Actually what helped remind me about the positive power of forgiveness was Amanda Horne’s article.  She writes

Forgiveness is not condoning, nor pretending that a wrong is right. The process of forgiveness benefits us more than the person who has wronged or hurt us. It allows us to see the big picture, and releases us to move into the present moment. It is difficult to look ahead until we begin to forgive and to have a desire to move on. Forgiveness is not easy, nor quick; it happens in small stages. It is a process that transcends the rational mind and calls on our wisdom. It’s not just another way of thinking, it requires a transformed mindset and new patterns of behavior.

For me it’s important to remember that when I forgive someone, I’m not saying what they did was OK. It isn’t, but what is done is done and for my own benefit I need to move on. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t deal with issues but that after issues have been dealt with I move on.

photo of flowers thanks to swami stream

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3. Helping students avoid risky behaviours through character education

Every job has its ups and downs.  Sometimes it seems there are more downs than ups. Teaching is no different.  This semester thus far has had more than its fair share of downs.  Some of my students are extremely needy, and their need is wearing me down.

Yesterday,  I actually thought it  might be  time  retire right then and there in the middle of period two.   Enough!  I won’t bore you with the details, but  I was so fed up I actually went on line at lunch time and checked out what my pension would be if I retired right then and there.  I was even going to call  CBO and ask them to send the retirement information package, but I was too busy at work and after work I didn’t get a chance to make the phone call.  I just went home and was very quite- very unlike me. I was so upset, I didn’t even want any dinner. My husband noticed and told me I shouldn’t let my job get to me- easy for him to say.

Later that evening  I started to mark a set of tests for my period two class and was pleasantly surprised how well the students  did on the test.   I’m always concerned that students in my period two class  might not do as well they as could  because some of the students are so loud and  obnoxious in class. I expend so much time and energy calling home to talk to parents and  enlisting the support of counseling  and administration in  an attempt to settle these students down.  Drives me crazy.

As I marked more and more of the papers and saw that my students were  really doing well, the tension I felt started to lift.  I was surprised to see that despite all the noise in the classroom,  my students were really learning and doing well.  I don’t know how they can learn in all that noise.  When I saw how well my students were doing  on the test, I started to love teaching again.    I know. I’m laughing too. What can I say.

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2. Just thinking about teaching the first day of the new school year can be very stressful
3. Nothing is black and white in my class

These last two weeks, I’ve been practicing  just living in the moment,  not worry about what happened in the past or worrying about what might happen in the future- like Monday  morning at school, like exams in three weeks, like the EQAO math test my students will write, like report cards at the end of January , like my next MEd course that starts on Tuesday , like…..As you can see, I still have some work to do about the ” not worry about the future” part of living in the moment.  I need some hints.  Has anyone found a way that works for them.  I think living in the moment would help keep things in perspective and reduce the stress load immensely. I’d really appreciate any advice.  Living in the moment is my one and only new year’s resolution.

photo of Peace Tower in Ottawa  thanks to jpctalbot

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I’ve spent a lot of time over the years in my role as a special education teacher trying to get students to stop engaging in behaviours that are destructive. This year I had my students read and reflect upon The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens in an effort to show them what choices they can make to get more positive outcomes for the future. I tell them if they don’t like the consequences of their actions, they need to change what they do. But, I’ve found that often they don’t necessarily know what behaviours to change or how to go about changing them. That’s where character education comes in.

I’m always looking for ways to support my students who have behavioural issues, so when I come across a new idea, I’m really interested. Recently, I came across a school wide behavioural program called Positive Action that is being used in Hawaii with 5th graders that shows much promise. The character building program continues through each grade and gives students a framework to guide their behaviour. It focuses on what to do, not just what not to do. Students learn to make better choices for better outcomes. Students who participated in the Positive Action program had fewer behaviour issues in school which resulted in better academic achievement. That’s definitely a win-win situation for teacher and students. I was surprised to learn that so many ten year old children engage in so many risky behaviours. I’m a high school teacher, and I know that teenagers engage in all kinds of risky behaviour, but I had no idea that kids as young a ten did. I wonder how many of you will be surprised as well. I wonder what my district is doing to help 10 year old children make better choices for better outcomes. What is your school district doing?

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Although my students are pretty digital savy seeing that most spend hours and hours online visiting Facebook, YouTube, playing online games and text messaging, I can’t assume they know about  blogs and blogging so  I show them the following video.  I love it.  They love it. As you’ll see after viewing it, Common Craft , the company who makes these educational videos, believes in the KISS principle. I believe in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple for  Students. What’s not to like!  Common Craft also has videos on TeacherTube-great when YouTube is blocked like it is at my school. Grrrr!!!!

See, wasn’t that a great video, especially for students who are visual learners or for those struggling or  reluctant readers in your class who loath the printed page.

My students are usually quite excited when I introduce the idea of a class blog.  They like the idea of  writing blog posts and having others read what they’ve  written. To  be more precise, they like  not having to write something using pen and paper, and they like knowing that someone other than their teacher will actually read what they’ve written.  In the two years that I’ve had the class blogs,  only one student has asked me not to publish some of his work.   I’ve got no problem with that. At least, he was thinking and writing.

I suspect that the kids also like the blog because when their work gets published it  looks so professional-just like the articles in the papers, magazines or even in textbooks. Some of my students have really messy handwriting and are embarrassed by it,  and some of my students  find the process  of forming letters difficult to do so they write as little as possible.  When they type their work and use the spell checker, their work looks the same as everyone else’s when it gets published.  What they’ve written doesn’t look stupid, so they don’t feel stupid. They don’t have to be embarrased. That’s definately a good thing with reluctant and struggling students.

At first, I was a bit apprehensive about having my students contribute to a class blog.  Some of them can be very creative in a michevious way- if you know what I mean.  I told my students that  I didn’t want to have to take early retirement because something went wrong.  I can honestly say there haven’t  been any problems.  More about that later.

I wasn’t only concerned about  inappropriate material appearing on the class blog, I was also concerned about student safety. I didn’t want the class blog to put my students in harm’s way.   We’ve all read the horror stories about online bullying or harassment or even worse.  Fortunately, it was easy to put all the saftey  measures in place to protect my students so there have been no problems in the past two years.

In subsequent posts, I”ll share with you how I made the class blog a safe and inviting place for my students, and why I chose the particular blogging  tool I use for my class blogs.  Oh yes, I’ll also share the letter I sent home to parents to tell them about the class blog. I got wonderful positive feedback from parents about the blog.  I’ll tell y0u more about that later too.

See you then.

Related posts:

1. School starts next week so it’s time to dust off my Web 2.0 tool kit.
2. My Web 2.0 tool kit for struggling or reluctant readers and writers
3. A Helpful Resource For Starting A Blog In The Classroom

Someone once told me that when we’re  faced with difficult situations,  we’re really being given an opportunity to learn something. I got that opportunity last week, and it reminded  me of something I all ready knew, but had just forgotten.

Katie, not her real name, stormed into my grade 12 class late, sat down at the computer and pulled out her cell phone and started text messaging.   I looked at her quite surprised.”What’s with her?”, I thought. Cell phones aren’t allowed in school and she knows that.  I asked her  to put the cell phone away, and after she finished her text message she did  and then promptly  pulled out a chocolate bar and started unwrapping it and eating it.  Katie also knows that  eating in the classroom is not allowed at our school.  I asked her to put it away, and she did -after taking another bite. Then she took a bottle of water out of her bag and began opening it over the key board. I asked her to put that  away too.  She replied that it’s only water, implying what’s the problem? I have no problem with students drinking water  in  my classroom, but not at the computers.  Water could spill on the keyboard  and ruin it.  She  took another sip of water and then put the bottle back in her bag.

I turned to help another student  wondering what was up with Katie today but not taking the time to ask her.   The next time I checked to see how she was doing,  I noticed she was using her cell phone again. That was the last straw! I mean really- enough is enough. This time I asked her to go  to the office and speak to a VP about the cell phone.

Katie flat 0ut refused to go. She told me she wasn’t going to the office   because she had a lot  of work to do.  That was true. She’d  fallen behind because she’d skipped  20 or so  classes out of 50 so far.  As if Katie’s behaviour wasn’t enough,  a couple of  boys in the class started to encourage me to let her stay in class to do her work. “Come on miss”,  they said “Let her stay and do her work. Look she wants to do her work”  Great, I thought.  Just what I need at this point- a mutiny.  Now what?

It was my move. I  told her to go to the office, but she refused again.    I told her that if she didn’t comply with my request, I’d call  the office and have an administrator  escort her out.  She still refused, so I called the  office and explained the situation and an administrator came and that was that.

I just realized as I’m writing this that although I wondered at the time what had got into Katie and why she was  so defiant, I hadn’t thought to ask her . Maybe if I had  asked her  what was going and why was she acting like that, I might have avoided all the drama. But, I didn’t think of it at the time.  I was just annoyed by her behaviour.

At lunch that day, I shared my frustration  with a friend about what just had happened in  class.  I told him that I’d had it with Katie. His response was that I should soften my heart.  “Soften my heart”, I thought,  “What was he talking  about!” She had just ruined my class in a big way.  I wasn’t open to softening my heart.  On the contrary.  I was up for  hardening up my heart.  Thank you very much!  I was busy making all these plans about how I would treat her in professional manner when she returned to class, but no more than that. My anger continued to boil while I’m sure my blood pressure was reaching new heights.

Later on that evening while  I was continuing to  harden my heart , I began to think that maybe my friend was right.  Maybe I should soften my heart toward Katie.  That might not be such a bad idea after all.   My hard, hearted attitude wasn’t really helpful. I was still upset. My hardening heart  hadn’t  brought me any peace, on the contrary. The more I thought about Katie, the more upset I got.  By the time I got to work the next day, I decided that I would  soften my heart toward Katie. I decided that Katie must be hurting big time for her to act like that, and that a hard heart wasn’t going to help her or me for that matter.

I’d momentarily  forgotten the lesson that I’d learned a long time ago that when kids act out like Katie did, they’re really asking for help. They don’t need more hardened hearts. There are probably enough of those in their lives already. I’m going talk to Katie’s counsellor and see if she can get the support she’s crying out for.

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photo uploaded by Marlin Heigan

OK,  Kyle (not his real name) you keep telling me you’re eighteen now and an adult. I’m an adult; you’re an adult. So what does adult behaviour look like in the classroom?

That was the question I asked Kyle after I asked him to come out into the hall because I wanted to talk to him.

Kyle thought for a moment and answered, “Adults treat each other with respect” I agreed with him. No problem there. We were definately on the same page.

Kyle had just turned 18 a few weeks ago and kept reminding me that he wanted to be treated like an adult. I told him I had no problem with that. Then, I asked him

How his behaviour of repeatedly sneaking out of class before the bell rang despite being told to wait for the bell qualified as adult behaviour?

How did his behaviour of asking to go to his locker and coming back 20 minutes later qualify as adult behaviour?

How did his behaviour of coming to class late repeatedly despite knowing that he was expected to be on time qualify as adult behaviour?

Tough questions for someone wanting to be treated like an adult.

Kyle just looked at me not liking the answer he would have to give.

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2. Nothing is black and white in my class
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I intend on showing it to my students come Monday and ask them to reflect on the message it has for them personally. I want to hear what they think after watching and listening to the video. I’m thinking that it will give them lots of food for thought.

I want to thank Jason for bringing the video to my attention via a twitter post. Thanks Jason.

Just click on the arrow.

Here’s some more info about NIck

After watching this I’m embarrassed to complain.

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Underachievers. We’ve all had them in our classes. They have so much potential yet don’t live up to it. Their poor work habits, their lack of focus, their poor organizational skills, their perfectionism, etc., etc, etc, can be very frustrating.

In my last post, I talked about the nature of underachievers. In this post, the second in  the series about underachievers, I’m going to share with you an approach that can help dependent underachievers reach their potential.

As I said in my last post, underachieving is a learned behaviour. Since it is a learned behaviour, it can also  be an unlearned behaviour- so to speak. Underachieving students  can learn behaviours that will help them reach their potential. For this to happen, teachers and parents must work together as a team, each supporting one another. Consistency is the key. What happens in the classroom has to happen at home,  and what happens at home has to happen in the classroom.

The dependent underachiever has learned to depend on others. Well meaning teachers, parents or caregivers have habitually stepped in and have done things for him before he’s had a chance to figure things out for himself. The dependent underachiever has had little chance to experience challenges, struggle and work them out. Someone, some well meaning person has stepped in and denied him the opportunity to solve the problems that help build positive self-esteem. The dependent underachieveing student  has learned that others can do whatever he’s been asked to better than he can, so there’s no pointin  him doing it.  His experience tells him the prudent thing  to do is to  let others do it. That way it get’s done properly and everyone is happy, and to be honest he rather likes all that attention he’s getting all the time.

I have to confess here, sometimes I am that well meaning person who steps in too quickly to help a student. I’m always fighting that tendency in myself. I have to remind  myself that when I step in too quickly and help a student, I’m not really helping him at all. In fact, I’m doing the opposite.

Students do need help and teachers and parents do need to help them. Don’t get me wrong. The trick is to help students  just enough so that they can do most of the task on their own. I think of it like priming one of those old vintage pumps that used to be popular at one time. To  get them to work, sometimes you had to put in a bit of water to get it started. Once they got started, they worked fine.  Thank you very much!

The ultimate goal of course is to have the dependent underachiever responsible for his own learning.  But,  we can’t expect him to do it cold turkey.  That just won’t work. It has to happen in small doable steps at home and at school.  We can help the underachiever develop positive self esteem  by letting him experience success that he is responsible for, not his well meaning  teachers, parents, or care givers. This means priming the pump of organization, priming the pump of doing assignments and all the other pumps that are needed to help the dependent underachiever learn to be responsible for his own learning.

In subsequent posts, I’ll share some strategies for priming those pumps.

The first post in this series can be found here-  Nine  things I’ve learned about students who are underachievers.

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Enjoying my cup of tea, I noticed the business section of the paper lying folded in half on one of the dining room chairs so I picked it up and idly paged through it.  I wasn’t too interested in learning more about the state of the economy and what we should or shouldn’t do in the coming year.That was reality, and I don’t have to face reality until Monday morning when the first bell rings at school. I was just about to put it down when my eye caught this headline: Madcap moments from the wide world of work. (www?) Madcap moments?  I was up for that.  These were some of the madcap moments

A Romanian school teacher was suspended for allegedly shooting a misbehaving student in the hand with a rubber bullet during class.

A Chicago public school teacher was pulled from the classroom after she taped a nine-year old special education student to his chair because he wouldn’t sit down.

German federal policewomen are being outfitted with bullet-proof bras designed to offer additional protection under their bullet-proof vests.

I think I’ll just go back to my jigsaw puzzle. I’ve learned more than I need to know. Now, where was that magnifying glass?

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