KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought #16 on Ending Terrorism ~ Root Out Terrorism in the One to Root it Out in the Many

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought #16 on Ending

Terrorism ~ Root Out Terrorism in the One to Root it Out in

the Many

Once the terrorism of self-doubt and self-destructive behavior

(self-terrorism) is rooted out of the world within our children

we must make sure it’s rooted out of the world around them.

We say we’ll protect them and we must.

If we’re escorting them to their afterschool program the day a

murdered woman’s body is found across the street from the

school and we see “F@& Taft” graffitied on that street, then

we graffiti a big Banksy* “Dream Big” over it.

If a hit is taken in retaliation one day then we simply get back

up and graffiti an even bigger Banksy “Do Big” the next day.

If there’s an even bigger retaliation and a new “F@#&”

painted on the street, then we rest, heal and then Banksy the

biggest “DO BIG” over the top of that in all capital letters.

If the bike and rider is totaled in a crash then that rider is

going to come back bigger and stronger and smarter than

ever and make sure that every one of those kids worth

protecting becomes so big, so smart, and so strong that the

grasp of terrorism and fear will lose its grip on them forever.

This is our classroom, our school, our community, our country

and OUR planet.

If you persist in knocking us down we will insist on getting

back up. If you insist on knocking us down harder we will

persist in getting back up stronger. If you try to kill us we will

become limitless.

And when we die, whether it be by the chance of your

misfortune or by nature’s changing course untrimmed; Our

eternal summer shall not fade

Nor shall we lose possession of the beauty that is within us;

Nor shall Death brag we have wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time our thoughts and words grow'st;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.**

We are warrior poets. This is how it is in our classroom. This

is how it is in our world. We can’t be defeated.

*Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist, political activist

and film director of unverified identity.

**Adapted from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 ! Shall I compare

thee to a summer’s day?

#300 #ThisIsSparta #Shakespeare #Banksy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAacE5ukzrs

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#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkl

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #15 on Ending Terrorism ~ Making the Rules for Success Very Simple and Very Clear

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #15 on Ending Terrorism ~ Making the Rules for Success Very Simple and Very Clear

There are three rules and three rules only in my classroom, and they apply to everything: 

Dream Big, Do Big, and Be Big ~ 

Have unlimited beliefs about yourself and your world. 

If you don’t have them yet, be willing to learn how to develop them.

Have patience with yourself. This is a process that some of you have not experienced since you were learning how to walk. Let’s remember that knowledge of success from the past and use it to succeed in the present.

For some this is a process your parents have continued to do a brilliant job of. We OWE it to them to continue this in school and LOVE you just as much as they do. 

For others you may not have had this. So what? Crying and complaining about it won’t change anything. I will judge your parents after I have BEEN your parents. 

I know I am here. I know that I love and believe in you. I know I am one of the biggest, baddest, toughest, and strongest lovers on this planet. 

There is NOTHING that you can say or do or that will make me STOP loving and believing in you. NOTHING! If you want to test me on this I will drop the hammer of my heart onto you until it floods you with the virus of dreaming, doing, and being big. You cannot win this fight!

I am TOUGHER and STRONGER in the war of bringing out the best in you than you or ANYONE will ever be.

I will not allow anyone to harm you while you undergo this process. I will protect you from harm from anyone in this classroom and school and on the streets if I have to.  

Now GET OFF the floor Jaylen and GET BACK UP! If you want to be in this class you have to follow these rules and get back up EVERY time you fall. 

You have fallen. Big deal! Now you’re going to get back up. Take my hand and let’s go at this again.

You DESERVE to Dream Big, to Do Big, and BECOME Big, and you WILL!

You MUST! The world is waiting for the BEST in you. I WILL NOT allow or tolerate the worst. 

IS THAT CLEAR!

And then I wink at the other kids to show them that this is just part of the process and I’ll be doing the same thing to them when they fall, either by dropping the hammer on their heads (mental states) or hugging all the love I and their parents have or should have into their hearts (emotional states), changing them at the cellular level. 

But either way they’re going to follow these rules until these rules become a part of them. And I make that very clear.

#GIJane #Galileo #Jaylen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyGB-bLA62Q

#PrayforTurkey #OrlandoStrong #ViveLeFrance PenniesToParis.blogspot.com #Remember911 #StoppingTerrorism #TheSchoolofAthensMindAdventures http://bit.ly/1XYBMo7 @SchoolofAthensMindAdventures School of Athens #HigherLevelThinking #HigherOutcomeTeaching #DreamBigDoBigBeBig #MrStuart #FindtheHeroinYou http://bit.ly/1mwDXk3 #BetterEducation #OCPS #CypressParkElementary #SandLakeElementary  #OrloVistaElementary #WashingtonShoresElementary #GilmourAcademy #Marzano #CommonCore

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #14 on Ending Terrorism ~ Outcomes Don’t Happen by Feeling Sorry for Ourselves

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #14 on Ending Terrorism ~ Outcomes Don’t Happen by Feeling Sorry for Ourselves

Jaylen’s success didn’t happen by accident or by allowing him to feel sorry for himself or allowing anyone else to feel sorry for him.  This was my classroom and these are the rules of being in this classroom. 

In the beginning of the year he was constantly out of his seat. It was his way of having power. If he got in trouble that’s exactly what he wanted because he was the one with the power to create what happened in his life.

But if he wanted to make his own rules then he was going to have to earn that right by mastering mine.

These are “our” classrooms and “we” as teachers run the show until our students have shown us they are capable of running their own.

All they need is to be placed in a structured environment that reminds them how to do this just like when they were learning how to walk; when they were completely believed in and learned to completely believe in themselves, no matter how many failures along the way or how long it took to succeed.

#GIJane #Galileo #Jaylen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyGB-bLA62Q

#PrayforTurkey #OrlandoStrong #ViveLeFrance PenniesToParis.blogspot.com #Remember911 #StoppingTerrorism #TheSchoolofAthensMindAdventures http://bit.ly/1XYBMo7 @SchoolofAthensMindAdventures School of Athens #HigherLevelThinking #HigherOutcomeTeaching #DreamBigDoBigBeBig #MrStuart #FindtheHeroinYou http://bit.ly/1mwDXk3 #BetterEducation #OCPS #CypressParkElementary #SandLakeElementary  #OrloVistaElementary #WashingtonShoresElementary #GilmourAcademy #Marzano #CommonCore

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #13 on Ending Terrorism ~ Be Tough Enough to Never Give Up

KickStarting Our Hearts ~ Thought #13 on Ending Terrorism ~ Be Tough Enough to Never Give Up

The purpose of being a “tough guy” is not so others say, “Ooh. Look at that tough guy”. That only serves the ego and the ego is only about “me”. It’s not about “we” and what “we” can do if “we” are tough enough to put up with the pain it takes to finish the job that needs to be done.

If Gandhi could put up with the pain of being beaten down physically for standing up for his country’s rights mentally then I could put up with mentally overcoming the pain of teaching with broken bones the last 30 days of school. 

If he could use the pain of extreme discrimination and being beaten up for, among other things, not giving up his seat to a European passenger on a train to develop his concept and teaching of satyagraha (“truth and firmness”) 

Then “we” can use the pain of terrorism and child abuse to learn from history what works and what doesn’t to develop our own concept of what will work in the present and future.

It’s meeting each other where we are and learning how to work together to take us to where we could be. 

And not giving up on ourselves or each other until we finish the job and get the hell out of our cities and homes. 

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#teaching #terrorism #childabuse #Gandhi #satyagraha

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 7 on Ending Terrorism ~ Love Them All

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 7 on Ending Terrorism ~ Love Them All

“Killing them all” throughout history has worked in the short-term for one side but not long term for either, hence Orlando. 

What if we tried killing all the desire to kill, hurt and hate out of the minds of our children? What if we brought in the weapons of some of the greatest thinkers in the world into the minds of our students and into their world of education? 

How do you account for a 2nd-grader starting the year working at the 1st-grade level in math and finishing at the 8th, or a class with all but 3 starting below grade level and all finishing above?

I know it wasn’t because of me because I'm not smart enough to pull that off. I may have the  passion but I know I didn’t have the knowledge to do this at the beginning of the year.

But I was smart enough to listen to those who were smarter: "I never teach my pupils, I only provide the conditions in which they can learn." ~ Albert Einstein

So I brought in Pythagoras, the world's first pure mathematician who learned how to think from Thales who taught Socrates how to think who taught Plato how to think who taught Aristotle how to think who taught Alexander the Great how to think.

Somewhere in there is a teacher who can help the children of today how to think, and how to Think Big! 

All of these people were philosophers, lovers of wisdom. If we're going to love all of our children into higher levels of thinking and creating maybe we need to become lovers of wisdom  ourselves and use it more than we do now. 

Love them all. That's what we teachers do best. Love them all and teach them all. Not how to hate, but how to think.

#OrlandoStrong #ViveLeFrance PenniesToParis.blogspot.com #Remember911 #StoppingTerrorism #TheSchoolofAthensMindAdventures http://bit.ly/1XYBMo7 @SchoolofAthensMindAdventures School of Athens #HigherLevelThinking #DreamBigDoBigBeBig #MrStuart #FindtheHeroinYou http://bit.ly/1mwDXk3 #BetterEducation #OCPS #CypressParkElementary #SandLakeElementary  #OrloVistaElementary #WashingtonShoresElementary #GilmourAcademy #Marzano #CommonCore

#Pythagoras #Thales #Socrates #Plato #Aristotle #AlexanderTheGreat

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI

The Powerful Cycle of Real Love that All Started with Grandma Bette

Oh! Ohhhhhhhh! One of the last times I saw Grandma Bette.......

One of the last times I got to hug her and let her feel how much I loved her....

One of the last times my children got to see the woman who filled their father with love every day by telling him, "I love you, Adam. Thanks for calling", every night around 7.

Now when they can't find me they know I'm up in Heaven visiting her, talking and laughing together as we work on the daily crossword puzzle and drink our tea.

And if I take too long to come home they know that their GREAT-Grandma Bette is busy sneaking bits of Heaven into the crossword for her grandson to take back and finish on Earth.

Puzzles like "This stopped terrorism, stopped crime and child abuse, stopped poor education from causing poor thinking and doing."

And if Dad comes home with his pockets full that means there's lots to do; that there's lots of Heaven to get into the places filled with lots of Hell.

They forgive him for being late. They hug him and tell them they love him too.

And the powerful cycle of real love that Grandma Bette started continues on today.

KICKSTARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 4 ~ Relentlessly Overcoming Reckless Terrorism

KICK STARTING OUR HEARTS ~ Thought 4 ~ Relentlessly Overcoming Reckless Terrorism

Knowledge isn’t power. The relentless pursuit and correct use of it is.

We “know” something has to be done. And we “know” it has to be done now.

We also know that from 10,000 years of civilized history we can kill the killers without stopping the desire to kill.

And we know we have proven answers from some very powerful people like Gandhi.

To achieve this “real peace” it takes a huge amount of super-human strength and intelligence, things teachers are naturally built for.

We couldn’t be teachers if we didn’t love who and why we teach with super-human love.  

And we are perfectly situated to becoming super-smart every day as we become more intelligent about our students and how to teach them.

We are in a perpetual state of education.

We remember this, and become relentless in the pursuit of this, and we reach real world peace with every student we teach.

A beautiful theory that CAN BECOME an unbreakable everyday REALITY when we stop worrying and whining about what’s broken and focus instead on preventing our children from becoming broken by it, relentlessly.

Our hearts never stop.

#Mötley Crüe - #KickStartMyHeart

https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI

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