Sunday, February 28, 2010

To all the educators out there

My principal emailed this to the staff. One of the best things she's ever sent.


WHAT DO TEACHERS MAKE?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.

One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued,
"What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in
life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Barbara .
Be honest. What do you make?"

Barbara, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want
to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

"I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't
make them sit for 5 without an iPod, Game Cube or movie rental.

"You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and
every person at the table) I make kids wonder. I make them question.

"I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take
responsibility for their actions.

"I teach them to write and then I make them write.
Keyboarding isn't everything.I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain,
not the man-made calculator.

"I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to
know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

"I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in
the United States of America.

"Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given,
work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

Barbara paused one last time and then continued.

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money
isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because
they are ignorant.

"You want to know what I make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

Friday, February 12, 2010

High Praise

As I've blogged before, I'm truly grateful for social media. It has helped me reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with current friends and family, and meet new people and organizations.

Recently, I was "chatting" with my nephew on Facebook. (He's away for his first year of college - Facebook is a godsend.) Some how, the chat turned to the seasons. I told him how Fall was my favorite and a few reasons why: the spectacular, brilliant colors; the crisp air - cool enough for sweaters yet warm enough to leave the coat at home; the crunch of leaves under your feet; the light smell of burning wood as fireplaces are brought to life.

In response, my wonderful, beautiful, artistic nephew replied, "Auntie, you should write a book; maybe a book of poetry."

By far, this was some of the highest praise my writing has ever received. To think that a young, gifted, talent such as my nephew would be interested at all in me or my writing was pretty special. Yes ... he's my nephew. Yes ... he loves me. Yes ... he may be a bit biased. But ... still ... he didn't have to comment at all.

Thank you, Junior, for caring enough to comment. This post if for you. My little way of saying "Thank You" and "Happy Birthday".

Much love.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Oprah vs. Opera

Well, I read my last post - after it was up, of course, and realized that I had spelled Oprah. Oprah, if you're out there and you just happened to stumble across my blog and just happened to be bored enough to read it, please accept my sincere apologies. " : )

As you may have noticed, I am a bad speller. No ... really ... a horrible speller. I have been all of my life. I can remember being in 3rd grade and purposely mis-spelling a word I knew so that I could be out of the spelling bee before I was really embarrassed. Then, there was 5th grade when the only solace after a Friday spelling test was getting to hear my teacher read "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". I let the world of Narnia take be away from the reality that I had failed a spelling test ... again. I think it was around middle school - maybe even high school - when I realized that I had spelled "tomorrow" wrong my whole life and no one seemed to tell me until then.

My wonderful, loving grandmother, who raised me and was a special education teacher, would tell me to "look it up" when I asked her to help me spell a word. What! Look it up? Like in a dictionary? If any of you out there are non-spellers, you can appreciate the irony of this form of "help". For those of you who have the natural affinity for spelling and may not understand, let me help you. When you cannot spell a word, the absolute worse thing you can do is tell the person to go "look it up"! If I don't know how to SPELL the word, what makes you think I can LOOK UP the word! Again, I say "seriously". I was such a bad speller that I could be looking through the entire section of "T's" before finding "tomorrow". And don't get me started if the word started with a vowel!

Thankfully, sometime during my college years, I discovered this wonderful thing called "spell check". It saved my spelling life. finally, there was something that could help me with my poor spelling. You see, I can read the word; I just can't spell it. During school, my reading level was always several grades ahead while my spelling was several grades below. Something my special educator grandmother recognized as probably a mild learning disability but never bothered to tell me until I was in my 20s.

The good news is that my poor spelling never held me back. I finished high school, went onto college, and am now a teacher. Before teaching, I was even a secretary, believe it or not. I was able to overcome my "learning disability" or whatever it is. Thankfully, I had a supportive family who never, for one moment, made me think that I would be anything less but successful.

Think about this the next time you encounter one of your students who just doesn't seem to get a concept, Yet again. After explaining it for the 5th time. Yes, this child could be the most annoying person who, if he would just pay attention, would be able to learn what you are teaching. Then again, she may be just like me. Intelligent, capable, curious, talented. Just a really lousy speller.