Hhhhmmm, Who Would it Be?

Be Cool

Your Thoughts?

See Someone Being Kind? Share it!

Make our world a better place. Take care of your classmates and our school. When you see someone else being kind, share it. The tree in the hallway is bare. Fill it with leaves (Post it Notes). Share all the acts of kindness that you see in the hallway at SC.

Here are some ways you can be kind:

1. Ask “How may I help you?”
2. Listen to someone carefully and without interrupting.
3. Say “I’m sorry.”
4. Be polite.
5. Say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you.’
6. Offer to carry a person’s book bag.
7. Buy a box of cookies and offer them around to strangers.
8. Buy someone a gift from the dollar store
9. Offer your seat in the cafeteria.
10. Ask someone to sit by you in the cafeteria that you haven't sat with before.
11. Write someone a letter or note.
12. Invite someone to play at recess.
13. Smile.
14. Give someone a handwritten card.
15. Pick up some trash.
16. Return a misplaced or lost item.
17. Tell someone about the best part of the day you just spent with them.
18. Keep that sigh to yourself.
19. Use a kind voice even if you have to fake it.
20. Listen for the feelings behind the words.
21. Buy a stranger an extra at lunch.
22. Let someone go first through a door.
23. Hold a door open for someone.
24. Respect someone’s wishes.
25. Write Post-It notes with encouraging messages and leave them in someone's tub or bookbag.
26. Write a thank you note.
27. Let people through in hallway traffic.
28. Thank someone when they let you pass in the hallway.
29. Use a compost bin and recycle as much as possible.
30. Acknowledge someone else’s kindness to you.
31. Tell someone how wonderful they are.
32. Tell someone how happy you are to have them in your life.
33. Pay a compliment.
34. Volunteer.
35. Write a notes and put it in someone's lunchbox.
36. Share your knowledge with someone who needs it.
37. Help someone with their homework.
38. Help someone that is confused in class.
39. Welcome new people to the school.
40. Donate your “read” books to the library.
41. Express your empathy.
42. Smile at every stranger in the hallway.
43. Be patient when you want to yell.
44. Point out when someone’s shoe is untied or their backpack zipper is open
45. Greet your neighbours when you see them
46. Say hello to a classmate you don’t normally talk to
47. Invite a schoolmate sitting on their own to join in your game
48. Say something nice about someone, just because
49. Smile at everyone
50. Eat lunch at a different table with people you don't know that well
51. Sit with someone eating alone at lunch
52. Count to 10 in your head to avoid yelling at someone when you get angry
53. Give positive feedback in class when someone is making a presentation or answers a question
54. Smile more often.
55. Talk to someone that is shy.
56. Stop complaining for a week.
57. Listen to someone that has a problem.
58. Compliment someone you don't know in the hallway.
59. Hold your tongue and don't say something mean
60. When you hear someone starting drama just walk away.
61. Compliment someone in front of others.

Image from St. Patrick Parish News

Make Someone's Day Today

Image from @RespectYourself

Being a Part of the Team

Reading Workshop students, the question is what do you do to help your class be a team like this?  Patty Mills is a guard for the San Antonio Spurs. They are world famous for their teamwork. A class should be just like a team. All members should work together to make everyone successful. What role do you play in making your class world class?

Image from deadlyvibe.com

Room For All

 

Image from @thebradmontague

Celebrating the Success of Others

I just want to give a shout out to the students that can celebrate when someone else is selected Reading Workshop Student of the Day. You make their success your success when you can feel good about your classmates.

A World with Nice People

Kindness Project

Students, you and a partner have one week to make Salt Creek a better place. You can do any kind of project you wish. You must document/journal/diary the project. An act of kindness can be towards one person or many. It can be a one-time thing or ongoing. 

Grades are based on two parts. The first half is based on your writing. The other half is based on your creativity and the ability to make the life of someone else better.

Things to Do Today

Are you busy? Could you spare a minute?

Be Awesome

Be awesome to yourself. Be awesome to everybody else. Now everything is awesome. Thanks! @iamkidpresident

Who Do You Ask?

Ben and Chloe sit beside each other in Reading Workshop. Both are good students and work hard. When they have a problem, or don't understand something, they don't ask for help. They will talk to each other about things that don't matter but they don't ask each other for help. 

What makes this interesting is how our class is built around everyone helping everyone be successful. Peer tutoring is a continual thing. Any time a student doesn't understand, someone is ready to help. This is expected and students do an amazing job of making sure their classmates do well.

This is similar to how our team of teachers work. If someone has a question or concern, Mrs. Hardin, Mrs. Webb, Ms. Huysman  and I work together to help work it out. This makes a strong team of people that count on each other and are strong because of their unity. This also helps make our hallway a great place.

We talked about this in class today. Most of the students have a couple of people they count on when they need help. This might be when they are editing their writing, doing something on the computer, or trying to complete an assignment. Hopefully now that we have discussed this Ben, Chloe, and any other students that doesn't have a pal to count on will be open for a little help and ask someone when they need a hand.

What Did You Learn at Camp?

Last week's visit to Camp Oty Okwa was a great time for students and staff. The group building activities were exciting and students did an excellent job cooperating and making their team successful. With that in mind, this leads to this week's writing assignment. 

Students, on your blog, tell what you learned. Pick a skill and write about it. Define the word that best describes what you learned. This might be cooperation, teamwork, kindness, respect, friendship, working together, responsibility. . .  Include the meaning of the word, and what it means to you.

Explain the situation where you saw this skill in action. This will be one or more incidents during the group activities where this took place. Give details to help the reader understand. You may also want to include how the use of this skill impacted your group.

In your closing, tell how using this trait at school would effect Salt Creek. What would it look like? How would it improve our school? Where and/or when could you use this skill to make our school a better place?


When your blog post is completed, please submit it.

Dylan Pays it Forward

A couple of days ago I wrote about Maddie helping Dylan.  Even now, it still seems like a terrific event.  Then yesterday, I got another surprise.  As we worked to set up student blogs, Dylan paid it forward.  Lizzy was struggling with the pace to set up her blog until Dylan took over.

Through every step and each direction, he set up his blog and then guided Lizzy to success.  Now I am sure he had no thought of repaying a kindness someone showed him.  He was just trying to help a classmate because he is a good guy that cares for others.

As we end the second week of the school year, I am so impressed by the kindness and caring of the Salt Creek students.  I can't wait to see who will be the next to step up.

Kindness Counts

He was walking down the hall to his next class.  Papers were sticking out everywhere, books were stacked every which way, and his pencils stuck out like swords.  He was a walking mess of school supplies just waiting on a wreck.

He bumped into a classmate and some of his stuff scattered to the floor.  A girl noticed, not knowing I was watching.  She left her circle of friends to help him.  She picked up what he dropped, tucked it into his pile, and helped him on his way.

I am not really sure what makes an eleven year old girl act with such maturity and kindness, but it sure makes a teacher feel proud when one of his students acts like that.  It also serves as a reminder of just how caring some kids treat their peers.

Too often we hear the other side of today's kids with all the media focus on bullying, but the fact is, kids are what makes a school great.  And in my second week at a different school, a girl made me proud to be a part of Salt Creek Intermediate School.  

Image from http://www.school-clipart.com

Jim Basketball Jones Says . . .

Students were treated to an excellent message during an assembly today.  Jim Basketball Jones focused on applying kindness and care to everyone around you. He encouraged students to look for the good in classmates and to have each others' backs.

In addition, he performed an array of basketball tricks that excited the school, and kept everyone engaged.  His ability to spin and juggle basketballs amazed everyone present. 

Jones pulled a lot of students up to the front to help with his demonstration and utilized them to help with his message of  becoming successful through hard work, responsibility, and making good choices.

According to Jim Basketball Jones Website:

In first grade, Jim Jones was diagnosed with dyslexia. Jim’s struggles were so great that he immediately found himself placed in a special education program. It would take Jim five years working with his tutors and speech therapists before he would make it into a regular classroom.

This adversity fundamentally shaped Jim’s view of the world, and provided him with many early life lessons about the good of accepting help from others, overcoming adversity, and learning to appreciate difference. These would later become the cornerstones of his career as a public speaker.

One of the main motivations in Jones's life was wanting to be like his brother, Mike.  This makes me wonder, what is your motivation?  What makes you like you are?  Who do you follow?  What did the assembly mean to you?

Bullying Revealed

Every school has a Richie.  He is bigger than most of the kids, and way meaner.  Normal kids like Russell just stay away from him.  Unfortunately, an attempt to be funny puts Russell straight in Richie's sites.

The latest read aloud in Reading Workshop is The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm.  The book opens with Russell, the main character being harassed by Richie Tucker.  Russell is already having a tough time with the start of middle school.  Somehow, he found himself without a group.  He was alone even though people were all around him.

This brings us to the question, if you were in the same position as Russell, what would you do?  What can you do about a bully? 

Are You the Annoying One?

It was almost time for Thanksgiving dinner.  We sat watching football, anxiously awaiting the turkey, mashed potatoes, and dressing.  Unfortunately we were having trouble concentrating because my 17 year old niece and 14 year old nephew were wrestling around on the couch.  Finally, their mom couldn't stand it anymore.

She yelled  Cut it out, both of you!

Luke whined: But mom

Leah whined: But mom

Luke whined:  But mom, she's so annoying.

Leah responded:  Get off of me!

Do you get the picture?  Leah had been sitting on the couch minding her own business when Luke came over and sat on top of her.  He started pestering her until it ended in the screaming match that got their mom involved.  But in his mind, she was soooo annoying.

Naturally this situation made me start to think about the students in Reading Workshop.  I know that their teacher is never annoying :) , but what about them.  Do they ever blame someone else, before looking in the mirror?

What do you think?  Are you the annoying one?

Image from http://www.vrkmphoto.com/sister/brother-and-sister-love/

Please Be Nice

"Did you have fun with your partner?" she whispered with a sneer to the girl in the seat next to her.  I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, because the comment wasn't meant for me to hear.

Shala just looked at her and shrugged her shoulders.  She really didn't know what to say.  It never occurred to her to be upset about her partner, or make fun of him.  And that is exactly why I put her with that student.  I knew that she would treat him with kindness and respect.  She would help him stay on track and both of them would successfully complete the assignment.

The students in Reading Workshop had been working on a letter writing project.  I wanted them to take a couple of minutes with a peer to discuss their letter--how they organized it, what was going well, and what parts of the project needed help.  I chose a partner for each student, forming teams that would succeed.  This is something we do frequently, and students are used to working with many different peers throughout the year.

This comment has banged around in my head ever since I heard it.  I keep thinking about the connotation behind, did you have fun with your partner.  This sneaky form of bullying, trying to get a classmate to join in ridiculing a student is what makes school so difficult for so many students.

I'm not really sure which student I feel most sorry for--the boy being laughed at, or the girl that feels the need to be so mean.  The boy is a bit of a social outcast.  Unfortunately, he irritates peers and causes them to loose patience with him.  He also tries to gain attention too often by acting out and saying things to set himself apart.  He isn't mean, but he does act that way sometimes when he gets picked on.

The big question to me is why the girl feels the need to be so mean.   She is no stranger to trouble, and I am sure teachers have talked to her about this behavior before.  Yet she continues to be hurtful, even enlisting a student like Shala who would not act this way under any circumstance.  Will she ever figure out that actions like this, and the negative attitude behind it will create problems until she finds the strength to be a stronger and kinder person?

Image from http://www.comicvine.com/forums/off-topic/5/the-creepy-thread/574156/