Tag Archives: everything happens for a reason

Rules of the Game

If you create the game, you create the rules. And if you are just do you, there’s no way you can lose!

–India Arie

I was excited this weekend when I found out (rather late) that India.Arie released a new album Songversation recently.  True to form, Arie uses true life to influence her music in an eloquently poetic way.  They lyrics that really stuck with me made me think about life and how there are many rules this game called life.

I just finished Catch-22 this weekend.  I was intrigued how these young men, who were somewhere around my age had no control over their lives and when they tried to there were rules that inhibited them from doing what they wanted.  Don’t get me wrong, they did this comically and interestingly, but it was a little sad.  The rules of their game was simple, do a certain amount of missions and you can go home.  The rules change when they up the amount of missions, it drives people to unexplainable extremes to get what they want.

So what does that mean for education?  My professor once told me how states tend to change the test, when they find that too many students are reaching the advanced or proficient mark. This was the explanation as to why 60 percent on most standardized tests is considered proficient.  I really like that the playing field is a bit leveled with new standardized tests and standards.  I thin the standards encourage teachers to push their students to the highest levels of critical thinking and creativity.  What I hope it doesn’t become, let’s figure out what’s on the test so that we can teach the content and then hope that our kids pass.   I think in order for this to work, the test should be used as a way to gauge gaps in college readiness, not only proficiency in the grade.  How will we (educators) use this data?  Will we use it to empower or punish?

The flip side is that the new standardized tests, require schools to also teach their students from a young age to be computer literate.  Now of course , this is necessary and most 3-year olds know how to use an iPad, however if teachers are just looking at the standards for their grades, they may neglect the fact that there are technology standards and that developmentally students should be proficient in using the mouse and the home keys on a keyboard by the end of second grade.  The new test, the PARCC  (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers)will completely be on the computer, but what happens when schools are unable to satisfy the technological needs to take said test?  I ran across this in the blog section of Education Weekly this past week:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/07/tech_challenges_lead_oklahoma_.html

SO…everything happens for a reason.  It’s no coincidence that I finished reading Catch-22 listened to this awesome album, and finally paid attention to the alerts that crowd my inbox every week.  I think it is really important  that as we think through the changes that we make in our instruction.  I think that if we set the the bar high enough that our kids can be successful.  If we only aim for the bare minimum then we will only get the bare minimum.  MY hope is that when we look at the PARCC in the next two years, that schools will not look at the test and say “Man, we suck” but rather rejoice in knowing that their children are almost college and career ready.   There is a game: a game of ensuring that we get all children regardless of ability college and career ready.  As educators, we created the rules, now it’s time to face up to them.  In fact, if we were to do what we know to be the best, irrespective of the technologies or the income, all of our children will in fact succeed.

Marva Collins is one of America’s great educators, proving that with love and dedication and high stakes, that all students can succeed no matter what their background.  She  said in her book Marva Collins’ Way

Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide.

That is how we can change the world and make sure the rules work in our favor.

Be yourself!

–Say

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Find the Fire–Motivation

So a friend of mine asked me about what motivates my students, and then another friend calls me to tell me that they aren’t sure why they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a graduate program–he is unmotivated.  So, actually, really nothing happens by coincidence.  In that spirit, I spent my waking moments wondering about motivation.  What motivates me to want to go to the gym even after I’ve missed my appointment, what motivates my students to want to read for pleasure and love learning, what made graduate school so frustrating for my high school friend that he is now unmotivated to actively pursue and finish his graduate degree? What is it about motivation that makes the most challenging tasks uncomplicated  and the most uncomplicated tasks challenging?  How does that relate to success: personal success, financial success, romantic success, just plain life success?

One my grad school professors introduced me to the 7 building blocks of reading comprehension, and though I only remember 5 of them on a given day (don’t say anything ot her, she would have my head) the one that made the most clout in my success this year is motivation.  So you are probably thinking, yes, you teach a child the letters, their sounds, word solving techniques, give them some background knowledge and they are just going to become these amazing readers. It’s as if you have all the ingredients to make the best meal in the world and you forget that you need a stove cook it all.  Motivation is the fire, literally and figuratively that makes your meal cohesive.  You may need a lot of motivation to do something, or not that much, but without it, you may just have really awesome potential.  Okay so maybe the analogy is all off, but I hope you get the point.

Motivation also works in the opposite direction also, if you have a pot of water to make your famous mashed potatoes, but you forget the knowledge the potatoes, you may burn all of your water away. Then you are left with a fire and a burned pot (which honestly so not fun to actually clean).  It really is a combination of tools, knowledge and motivation  that make people successful because if you have the motivation to find the knowledge then you’ll have the knowledge and therefore fuel your motivation.

So how does this relate back to my students?  SO today my student says to me that she doesn’t like to read because it takes too long and the words are a lot and she can’t find her place.  So she really likes the books but then looses motivation when it is time to read for a while.  Most teachers would tell her to try harder and give her a highlighter ruler (which i fully intend to give her) and then sort of send her on her way.  I actually think it has to do with the fact that the books themselves don’t interest her.  She wants to be chef, but hasn’t read many books about food.  So sitting at the dining room table today we chose three books that we will use to study food.  The chemistry of it, where they come from and the best ways to prepare them.  We sat and read only the reviews and the synopses online and I saw her eyes light up.  It was a spark and it was the best thing ever! Maybe we will have a project on all the knowledge she acquired.  The sky is the limit.

As far as my friend from high school, the jury is still out.  I think with adults the motivation actually comes from purpose.  When a person has purpose then motivation is a by product.  I am not saying by any means that this person lacks purpose, but i will say that they have to spend sometime rekindling the spark.  It is harder with adults because we get really set in our ways, and rekindling becomes harder and a little more difficult.

In his book Drive, Daniel Pink talks about what motivates people and it isn’t always monetary.  It is doing something that matters: something that matters to them, to others, to anyone.  Knowing that what you do matters helps to make that rekindling less challenging.  I think that that’s what it is for my student, so reading and knowing that what she is doing will help advance in her career long after the fourth grade will impact her the most.  I know that what motivated me to spend seven years in school in undergrad and both graduate degrees, was that the work I did in undergrad made me a better person and the work in grad school made me a better teacher, professional and has helped me to impact people like my students and my friends surprisingly enough.

When the going gets tough, I would say find what matters and play around with it.  And if you can’t find what matters soul search until you do.  Ask your kids what matters to them when you find that they don’t want to do what you want them to do (or they said they wanted to do yesterday, but then realized that they really don’t want that anymore).  Find out what really makes you tick intrinsically and the extrinsic reward will happen.  I think that is why we have so many awesome teachers running around.

I’ll leave with this talk from Daniel Pink where he talks about extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation.  It really made me think the first time I listened and I still find new insights each time.

Remember that there are no coincidences, just wonderful acts to make you amazing.

Don’t forget the stove on your next big meal.

–Say

For the love of reading

This morning, I saw a Tedx talk on why it is important to read more.  The speaker Kelly Corrigan, stated that 33% of people who graduate high school never pick up another book and if a person goes to college, only 42% of them would pick up a book for pleasure after school is over. I’m not sure where she got that statistic, but it seems just about right.  I must admit that if I didn’t truly love books and taking that adventure through the pages, I am not ever really required to sit and just read a book for pleasure.

The teacher in me wonders: how can I instill a love of books with my elementary aged students now so that they are apart of the 33 and 42 percent rather than the other 65-75% of the population?  I spoke with a parent of one of my children this morning and she asked me how she could motivate her daughter to read more and not make it a chore.  I volunteered to spend some time with her daughter in the hopes that it will help her to become more enthusiastic about reading and school in general.  I don’t know how successful I will be, but hopefully I can do something positive in her life this summer.

My hope for her is that she develops a love of information so that she can become successful in life.  That will really help her to be successful in life and especially college.  College was difficult for me, but what made me successful was my love of learning and reading.  If I only read because I had to, I don’t think I would be able to make the connections I did while writing papers or communicate with people later in life.  This love actually makes me a better teacher.

After watching this 8 minute clip, I realized that though the speaker was talking and imploring adults to read more, it is more important to spread this message to our children.  They have to understand that the love of reading and the choice to read books years after they are required actually happens way before high school graduation.  It starts now.  We are in the information age, so perhaps imploring everyone to stop using Google is not the best idea, but maybe what I could suggest is asking parents, teachers, aunts and uncles to join a book club with their youngster.  Read the book together (Actually read the book again if you’ve already done so) and then talk about it.  Find out what they are interested in reading and introduce them to new authors or related genres.  I’m not promising that they will become bookworms, but perhaps they will remember this when they graduate high school and college and they go to the beach with their e-reader filled with novels instead of Candy Crush.  I am sure that their future selves will thank you for helping to expand their vocabulary and their world view.

The future starts today!

–Say

Here is the link to the talk if you are interested

Transformation

Recently, one of my friends mentioned that I’ve changed in the past year.  I started listening to TED Talks for fun, being more analytical, and looking at all aspects before making decisions.  I really don’t think it is a bad thing, heck, I think it is a really good thing.  I think part of the reason I’ve made such a transformation is that I had these amazing people around me who all seem more put together than I.  Being the researcher I am, I asked them what made helped them to make the transformation and surprise surprise they each give me this list of books.  HA!

I laugh because I feel like I am always reading, so how in the world am I supposed to add to my already long book list?!  Furthermore, where in the world am I going to find the time to do this amazing reading for said transformation?  SO here I am, a teacher, who spends her life teaching children to love reading and learning, spending her summer reading and transforming.  I think it is amazing because it is an amazing time in my life to transform.  So the transformation is beginning.

The book that inspired me to start this blog, was gifted to me by manager.  I think that can only be the beginning of a transformation.  This year I spent the year collecting books that will transform my life.  7Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey actually made me a better problem solver and that was suggested to me first from my dad, who is so amazing, and my principal, who I swear is a superhero in some ways.  Just a disclaimer, this transformation is just to ensure that I can be the best me I can be.  When you are surrounded by amazing people you just want to makes sure you aren’t slipping and you are always at your highest level of awesome.

So what’s the next book on the awesome list?

CATCH 22 by Joseph Heller!!!

There is always a lesson to be learned from great American Literature, especially when the title alone has significance in our culture.  I’m excited!

No Coincidences

I just finished this book about how all things happen in not just by chance, but because it is meant to happen.  The people you meet, the circumstances you have, thoughts in your imagination, etc.  In this book the main character goes through an adventure to find this manuscripts that are supposed to hold insights into our life.  The first Insight is that nothing happens by coincidence.  I’ve had thoughts about starting a blog where I can talk about books and document my love of literacy education.

After reading this book, I’m convinced that I too am on an adventure and now it begins…

Everything happens for a reason....
Everything happens for a reason….