Good News from the School of Athens ~ Where it's All Good, All the Time

More good news from the School of Athens, where in a world of so much bad news, we'd like to share so much GOOD news.

1. On Monday I asked who would like to learn from their mistakes on last Friday's test. These students rushed to my table....And this is exactly how the smart get smarter.

2. My goofy yet excited face helping Nancy pronounce "mon", who for the first time asked to sharpen her pencil in French (Est-ce je peux tailler mon crayon or Puis-je tailler mon crayon).

*The deal is I'll learn to speak their brains' languages as to how each one learns best, and we'll learn all the possible world languages we can - Which is great for getting the brain to connect what it doesn't know (foreign language) to what it does (English).

This is how Einstein BECAME so SMART, by asking himself:
"What do I know?" (Was weiß ich? or Was kahn ich wissen?) (Are both these correct Tina Dollinger Scharrenbroich )

This Einstein-thinking helps them be better able to answer my question to their questions;

"What do YOU THINK the answer is?" (Τι πιστεύεις? in Greek, after our role models Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) (help me out Chris Pilavakis , am I saying "What do you think?" correctly?)

3. Why anyone want to be in my class I don't know. It's very demanding and harder than heck....Oooops, sorry X. I mean harder than heaven.

This kid can't read yet knows what "heck" is a substitute for and says that he is not allowed to say it at home so I shouldn't say it in school. It's not fair tongue emoticon

But out of respect for him and his parents wishes we have banned all slang sayings of inappropriate words in the classroom (darn, shoot, etc.)

I don't make them learn my way, I make myself teach THEIR WAY, and it has a very effective effect on how safe and comfortable they FEEL.

*By meeting them in their individual comfort zones they TRUST ME and allow me to take ahold of their hearts and work WITH me on leading their heads outside of their comfort zones, and amazing success happens, as you can see from the picture when Xavier said, "I did it! I did it! Pick me up Monsieur Stuart. I did it!

This was at the end of the day yesterday and you can see us both EXPLODING with energy smile emoticon

4. Working with Nancy to think through her AR test from the book she read over break. She did MORE than she had to so she should get MORE help to help her become successful. Deal #2 is the more passion and energy they give to themselves the more passion and energy they give me to give them all the help I can to guide them to great success.

She is VERY close to getting promoted to a presidency of her own company in class, where she'll use her favorite subject, Art, to CREATE learning activities, products and projects that INTEGRATE her passion and excitement into the less exciting subjects for her of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic (the 3 R's).

Thank you SirKenRobinson and Beth@ Kids Create Art for helping motivate me to figure out a way to place my students in their ELEMENT, where they DREAM BIG and are willing to DO BIG in order to BECOME their BIGGEST SELVES in school.

5. And the cycle of us powerfully flows together that creates worlds within ourselves that have a powerfully positive influence on the creation of the worlds outside of and around us heart emoticon