Another throwback for your reading pleasure! I hope you are enjoying your holidays with friends and/or family. See you next week for the final post of the year!
I have been a teacher for the last 13 years or so (yes, I came late into the game). My husband made me realize that I had a knack for talking/reaching kids, after a long term sub assignment, in middle school no less, and should pursue a career in education. I readily agreed and got busy earning my master’s degree. Once accomplished I taught five years in middle school and then Rick’s work moved us back to Texas. I was shocked to find that I could not find a job. Seriously! Lo and behold there was an opening at the local junior college and I jumped at it. It’s where I’ve been for eight years. God had a plan for me, I’m convinced.
While I love teaching college classes, I see sooo many parallels with all teachers as far as expectations are concerned. Allison and I talked today and she shared a situation (there really are way more than one on any given day!) with one of her students. He was a challenge, but she had built a relationship with him. He got in trouble and she held him accountable. He apologized. Say what? Yep! I think it’s about expectations.
Our students aren’t the same–and yet, they are. My students are older, have graduated from high school (some are returning students with families), but they still struggle. Life has a way of throwing you curves and no students are immune. I had one student tell me today that her mom got in a wreck on Monday and she has had to take care of her and did not have her rough draft in to me today. Whoa. She was almost in tears. Stop. “Email it to me today, okay?” I told her and she happily agreed.
Situations. Expectations. Hold the bar high. Make them reach it. I LOVE this quote from Jimmy Duggan from one of my favorite movies, A League of Their Own:
It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.
Teachers keep up their expectations no matter what–the age, the situations, the attitudes. Nope. We don’t take anything less than what you are capable of. I thought of this today:
I’m not going to set the bar so low that you can reach it. I’m going to set it high so you have to jump for it.
Are you setting your bar high enough?
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Allison’s Take:
Turns out that the “job” is also to promote positive leadership. Our Instructional Leadership Team is doing a book study on leadership. We’ve discussed all kinds of things from how to lead to how to encourage others to be leaders. Well in this position it’s pretty much expected that I am the “positive role model” on my team. Now, I feel like I typically am a “glass half full” kind of person (my husband might say I wear rose colored glasses…). Yes, there are things that get me down, and yes, I yell at my kids almost every day, but overall, I feel like I’m a pretty positive person. However, there are some people in my life that tend to be of the “glass half empty” mentality. I’m sure you all have those. The ones who can find a negative in ANYTHING! “Hey, there are free donuts in the teacher’s lounge!” “Ya, but all the chocolate ones are gone.” or “3 day weekend coming up!” “Ya, but the kids are always worse after a 3 day weekend” Ugh.
(I know, I know…), but something about this article really hit home. It’s called, 
No matter which person you are, glass half full or glass half empty, at the end of the day we all have a decision to make. What do you want to be tomorrow? Do you want to be someone that brings everyone around them up? Someone who is encouraging, happy, positive, and fun to be around? Or do you want to be that person that can find negative in anything? The person who lowers the mood in the room, and leaves others feeling bummed when they leave the conversation? We all have things that happen in our lives. Definitely some are worse than others. But it’s how you handle those things that really determines who you are. Are you a marigold or a walnut?
Lezlie’s take:
It is often referred to as “the poor man’s frankincense.” This is a terrific oil for skin care: it helps minimize wrinkles, evens skin tone, and when added to skin cream helps with scars and sun damage.
Allison’s Take:
Habits tend to be thought of as negative. Biting nails, procrastination, sleeping in, eating fast food, and even negativity are a few of the most common. They are the reason people make resolutions. To attempt to combat that habit. To change their lives by changing the “bad habits” they have developed. But what do we know about resolutions? Yup. They are hardly ever followed past January. As we get ready to start our new school year, I’ve been thinking about some things I want to change this year (some “bad habits” if you will…)
In order to change those bad habits, you have to replace them with something else. Find another way to de-stress other than biting your nails. Take a warm bath, read a good book, focus on deep and calming breaths, practice yoga, work out. Whatever it takes! Having a hard time getting ANYWHERE on time? Plan for the unexpected… (especially if you have kids like mine, who can NEVER find shoes 10 minutes after I ALREADY put them on their feet. And for whatever reason walk to the car in sloooooowwwwww motion) Set an alarm for earlier, not only pack lunches/backpacks the night before, but actually put them in the car, set an alarm to start loading the car 10 minutes before you actually need to…
Junkets and Jewels 