December 2002

Dear friends and colleagues,

Recently, it has been my privilege to visit schools throughout the country and speak with educators of all grade levels. This month I’d like to share some comments, observations and suggestions. I hope they will be helpful. Let us hear from you.

The following are in no particular order.

Observations, comments and suggestions:

I see far too many exhausted and overly stressed educators trying to take on the weight of the world at there own expense. Failing to take adequate care for your own health and well being ultimately serves no one. Healthy self-care takes commitment, just as being a top notch professional takes commitment. Please consider making a promise to yourself and your family to spend a specific amount of time each day and especially on the weekend just doing fun things or even nothing. Beware! Doing nothing can feel strange and even decadent. Do it anyway! You’ll get use to it. It is OK to just be.

You can’t save every child or adolescent whom needs saving. You can expose them to the experience of compassion, respect and humor, something many have never experienced coming from adults. You plant seeds of hope when you give up on “fixing” and just care for them. Planting seeds of hope reaps rich harvest even you are not around to see it in the years to come.

Compassion is the key to engaging the most unmotivated student. Feel compassion for young people who are bent on the self-destruction of rejecting the opportunity to learn. They are sad and foolish but maybe they cannot help themselves.

Use all and every kind of interactive strategy you can to devise to engage the students in the learning process. Let the most disruptive student teach a short lesson. Ask for constant feedback from them.

So many educators are focused on “covering the curriculum” they are not always aware that they have lost their audience. I have classrooms where the teacher is thoroughly engaged in the materials and the students are doing their own thing. In the long run it will be more effective to cover only 75% of the curriculum while engaging 90-95% of the class than to get through 100% of the curriculum with only 50% of the class.

Remember you are not teaching a “potential test score.” You are teaching a person whose brain must be able to click on the save button in order to retrieve the information at test time. In order for them to “save” data they have to be engaged as individuals first.

KNOW THE STRENGTHS, TALENTS AND HEARTFELT INTEREST OF YOUR MOST TROUBLESOME STUDENTS. Tell them the goodness and great potential you see. If nothing else they will be intrigued with you and wonder why you think there is anything good about them. This gets their attention, which is the first step in teaching anything. Take a look at anyone of my books for suggestions on how negative behavior always indicates some kind of natural strength and talent.

Be playful in your approach whenever possible. It is even possible to be playful while administering discipline. A lighter touch is received more readily and the brain stores better while in the enjoyment mode.

Use rhythm and beat to help teach rote facts. It engages additional components of the brain. Today’s kids are rhythm and beat oriented. Sometimes their need to tap or rap can drive a teacher crazy. Use this aptitude to your advantage.

Make time for simple joys and pleasure. Go for a ride just to see the fall colors---if they haven’t been covered with snow. Get outside in any case. Just be in the quiet. It is rejuvenating.

Thanks for allowing me to share my experiences.

Take care,

Joyce