Time Flies

The end of the second grading period has arrived. WOW Time flies! In our management meeting this week, we discussed next week and coming Senior nights in Volleyball, Waterpolo, and Football. These are emotional nights for the students and parents as well. The end of high school athletics is the end of organized sports for many. Very few have the opportunity or accept the challenge to experience collegiate athletics. It is a culminating event where students meet that realization, and then parents are met with a different reality. After years of investing time, emotion, and money in the student endeavors, the end appears. The emotion is real to both the students and parents and our challenge is to not trivialize or desensitize ourselves to the event, for everyday we have the power to make a memory. Have a magnificent weekend…Go Pups!(cue: I Wanna Go Back–Eddie Money)

Homecoming

Homecoming has arrived and the weather is much cooler.  Soon we will be handing out candy (Halloween) and changing our clocks back (Nov. 1^st).  Before the holiday hustle starts, take a moment to reflect on the days past.  The second grading period will be over next week signifying one third of the year is behind us.  Have we done enough to reach those students that need the extra attention?  Have we accepted their failure?  A hand extended is not necessarily a hand out, but it could be a hand up.  Celebrate those students that get up after they have fallen (literally and figuratively) and for those that are stuggling, offer an extended hand.  You are their best option.  Have a breathtaking weekend…Go Pups! (cue: Take My Breath Away - Berlin)

Heat is ON

Here we are in the middle of October and still experiencing the heat.  Though we are not strangers to the temperature, we are all experiencing the same emotion about it…GIVE US A BREAK ALREADY!!!  Thank goodness for the rain on Thursday and if the reports are true, we should experience crazy weather like that the next few months.  Though hope is not a strategy, we can hope that the weather energy doesn’t bring with it crazy events on campus.  We can handle the high energy students in the classroom, it’s the unpredictatable we are never sure about.  As my father once told me, “Expect the unexpected”.  That is never more true than it is sitting behind my desk.   Have a splendid weekend…Go Pups! (cue: The Heat Is On – Glenn Frey)

Connectedness

Considering topics for the week, I decided to keep the theme of connectedness.  What are the ‘little things’ we can do to make a student feel more connected at school.  There has been quite a bit of research in the area of relationship building in schools.  Consistent in all the reading I have done, three simple things stand out:  1) Greet students at the door with a friendly ‘Hello, welcome to class’, 2) Listen, 3) Know their name and use it.  We have the opportunity to change lives and create allies or adversaries.  These ‘little things’ may just be the ingredient that begins the transformation.  Of course, a daily dose of these three ‘little things’ may not bring about the change that is desired, but I’ve never read a study that kindness hurts our chances.  Have a spectacular weekend…Go Pups! (cue: You’re a Friend of Mine – Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne)

Connections

I have always been interested in the interaction between teacher and student.  The professional healthy connection that drives a student to perform for fear that they may just ‘let the teacher down’. That connection is the most powerful and the hardest to achieve.  Sometimes, great teaching is less about curriculum and more about our attitude toward students, our subject, and school.  According to several studies, there are nine essential characteristics that all great teachers display such as: 1) Respect of students, 2) Creating a sense of community and belonging in the classroom, 3) Be warm, accessible, enthusiastic, and caring, 4) Set high expectations, 5) Have a personal love of learning, 6) be a skilled leader, 7) Be able to ‘shift gears’, 8) Collaborate with colleagues, 9) Be professional in all areas.  Teaching is like playing a musical instrument.  It’s difficult to learn, fun when it’s going well, collaborative, and when you become really good, it becomes a natural part of you.  Just as learning the instrument, the rewards are great because you get to change a life. Have an awe-inspiring weekend…Go Pups! (cue: Hall of Fame – The Script)