NeverLand Does Exist

When I watch this movie I end up speaking to my own children in Depp's soft Scottish accent for days.



And I realize just how much I am similar to the real-life J.M. Barrie in that I too believe in a NeverLand. A place where the impossible of what we all can be, do, and have IS possible.

I am not bothered by what others think of me. I am not here to impress people with what I am, but to impress upon other people with everything they already are and everything they can become....especially children.

Children are bigger believers than adults. And it's not because they're young and foolish, unrealistic, and don't know any better. The scientific fact is that ARE realistic and THEY DO KNOW BETTER.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks because scientifically, every time one of our cells split (which happens many times every day) the new cell has more of the dominant receptors of the mother or sister cell (mitosis).

The new cell has more receptors for neuro peptides, or hormones, of empowerment or hopelessness, joy or sadness, creativity or dullness, love or hatred, intelligence or disbelief, depending on what our dominant thoughts have been prior to the mitosis.

(This video is great for understanding why even though we want to change, we often don't. Listen to how we are compared to dogs. It also explains how to change our current inability to change. It does contain some adult content.)



If you're in my class you are required to believe and to dream ....to Dream Big, Bigger than you ever have.

And you WILL Do Big, which is not just memorizing facts and formulas and getting an "A" on a test. Getting an "A" is just the beginning. Every time your cells split you will have more positive receptors than before. As this happens, you will become more powerful.

You are required to keep splitting your cells with the belief you can become unstoppable and are able to do and be more than you ever have. Last year it produced an average improvement 700 times greater than normal classes.

This year one failing student walked out of class, again....... giving up, again.......and creating failure for himself, again. When he's done this before I've spoken with him, hugged him, hollered at him, even told him I loved him.

This time when I found him crying in the stairwell I punched the railing, intending to break him out of this pattern of giving up. He stopped crying and stared at me. I asked him why he thought he keeps giving up when things get hard. He began telling me all the ways he's a victim and soon broke down crying again.

I punched the railing even harder, the rings I wear to keep my children close making an enormous banging sound on the metal. He jerked his head up and stopped crying. I told him to look at me, in my eyes, and asked him if he thought anything could stop me. He said "no". I told him he and I were one. For one year he and I were the same person. All of my strength was his. Everything I had, he had. Then I said. "Now get your butt back in class and let's change your life for good!"

And he has.

Later while eating lunch with my daughter, she told me she heard a loud banging sound and a deep voice through the walls of her classroom. She whispered, "That was you, wasn't it?" I said, "Yes. I was trying to help someone." She smiled and said, "I knew it."

For one year every student in my class will be in NeverLand, a place where there are no limits to what they can do or be. They will live in their imaginations of great possibilities and work on making what they imagine come true. After that, it's up to them to keep themselves there.

(Bella brought a bug that had been stepped on to this tree hoping it would be OK. It didn't make it, and why she had the look on her face 5 pictures above and why she's holding my arm in the 2nd picture below.)

And from what I hear when I run into former students and their parents, they ARE keeping themselves in NeverLand; in advanced classes doing very well, taking risks and challenging their fears by joining clubs and plays, and most importantly, are very happy. They are.....Forever Young



What makes me happy is not realizing that my life has meaning, but that the lives of those I've touched has meaning, GREAT MEANING. And it is an incredibly beautiful feeling, helping me when I begin to doubt and wonder if I'm a fool believing in an unrealistic world that will never be.

This "I Am Beautiful" song means we are beautiful not when we are seen as beautiful by others, or the media, or the church. We are truly beautiful when we are having the courage to be ourselves, beauty marks AND beauty warts - when we are being the person we feel we are in our hearts.....and not giving up on ourselves............

Not allowing our unique inner beauty to fade away before it is too late...........and having the strength to continue to believe in ourselves no matter what......THAT is beautiful.........and beautiful enough..........for you.

Although it's not allowed to be embedded, the link to this beautiful song and video is here, and is worth the few minutes to watch. Who knows, it could be the few minutes that change the few cells needed to change your life: Finding NeverLand - Beautiful

Samurai Teaching

Assignment: Book Reflection #1
Book: “The NEW Meaning of Educational Change”, by Michael Fullan
Chapters: One & Two – “A Brief History of Educational Change” & “The Meaning of Educational Change”

REACTION:
Within the first paragraph of the first page I hear one word, “victimization”. Everyone is blaming everyone else for education’s woes, while at the same time feeling their hands are tied to promote any real change because the “other guy” isn’t doing it right or won’t do what is needed to make it right. Policy makers blame school administrators, who blame teachers and parents, who blame students and policy makers. And all we have is a quagmire of the butcher, the baker and the candle stick maker, all trying to row the same boat in different directions, or not trying to row at all.

Certain things jumped out at me:

“Today…it is abundantly clear that one of the keys to successful change is the improvement in relationships.” (Fullan, p.4)

“…our schools need to teach learning processes that better fit the way work is evolving. ..this means teaching the skills and habit of mind that are essential to problem-solving, especially where many minds need to interact.” (Fullan, p.7)

The idea that change with no meaning has no meaning at all. (Fullan, p. 20)

“Reflectivity, purposefulness, and awareness characterized these teachers, but not in a linear way.” (Fullan, p.33)

“Changes in beliefs are even more difficult. They challenge the core values held by individuals regarding the purposes of education.” (Fullan, p. 36)

“Perhaps the most important conclusion of this chapter is the realization that finding moral and intellectual meaning is not just to make teachers feel better. It is fundamentally related to whether teachers are likely to find the considerable energy required to transform the status quo. Meaning fuels motivation; and know-how feeds on itself to produce ongoing problem solving. Their opposites – confusion, overload, and low sense of efficacy – deplete energy at the very time it is sorely needed.” (Fullan, p.39)

RELEVANCE:
This book holds promise of great relevance for me. As a teacher/parent for the last eight years, I have felt that the blame for a student failing should be distributed this way:

As a teacher, if one of my students can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a parent, if my child can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a student, if I can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a principal, if one of my teacher’s students can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a policy maker, if a student in a school in my state can’t read, it’s my fault.

With everyone taking the blame, instead of defending themselves from it, everyone can be a part of the solution, and real and necessary changes can be made. I’m hoping this book offers real insight as to how this “safe” environment can occur.

The importance of improved relationships between the teacher and student is of high priority to me. This to me is exactly how a teacher creates a “safe” environment. I have never felt that anyone outside of the classroom controls how that classroom is run. Only the people inside of it do. And a master teacher does not allow the students to control it with the excuse of “That’s just how they are, how they come to me. What can I do?” A master teacher acknowledges the reality of “what is” of his environment, but has a vision of what could be inside of him, and sees his students and the curriculum through this vision. And he holds onto that vision, until the dream becomes the reality. This cannot be done without the cooperation of the students. And the students will not cooperate without a strong relationship with the teacher.

Teaching problem-solving skills and habits of mind takes buying into by both the students and their parents. The master teacher needs to be able to persuade them to change what they have only known, what I call the Sit-Listen- Look- Learn approach, to the Stand-Speak-Think-Do activity that is required to produce skilled problem-solving students. And we have to convince them that this change is necessary.

To honestly do this, we must be convinced that change is necessary for that individual student. If the current approach is truly working for a student, then no change is needed for that student. And if change is needed for another student, then change must occur for that student. Comparing our jobs to doctors, our job is to treat each “patient’s” ailments in the method that best works for each patient. And to me that means analyzing each student’s data and developing lesson plans for each one.

“Reflectivity, purposefulness, and awareness characterized these teachers, but not in a linear way.” (Fullan, p.33) This offers me great relief. I have been beating myself up because I seem to be unable to operate in a Newtonian linear-law of operations; first you do this, then this, then this. I find myself operating in the quantum world of needing to observe a student work first before I can make a reasonable lesson plan for him or her. And I end up combining student’s data with my own intuition to move each child forward. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, as it’s produces real results for the “whole” child.

But all this does not come without a price. The energy it takes to create this world of happiness, harmony and high achievement for every student reminds me of the time I climbed the highest mountain I could find one summer in Estes Park, Colorado. I passed out three times before I found myself lying in the snow at the top, looking up at the bluest sky and purest white clouds I had ever seen. With each gasp of breath I felt as if I was breathing in truth and beauty, and I think that has become a part of me forever.

After a few hours I was able to climb back down and get to camp. My friend who had given up the climb was sure I had died and was getting ready to leave for help. He told me I was crazy…just as many fellow teachers do today. They may be right, because I climbed that mountain in nature just once. I seem to be climbing the one in education every day. And by Christmas of this year I was passed out, but now it’s time to climb again. Only the moral truth and intellectual beauty I truly see in each child will allow me to find the energy and motivation to increase my know-how and produce the ongoing problem solving solutions to unlocking this beauty inside of them.



RESPONSIBILITY:
We’ve seen how a safe environment in the classroom allows for greater student achievement. The classroom is a microcosm of the entire world of education. And it is my job to continue to create these safe environments in my classroom, and through my writings communicate the possibilities of this expansion out into the world. Perhaps I should also find a way to create time to be involved in this opportunity I’ve been given to help develop a new charter school. The more I learn from others equates to the more I can offer others. Absorbing as much insight and new thinking as I can from the chapters of this book and everyone around me will allow me to do this.

The idea of how improved relationships literally create worlds of high harmony and academic achievement must be spread. In a post yesterday, I wrote, “Although my writings have decreased as my energy has dwindled, when I see the looks on our faces I have to share this....this......THIS is what IS possible. Can you imagine our tiny world being duplicated out over the planet? Our classrooms, work environments, and homes would all be incredible places to come to…And it all can be, once the world inside of us changes…It can happen. There's nothing stopping us but ourselves. We're all here to help inspire others and evolve our species. Just be yourself...play your part....and PLAY IT BIG! We literally change the world around us when we do.”(Stuart, The Past and The Present)

I must continue to improve my use of inquiry-based learning that meets the needs of each student. I must do a much better job of documenting my teaching processes in order that they can become duplicated and therefore scientifically validated. And I must definitely work on making the “rebelliousness” of my teaching less threatening and “different” to the parents. I email my parents daily, communicating the best I can the homework I have assigned and the purpose for it. I know I am going against their core values as to how education should be done, and at least one student is removed from my classroom in the beginning of each year by confused and anxious parents.

I will continue to develop individual lesson plans for each student, based on each of their individual needs. My biggest supporter, the teacher of the gifted class at my school, hopes I burn out and fail, before my successful methods become the new job requirement for all teachers. Therefore, my biggest responsibility is to not burnout, which I am dangerously close to due to a lack of knowledge as to how to teach smarter, and not just harder.

So, how do I teach smarter?



Stuart, A. Samurai Teaching, "The Past and The Present". http://samuraiteaching.blogspot.com/2008/01/past-and-present.html

A Life For a Life ~ Changing the Future NOW

Half the battle is to get students just to behave and work hard. Daiquan and I butted heads big time in the beginning of the year. In his anger and misbehavior I saw a great fire for change, if I could just redirect it.

So I took a gamble and offered him a choice; either believe in himself as much as I did, or put a bullet in my head to get rid of me, because I was going to be in his face pushing him every day. If I was going to believe in him and take a chance on him, I was going to go all the way with with it.


But working hard doesn't mean any real learning is taking place. I joke about the new Bee Movie coming out, with Jerry saying "Maybe this time. Maybe this time. Maybe this time", over and over as he smacks his head against a closed window, trying to get out.



It's analagous to working hard but not working smart, on the part of both teacher and student. Too many adults trying hard end up on the windowsill of life, exhausted and dying, wondering why their dreams never materialized. Too many teachers take solace in reaching that one kid. I don't want this to happen to any of my kids.


If we're going to help them long-term, we have to work smart; we have to listen to them, to understand them, to their way of thinking, and where they are in the stages of knowledge and why. It's about them, and how great they could be, not about what a great teacher we are or how hard we work for no pay.

Anyone can criticize, complain and judge, and it's too easy to say, "I tried. I did my job but it's not my fault." The job is developing the child, not the lesson.

Wisdom how to do this comes from listening to them, knowing that we know nothing about their individual stories until we ask, and then knowing what lessons we need to develop for them.

Only by taking time with each student can we best build a solid bridge of learning, taking them from where they are, to where they need to be.
Thoughts are key, but emotions are powerful. Can you imagine what Daiquan is feeling now, and the new, more empowering thoughts he is having?

I don't think he's having thoughts of taking me out.

I think he's thinking thoughts that are changing his life...

...and able now to help others change theirs.

(Taken this morning, reading to his little brother.) Kicked off the bus again, and getting dropped off very early now, it was pointed out he only began behaving when he saw me pull into the parking lot.

I pointed out that he still chose to change his behavior, and I still have seven months to get him to do it without needing me or anyone else as motivation. Seven more months of my life, for 70 plus years of his greatest possible life.

The time to live and give is NOW, that's how we change the future.

Diamonds in the Rough....For Now

I asked my students what the quote below meant to them. Seeing myself in the pictures makes it easy for me to put myself in their shoes. I'm still on the same journey of self discovery, learning, and growing as they are. I hope I never forget this - because it's been said you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.



The same must be true for learning.

Diamonds in the rough,

now,

that is enough,

cause one day we will shine

- all in time.

- Robert Ellender

Living in the "What If..."

Some experts say teaching is the hardest job there is. To be a truly effective teacher you have to get ALL students to produce HIGH QUALITY work.

(I'm just watching Taylor work to pick up clues as to how she thinks and what she really understands.)


Unlike doctors, our "patients" usually aren't as cooperative in our attempt to "treat", or educate, them. Nor do we have the high-quality work environment and support doctors do.

(Now knowing where she is, I have a better idea how to take her to the next level of higher thinking.)


To make it worse, our effectiveness isn't measured by how well we teach them. It is assessed by how well our students do on a state test, one that is incapable of measuring real problem solving and high levels of thinking.

(It's impossible to analyze and diagnose each student one-on-one without great classroom management. For the ones not yet internally motivated, I tell them their grade depends on the person they're working with, and that I'll throw the ball at them if I catch them goofing off.)

Therefore, we are pressured to cover as many basic facts as we can with little to no understanding. It's no wonder our country is testing in the bottom half on international problem-solving tests. And we really only have to "teach" the students who will most affect the school's grade.

(Taylor is not one of these students, so technically I am wasting my time. Well, the system as it is can technically kiss my behind, because I refuse to waste this person's time, and everything she can become. That would be like a doctor or hospital refusing to treat a patient who doesn't have insurance. Whoever heard of that?)

I think we as teachers have to become tougher, stronger, and smarter than the problems facing us today. We have to live in the "What If": What if we could give them enough of our time? What if we could really teach them? What if we could really get to know each student? What if we could really make EVERY student feel and become unstoppable?

(After enough days of believing in the "what if's", the effects will show on their faces. You can see them believing in themselves more than ever before, beginning to truly dream big.

My professor jokes that so many of my students will become leaders in their field that they will take over the world. Education goes beyond books, and we also develop intra- and interpersonal intelligence; If you are bigger than another, you protect. If you are smarter, you enlighten. And if you are more powerful, you empower.)


Most importantly, we have to make the "What If?" work, even if that means developing separate lesson plans for each child. The classroom can become a place of real learning and be really fun at the same time. Every student CAN be reached and the state test can become so easy that it's an insult to their new greater intelligence.

(By having Shawn help another student, it required him to more fully understand what the tests says he "knows". I had worked with him the day before on this. )

~ Everybody grows, every day! ~
~ Together, we WILL find a way! ~