Hearts Bigger Than our Classrooms ~ David Bowie - Heroes (Live AID)

Prompt: What are you most proud of to date in your teaching career?

It has to be that my heart is bigger than my classroom.

As I was pushing myself at the gym this morning, and pushing myself not to develop bigger muscles but to develop a BIGGER SPIRIT...

I saw a shirt that said:

DREAMS WORK

WHEN

YOU WORK

I immediately thought of how that perfectly matches my classroom motto:

DREAM BIG

DO BIG

BE BIG

Which was inspired by Robin Williams who inspired me to leave the world of business to become a teacher because of his role in Dead Poets Society. 

When I asked him to send something that would inspire my students to achieve their own dreams, he sent this...

To Mr. Stuart's Class

Dream Big

And I thought, "Yes!" That's the answer!

He dreamed big and became big only because he DID big! 

And the birth of my classroom motto was born:

DREAM BIG

DO BIG

BE BIG

So as I left the locker room ready to live life to the fullest and bring out the best in my students I heard in my head:

You are a developer of heroes today!

Believe you can do it

Because every one of them are worth it!

No sooner had I left the locker room than I ran into the mother of a former student who I used to read to @ 7 years ago. She wasn't even my student, but she was a wonderful young spirit who had just moved to America and was nervous about her lack of English. 

So to help her after school each day she would come up from her Kindergarten class to my 5th grade class where she, I and my own three children would lie down on bean bags and read stories to her. 

Looking down at her smiling face filled me with joy and I thought: 

When we are young

and covered in love,

We completely believe

we are gifts from above.

This girl is now in middle school, and has been covered in so much love from her mother and teachers that she is earning straight A's, excelling at track and chosen to be the vice-president of her class. 

When our hearts are bigger than our classrooms, we help change the world in a big way. 

Thank you te@chthought for your 30 Day Reflection on Gratitude. I probably wouldn't have written this without your prompt. 

And thank you Robin Williams and that young girl, Sofia, without whom I wouldn't have been able to write this post. I'm very proud of the hero you've become :-)

Belief is More Powerful than Current Reality

Three Strengths I Have as an Educator

Teach Thought 30 day blogging challenge

1. I BELIEVE in ALL my students

2. I BELIEVE I can find a way to teach STUDENTS with lessons that ARE AMAZINGLY effective. 

3. I BELIEVE in the AWESOME power of belief


I BELIEVE ALL STUDENTS ARE AMAZINGLY AWESOME

Dead Poets Society ~ Feedback Can Bring Out a Barbaric YAWP

Teach Thought 30 Day Blogging Challenge ~ Day 14 ~ What is feedback for learning, and how well do you give it to students? 

 Feedback is critical, specific information about what a student is doing right, or not quite yet right. 

 It is this aspect of teaching that allows us to be very effective towards our desired outcome of student growth. 

 We act as physical fitness trainers, strength coaches and medical doctors and are just as effective for the student mind when we take this potential of our teaching seriously

To Robin Williams, who inspired me and taught me how to teach with passion and purpose.

Dead Poets Society - Random Funniness ~ Robin Williams

Teach Thought 3 Day Blogging Challenge ~ Day 10

5 random thoughts about myself:


I like to learn new languages

I love to travel

I want to own horses but not sure I can even afford a kitten

I'm constantly thinking of ways to improve my teaching

I don't think I can live long enough to experience everything I want 



4 things from my bucket list:


Travel, write and live in Europe

Write, travel and live in Europe

Live, write and travel in Europe

In Europe, live, write and travel



3 things I hope for this year


to create powerful teaching lessons that truly empower my students for the rest of their lives

to have more fun than I and my students have ever had

to take so much action that there is much more happening in my classroom and much less hoping it would happen



2 things that have made me laugh or cry


When I'm focused on enjoying teaching the students and having them enjoy learning it, I laugh and play and find myself slipping into accents just like Robin in Dead Poets Society. My students love seeing a teacher have fun and they often laugh so hard they fall out of their chairs.

Sometimes students whom I didn't have great success with will come up to me at the end of the year and thank me. When I ask them for what, they say, "For never giving up on me". This makes me cry.

One thing I wish more people knew about me.........I'm not sure. I guess one thing I wish was knowing what I wished more people knew about me.