Who doesn’t like when things “sparkle and shine”?
As you can probably guess, the word “sparkle” is related to the word “spark”.
In the classroom, there are a lot of sparks flying from conflicts, stress, tension, confrontation, negative emotions and actions… you get the picture.
So, how can we turn “sparks” into “sparkle” and shine? (more…)
In the last blog post, we explored the concept of discipline, both in and out of the classroom.
I heard from some teachers and others who said what is going on now is more than about discipline.
It is about courtesy.
I have had many conversations lately with teachers about how disrespectful and rude students and (especially) parents have been.
First of all, it is the season of testing from now until May or June. As a result…
Students are stressed.
Parents are stressed.
Teachers are stressed.
Admin is stressed.
Put all that stress together and it is like the energy required for nuclear fission and an atomic explosion!!! And from what I hear and see first hand (and on social media), there are a lot of explosions going off both in and out of the classroom.
YIKES!
Kindness is a word that is one of my mantras and something I try to live by.
There is so much merchandise that is sold now promoting kindness, but I don’t know that people always understand what that means.
I have recently seen the phrase “be courteous” used instead.
Maybe that is a generational thing too because I am not sure many people under the age of thirty would be able to tell you what that means.
To be courteous and kind used to be central themes in old TV shows of the 60’s like The Andy Griffith Show.
My mom, who is 93, says that it used to be part of what she calls “home training”.
Hmmmm… so what does it mean to be courteous? (more…)
This word is the focus of much discussion when it comes to the classroom and teachers.
The word, itself, has such an interesting etymology. If we take a look at the different origins and usages of the word as related to the classroom and education, it gets even more interesting.
According to etymonline.com, here are some insights:
*from Old French descepline “discipline, physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom”
*from Latin disciplina “instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge,”
*related to the word disciple “one who follows another for the purpose of learning,”
So much has been researched and written about the topic of discipline in the classroom.
Today, it is referred to as “classroom management”.
No matter what we call it, first year teachers struggle with it.
And now, in the pandemic, even veteran teachers are struggling with it.
So, what can teachers do?
Use a “discipline ladder” or some other “system of behavior accountability” as they are called today? (more…)
“Follow the directions” is a fundamental phrase used in the classroom.
Teachers get really, REALLY frustrated when students don’t follow the directions.
I understand how important directions, procedures and processes are in keeping an organized and smoothly operating classroom of 20, 30 + students, especially young ones.
HOWEVER, I also feel that sometimes we follow directions too stringently and cause ourselves undue stress. It can also open the door to a flood of judgment and shame.
The word “direction” comes from the Latin word directionem, meaning to make a straight line.
If my geometry knowledge serves me well, a direct, straight line is the shortest route between two points…a beginning and an end.
But WHAT IF, the learning journey is not the shortest distance nor the most “direct” path between two points, the starting point at the beginning, and an end point at the destination (end?)
WHAT IF the directions we receive are not the straight on nor the same for every person? (more…)
Happy World Kindness Day 2021!
World Kindness Day is celebrated all around the world every year on November 13th. It was introduced in 1998 by the World’s Kindness Movement, a coalition of nations’ kindness NGO’s.
You can learn more about it here.
I am a HUGE proponent of bringing more kindness into this world!
Want to bring more kindness into your world? (more…)
Place value is truly an educational term that gets emblazoned into our brains very early on as we learn numbers and how they operate in mathematical equations.
According to the dictionary, “place value is the numerical value that a digit has by virtue of its position in a number”.
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on.
And the Mayans came up with the concept of the absence of value, which they represented by the number zero.
Hmmm, so this is all great. I used to teach math once upon a time.
However, nowadays, I am thinking about place value in the classroom in other terms. (more…)
Curiosity comes from the Latin word, curiosus, and is akin to the word “cura” or care/cure. According to Etymonline, to be curious means to be “careful, diligent and to inquire eagerly”.
When one hears the word “curiosity”, people often think of the expression “curiosity killed the cat”, which totally does not conger up a positive image or motivation to inspire one to become more curious.
But if we think about cats and how they are inquisitive, yet careful, when something new is introduced into their environment, the concept is magical.
How many cat videos and memes have been uploaded and viewed on the internet as a way to seek calm, practice self-care of de-stressing and to get a dopamine hit of “ahhhhh, how cute!”?… especially during the pandemic!
In any personal or spiritual growth practice, the first step is to get curious. What is coming up? How am I feeling? When does this happen? Who is involved?
This is what I call the “WWWWWH?” We can’t pounce on a problem or challenge or situation like a cat who is not practicing curiosity. Maybe that’s when there are dire consequences.
We need to be careful, yet diligent and inquire eagerly at all angles through WWWWWH?
WWWWWH? = Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
These are the basics of Bloom’s Taxonomy for learning and growth.
But in the real world, it is just the basis and foundation of living and moving forward one step at a time.
We have to find the answers to the WWWWWH? of life for ourselves. No prescription, no multiple choice, no true/false, no “one-size-fits-all”.
So, what does curiosity look like in the classroom, and why is it the essential and critical first step on the learning journey?
One of my favorite quotes, and one by which I try to live my life is:
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I tried to live by this wisdom in the classroom and teach it to my students as well.
To me, grace is the sweet nectar that can bring bliss to our lives. It is what makes us whole.
Another quote about grace that has had an impact on me too is from Anne Lamott.
“I do not understand the mystery of grace –
only that it meets us where we are, but does not leave us where it found us.”
I believe that grace is one of the greatest needs we have in the classroom today in order to achieve real growth and learning gains as human beings.
We don’t need more technology, testing, checklists, standards, evaluations or money.
We desperately need more grace in the classroom…especially now as we move forward after a very difficult school year trying to make our way teaching and learning in a pandemic.
“Grace” comes from the Latin word “gratia” meaning “favor, mercy, good will, gratitude”.
In Spanish, the expression for “please” is “por favor” or “by favor”. It implies the potential “pleasing” or “favorite” nature of the act.
In French, the expression for “thank you” is “merci”. In Italian, it is “grazie”; in Spanish, “gracias”.
Grace is an interaction, a communication, an intention from the heart.
Grace is the love and mercy we have received from others and that we, in turn, give back to the world.
Grace is a choice that we make in every single moment of our lives.
Grace is a conscious choice we make to bring more mercy, goodwill and gratitude into the world through our thoughts and actions.
So, what does grace look like in the classroom, and why is is so critical? (more…)
What is the difference between empathy, sympathy and compassion?
Which is more important in the classroom, in our home, in the world…in life?
Take a look at the etymology of the three words below, and decide which you think is most important and most needed in the classroom today.
empathy – from Greek empatheia, “passion” or “state of emotion”
sympathy – from Late Latin sympathia, “community of feeling” or “fellow feelings”
compassion – from Late Latin compati, “with pity” or “suffer together”
Do a search on the three, and you will get a myriad of definitions and interpretations.
Nonetheless, they are all intertwined and an essential part of the human heart, in making connections, in nurturing relationships and in supporting personal growth.
Let’s first look at empathy vs. sympathy, which many consider to be the same.
According to the research of Dr. Brené Brown, “empathy fuels connection, sympathy drives disconnection.”
With empathy, we see and feel the vulnerability in the other person and, as a result, offer them our presence, understanding and love. There is no judgment, just a sensation in the body that says, “I feel your pain and suffering, and you are not alone.”
With sympathy, we see the pain and try to fix it or offer up a “silver lining” by often starting off with the expression, “well, at least…”.
Sympathy in the classroom looks like this:
Teacher A says, “OMG, I am so upset! My kids did really poorly on that test. I don’t understand what happened. We all worked so hard, and they seemed to understand.”
Teacher B says, “Yeah, I know what you mean. My kids did poorly too, but I’m not going to let it upset me. My kids are just lazy and don’t do what they are supposed to do.”
Empathy in the classroom looks like this:
Teacher A says, “OMG, I am so upset!. My kids did really poorly on that test. I don’t understand what happened. We all worked so hard, and they seemed to understand.”
Teacher B says, “Yeah, I feel that way too. I completely understand what you mean. My kids did poorly too, and I am still trying to figure out what we could have done differently too.”
It seems to me that the entire teaching profession, on the inside and the outside, has an overabundance of sympathy and not enough empathy.
It seems everyone has a solution of what to do, how to fix the broken system, and magically make teachers and students happy and whole again.
From the outside looking in to the classroom:
Teacher: I am so exhausted. I am working so hard and can barely stay afloat.
Parent/community: Well, at least you have your summers off, and you can rest then.
Teacher: I am struggling to make ends meet for my family on a teacher’s salary.
Parent/community: Hmmmm, maybe you could not spend so much money on supplies
for your classroom or give up that latté on your way to school.
I invite you all, especially if you are a teacher, to listen to the conversations going on in the classroom and outside the classroom. They could be in emails, casual conversations at the grocery store, gossip at a party or a sporting event…anywhere interpersonal communication is happening.
Write them down for more impact to your heart because some of them are horrific, unfair, unfounded and trauma-inducing!
So, where does compassion come in?
Do you remember the song, Joy in My Heart?
It starts like this: “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.”
So many teachers and students do not feel the joy down in their hearts these days.
It is a struggle now more than ever for everyone because of the pandemic. Joy seems to have left the classroom like “Elvis has left the building”. Especially at this time of the school year, there is a prevalent feeling of “the music has stopped, and the concert is over!” A mood of “I’m done!”
I won’t go into detail and describe the atmosphere and culture of current feelings in the classroom because I think everyone already knows and understands what it is like.
I want to focus more on how we can dig deep down in our hearts and find that joy again.
This is what Maya Angelou has to say about joy:
“Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his/her own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time he/she takes up and the space that he/she occupies.You share it! When you continue to give it away, you will still have so much more of it!”
There is an overwhelming cry from the hearts of teachers to be free. “I just want to teach.” has become an ironic cliché in education. Teachers feel so burdened and overwhelmed and unappreciated and unsupported and….(name the emotion).
So, how can we bring forth more joy into the classroom, and why is it so important?
This is a really, REALLY tough time of year for teachers and students.
They come back from Spring Break only to face testing and admin in overdrive and red-lining their list of demands to “wrap things up” for this school year. *note – the definition of redlining is: “drive with (a car engine) at or above its rated maximum rpm or revolutions per minute”
Yep…sounds about right! Teachers and students are being driven to their maximum limits.
As a result, anxiety, anger, frustration, shaming, blaming, screaming and all other kinds of negative and “ugly” human behaviors are raging through schools.
And in a pandemic… well, that is just adding gas on an already out of control, raging fire!
So, what can teachers, students, parents, admin and everyone do right now?
Remember that love conquers all…love makes the world go round (revolutions)…all you need is love…
and the epitome of all quotes on love…
Love is love is love is love is love…. such simple, yet powerful words spoken by Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Tony Awards in 2016 following the Pulse Night Club shootings in Orlando, FL.
You can watch the speech here, but I’ll warn you…have a box of tissue handy!
This gets me every.single.time because it touches a place deep in my teacher heart about loving ALL children just they way they are, as Mister Rogers taught us.
Love them ALL…no matter what! There are days when it is so hard to do this in the classroom because of too many demands made on us as teachers.
Too much stress due to too many demands.
Too many emotions to process and deal with because of too many demands.
Too much testing and judging and shaming and blaming and… you get the picture.
Everything is too much, and yet not enough. It echoes through the halls and permeates the walls of every classroom, that is, if we will allow it to do so!!!
There are preventive measures, however, which are at the heart and spirit of teaching. I will be exploring some of these preventive measures and powerful antidotes in my upcoming blog posts. I actually started with the last post on kindness. You can check it out here.
What does LOVE look like in the classroom?
This poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sums it up:
“Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden, and keep out the weeds. Fill it with sunshine, kind words and kind deeds.”
The etymology and meaning of kind is ”class, sort, variety,” from Old English gecynd “kind, nature, race,” related to cynn “family” (kin)
Kind, kindred, kindergarten, kin…all related.
This is how school should be. This is how the world should be.
It should be our nature, part of our race, part of our family, part of the class.
I long to see more kindness toward each other. All of the stress in the classroom is causing there to be more unkind thoughts, words and deeds.
But I don’t believe that there are unkind hearts…in children or in their teachers.
I just think the pressure and the stress are causing all of us to think, say and do things that are not coming from the heart, but rather, from the mind. A mind that is flooded with cortisol and anxiety and fear and anger and made-up stories and perceptions that are being created from the negative input from social media, television, news, music, violent video games, unreasonable and unreal expectations, etc.
What should kindness look like in the classroom?
“Transformation” means “to change form; trans = cross over, to go across”.
What we learn should transform us. It should empower us to cross over any boundaries or obstacles in order to get to the other side.
It should give us the “lentes nuevos” (“new lenses”, which is a reference to past blog posts) that we need in order to transform and see more clearly…that which we need to change, that which we do not need to change and to acquire the wisdom in our hearts to know the difference. The Serenity Prayer, basically.
Like all things in life, we have gone full circle in our SPIRIT journey. We have gone through the SPIRIT process, step-by-step. And through that process, we have crossed over many barriers and overcome many obstacles.
But, transformation is not the end of our journey.
We are still not perfect. The world is not perfect. There are just new obstacles or problems.
And most of us, honestly, are really good at re-cycling or hunkering down in past obstacles and problems. We have not crossed over into any new form of being and doing in the world.
So, we will find ourselves back where we started our SPIRIT Journey with serenity because we are overwhelmed and overcome in our minds by the problems and obstacles. And we just circle back to journey through the process again…and again…and again because we are human, and we are not perfect and change is a part of life. Everything is dynamic.
The human learning journey both in and out of the classroom is a spiral…we learn a little, grow a little wiser and get a little better at living our life each time.
Learning is not a “one-’n-done” deal. We never really master anything. The concept of seeking mastery or worse yet, perfection, is one of life’s biggest deceptions and cruelest ironies. (more…)
Once we dig deeper into our souls through the practice of introspection, we must then become consciously aware of the essence of who we truly are and, from there, set our intentions.
It is all about alignment and balance.
We are able to make an action plan to align our actions and words with the essence of our being…who we truly are and how we want to show up in the world.
Ask Deepak Chopra teaches us, “where our intention goes, energy flows”.
It is a basic principle of our True Spirit. And keep in mind, it is applicable to both positive and negative energy.
From etymonline.com:
…..“Intention” from “late 14c., entencioun, “purpose, design, aim, object, will, wish, desire
…..noun of action from intendere “to turn one’s attention,” literally “to stretch out”
…..In Middle English “emotion, feelings; heart, mind, mental faculties, understanding.”
So many meaningful and powerful words here behind “intention”.
If my attention is on who I truly am, my purpose, my wishes and my heart, then I CAN CHOOSE a conscious and well-meant (intended) response as opposed to a reaction.
“Response” comes from Latin “responsum” meaning “an answer” or “a promise in return” or “to pledge back”
As opposed to “reaction” which is “an action in resistance or response to another action or power”.
When we set our intentions from who we truly are and we respond with a choice from there, from our soul, from our True Spirit, we are setting a promise to ourselves to bring things into alignment with our integrity and maintain balance in our lives. Remember the origin of “integrity” being from “whole” and “pure”?
However, when we choose to react, like a knee-jerk reaction, it is an automated response from a conditioned painful place that is residing deep in the shadows of our subconscious mind.
I find it real interesting that the term “reaction time” came into our lexicon during the late 1800’s when the great psychologists like Wundt, Freud, Pavlov and Jung began exploring the psychology of humans. Were they onto something?
Reaction time is the “time elapsing between the action of an external stimulus and the giving of a signal in reply”
So, it is in that magic moment of time
between the EXTERNAL STIMULUS and the INTERNAL SIGNAL
that makes all the difference in the world.
In that magic moment of time, the power behind our intention rules the outcome and determines the experience we will have.
Our intentions create our reality!!!
Let that sink in a minute, and then, let’s dig deeper… (more…)
When I was deciding on what concepts each letter of SPIRIT would represent, I considered “reflection” as one for the “R”. However, the more I pondered my experience on the Camino and the lessons I had learned in life, the more I realized that reflection was not enough. There was a deeper learning; a deeper journey; a deeper knowing.
So, like any teacher, who is also a lifelong learner, I did some research. I also asked some friends what they thought about their learning journeys. This is what I discovered.
Some people use the terms self-awareness, self-reflection and introspection interchangeably. There has been a lot of research done on all three, and it has been determined that they are really not the same. My personal and professional experiences tell me they are not the same either.
According to Positive Psychology,
“Self-reflection is one’s ability to willingly examine one’s thought and feelings and reflect on what they mean”.
“Introspection is the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings”.
“Self-awareness is the achievement of practicing self-reflection and the exercise of introspection.”
Clear as mud, right? Stay with me here because it is a process that, when understood, leads to a more spiritual and fulfilling path to peace and bliss. Also, it is one of the greatest lessons I have learned in life. (more…)
“Reality” means “the quality of being real.” It is also defined as “sincerity”.
REAL has its roots in Latin, from “res” meaning “thing”. Then, in the early 14c., “actually existing, true;” mid-15c., “relating to things”.
“Real” meaning “genuine” is recorded from the 1550s, and today, we use it to mean “authentic”, like when we say “are you for real?”
We also use “real” to emphasize the significance of something, like when we say something is a real problem or a real pain in the…well, you get the picture!
Perhaps, in summary, I could say that to be REAL means to be AUTHENTIC, TRUE and SIGNIFICANT.
I spent my entire teaching career trying to make learning for students real and meaningful, full of purpose and connections to the real world and relating everything to their personal worlds and how that fit into the bigger picture of humanity.
Years of research and personal experience taught me that if students don’t see a “REAL reason to learn this stuff”, then, they will not own it. It just becomes part of a virtual reality. I think that is what is going on right now with online learning. It doesn’t feel or seem like “real school”, but even more so, what they are being asked to “learn” is rote, prescribed, computer-generated, impersonal and disconnected…not real.
The same is true for teachers. Teaching has become so prescribed and scripted that most teachers don’t REALly understand what they are supposed to be teaching or what the students are REALly supposed to be learning.
What is important, significant and meaningful for students to learn in school? What is for real, and what is just for a test? What are we teaching them about being kind and loving human beings? Where are the connections and the community?
“Integration”, means “the act of bringing together the parts of a whole,” from Late Latin integrationem “renewal, restoration,” and from past participle stem of Latin integrare “make whole, renew, begin again”.
There is a lot of talk in education about integration, but in many different, and sometimes confusing, ways.
Integration (with inclusion) means that exceptional students are being partially taught in the mainstream classroom and that activities are adapted so that these students can “fit in” with their mainstream peers…to make part of the whole.
Then, there is an integrated curriculum, which allows children to pursue learning in a holistic (whole) way and brings out the interconnectedness of all curricular areas.
Integrated skills focuses on the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking through a holistic communicative language teaching approach bringing all these skills together and not used in isolation.
There’s also integrated lessons, integrated technology, integrated classroom, integrated schools, integrated teaching, integrated learning, integrated data, integrated systems, integrated “you name it”.
There are so many buzz words in education that incorporate the word "integrated". So, why is that? And is the word "integration" related to the word "integrity"?
The concept of making connections and bringing those parts together to make a whole lot of sense out of things when learning so that we can move up Bloom’s Taxonomy and apply them to our lives and the real world is the key to lifelong learning and becoming a whole, well-rounded, self-actualized (Maslow’s Hierarchy) human being.
But are we truly applying the concept of integration faithfully and truly in education? Are we maintaining our integrity in the use and application of the word?
Serenity – “mid-15c., “clear, calm,” from Latin serenus “peaceful, calm, clear, unclouded” (of weather), figuratively “cheerful, glad, tranquil.” How can we find serenity when…
There is a lot going on in teaching these days.
There is a lot going on in the world.
There is a lot going on inside of each of us.
Teachers, students, parents, administrators, the world…
EVERY ONE needs more calm and peace and serenity.
There is too much expected in too little time and too few resources or too little support or just TOO…TOO much, TOO little TO DO or TO BE. The perspective has changed from a place of abundance to a place of lack and Taking On Obstacles (TOO) that are constantly being placed before us.
Everything is a challenge to be overcome. There is struggle in everything we do. There is no natural flow of curiosity, gradual growth and exploratory learning. Where has all the joy gone? Why is passion now a curse in teaching?
The forecast in education is always stormy weather, stormy seas, dark clouds, high winds, lightening strikes and doom. Teachers feel like they are either in the middle of a tornado and have to escape to the shelter underground and hide or that they are being swept away and drowned by a tsunami-sized flooding of paperwork, meetings, to-do lists, checklists, deadlines, emails and expectations.
How can we as human beings, let alone super-human teacher beings, survive the stormy seas of education?
We ask our students all the time to “pay attention”. Why?
What is our intention behind the request?
What results are we expecting?
What does attention look like, and how do we know/measure it?
What purpose does “paying attention” serve?
Attention-attentive-attend to… from attendere "give heed to," literally "to stretch toward," from ad "to, toward" + tendere “stretch."
As teachers, we have to pay attention to a lot of things. One of the first things administrators look for when evaluating a teacher is “with-it-ness”. Are they paying attention to the things that we think they should be paying attention to?
“With-it-ness” is really just another word for “awareness”. To be aware of something is to be awakened and open to what is going on, and then, from there to make choices. What choices are we making as teachers?
There is great power in community. And by power, I mean the energy of the heart that connects us through our common humanity The energy of support, encouragement, validation, guidance, compassion and love of the “me” that I see in “you”.
Common = “belonging to all” + unity = “state of being one.” We can all come together, communicate, connect and learn from one another.
There is no curriculum map for life’s learning journey.
There are just lessons to be learned and to be shared in community.
We all need support, encouragement, validation, guidance, compassion and love. We need to be inspired. We need to be lifted up. We need to reach out and make a difference by touching the hearts of others.
As teachers and students are heading back to school,
with many questions, few answers and a lot of anxiety,
what can we do to tap into the power of this community and help?
PLEASE CLICK ON "MORE" TO ENGAGE AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER!!!