When Assuming the Best is the Worst When Assuming the Best is the Worst Assume the best about others until history says assume the worst. Believe history not hope. Before you go with the hope that they’ll pull through, ask yourself, what’s changed since the last time they fell short. “Bad” hope makes you passive. If nothing’s changed, nothing will change. Expectation History predicts the future. Expect more of the same, unless there are concrete reasons to anticipate something different. More of the same now results in more of the same later. “I’m going to change next time,” is gobbledygook. Everyone who offers reasons why change is better tomorrow, will do the same thing tomorrow. Present Present behavior predicts the future. Close your ears to what they’re saying. 5 reasons assuming the best is the worst: Nothings changed since the last failure or disappointment. Hope is not a strategy for building the future. If you don’t see action, take action. How has hoping for the best gone wrong in your leadership journey? Like this:
7 Unfortunate Habits of Unhappy People Email Everyone experiences unhappy times on occasion, but there is a big difference between experiencing a temporary bout of sadness and living a habitually unhappy life. That’s what chronically unhappy people do. Even if you are generally a happy person, take a look at these seven habits to determine if any of them are keeping you from experiencing greater amounts of joy. 1. Don’t play it so safe that you put yourself in situations where none of your potential options satisfy your calling. Your dream is your creative vision for your future life. 2. You will inevitably become who you believe yourself to be. If you spend enough time saying, “I’m not smart enough, thin enough and rich enough,” it’s likely that you will someday be right. 3. Sometimes people put too much interest into trying to control every tiny aspect of their lives. Freeing yourself from trying to control the insignificant things lets you experience more of the good stuff around you. 4. 5. So don’t take things for granted.
Behaviour Management: A Bill Rogers Top 10 Behaviour Management Strategies from Bill Rogers Without doubt the greatest personal challenge I’ve faced as a teacher was moving from the Sixth Form college in Wigan where I started teaching, to Holland Park School in London in my mid-20s. Having established the idea in my mind that I was a pretty good teacher, it was a massive shock to discover that in my new context, I was a novice. Later I discovered the seminal Bill Rogers’ video series and watched them back-to-back. The series titles give a flavour of the Bill Rogers approach: I can’t do justice to it all in one post, but here are my highlights. Top Ten Ideas from Bill Rogers 1. The Black Dot in a White Square: What do you focus on? It is often necessary to get class or individual behaviour into perspective in order to maintain a positive atmosphere in the class. The class is awfulThe group never works sensiblyThe student is unable to behaveEveryone is being too noisy 2. This is so simple but packs a punch. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
9 Powerful Ways to Spend a Day Email All the time given to you in life is valuable; you just have to know what to do with it. Let’s make it count. Shall we? Starting today, spend more time… 1. The uneducated belief in something false that someone tells you is the greatest enemy of your own truth. The best thing you can do for yourself is to think for yourself. 2. If you’re not a little bit uncomfortable on a daily basis it means you’re not growing. Every aspect of physical and emotional growth arrives from outside your comfort zone. The road less traveled is sometimes laden with potholes, bumps, and unexplored territory. 3. Throughout this beautiful day you have hundreds of little opportunities to move your life in the direction you want it to go. Participate in your dreams today. 4. Stick to it and keep moving forward, even when the path gets rough. Many of your greatest achievements will be realized when you’re completely exhausted and discouraged but still working. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Photo by: SnaPsi
Discipline: Teacher Focused vs Student Focused Discipline can be filtered into two trains of thought: teacher focused and student focused. What is it? Pretty straight forward. Teacher focused educators believe discipline is about punishing kids for their behavior, and removing them from class makes it easier to teach their content. Student focused educators believe their jobs are to teach kids (Math, Art, Science, Spanish, Behavior, etc.), and that is challenging to do if students are removed from their instruction. Who “does” it? What is the foundation of it? Behavior is… Teacher focused educators believe behavior is a choice. Teacher becomes frustrated when… Teacher focused educators feel punishments should match how upset they were with the student’s infraction, and that the behavior should be immediately corrected by administration. Scenario: Today we’re working on quadratic equations.
10 Simple Truths Smart People Forget Email Some of the smartest people I know continuously struggle to get ahead because they forget to address a few simple truths that collectively govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder: #1 – Education and intelligence accomplish nothing without action. It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action. #2 – Happiness and success are two different things. I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a million dollars online last year. I also know a surfer who surfs almost all day, every day on the beach in front of our condo complex in San Diego. “What will make me happy?” #3 – Everyone runs their own business. No matter how you make a living or who you think you work for, you only work for one person, yourself. So how can you simultaneously save your time and increase your profit? is a good read on this topic. And that’s okay. Photo by: Alemdag
A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation by Terry Heick When researching student motivation and gamification late last year, I came across the most comprehensive gamification framework I’ve ever seen. Developed by gamification expert Yu-kai Chou, it was an ambitious effort that distinguished black hat gamification (which is “bad”–think Farmville and Candy Crush) from white hat gamification (which is “good”–think Minecraft or even an ACT score). (It’s also copyrighted, but they graciously allowed us to use it.) While it is designed not as an educational framework, but rather as a way to demonstrate gamification and its many strands, gamification is about human encouragement and motivation. So what began as a post about gamification became more a matter of student motivation–what motivates students in the classroom and why. 8 Core Drives Of Student Motivation 1) Epic Meaning & Calling Educator takeaways? 2) Development & Accomplishment Educator takeaways? Educator takeaways?
8 Happy Ways to Spend 80 Years Email In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. -Abraham Lincoln Eighty years is currently the average life span in the West. 1. Do yourself this favor before it’s too late. Traveling has less to do with seeing things, as it does with experiencing them. The thing about traveling to new places is that you run into your insecurities and fears around every twist and turn. 2. When you strike that fine balance between the challenge of an activity and your skill at performing it, when the rhythm of your work feels in sync with your purpose, when you know that what you’re doing makes a difference, you become absorbed in the task at hand to the point where time ceases to exist. So is there anything you do on a regular basis that makes you forget what time it is? That forgetting, or optimal experience of pure absorption, is what the psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi calls “flow.” 3. 4. Security is mostly an illusion. 5. 6. 7. 8. Photo by: Angela Sevin
The 15 Best Classroom Management Books If you're not already part of the conversation over at the We Are Teachers HELPLINE, you're missing out! Every day, teachers from all over the world give and receive advice, share great teaching tips, and weigh in on tough topics for a daily dose of inspiration you can count on. This week, student teacher Mariah asked for recommendations for the best books and programs for help with classroom management. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 1-2-3 Magic by Thomas W. 14. 15.
10 Motivational Quotes and Tips for Hard Times Email Just a few motivational quotes and tips for those hard times when you need a quick dose of inspiration. 1. Accepting Life’s Challenges “The brick walls are there for a reason. In every life there are great challenges, and in every challenge there are great doses of life to be lived. Whether you judge a challenge to be a problem or an opportunity says more about you than about the challenge itself. Do something extraordinary. 2. “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” When you’re young you have this fantasy that super successful adults – writers, musicians, doctors, businessmen, etc. – have some kind of magical chest of tools allowing them to build masterpieces that are larger than life. But then you grow up and you realize, for the most part, everyone is working with the same set of imperfect, rusty, old tools – desire, commitment, honesty, kindness, love, persistence, etc. 3. “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.