We made it through the first full week of school! It was a hard week, but we persevered and made it through most subjects and even tested in a few subjects. It was a great time to practice procedures and correct behaviors. This was all made very simple by the hard work of our PBIS team. A PBIS Student handbook was given to each child at open house. I will post in more detail in weeks to come on our progress. If you need to look at the handbook click the file below.
Onto week 2 in our “Keep the Quote” series in Mr. Bradshaw’s classroom. Thanks for all the positive comments that have been offered since last week. Our blog had well over 600 visits since the first posting last week. A few things to add this week on the series:
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” --Maori Proverb (New Zealand)
Wow! So simple, but so moving. I was quite surprised that many of my students already understood the meaning to this quote, for the most part. This proverb teaches the value of optimism and positive thinking. Both optimistic and pessimistic are words that after you say several times, the teacher seems to get tongue tied very easily! It was quite hilarious. I do the best I can, what can I say? We talked about when we face the sun that the shadow we cast lies directly behind us. I encouraged the students to test this when they were at recess this morning. After recess, I had several students report that, indeed, they never saw their shadows until they put their back to the sun.
Just as when we turn to the sun and the dark shadows are thrown behind us, so is life when we focus on good and positive things. The bad and negative things are put behind us. It was then that I saw several light bulbs go on. We only do harm to ourselves by holding on to negative thoughts.
I asked the kids to think of some dark shadows that follow them and disrupt their day at school and to to think of ways they could face the sun to get rid of them. I choose this week to keep my students responses private as many of them came straight from their heart. I’ve discovered that reading their responses while they are in class with me is something I can’t do. I physically can’t do it. I have to process these reflections privately.
My students know that I’m blogging on each Keep the Quote. As we sat waiting on the 2:59 dismissal bell, I asked what they wanted the world to know about this week’s quote. I close with this:
“Walk toward the sun and never look back--the uglies are back there and they will try to ruin your day.”
Next Monday is a holiday. We’ll be back with week three’s quote on Tuesday. I hope you are a movie lover. Specifically musical movies--We travel to Hollywood for next week’s quote.
Love,
Mr. B
Onto week 2 in our “Keep the Quote” series in Mr. Bradshaw’s classroom. Thanks for all the positive comments that have been offered since last week. Our blog had well over 600 visits since the first posting last week. A few things to add this week on the series:
- The kids love this!
- I’ve incorporated each saying into a reflective informal writing piece on Fridays. I’m collecting this and we are making a notebook of quotes. I’ve turned the quote into a coloring page and the writing is done on the back. I hope this is something they will look back to and enjoy for many years to come.
- We are mapping our locations so we can see how far the quotes take us this year.
- These quotes are meaningful to my students, but they also make my fellow coworkers think deeply.
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” --Maori Proverb (New Zealand)
Wow! So simple, but so moving. I was quite surprised that many of my students already understood the meaning to this quote, for the most part. This proverb teaches the value of optimism and positive thinking. Both optimistic and pessimistic are words that after you say several times, the teacher seems to get tongue tied very easily! It was quite hilarious. I do the best I can, what can I say? We talked about when we face the sun that the shadow we cast lies directly behind us. I encouraged the students to test this when they were at recess this morning. After recess, I had several students report that, indeed, they never saw their shadows until they put their back to the sun.
Just as when we turn to the sun and the dark shadows are thrown behind us, so is life when we focus on good and positive things. The bad and negative things are put behind us. It was then that I saw several light bulbs go on. We only do harm to ourselves by holding on to negative thoughts.
I asked the kids to think of some dark shadows that follow them and disrupt their day at school and to to think of ways they could face the sun to get rid of them. I choose this week to keep my students responses private as many of them came straight from their heart. I’ve discovered that reading their responses while they are in class with me is something I can’t do. I physically can’t do it. I have to process these reflections privately.
My students know that I’m blogging on each Keep the Quote. As we sat waiting on the 2:59 dismissal bell, I asked what they wanted the world to know about this week’s quote. I close with this:
“Walk toward the sun and never look back--the uglies are back there and they will try to ruin your day.”
Next Monday is a holiday. We’ll be back with week three’s quote on Tuesday. I hope you are a movie lover. Specifically musical movies--We travel to Hollywood for next week’s quote.
Love,
Mr. B
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