7 Habits (In Classrooms)

"To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground." - Stephen R. Covey

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If you haven't read Stephen R. Covey's book titled The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and don't intend to do so any time soon, I suggest that you check out this link right now. Unfortunately, I didn't read his book until my third year in college. I really wish that I had been able to implement his thoughts into my life at a much earlier point. 

No matter what grade I'm teaching, I hope to implement these 7 concepts into the lives of my students. If they are older, then I will use the book itself to help them understand them. If they are younger, I will use a site similar to this. Along with that, I will try to hang up posters or make bookmarks so that they can see the 7 habits again and again.

Here's a recap of the 7 habits: 

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

I hope that you're able to better your lives (or your families' lives) by making these 7 habits yours. 

Have a wonderful day. :)

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"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." QuickMBA. QuickMBA.com. Web. 31 May 2013. <http://www.quickmba.com/mgmt/7hab/>.

"The 7 Habits of Happy Kids." The Leader in Me. Franklin Covey Education. Web. 31 May 2013. <http://www.theleaderinme.org/the-7-habits-for-kids>.

Promoting Diversity

"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." - Jimmy Carter

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Although I know that my classroom will be more diverse than many other that I've seen,  but I want to make sure that I promote diversity in the classroom nonetheless. Again, I know that I have to wait until I have been assigned to a classroom to figure out exactly what will work in my class, but I want to put together a list of ideas so that I can refer to it at a later point. 

Here is a list of ideas that could work online, but I definitely want to research a few more. Some ideas that I've heard about throughout the years.

• Hold a cultural night where parents come in and celebrate their culture with the classroom. We could have tables set up with posters, food samples, etc. so that everyone can experience new things.
• Allow parents to come into the classroom major holidays that they celebrate so that the students can also celebrate.
• Have students select different countries that they can research about & then allow them to present what they learned in front of their peers. 
• Continue to mix up classroom groups so that students learn to work with everyone.
• Do my favorite stereotypes activity. I will post about this at a later point to explain it properly, but we've done this a few times and it works well for all ages.
• Invite people of all backgrounds at different times to visit our classroom so that my students can be introduced to people from all lifestyles. 

I want to make sure that I don't only focus on "cultural" diversity since there are so many other differences between all of us that we should embrace. 

Have a wonderful day. :)

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"10 Ways for Promoting Diversity in the Classroom."Growing Up Bilingual Raising & Educating Bicultural Kids. World Press, 08 Oct 2011. Web. 30 May 2013.

Door Decorations

"I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened and I am not afraid to look behind them." - Elizabeth Taylor

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I loved walking into the classroom every first day of the month and seeing how the teacher had decorated the door. I guess I never realized that it took planning & effort, but if I have my own classroom that I don't share, I really want to make the most of it. Here are some ideas that I'm looking into:

• September - Autumn
• October - Halloween
• November - Thanksgiving
• December - Holidays (Not just one), Winter Wonderland
• January - Winter Wonderland, The New year
• February - Valentine's day
• March - Spring 
• April - [The Students Can Come Up With a Theme!] 
• May - Memorial Day 
• June - Summer Fun

Most of these are super "cliche" so I'm hoping to come up with better ideas before the school year. If you have any, please share them.

Have a wonderful day. :) 

Birthday Fun

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

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Think back to pre-school or Kindergarden...however far back your memory takes you. Do you remember celebrating your birthday every year? In pre-school, my mom came into the classroom and we had a delicious cake (well it looks delicious in the pictures) for the class. That day, I was given a crown to wear all day! In elementary school, I brought in cupcakes or munchkins or donuts every single year for my classmates. I was then allowed to select a friend with whom I would walk around the school, passing around my desserts to other teachers and faculty. I would always receive pencils, stickers and/or other goodies. 

Many years later, I realize that I really miss those days! As a teacher, I want to bring some of that back into my classroom. I know that I'll have to follow rules & regulations that my school has, but I want to make my students feel special. So far, I have purchased "Happy Birthday" pencils. :) I've thought about dorky hats, but I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. I guess it really depends on the grade I end up teaching. 

Although this is only the beginning of my brainstorming, here is a list of things that other teachers do in their classrooms. 

Of all the things that I am considering, there is one thing that I will most definitely not be able to do in this generation. In first grade, I had Ms. Hickman. On birthdays, she would have the birthday child bend over, while she smacked them on his/her butt with a bat. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous but it's true. It happened. I can only imagine the parents that would sue me for something like that now! (And honestly, I can't even think about doing such a thing...) 

I welcome your thoughts. I'd love to hear how your teachers celebrated your birthday in the past.

Have a wonderful day. :)

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"Fun Ways of Celebrating Birthday." . Scholastic Inc., Online Posting to Scholastic Instructor. Web. 30 May. 2013.<http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/fun-ways-celebrating-birthdays>.

Journals

"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium." - Norbet Platt

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I remember when my teachers had us write in a journal throughout the years. I never appreciated at the time, but looking back at it now, I'm so glad that they had us do it. I realized that it was a great reflective tool. Even then, I didn't think that I would have my students write in journals, but then I saw the movie Freedom Writers.

Have you all seen that movie? If not, you should go watch it right now. It's an amazing movie (based on a true story). I don't want to give it all away, but I was truly inspired by the work that Erin Gruwell did in her classroom. I definitely want to have my students write in a journal. Although I have not decided how often (since I don't know what grade or subject I'm teaching), I it to be a consisten activity in the classroom. Without going into too many details, here is a nice post written by Ali Luke that provides reasons for keeping journals. 

Here are some prompts that I'm thinking of using:

• Tell me about your favorite vacation. Where did you go? Who was there? What was your favorite part?
• Who is your hero? Who do you look up to? Why?
• If you had a thousand dollars, what would you do with it? (I know, a cliche!)
• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Who would you go with?
• What are your goals for this academic year?
• Free response (once in awhile, just to give them the freedom to write anything!)
• Describe at least five things you want to be doing when you're 80 years old.  

I'm always open to more ideas.

Have a wonderful day. :) 

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Luke, Ali. "Keeping a Journal Can Change Your Life."thechangeblog. N.p., n. d. Web. 29 May. 2013. <http://www.thechangeblog.com/keeping-journal/>.

Well, hello :)

"Life is not a dress rehearsal. Stop practicing what you're going to do and just go do it. In one bold stroke you can transform today." - Marilyn Grey

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Hello and welcome to my classroom blog. At this point, I can't really tell you what I'll be gearing towards in this blog during the next two years, but I can tell you this much: I'm extremely excited to keep track of the things I do in my classroom & to share things that I experience. I know that these two years will be very difficult, but I know that my support system (my family, friends, mentors & colleagues) will help me get through it.

For the time being, I'm going to use this as a forum to put up different ideas that I can try incorporating into my classroom. If you're a teacher or if you simply remember some fun activities that you did in your classroom as a student, I'd love to hear about them. I want to make my students' experience as memorable as possible.

Thank you in advance for your support and input.

Have a wonderful day. :)

P.S. I realized that I cannot use exclamation marks because they look like straight lines with this font. Look: "!". How sad. I guess I'll never seen so excited about something. Maybe I'll use a ton of smiley faces :)