Musica È ~ We Hear this in the Cry of the Stars and Feel it as it Punctures our Skin

*To me this song, “Musica È”, says that when more of us feel more we become the many in a universal language chorus of what we can be. And it is this music that we hear that will save you and me.

The part at @6:30 is especially moving.

When more of us feel more of what more we can do and what more we can be we take up more space in the universe of how much more it can be.

I KNEW Xavier could be more than what he was living because from the first time I got him to shake my hand a few months ago I felt MORE POWER in the grip of his handshake than I had in most grown men.

I knew he had a passionate and fiery desire to be more than what he was at that point.

I don't want to speak too soon but he may now have become permanently more than he's ever been. On Friday, he asked what his homework was. When I told him that he didn't have any, he asked if I could give him some anyway.

He didn't do it, and I'm not judging him because I don't know what he had to deal with over the weekend, but I DO know that for the first time he asked for MORE homework that he COULD do instead of asking for what homework he HAD to do.

I do know that he now believes in himself more and believes he has the potential to be more and not sitting around wishing his life could be more.

Now he's standing up to it and fighting for it.

And I guarantee you this is a fight he will win because I can guarantee I will be right beside him, fighting with him and for him and not against him.

And that comes from the teacher learning how to be more for him.

Last Tuesday at dismissal he was yelling to a friend passing by the door and I yelled at him to stop yelling (such a hypocrite I can be).

I saw the look on his face and realized what I had done. I called him over and put my arm around him telling him that I loved him and just needed him to control his voice because it was draining me constantly asking him, and now yelling at him, not to yell.

On Monday, he said that his mom told him he was not draining her as much as he used to and asked if he was not draining me as much either.

And this was a "no" I was happy to tell him.

As teachers we are forced to become multilingual, learning the language of each of our students.

And I’m happy knowing that I’m becoming more fluent in speaking the language of him.

If we listen hard enough we will hear this in the cry of the stars and feel this as it punctures our skin, as I did when I realized I had yelled at him. 

Senti più siamo in tanti e più in alto sale un coro in lingua universale. Dice che anche del cielo han bucato la pelle. Lo senti è l'urlo delle stelle. È musica è da conservare, da salvare insieme a te.

Students ~ Stop Listening to Us Adults ~ Listen to Your Spirit and Show Us How to Learn Again and How to Live Again ~

The School of Athens and ISIS (International School of Intelligent Students present:





You students need to stop listening to us adults telling you that you have to get it now and have to get it as fast as possible for the test this week and the test at the end of the year. 


 Stop listening to us giving you the excuse that we have so much to cover that we don't have the time to give you as many chances as you need to get it. 


 Einstein was told this and told he was stupid and slow because he didn't get it right away. 


 Thank him that he didn't listen to us adults and listened to his own childlike spirit and mind, and changed our limited understanding of the world. 


 And if he stopped listening to the adults and went home and studied his books until he got it, you can too. 


 But stop expecting us to change. 


And stop listening to us. 


 We are adults. We are our habits. And we don't change. 


 But you know that Aristotle said we are our habits (Είμαστε συνήθειές μας) 


 Or in French if you prefer, because the translation is much more obvious and sounds much cooler: 


 Nous sommes nos habitudes (new sohm noze AH-bee-tude-ah)

Which sounds like, "We are our ATTITUDES." 


 We adults have the attitude that we CAN'T change, that there ISN'T enough time, that some of you just AREN'T able to get it you poor things, 


and that we are JUST one person, and that we poor things can only hope to reach just ONE of you in the course of a year, 


 instead of ALL OF YOU in AT LEAST ONE WAY because we have ALL day and ALL year to do it. 


 YOU have the attitude that it's FUN to change, to grow, and to PLAY with your potential every day. 


 You know that you were given as many chances to learn to walk and talk as you needed, and you deserve as many chances now as you need to learn whatever it is you're being asked to learn. 


 BUT quit expecting us limited-minded poor old adults to give it to you. 


 You stay rich in your spirit and start giving it to yourself. 


 Go home with whatever you were tried to be taught at school and use your notes and homework to play around with it, create a game out of it, do a project with it, make a song out of it, create a story or a play or a poem out of it. 


 Why? Because you are worth being given as many chances as it takes for you to get it, and if we adults are too stressed and full of our own excuses and self-limiting beliefs to give it to you, you give it to yourself. 


 You know you are worth it, and you know this is how real learning occurs. 


 And if you don't do this for yourself, you will become an adult, one of us, and you will become stressed out full of foolish self-limiting beliefs that you just aren't good at something or that this type of success just isn't in your destiny. 


 Don't become one of us. 


 Stay one of you, stay in your spirit, and use it become the best unlimited you that you can and deserve to become, and the world needs you to become. 


 Show us adults how to live again, how we can become rich again, and what we can become again.

Show us how to live in our spirit instead of our limitations.

Experiencing Christmas Everyday

In Hinduism there are two powerful gods, of creation and destruction (Brahma and Shiva).

If it's true that we humans create our own fear, then it is also true that we can destroy our own fear we have created inside of us.

And when we have destroyed our own fear, we destroy our self-imposed false limitations.

When we do this for ourselves we become able to help those around us destroy their own fear, and create their own limitless nature.

What a gift to give ourselves everyday, and give to others everyday,

And experience Christmas together, everyday smile emoticon

Meet Leonardo da Vinci ~ and Find the Hero in You!

Find out not just who he was and what he did, but HOW he became so big, 

and how your students and children can too!

Meet Leonardo da Vinci ~ and Find the Hero in You!

The School of Athens News ~ I Hate You Mr. Stuart ~ Well I Love You Mr. X

The School of Athens News

and

The International School of Intelligent Students (the MORE POWERFUL ISIS)

Where in a world of so much negativity,

We want to share so much POSITIVITY!

presents

Building Eiffel Towers of Courage, Confidence, and Capability in our Students.

~ I Hate You Mr. Stuart ~ Well I Love You Mr. X

I love this picture.

Xavier quit several times this week, mumbling how this class was not right for him.

How he was not right for this class.

How much he hated me for putting him in it.

And he heard back how much I and we loved him.

How much I and we believed in him.

How much I and we needed him.

How much love can you give someone who doesn't believe in themselves?

As much as it takes.

The School of Athens members are all raising their hands in enthusiasm because they not only know the answer, but know it so well through deep scuba-diving they can teach it to their classmates through quick snorkel-dive student-created centers, helping them explore the meanings and whys under the surface of the solutions.

Except Xavier, who has been hired as my assistant but is determined not to give up this time. 

Every time he quits, he quits his position.

This time he won't quit. 

This time he fights.

This time he wins.

ALL A's on ALL 3 tests.

This time we ALL win.

 

And Life is truly Beautiful :-)

This has been a School of Athens and ISIS (International School of Intelligent Students). Thank you for reading.

The School of Athens News ~ Earn Your A by Helping Others Earn Theirs

The School of Athens News

and

The International School of Intelligent Students (the MORE POWERFUL ISIS)

presents

In a world of so much negativity

We want to share so much POSITIVITY!

Building Eiffel Towers of Courage, Confidence, and Capability in our Students.

~ Earn Your A by Helping Others Earn Theirs

This was the scene at the beginning of yesterday.

Okay, here we go. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the road FROM hell and TO heaven is paved with INTELLIGENT & COMMITTED intentions........Let's see if my intentions this week have been intelligent & committed enough to pave the way for all students to get all A's on all 3 of their tests today.

Almost. We almost did it.

While others (students still choosing to give average effort and be average students) did the average traditional work of;  read story, answer questions, do workbook pages, do traditional centers, etc.)

The School of Athens members were Marzano deep-dived into becoming Einstein Panther Cubs, exploring the who, where, when, what, why, and how (the Doctors of Reading ~ a.k.a Doctor Who)

And then build centers intending to help all others achieve.

And we did it, almost.

On the easiest test, spelling (memorization)...... 11 A's, 1 B+, 1 F

Bit harder, vocabulary (interpretation).......13 A's

Hardest, comprehension (compare and contrast)........13 A's

 1. All A's is the first step to entrance into this school within a school, because if you don't have the knowledge how are you supposed to help others gain it?

So 11 out of 13 met this challenge.

2. Self-control. 

You are not my dog and I am not your master having to control you or tell you what to do. 

You have a mind, use it. 

Most humans are emotional creatures motivated by pride, vanity, jealousy, anger, etc.

You are the most evolved species on this planet.....evolve.

3. AR reading points.

You set a goal and you get that goal.

No excuses.

Find solutions.

You do this now and you'll do it in life.

The most important thing in your life is you.

Throw your entire self at it.

Go Big!

Become Big!

Help others do the same!

This has been a School of Athens Production. Thank you for reading.

The School of Athens News ~ Bringing Heaven into the War with Hell

The School of Athens News

and

The International School of Intelligent Students (the MORE POWERFUL ISIS)

presents

In a world of so much negativity

We want to share so much POSITIVITY!

Building Eiffel Towers of Courage, Confidence, and Capability in our Students.

~ Bringing Heaven into the War with Hell

Part 1

NEWSFLASH! Director admits to being dumber than a box of rocks.


In a surprise confession, the director of the School of Athens admitted to being so dense that he said, "I've been dumber than a box of rocks about one of my students."

This kid doesn't show up for school sometimes because he doesn't have shoes to get there. And here I am trying to teach him how to think when all he's trying to think about is how to survive."

When asked if he wasn't afraid of the public outcry for his removal after having admitted his mistake, he said emphatically and convincingly, "No! I'm afraid of not doing the job that needs to be done with each of these children. I'm afraid of feeling sorry for them when they need someone to feel strong for them.

And I don't work for public opinion. I work for people's potential."

If poverty wants to pick a fight and stop that potential, I'll fight.

But it picked a fight with the wrong kid with the right teacher.

I got him for one year. Hell better stay away the hell from him and let me have him.

If he wants to allow hell back into his heart and head after that, that's up to him.

But for one year, this year, it's up to me AND him."

Asked how he planned to possibly succeed in a seemingly impossible war against the cycle of poverty, he simply said:

"I'll do what I do best.

I'm going to love him............With anyone I can think of.........Anyone he can profit from........Anyone I can get him to open his eyes to."

"Wow! OK. Good for you. You love them all, and good luck with that", was all this reporter could say to this well-intentioned, yet possibly foolish dreamer.


"Luck has nothing to do with it", he stared back at me. "We're not trying to win this battle, we're going to win this battle, because we're bringing the bigger weapons to it."

I'm picking out the weapons of Aristotle, Dickens, Shakespeare, Sun Tzu, Socrates, Einstein, da Vinci, Musashi, Edison, and Martin Luther King.

What the hell is poverty bringing?"


*Another student, Jaylen, now has Miss Annie. I'm out of data so I can't post new pictures for a few days, but you should see the look on his face as he read her email...........You want to talk about being truly priceless!......He has all of the people mentioned above AND the beautiful heart of Miss Annie.....NOTHING has a chance against this kid now.......NOTHING! 

He is becoming UNSTOPPABLE......because he knows he is LOVEABLE!




This has been a School of Athens production. Thank you for reading :-)