The Freedom Flyer
1-16-15
Principal's 100 Club
Next Tuesday we will begin the Principal's 100 Club as part of our PBIS deployment.
Steps to participate:
- If you get a gold Eagle buck in your box, give it to an individual student who is soaring to success with Safety, Organization, Attitude, and Respect. This cannot be a student in your class.
- On Friday, we will call the students down to the office.
- They will draw a random number, write their name on a sticky, and place on the Principal's 100 Club board.
- The principals will call parents with a positive phone call.
- The principals will take a group picture and post on the character wall.
- Once we have ten in a row any which way on the board, a POWER PRIZE will go to those ten students, and the board will be cleared.
- The principals will schedule a date for the Power Prize to be deemed.
Ideas for Power Prize could be: dance party, extra recess, popcorn party, etc
The Law of the Skyscraper
When builders begin building a skyscraper they don't start by building up. Instead they start by digging below the ground in order to create a foundation of stability. They have to go down deep and excavate soil, sand, clay, etc. to reach the bedrock so that they can build something that will reach incredible heights.
Our lives, careers and teams work the same way. If we want to build up we have to first dig deep and develop our foundation. It's not always easy to unearth the stuff below (the fears we have, the wounds we carry and the things that hold us back) but once we uncover them we can reach the core of our foundation and begin the building process to reach greater heights.
Today I want to encourage you to do some digging. Think about what's holding you and your team back. What needs to be unearthed and dealt with? I know it's easier not to address or confront it but remember the law of the skyscraper. If you don't dig you'll never be able to build the foundation you need to create the life and team that you want.
Once you dig down deep you'll find the core that you can build upon and then the next step is to build your foundation with principles and habits that will help you soar.
One of the ways I have built my foundation over the years is by choosing/receiving One Word for the year that is meant to shape and mold me to be my best. Four years ago my word was Purpose. Then it was Surrender, Serve and Pray. Looking back I realize that in choosing my word each year I was digging and building a foundation.
Interestingly enough my word is RISE for this year. I didn't choose it. It chose me. A song by Chris Tomlin, a visit with the Clemson football team and a book, titled Rise, given to me by Daniel Rodriquez as I was leaving made me realize I'm ready to RISE up and reach a new level of physical health, emotional peace, and spiritual joy. It's time to Rise!
This year I hope you will rise with me. Start digging, build your foundation, identify key principles and habits that will help you grow, choose a word that is meant for you and let's rise to greater heights together. We know that there's a limit to how high skyscrapers can physically be built but there's no limit to how high you can soar when you are willing to keep building your life, work and team.
- Jon
To help you choose a word watch Jon share tips on the Golf Channel. - Watch Here
Watch Jon's One Word co-authors Dan Britton and Jimmy Page on CBS News. - Watch Here
Three Ways to Stay Positive and Keep Stress at Bay
The Power of a Positive Attitude in Fighting Stress
There’s a universal truth about teaching that almost every teacher understands all too well: stress is part of the job. Regardless of how experienced, how prepared, or how rested we feel, when we start a new day, the stress level goes up.
One of the best ways to keep stress at bay is to maintain a positive attitude. While this might seem to be easier said than done, you can use these three sure-fire techniques to help keep your attitude bright and positive.
- Perform acts of kindness
According to research reported by Allen Mendler (2012), author of When Teaching Gets Tough: Smart Ways to Reclaim Your Game, happiness can increase simply by one’s own acts of kindness for one week. By consciously focusing on kindness, we tend to be kinder to ourselves (Otake, Shimai, Tanaka-Matsumi, Otsui, & Fredrickson, 2006). - Focus on what’s working
Another tip from Mendler is to track the positive things happening in your life by keeping a “three-good-things” journal. Every day, document three things that went well in school and in your personal life and what caused them. The research suggests that doing this for just seven days in a row can reduce depression and increase happiness for months (Seligman, Steen, & Park, 2005). - Express appreciation
Choose three colleagues at school and share one or two things that you appreciate about each of them. Start with people you know and with whom you feel comfortable. Then, for a challenge, consider choosing colleagues that you don’t often speak with, or even colleagues with whom you may have conflicts. Make sure that the appreciations you share are genuine and from the heart. Even with your most challenging colleagues, you can always find genuine appreciations. Reminder: This isn’t a “gratitude exchange.” It’s quite possible that you won’t receive appreciations in return. No worries—it’s your own expressions of gratitude that yield the biggest benefits.
Upcoming
January 19th- Staff/Student Holiday
January 22nd-TPRI due
January 23rd- SOAR Assembly at 8:00 AM in Gym/Early Release at noon/PTA treats/End of 3rd 6 Weeks/Collect writing sample/Planning with your team in the afternoon
January 26th- Super Action Team Meetings- Math and Reading PLCs at 3:20 PM in library
January 27th- Instructional Rounds with HLES
January 30th- DRA due to Lowhorn/(Put sticky notes on data wall in data room)