EAGLE MOUNTAIN NEWS & NOTES #13
November 10, 2014
REAL QUICK
I celebrate all of you who have your Twitter & Blog accounts up & running! Our parents are going to appreciate the new method of communication. If you need extra help getting started, please let us know, & we will make that
support available to you.
EAGLE MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY
Email: bmclain@ems-isd.net
Twitter: @bmacEME
REMINDER OF TECH DO'S THIS NINE WEEKS
1st WEEK – Try ClassDojo.com
2nd WEEK – Decide what you would like to do. (twitter or blog)
3rd WEEK – Twitter or blog should be ready to go
4th WEEK - Post at least one time to twitter or blog
5th WEEK – Set up a You Tube Channel
6th WEEK – Should be posting regularly to twitter or blog
7th WEEK – Post a video to You Tube
8th WEEK – Try to Flip one lesson
9th WEEK – What’s Your Plan for the Next nine weeks?Important Information for the week:
· We are thrilled to report that our PTA voted last week to give our school $15,000 to spend on technology! This is very exciting & I hope you will let the PTA know you appreciate their support of our technology push. The technology committee will meet this afternoon to discuss how to spend the money.
· Our Eagle Mountain 25 Skill of the week is Rule #10 – Keep yourself & the bathrooms clean & germ-free.
· Thank you for the great job you did with your parent conferences. Please turn in your conference schedule if you haven’t already. We are still missing a few.
· Please put in your newsletter that I will be hosting a 2nd Cup of Coffee Talk in the Library next Monday, November 17th at 8:30. We will send home a flyer today or tomorrow. I appreciate you helping to get the word out to our parents.
· If you haven’t given us your Twitter account or Blog information, please do so by tomorrow, & we’ll get that posted with the rest of us in the front foyer.
· Remember that our Veteran’s Day ceremony is tomorrow morning at 7:45.
· Our team leaders will meet on Wednesday. If you have anything you’d like included on the agenda, please have that to me by tomorrow.
· Kelli & I will be attending a Junior Achievement breakfast with Dr. Chadwell Wednesday morning at 7:30. We should be back around 9:30.
· Our Thanksgiving Feasts are scheduled for this Wednesday for grades K, 2, & 4 & Friday for grades 1, 3, & 5.
· We still have teachers forgetting to take attendance at the appropriate time & the district is logging this, so please make EVERY effort to do what’s expected.
· In this week’s reading I found an article by Carol Dweck who wrote the best seller Mindset (which will be one of our book studies for next year!) Here’s an excerpt:
Carol Dweck on Growth-Mindset Organizations
In this interview in Harvard Business Review, Sarah Green asks Stanford professor Carol Dweck about how her ideas apply to corporations. In her early research, Dweck realized that different people have widely divergent reactions to failure. “For some people,” she says, “failure is the end of the world – but for others, it’s this exciting new opportunity.” The key difference, her subsequent work showed, was that people in the latter group usually have a “growth” mindset that helps them thrive on challenges, whereas those with a “fixed” mindset, even if they’ve been very successful, tend to stay within their comfort zone and, when they encounter frustration and difficulty, falter and sometimes go to pieces. They’re worried, Will I look good? Will I live up to my reputation? Will people think I’m brilliant?
Can an organization, like a person, have a fixed or growth mindset? Dweck and her colleagues explored this question by asking people to respond to statements like:
- When it comes to being successful, this organization seems to believe that people have a certain amount of talent, and they really can’t do much to change it.
Agreement with statements like this indicated a fixed mindset; disagreement was a sign of a growth mindset. The researchers then looked at people’s job satisfaction, perceptions of organizational culture, levels of collaboration, innovation, and ethical behavior.
“In broad strokes,” says Dweck, “we learned that in each company, there was a real consensus about the mindset. We also learned that a whole constellation of characteristics went with each mindset.” Fixed-mindset companies tended to have a small handful of “star” workers who were highly valued. The rest of the workers worried about failing, pursued fewer innovative projects, kept secrets, cut corners, cheated to try to get ahead, and didn’t feel that superiors had their backs. Supervisors in growth-mindset companies, on the other hand, thought more positively about their employees, rating them as more innovative, willing to take risks, collaborative, and committed to learning and growing, and were more likely to believe people had management potential.
How can an organization promote a growth mindset? There are several key leadership messages, says Dweck:
- We value passion, dedication, growth, and learning, not genius.
- We don’t expect that you’ve arrived here fully formed. We care more that you’re ready to learn.
- We expect that you’ll stretch beyond your comfort zone and take reasonable risks.
- We value process and we reward process – taking on big but reasonable challenges.
- We reward tenacity and grit.
- We reward teamwork.
“So the companies that are thriving are the ones that give this message,” Dweck reports. “And also, my research has shown, contrary to popular opinion, you don’t praise talent. You don’t praise ability. You praise process… People who are praised for talent now worry about doing the next thing, about taking on the hard task, and not looking talented, tarnishing that reputation for brilliance.”
Hiring is obviously crucial – looking less at pedigree than potential, passion for learning, and ability to collaborate. This often means hiring from within. Mentoring and support are also important – putting considerable resources into helping employees grow and develop.
“Talent: How Companies Can Profit from a ‘Growth Mindset’” in Harvard Business Review, November 2014 (Vol. 92, #11, p. 28-29); this link contains an interview with Carol Dweck:
http://hbr.org/2014/11/how-companies-can-profit-from-a-growth-mindset/ar/1VIVACIOUS
WORDS OF THE WEEK
AFFABLE
SCAN FOR SOME TWITTER PAGES
Mr. Mac's Twitter
Mrs. Cooper's Twitter
Mrs. Martin's Twitter
MRS. MULLEN'S TWITTER
MS. ENGLISH'S TWITTER
MRS. DUNN'S TWITTER
MRS WITTA'S TWITTER
MRS. MILLER'S TWITTER
MRS. HARLIN'S TWITTER
MRS. GRIGGS' TWITTER
MRS. ADAMA'S TWITTER
MRS. ROEST'S TWITTER
MRS. DECORTE'S TWITTER
BLOCK TEACHERS' TWITTER
MRS. DICKERSON'S TWITTER
MRS. JONES' TWITTER
MRS. NAVARRO'S TWITTER
MRS. SHIPP'S TWITTER
MRS. MCBRIDE'S TWITTER
MRS. TITTLE'S TWITTER
MRS. WELLS' TWITTER
SCAN FOR BLOGS
My thanks to Kori Worth for sharing this article I thought you might enjoy:
What Students Remember Most About Teachers
Dear Young Teacher Down the Hall,
I saw you as you rushed past me in the lunch room. Urgent. In a hurry to catch a bite before the final bell would ring calling all the students back inside. I noticed that your eyes showed tension. There were faint creases in your forehead. And I asked you how your day was going and you sighed.
“Oh, fine,” you replied.
But I knew it was anything but fine. I noticed that the stress was getting to you. I could tell that the pressure was rising. And I looked at you and made an intentional decision to stop you right then and there. To ask you how things were really going. Was it that I saw in you a glimpse of myself that made me take the moment?
You told me how busy you were, how much there was to do. How little time there was to get it all done. I listened. And then I told you this:
I told you to remember that at the end of the day, it’s not about the lesson plan. It’s not about the fancy stuff we teachers make — the crafts we do, the stories we read, the papers we laminate. No, that’s not really it. That’s not what matters most.
And as I looked at you there wearing all that worry under all that strain, I said it’s about being there for your kids. Because at the end of the day, most students won’t remember what amazing lesson plans you’ve created. They won’t remember how organized your bulletin boards are. How straight and neat are the desk rows.
No, they’ll not remember that amazing decor you’ve designed.
But they will remember you.
Your kindness. Your empathy. Your care and concern. They’ll remember that you took the time to listen. That you stopped to ask them how they were. How they really were. They’ll remember the personal stories you tell about your life: your home, your pets, your kids. They’ll remember your laugh. They’ll remember that you sat and talked with them while they ate their lunch.
Because at the end of the day, what really matters is YOU. What matters to those kids that sit before you in those little chairs, legs pressed up tight under tables oft too small- what matters to them is you.
You are that difference in their lives.
And when I looked at you then with tears in your eyes, emotions rising to the surface and I told you gently to stop trying so hard- I also reminded you that your own expectations were partly where the stress stemmed. For we who truly care are often far harder on ourselves than our students are willing to be. Because we who truly care are often our own worst enemy. We mentally beat ourselves up for trivial failures. We tell ourselves we’re not enough. We compare ourselves to others. We work ourselves to the bone in the hopes of achieving the perfect lesson plan. The most dynamic activities. The most engaging lecture. The brightest, fanciest furnishings.
Because we want our students to think we’re the very best at what we do and we believe that this status of excellence is achieved merely by doing. But we forget- and often. Excellence is more readily attained by being.
Being available.
Being kind.
Being compassionate.
Being transparent.
Being real.
Being thoughtful.
Being ourselves.
And of all the students I know who have lauded teachers with the laurels of the highest acclaim, those students have said of those teachers that they cared.
You see, kids can see through to the truth of the matter. And while the flashy stuff can entertain them for a while, it’s the steady constance of empathy that keeps them connected to us. It’s the relationships we build with them. It’s the time we invest. It’s all the little ways we stop and show concern. It’s the love we share with them: of learning. Of life. And most importantly, of people.
And while we continually strive for excellence in our profession as these days of fiscal restraint and heavy top-down demands keep coming at us- relentless and quick. We need to stay the course. For ourselves and for our students. Because it’s the human touch that really matters.
It’s you, their teacher, that really matters.
So go back to your class and really take a look. See past the behaviors, the issues and the concerns, pressing as they might be. Look beyond the stack of papers on your desk, the line of emails in your queue. Look further than the classrooms of seasoned teachers down the hall. Look. And you will see that it’s there- right inside you. The ability to make an impact. The chance of a lifetime to make a difference in a child’s life. And you can do this now.
Right where you are, just as you are.
Because all you are right now is all you ever need to be for them today. And who you are tomorrow will depend much on who and what you decide to be today.
It’s in you. I know it is.
Fondly,
That Other Teacher Down the Hall
THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE:
Monday – EME 25 Skill of the week is Rule - Keep yourself & the bathrooms clean & germ free, Technology Committee @ 3PM
Tuesday – Veteran’s Day ceremony – 7:45, Bryan to Principal’s meeting
Wednesday – Bryan & Kelli to Jr. Achievement breakfast, Team Leader Meeting – 3PM, Thanksgiving Feast – K, 2, & 4, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mrs. Abrams!
Thursday – Bryan to Principal’s meeting
Friday – Thanksgiving Feast – 1, 3, & 5, Bryan to Principal’s meeting
Saturday - PTA Fall Carnival 11am to 3pm, Try to make an appearance if you can
NOTEABLE QUOTABLES:
Live so that your children can tell their children that you not only stood for something wonderful – you acted on it.
-Dan Zadra
SHOUT OUTS
- Kudos to Sheryl Copeland for a successful Book Fair! Thank you for what you do to promote reading at EME!
- We appreciate all Drew did to make Red Ribbon Week an exciting week for our students & staff.
- Steve Skidmore has started blogging & I wanted to share his link with you: