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 :-)

The School of Athens News ~ Every Day is a Day Worth Fighting For

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.

~ Every Day is a Day Worth Fighting For

Every day is a day worth fighting for; breaking down the barriers that are preventing us from becoming the best possible versions of ourselves.

Every day Xavier wants to quit.

Every day we persist in helping him learn to believe in himself again.

Persisting over and over, using Bruce Lee's wisdom of letting our dreams, beliefs, and actions flow like water, KNOWING our persistence WILL pay off.

Persisting in our belief that THEY CAN do it and giving them UNLIMITED opportunities to prove it and to BECOME UNLIMITED.

Not telling them WHAT to think, but HOW to think.

Over and over until we succeed in wearing away their CURRENT limitations.....

Until JOY is achieved.....

Throughout the ENTIRE classroom!

*On Friday Xavier gave up and walked out of the classroom, twice. Because he chose to give up on himself, he chose to give up his position as my assistant. 

On Monday he came in asking what he had to do to earn his position back. I told him he had to become strong enough not to quit on himself.

He tried. He failed. He quit.

On Tuesday he came in asking what he had to do to earn his position back. I told him he had to be become strong enough not to quit on himself.

He tried. He failed. But he didn't give up.

He tried again. He failed again. But he didn't give up, again.

He tried again. He succeeded......

And my happiness for him flowed out of the tired cells of my body into the tired cells of his.....

And we both became re-energized and overjoyed as he had EARNED his position back As my assistant. 

Today he's going to come in asking what he has to do to keep his position.....

And I will ask him,

What do YOU THINK, Socrates?

And he WILL succeed!

This has been a School of Athens & International School of Intelligent Students production. 

Thank you for reading :-)

Today is Your Day

The only thing keeping you from getting what you want, is the story you keep telling yourself why you don't have what you want. ~ Tony Robbins

No more telling ourselves fairy tales as to why we don't have what we want.

No more letting our "buts" getting bigger.

No more "I would do it but"......"I would have that but........"

Today we Dream Big and BELIEVE.......

Today we Do Big and TRY.......

Today we Become Big and SUCCEED!

TODAY!

If You Want to Learn How to Fly ~ You Got to Jump

The School of Athens News

and 
The International School of Intelligent Students (ISIS)

presents

In a world of so much negativity

We want to share so much positivity

Today's post: Building Eiffel Towers of Courage, Confidence, and Capability in our Students.

If you want to soar, to succeed, to learn to fly....You got to try, you got to never quit, you got to jump!

*This has been a School of Athens ~ International School of Intelligent Students production.

Thank you for reading.

Becoming Teachers that Forge Our Students into Steel

The School of Athens News

presents

Hug the Heaven into them 

& Hammer the Hell out of Them

Not with Hell

                                         But with Hellfire

In an effort to get the best of of its students, the School of Athens went on a quest to find out how to get the best out of itself.

Using one of the greatest minds in human history, Einstein, it asked itself the beginning question, "Was weiß ich?".......What do I know, in order to imagine a solution to its problem.

"I know that the Sun produces amazingly powerful energy in the form of light and heat. How can I produce this in the classroom?"

Waking up and taking daily trips to this star for the past few months, this School o-f At-hens, or School of Fat Hens, as Jordan (daughter of Susan Kocarek) calls it, woke up Leonardo da Vinci on the way, who said, "Sai che ora è?".....Do you know what time it is?

"Never mind that. I need to know how to produce more light and energy in the classroom."

"Just use your senses. The human brain is capable of being aware of 2,000 to 3 million bits of data per second.  Cosa vedi? What do you see, about how the Sun makes light and heat," da Vinci replied.

As the two looked on, they saw the Sun smashing its Hydrogen atoms together so powerfully that their nuclei became fused together, creating entirely new molecules of Helium. 

This nuclear fusion produced photons of light and heat 450 times more powerful than what had existed before.

Placing themselves in Plank scale space-time, 10 to the -45 seconds, or .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds, they observed these photons bounce around for 10,000 years until they reached the surface of the Sun and sped off to Earth in 8 minutes.

"But I don't have 10,000 years to do this. I need to do this today! How?"

"I don't know. Go ask Socrates. I'm going back to bed", yawned Leonardo, and he was gone.

"Soh-crates! Soh-crates! Wake up!"

"It's "Sah-creh-teez'", came the reply. 

"Oh, sorry. Bill and Ted told me it was 'Soh-crates'."

"Just philosophize with him dude," whispered Bill and Ted, who were still up partying.

"Poia eínai i gnómi sas?", questioned Socrates, who never told his students what to think, but taught them how to think.

"What do YOU think is the greatest source of energy you have ever felt or known?" he dug deeper.

"Love, and passion......So.......Maybe, I feel my love for the world so deeply; in my cells, my molecules, my atoms....and smash them together as passionately as I can that their nuclei become fused together and unbreakable.....

 .....Producing so much light and heat coming out of my body that others around me become energized 450 times more powerful than they and I were were just a few seconds ago?"

"Try it. What have you got to lose? You can't take anything with you when you die, so why not try and give everything away while you're here, all the while having more and more to give?", the great lover of wisdom said as he placed his hand on the shoulder of the School of Athens.

"That's exactly what I meant when I said 70 times 7!" Jesus shouted as he roared past on his motorcycle, with The School of Athens quickly jumping on for the 8 minute trip back to Earth. 

"Ok, we'll do it!", the School shouted in the wind. "We'll love so passionately that our love becomes powerful and unbreakable, using nucleosynthesis to hug the Heaven into them.......

....and Hellfire to Hammer the Hell out of them.

And having been enlightened and armed with the lessons and weapons of Einstein, da Vinci, the Sun, Bill and Ted, Socrates, and a passionate man of fire from Nazareth........

...the School of Athens was fused with a vivid imagination of the world that could be

...and determined to do what it does best; 

Love them all...

~ Any student who comes into our classrooms

~ Any student that says "Hi" to us in the hallways

~ Any student who opens his or her eyes at us

We're going to love all of these angels.......and kill all of their demons.

Powerful Video ~ Man on Fire ~ 

*read more at Samurai Teaching ~ Sensational Living

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