2016-07-26

Making a Winter Count and Telling Your Tribe's Story

My first ever movie trailer for a published learning activity. 

How cool will this be for students; coming into class and 

watching a movie trailer of the upcoming 


2016-07-25

Thought #88 on Ending Terrorism ~ O Fortuna, Let Me Tell YOU What I Intend to Make Happen in the Next 86,400 Seconds of Today

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought #88 on Ending Terrorism ~ O Fortuna, Let Me Tell YOU What I Intend to Make Happen in the Next 86,400 Seconds of Today


The Power of Intention

2016-07-22

Thought #79 on Ending Terrorism ~ Be the Thing that Stops Bad Things From Happening to Them ~ Like a Poor Education



KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought #79 on Ending Terrorism ~ Be the Thing that Stops Bad Things From Happening to Them ~ Like a Poor Education

*After he told me I reminded him of Hancock and I realized the impact I had on him, I wrote his full name on a piece of paper and practiced saying it every day so I could say it correctly when I called his name during the 5th-grade graduation ceremony. 





Parts of our FaceBook messaging since 2009

“Hey Mr. Stuart, it’s me, Abder (Abderrahmane Echchalhi) lol. How r u doin? I miss u because u always pushed me to higher limits. Plz write back as soon as u can. Ty, bye.

I’m really hating the 6th grade right now because all our teachers are getting crazy about the FCAT and their giving us so much homework each nite. I really miss the way that YOU teach!!!!!!!!!!! How’s ur life going on with ur students? I’m sure their growth is powerful!”

Ur a good man Abder. It's not as much fun 4 me this year becuz I don't have just one group of students to work with. It's more like middle school where I only have @hour with each group. 

I know u'll pull thru and do well. I miss having u in class.


“Hey Mr. Stuart, don’t think I forgot you! Dream big, be big, do big ~ livin by that motto. Happy bday!

I hope you know you've had a great impact on my life. 

I still remember when you lifted me up and put me against the white board joking around. lol good times good times.

And how we had to finish our homework so we can play 4 square (WHICH I LOVED)

Dream big, do big , be big will forever be engraved in my heart thanks to you and breaking away from the school’s curriculum.

Also, you told me once , "If someone says you have a lot of potential don't take it as a compliment (because it means you aren’t using your potential)! Haha! 5th grade with you was the memory I get even in high school, and how much you loved Bella which if I do recall correctly is your daughter!

Just to let you know I'm majoring in sports science now, still have that super long name (Abderrahmane Echchalhi), also going to minor in psychology and my brother Mohamed is doing great, got a manager job at Holiday Inn! 

Even though I was so young your class and your name are all I remember when thinking about elementary school.”

2016-07-15

Pennies to Paris: Thought #69 on Ending Terrorism ~ Revolutionary Ch...

Pennies to Paris: Thought #69 on Ending Terrorism ~ Revolutionary Ch...: KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought #69 on Ending Terrorism ~ Revolutionary Change Comes From Revolutionary Thinking The problems we have...

2016-06-26

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 4 ~ Relentlessly Overcoming Reckless Terrorism



KICK STARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 4 ~ Relentlessly Overcoming Reckless Terrorism
Knowledge isn’t power. The relentless pursuit and correct use of it is.
We “know” something has to be done. And we “know” it has to be done now.
We also know that from 10,000 years of civilized history we can kill the killers without stopping the desire to kill.
And we know we have proven answers from some very powerful people like Gandhi.
Gandhi - education.jpg
To achieve this “real peace” it takes a huge amount of super-human strength and intelligence, things teachers are naturally built for.
We couldn’t be teachers if we didn’t love who and why we teach with super-human love.  
And we are perfectly situated to becoming super-smart every day as we become more intelligent about our students and how to teach them.
We are in a perpetual state of education.
We remember this, and become relentless in the pursuit of this, and we reach real world peace with every student we teach.
A beautiful theory that CAN BECOME an unbreakable everyday REALITY when we stop worrying and whining about what’s broken and focus instead on preventing our children from becoming broken by it, relentlessly.
Our hearts never stop.

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart








2016-06-22

Mötley Crüe - Kickstart My Heart





KICK START OUR HEARTS ~ STOPPING TERRORISM THOUGHT 1 ~ RISK

The heart engines are already revving by teachers all across the world to kick start their students’ hearts and education in the fall. 

We’re gong to spend the next 2 months kicking our butts and our brains to think of lessons that will kick our students’ hearts forever and help them live safer and higher than ever. 

And our classrooms is where it all begins for them. It’s their Dream Big, Do Big, Become Big day-and-night club that’s exciting and explosive and where they come out happier and smarter than when they came in.

From the first beat of the first lesson using life’s greatest thinkers our students will hear these lyrics of higher-level thinking that leads them to higher-level learning and living.  

They will hear this music in their heads and feel it pound in their hearts this year and forever because it will be played every day until it becomes part of them. Aristotle will smile as he watches them learn to kick their own excuses, or “buts”, and evolve into real-world problem solvers that find long-term solutions to a current world of hate-filled terrorism and child abuse. 

No whining out of them. No whining out of us. We kick start this “impossible” change in the world by making it probable in our classrooms. We kick our own teacher excuses and “buts” as we hear it pound in our heads and feel it fill our hearts, flow into our spirits and sing out of our souls.  

We risk believing in this. We risk feeling all this. We risk crashing and hurting as we do this. We risk getting up again and getting knocked down again.  

We succeed because we risk failing. We risk to make school become this. For our children to become this. For our world to become this.

#OrlandoUnited #OrlandoStrong #ViveLeFrance #remember911 

#TheSchoolofAthensMindAdventures #HigherLevelLearning #ChildEmpowering #DremBigDoBigBeBig #MrStuart #FindtheHeroinYou http://amzn.to/1TQ81kx 



#MotleyCrue #KickStartMyHeart #OCPS #WashingtonShoresElementary #SandLakeElementary #CypressParkElementary

2016-04-07

We Light Up The World ~ Child Empowerment Month





The world CAN be a BIG, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL place, but we have to all MAKE IT that way. We have to fight for it, want it, and be willing to love it and love it and love it into existence.



Terrorism is trying to destroy the world by lighting it up in destructive chemical explosions.



We can CHOOSE to light up the world in our subatomic explosions of confidence, appreciation, gratitude, and unlimited belief in ourselves and each other.



I am already exploding at this level and I haven't even hit the gym yet. After 1,000 pushups, pullups, situps and miles of swimming, running, and rowing, I will have become so #SandLakeElementary Stingray Strong and #CypressParkElementary Mustang Hard that I will be able to explode my new subatomic strength and stamina upon all my current and former students over and over UNTIL they begin to subatomically explode at their own levels of greatness.



This is not #ChildAbuseMonth. This is CHILD EMPOWERMENT MONTH!

2016-03-23

Facing the Monsters of Terrorism

TERRORISM ~ FACING THE MONSTERS



"You can choose teaching that, yes, there are monsters, and it's OK to be afraid of them. But it's not OK to let them win. And it's not OK to be one." ~ Criminal Minds ...... 

Since Paris and now Brussels there have been 13 terrorist attacks and over 450 innocent deaths, for some kids that doesn't include the murders happening on their own streets as these kids had to deal with in December.......... 

Let's face it, there ARE monsters and there will only be more as more of us become afraid to out think them and more of us feel hopeless, unloved, and unappreciated as children and join the monsters as adults........

.So let's do it ~ We feel STRONG for ourselves and our children not sorry. ......

We go out and take back and make safe our streets for us to get to school and work and into environments of UNLIMITED LEARNING & LOVING........

and we all leave at the end of the day too INTELLIGENT, too CONFIDENT, too LOVED, and too STRONG to ever cower in fear of or crawl into recruitment of the monsters we have made smaller that day....

As we get bigger, our monsters get smaller, and we do have monsters, so we must get bigger, and we are!..... 

I think the future looks great because I am willing to fight greatly for it to be that way.

2016-03-19

Time to Turn Heaven into Valhalla





Marcis and others have already grown one year in 3 quarters, but still need to grow 1-2 more years in the last quarter.....How in the heaven are we going to pull this off?  I'm already tired of just thinking about it and I'm sure they are too......Everyone in the class has desire.........Now it's time to turn it up and set that desire on fire....Make it explode.......This is the only way we're going to pull this off....And I think I'm going to use this video at the beginning of each day as the lighter......Make them feel it. Make them believe it.  Make them ignite it. Make them collide it deep within their molecular cells like the Sun collides its molecular elements to produce unbelievable light and heat......Thank you former student Raian Natsheh for reminding me of how we played this in our 5th-grade class and what it did for you.....On March 28th we're going to turn Heaven into Valhalla

2016-03-11

Help Lucky Find the Meaning of Unknown Words










Help Lucky the Leprechaun Determine the Meaning of Unknown Words


This is a great holiday-based vocabulary learning lesson for school or at home.

Includes an answer key and a printable student evidence/artifact coloring sheet.


#StPatty'sDay #Holiday #Vocabulary #Activity #ReadingCenter #DetermineMeaningUnknownWords bit.ly/1UPP84V



2016-03-08

Try it Out and Learn to Wipe it Out!




We're not just going to try it out.



Today we're going to WIPE IT OUT!



Today I'm going to tell my students that I want to erase our learning goals off the board. That can only happen if 100% of us achieve the learning goal, which is only knowledge and ability, not the highest levels of self-evaluation and creativity. What's on the board is the box. We accomplish that and we jump out of the box and off the board and into a world of creativity.

2016-03-04

Kick Our Students' Limited Worlds Into the Pit


Life as it is now, and for a long time now, has brought with each passing year the heads of severed dreams and hopes to our school's steps, and threatened our students with the slavery of dreaming, doing and becoming small in a go-through-the-motions recreation of the same day over and over in a walking death as adults and generation after generation.

They were either taught they were dumb by a dumb paper-testing-only system of determining who's intelligent and who is not, and which school gets an A and which does not.

This has been true for as long as we have been using the factory-producing-model of school-producing workers, and not thinkers, that we needed after we swallowed the fears the World Wars produced.

The body of a murdered woman was brought to the steps of the street this year across from my students' school. This year my body and brain needs to be bigger than it ever had been. 

I cover my body in muscle to protect my organs and bones from the hits that must be taken, and build my brain with the wisdom of the Seven Sages of Socrates to understand how to teach them. 

And take all the love and belief I've had for all of my former students to fill  the hearts and heads of my current ones.

This year we take back their hopes and dreams and fill them again with all that they can be and become in the world by kicking all the negative realities and future limiting probabilities into a pit from which they will never return. 

We do this fearlessly and completely, one student at a time, one street at a time.

2016-03-02

What We Do in Our Classrooms Echoes in the Hearts and Minds of Our Students Forever



What We Do in Our Classrooms Echoes Forever in the Hearts and Minds of Our Students

We get them to face their fears and face their realities

And make them courageous enough to overcome and improve upon them.

If you want to wear the helmet,

earn it.

Do something you've never done before.


Perform on a level you've never reached before.

Become more than you've ever been before.

Be more at the end of this day be more than you were before you left your bed and walked out your door.

Marcis has set his sights on getting on grade level and is 25% away from graduating the Kindergarten level in reading.

Gevonte just graduated into the 3rd grade level.


I'm almost out of the Kindergarten level of becoming a millionaire, having made more from my writings in January of this year than I did in all of 2012, and more by the end of February than I did in all of 2013.

Dream and Dream Big ~ Then Do Bigger than you've ever done before,
And Become Bigger and more than you ever were before.


Why can't every student learn and grow far beyond where they started the school year? 

Why can't teachers become as wealthy in their wallets as they are in their hearts? 

Why can't all children sleep safely in their beds knowing they have a tomorrow as happy and unlimited as they desire it to be?

Why can't we all sleep knowing no children will be abused to death while we sleep?

And zero people will be killed by an act of terrorism?

Who says we can't?

Current reality?


Let's be bigger than what we see and are today and create a bigger and better reality we get to see and be tomorrow.

We've figured out so much; how to sail past the edge of the horizon without falling off and being eaten by monsters,

How to fly in the sky even though man wasn't born with wings,

How to set foot on the moon and see far beyond even though some have died in the process of making this dream a reality.


Joadeliz has set foot on the moon of becoming a gifted thinker. Now she can spend the rest of the year and her life becoming a gifted creator.

She has gone from being shy and insecure to roaring like a lion and being the first to win the Jessica Gaffin award.

Now the universe is hers!

The dangers we face in attempting the Great Dream are nothing compared to the changes we can make that will echo loudly in our hearts and minds and last forever in our lives!

2016-02-14

Valentine's Day ~ How to Save a Life ~ Be a Teacher



Valentine's Day 
Love Day

Dedicated to my fellow teachers
Who love their students every day

We are it
We have dedicated our lives to it
We are everything with it
Nothing without it
Because we have become it
Completely vulnerable to it
Love
Is so incredibly wonderful
And the longer we stay in our profession
The more we dive completely into it

~ Adam Stuart
Valentine's Day 2016

*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student (It is not the student pictured below. This was Joadeliz's gift to me this year that she spent her own money on; money she has very little of. It was truly a gift from her heart).



"Dear Mr. Stuart,
________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement. 

She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______ 

She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly  receive it.

Once again,  I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."



I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or being better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others. 

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and it feels true.

While moving recently I found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.


I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.



I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to Dream Big, Do Big, and never give up until they Became Big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion and the strength to fight again because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.

He is now an incredible poet.
  

More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by stressed out administrators stressed out by their bosses over-stressing their jobs are at stake by the new protocol that we all forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.

And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.

I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where everything had gone wrong.

And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore." 


And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care. 

I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.


Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love. 



And I didn't quit.

I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time.  I decided to live again and love again every day I could get myself out of bed again.

I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard. 

Love is tougher. Love overcomes. Love breaks down all obstacles.



"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (Corinthians)

And the love we have for our students has an effect we often have no idea just how big it is on them, how long it stays with them, and how long it keeps them alive because it has become a part of them.  



Valentine's Day is our day.

It is our day every day.


Happy Valentine's Day teachers!



I love you for what you do.











Valentine's Day 

Love Day




Dedicated to my fellow teachers

Who love their students every day




We are it

We have dedicated our lives to it

We are everything with it

Nothing without it

Because we have become it

Completely vulnerable to it

Love

Is so incredibly wonderful

And the longer we stay in our profession

The more we dive completely into it




~ Adam Stuart

Valentine's Day 2016




*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student



"Dear Mr. Stuart,

________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement. 

She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______ 


She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly  receive it.

Once again,  I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."


I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others. 

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and true.

While moving I recently found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.



I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.






I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to dream big, do big, and never give up until they became big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion, because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.




He is now an incredible poet.

  




More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by the new protocol by the stressed out administrators who stress us out that we forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.




And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.




I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where I had gone wrong.




And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore." 

And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care. 

I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.




Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love.




And I didn't quit.

I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time.  I decided to live again and love again one day at a time. 



I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard. 




Love is tougher. Love overcomes. Love breaks down obstacles.






"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (Corinthians)




And the love we have for our students has an effect we often have no idea how big it is on them, how long it stays with them, and how long it keeps them alive because it has become a part of them.  







Valentine's Day is our day.

It is our day every day.

Happy Valentine's Day teachers!




Valentines Day ~ How to Save a Life ~ Be a Teacher

Valentine's Day 

Love Day


Dedicated to my fellow teachers

Who love their students every day



We are it

We have dedicated our lives to it

We are everything with it

Nothing without it

Because we have become it

Completely vulnerable to it

Love

Is so incredibly wonderful

And the longer we stay in our profession

The more we dive completely into it


~ Adam Stuart

Valentine's Day 2016


*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student



"Dear Mr. Stuart,

________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement. 


She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______ 

She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly  receive it.

Once again,  I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."


I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others. 

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and true.

While moving I recently found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.

I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.


I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to dream big, do big, and never give up until they became big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion, because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.

He is now an incredible poet.


More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by the new protocol by the stressed out administrators who stress us out that we forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.

And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.

I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where I had gone wrong.

And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore." 


And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care. 


I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.

Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love.


And I didn't quit.

I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time. I decided to live and love again for as much as I could again; one day at a time.

I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard. 

Love is tougher. Love overcomes. Love breaks down obstacles.


"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." (Corinthians)

And the love we have for our students has an effect we often have no idea how big it is on them, how long it stays with them, and how long it keeps them alive because it has become a part of them.  


Valentine's Day is our day.

It is our day every day.

Happy Valentine's Day teachers!