entire chapter before we begin. 
1. So I can get my plans done.
2. So I can put everything in my notebook. 
3. So if a student wants wants to work ahead they can. 
4. So if a student is going to be absent they can pick it up ahead of time. 
5. So it just makes it easier and you're not rushing around trying to run something off the day that you're doing it. 
12. Most of the sheets get shrunk down to accommodate going into the smaller than 8.5" x 11" standard. 
1. 87% of the original seems to work well. 
2. If you create something in Word just change your margins to your liking so that when they cut it out it fits in a composition notebook. 
3. If you run a double sided page, like something you're going to have them read, and you shrink it, sometimes the front and backs don't line up when they cut it out. 
4. You can run full-size front and back copies of things you want them to read. You just put a pocket into the notebook and fold the handout and put it in the pocket. 
13. You'll want to have a place for your handouts to go for the absent students. I have a folder in the back of the room. After I have given the material to both of my classes, I put the extras in the folder. I typically run off extras just in case there is some traumatic event that happens like my dog ate my notebook sort of thing. I then never have to mess with that student who was absent. I just tell them to check the folder. If there is nothing in the folder, that means I have ran out. By that time, they'll probably just copy the assignment from my notebook or a friend's. My room is upstairs. The copier is downstairs. I can't get them another.
14. Digital - I know a lot of this is paper and pencil. Some students created their pieces digitally and then glued/taped them into their books. I have four iPads and one laptop in my room. I had 32 students this past  year. That's not enough for everyone. If they are fortunate enough to have a device that can show me their learning in a different way than paper/pencil/colored pencils then that is fine. I would like to do all of this digitally, we just don't have the firepower currently. I also would like to use a lot of the apps instead. 
15. Only have them use colored pencils/crayons for coloring. No markers. Markers seep through the pages. 
16. What students put into their notebook, they usually get out. You reap what you sow. I know it's cliche, but it's true. 
17. I'd like to get to the point where I model a lot of the creative sides and then second semester let the students decide however they want to show their thinking. 
18. Some of the things we did creatively ended up going on the walls. Some of those included. 
1. Invitations to a Roman Colosseum event. 
2. The students had the choice to do one of these to represent a Roman Emperor
1. Roman Emperor Report Cards
2. Sensory Figures of a Roman Emperor
3. Action Figures that they made of a Roman Emperor
19. I like to get to the point where students are taking full ownership of the left side with little guidance from me. 
20. Have fun with them. 

Hopefully, this has helped you get started and maybe consider using them. I have found them very beneficial. The students have as well. Leave your thoughts in the comments. 

Some Resources-
Just google them and you'll find a ton.
Just search for pins on pinterest and you'll find a ton.

Wiki that is chalk-full of great things - http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/
PowerPoint  that is kid-friendly for explaining it to them.
Lots of examples for Left Side.
We got a lot of things from http://inspirededucators.com/ as well.

Some pics from some of my students' books.

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Memories of the Year : Relationships

This is my first week off of school. I've gotten some time to rest up and spend with my family. I recently became a dad. :) Needless to say, having little Grayson around has really changed my thinking on some things and given me a new perspective on life. So, on to what this blog post is actually about.....

On the last day of school with my 6th graders, I had them first come up with their five greatest memories of the year on a piece of paper. Then, I had them narrow it down to their top memory. They had to get up in front of the class and tell everyone their favorite memory.

As I'm listening, I hear a theme developing. Some of it was subtle. Some of them were more direct. Some danced around it. Some just flat out said it. What was it, you ask?

Relationships. 

Every single favorite memory was about relationships. Examples -

• Meeting new friends
• I was in the same class as my best friend even though I was told I wouldn't be. 
• the time a girl got a zipper stuck in her teeth
• Funny moments galore 
• having a friend's shoulder to cry on when they needed it. 
• letting us work in groups
• culture fest (which was a game day that included lots of activities with fellow students)
• and so on, and so on. 

There wasn't one person who said that doing the social studies country project, or language packets, or reading a specific novel, or interactive notebooks in SS, or you get the picture. None of their favorite memories had to do with "school" work. It was all about relationships and connections with other people. Within all of those relationships the "school" work happened. Or at least I hope it did. Hehe. (Sidenote - I did get feedback on my teaching from them as well. I'll blog it later.)

After they were all done, they asked me to present my favorite memory. As I fought back tears, I told them that it was this moment. The one they had just created. Mainly, I told them that I have loved seeing them grow this year and that I was incredibly happy to see that they have figured out one of the most important things in life. That life is about relationships. I was so happy that they had figured it out. I mean, do I really expect them to remember that the Moors defeated Germanic tribes in the area of Spain? 

When students,... (why am I limiting it to students) When all people understand that life is about relationships and connections, I can imagine a different worldly culture. One where they look to the best interests of others. One of just simply being nice to others. (Bullying comes to mind) One that seeks to not judge others, but to place yourself in another's shoes for a different perspective. 

I'm glad my students understand this. 

Some other blog posts in the near future I'm working on - Interactive Notebooks, Survey Results to Inform for Next Year, and possibly some others. 

A couple quotes to leave you with. Mostly from the book Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell. 

"No matter how much work you can do, no matter how engaging  your personality may be, you will not advance far in business if you cannot work through others." John Craig

"Maturity is the ability to see and act on behalf of others." John Maxwell from Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

"I believe that almost everything we become and all that we accomplish in life are the result of our interaction with others."  John Maxwell from Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

"I think the further along in life we get, the more aware we become of the importance of connecting with others." John Maxwell from Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

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