Effective Teacher Day 1

Crossfit challenge is done!

    Today marks the end of the Crossfit South Cobb winter challenge. I'm not sure who won, but I can say that there was some strong competition. Of all the challenges I've done this one I stuck to the most faithfully. I'm very proud of my results and can't wait to hear that I won. No matter what I'm ready to keep up the healthy eating I started. I can see the results clearly. 

Here's what I gained during the challenge

A new wardrobe! After dropping and toning so much I've now been able to wear my slacks that I've had in my closet for over a year! And my shirts fit so much better now. 

I sleep so well now. 8 good hrs and I'm so good for the day. Now I'm sure if I wake up in the middle of the night it's the Lord calling me. 

Energy! Juicing has become my BFF. When I get that mid day lul I can grab a fresh juice and I'm back at if for the rest of the day. I still drink my coffee and iced coffee, but it's more of a habit than anything else. 

I just feel good.  I feel lighter. I don't creak or ache anything like I used to. 

My cooking skills have gone up another notch.  Even with juicing a lot of my meals I'm still finding new ways to make my plated meals pop. 

Portion control.  I don't think I eat nearly as much as I used to. I'm excited about that, because I think I just overate just out of habit and nothing else. 

What I'm going to give to keep this momentum going. This is what I'm willing to give up or embrace to keep chipping away at my waistline and improving my overall health. Notice not all are related, but they are relative. 

• Sweet tea and any sugary drinks (can't promise coffee, but I've cut back)
• More margin in my life. I get to stressed and I need to just chill sometimes. It's not that bad. 
• 3-4 crossfit WODs a week. (Push my workouts more. I can do more than I do.) 
• No more cherry picking workouts.
• Daily prayer time with my family.
• Saturday prayer time with the men at church. 
• Planning my meals out better. 
• Gardening. I think I can get all my juicing veggies from my yard by May. Next year I could easily get most of our household veggies from a garden. 
• I'm going to just let go of some of my time wasters. I found I don't nearly watch as much TV as I thought I did. I want to, but I don't have time and when I do I know I'm wasting time. There are a couple other time wasters as well. 

    This week has been tough, but I'm so glad tomorrow is Sabbath. I need a good nap and some quiet time. Next week is busy, but nothing special. 

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If you need wisdom

This week was tough. It was very draining. To call it what it was, I was at my Whit's End by this afternoon. Thankfully that's where I'm supposed to be. 

Honestly, I think I rely on my own insight/wisdom to much. James 1:5 gives very clear directions on what to do when you need wisdom. Sadly, we "try" to long and never actually ask God for wisdom on a matter. We think we are supposed to have the solution and that asking is somehow not good. 

All this week I've been coming to grips with the fact that I don't know what to do to help these students get excited about learning. Yes, I have a lot of ideas and I have access to some great thinkers, but if James 1:5 is to be trusted I need to ask God a lot more than I have been doing.  

Yesterday I started asking God and expecting to receive some insight on Room 157's residents. I certainly made some inroads and next week I'll see more. I know that I made some major changes to make this last 9-10 weeks of school better and more powerful than those before.

Like I said in another post, the House must work in order for other things to work. I do believe that. However, I'm charged with the task of helping these kids. If God's word is true then I have the access to the Resource to make a difference even with no support at home. Ok, off to enjoy my weekend. You do the same. 

The Crossfit challenge ends next week and I certainly think I'm on track. I have 6 more days of my green juice fast. Overall I'm down quite a bit of weight and I'm certainly doing well in my workouts. Can't wait to report back on my win in the challenge. 

Game a pencils

I allow my students to swap out a broken pencil for a sharp one. This keeps from having to deal with the ongoing, never ending, nerve wrecking drone of the pencil sharpener all day. It also discourages kids from the personal sharpeners that make a huge mess. My class isn't cleaned that much so it helps out. 

Not sure why it took me so long to realize that my students just outright steal my pencils. Everyday I drop 20 sharp pencils in the cup. Every afternoon I have a broken pencil, a scrap of paper and something that looks like it was chewed on. I started keeping the pencil cup near me and guess what? I have 20 pencils at the end of the day. Shocking!

These small victories will lead up to a huge win, one day. 

Monday Mauler

I have a friend that drops a motivational post every Monday. I'd like to do that, but I'd rather drop kick some people. Let's see how this works. 

If you didn't put a love for learning in your little one over this weekend, please don't expect your teachers to be able to turn around what you set in order. Yes, we're with your children longer, but if they don't want to be there we're already behind the 8 ball by the time the bell rings. You more than likely have an environment at home that the children like or are at least are a used to. We have to create a learning environment sometimes with students who'd much rather not be there. 

The very best thing you could do is the make learning a part of your household. Kids are keen to that whole "do what I say and not as I do" thing. Trust me, we know what you're doing at home. We as parents must love learning ourselves or we can't honestly expect it to be easy for our dear ones. 

Alright, that was my attempt at motivating on Monday. I think I'll stick with my day job. Oh yeah...

Homework doesn't work if Home doesn't Work

I'm through with homework. I'm not sure where I fall in the ranks of the on going war over homework, but I'm sure I made someone mad with that statement. I've worked a lot of angles with HW and I'm surprised how few really panned out. My new school does the weekly homework. It's a culture thing and I thought it was on point. 

    The problem is my student's don't care about homework and I have a very limited amount of time on Friday to check it and give feedback on what's missing or what wasn't done correctly or if the student needs help. It tends to just pile up. And if you know a teacher you know that we're great at making piles of paper and not so much as getting those piles dwindled down.

    Here's the problem. I am really flustered that my students just blew off the history project we did as a 2nd grade. It was cute and I envisioned each year being able to use these as teaching tools for the next class. When I tell you after 3 weeks of planning and a lot of conjolingmy class only turned in 2 projects, I was fit to be tied. Yeah, I was disappointed in the kids. *I sincerely don't think they realize how important education is. But even more I was just to through with the parents. I called, wrote notes, emailed and text. The result was 2 projects on time.

    If I were sane I wouldn't be shocked. I usually get 4-5 COMPLETE homework packets a week. Mix in there 4-5 that are imcomplete and you have my class is consistent. The next two days after the projects were due, I got 2 more. One looked like it had been done on the bus, in the dark, but he was bold to turn it in. 

So, I'm thinking about doing something different. I'm going to stop doing homework. I'm going to go back to a book in a bag and nothing else. The kids really responded well to the book in the bag. But since it was something they were doing before I came to this school I didn't invest in it and let it slip away. 

    What tends to happen is at the end of the day I read a book to the class or we watch a reading story. This that cool down time usually 15 minutes or so. I know for a fact that their homework isn't that long so I could have them breakout out their "end of class work" and do their particular days homework as an end of the day project, know it's done, give support to those that need help and keep it moving. Sending this home and getting a montage of half done work isn't working at all. 

I know I need to read up more on this debate. I used to believe in homework and really make a lot of noise about it. Now I'm not sure that's the best way to get things done cause right now very little is getting done.

 

March 7th is the end of our crossfit challenge. I feel good, but I'm certainly not eating everything as I should/could. I got 10 days to clean it up. Juicing is certainly helping me. I feel strong and haven't had an iced coffee in two months. *Even though as I'm writing this I'm debating getting one just to break up the eating. Stronger than ever, I expect to win this challenge. 3,2,1...Go!

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I had to rant today

It was a tough day I can tell, because I shut the door and and went on a 8 minute rant. I don't like ranting, because I know they don't understand or listen. These rascals really don't understand the world they live in. I pointed out to them that many of them think they're getting away with something when I don't immediately bring the judgement. I then listed off their little crimes that they thought had slipped under the radar. Deer in headlights. Needless to say I ended my rant by just letting them know that Life has an ugly way of showing us up when we're not ready. We'll see if anything sunk in. 

When is Spring Break?

This month has been LONG! My goodness I need a regroup and a recharge. These kids are really pushing me. I haven't found the secret code to help them learn. I feel like whenever I make some headway with a group another group just goes off the track. Then there's the group that can't find the track. 

Dear, sweet baby Jesus, let Spring Break come quick and stay LONG. 

Blog sabbatical

I've been kind of bummed about my blog and it's meager performance. I had a vision of it being much more useful to people and so far it hasn't grown up. I took sometime to work on some other off line projects. I'll be back blogging in the AM. See you then. 

What a hair cut could do for education

*This is not an exact science. This is simply my observation.

    I have noticed an interesting trend in my school. We have some wild little boys. I also noticed some things about each of said students. None ever have a good hair cut or are well groomed.

Now what in the world does that have to do with education, Jason? Stick with me, I'm going somewhere with this.

    When you go to the barber shop you're a captive audience of the barber and the barber shop atmosphere. For 30 minutes or more you're caught up in the latest talk from sports to politics. When I go into get my beard shaped up, I know I'm going to meet someone new, learn something new and hang with the guys. My wife loves to hear the tales from the shop. Matter of fact my barber and I are working on a writing project of his stories from behind the barber chair.

    Back to the students. Having a mentor or someone caring that shows interest is powerful. To know that person isn't related to you, but likes you for you is extra special. Now imagine what that does for a little boy with or without a male figure in the home. Knowing that weekly or bi-monthly they're going to "check in" with their mentor has to have an impact on their time away from that mentor. Something has to be said about knowing that someone cares enough about how he presents himself to make sure he goes and gets a trim every now and then. 

   If someone takes the time to make sure you're groomed properly and is concerned about the way you look that same person may be interested in other parts of your up bringing. So either it's your parent taking you to get your hair cut or it's the barber talking to you while you're getting cut up, someone is talking to you from an adult/child, mentor/mentee relationship. It shows that they care and that he matters. 

    I've spoken at lengths that I think parents are the 1st teachers while people like myself are the back up and the ones to carry the student further. Most of the time when I see a little boy in the barber shop they are with an adult. Only when they get older do I see them dropped off. So they're there listening to adults talk, interacting with adults and seeing what they will one day become... an adult male. 

    The young boys I'm speaking about (I speak about my observations specifically, but please feel free to comment on your experiences) CAN'T get that one on one time with any male in order to help shape who they'll be and how they should conduct themselves. Without it they just go for what they know. And it's not a pretty site. 

    For years my dad cut my and my brother's hair in the garage Sunday evening before the school week started. He didn't do anything high tech, but he did make sure we looked presentable every Monday morning. Now the jury is surely out on whether it had a great impact in my behavior, but hey. I told you this wasn't a science. We always knew what my dad was about, what he beleived and what he stood for. We had a good idea of what we'd be like when we grew up from times like this with our dad. 

    By no stretch of the imagination is my dad perfect, but I will tell you he's a pretty neat guy. Now being a dad I appreciate what he wanted to do. He wanted to raise responsible young men that one day would be responsible for our own little world. I guess we've done well. I only have girls so I don't get to cut hair. My brother has a minor league team full of boys so he'll carry the weight for me. 

    It hit me when I started going to the barber shop, I've never had anyone cut my hair excpect for my dad, my brother or myself.  I started going to a barber shop to get my beard done. I could shape it up at home or just cut it off all together, but I like the good conversation. I like to see and hear how others go about the same things I go through, being a man. 

    Back to my theory. Not even 300 yards from my school is a barber shop that I've been told gives free hair cuts to the boys of my school. I don't know the ins and outs of the process, but if it's a free hair cut and you have to wait for an hour in a situation where you wouldn't get a hair cut that's a good deal. Maybe I'll volunteer to  walk my entire class to the shop one Saturday and sit in there. I guess I'll have to save up to give out tips like Christmas. But if it creates a "Someone cares enough about me, so I need to make some adjustments to my behavior" atmosphere that would be some well spent money. 

    I'm certainly not saying that every boy sans a tight fade is a hellion nor am I saying that every well groomed one is a Rhodes Scholar. What I am proposing is that the lack of male influence in a particular aspect of society might be the reason for the behavior we all know of. There has to be some value to the interaction between a boy and his male counterparts. The influence of said male can't be over looked even in the grooming area. If it were of NO value to my thought I'm sure you'll let me know. 

    My theory comes from an idea that one overlooked problem, if fixed could cause such a tidal shift that many of the other more "pressing" issues would be swept away in it's wake. With the big push for school uniforms there has to be some value to see being a well groomed young man. 

    Let me know what you think. 

 

    Day 10 of Crossfit challenge and I'm about 80% healed and ready to bring it. Can't wait to show the finished product. 

Let's create something new

I'd like to propose some crowd sourcing for a problem I have in my classroom. I've always thought that getting as many ideas would create the best solution to a problem. Feel free to post another blog, article or a reading that adds to the discussion and let's see what kind of solutions we get. Let the good ideas flow. 

Problem: Students aren't turing in weekly homework. 

Details: Every Monday the students get a homework sheet with the weekly homework outlined for them. They're asked to turn in the work on Friday. Notes home to parents don't get answered and phone calls have been less than responsive.  It makes no never mind in my book if homework is graded or just busy work it's value is the reinforcement of the skills taught in class. Keep in mind that of the 7-8 students that regularly do their homework 2 look like they did it on the bus on their way to school. 

Question: What would you do? How do you get students to put more effort into their weekly homework? Do your kids do homework? 

I have some ideas, but I'd love to get as many original ideas from you all as possible. By the way, my 1st grader does her homework gleefully. My wife and I check it and initial it every night. 

School year is great. I do have some other issues that I'd like to crowd source, but this one is probably the biggest waste of my time. 

Besides that we're in the midst of a fitness/eating challenge at Crossfit South Cobb. I got full intentions of winning and I'll keep you posted on the end results.