October 19, 2018

SQUIRREL!  Anyone who has spent ANY time with me knows that I sometimes (so sorry!) have the attention span of a squirrel.  Well- news flash!  So do our students!!  Shocking, I know =)

How do you, as a middle school teacher, COPE?  Distraction and relationships.  True story.  Of course, there is more to it than that, but take a look at THIS great and easy to read article.  Seriously.  It has some easy tricks to try!

ENGAGEMENT is a topic that we will ALWAYS be addressing.  

Do you ever sit in a meeting and check Facebook, Twitter, email, etc?  Have you noticed that our KIDS do the SAME THING when in class sometimes?  It's true and I know many of you have seen it!

Over the week, I found THIS ARTICLE on more EASY PEASY ideas to engage our middle school students.  From encouraging talking (they learn more from their peers than they do from us anyway!), to creativity there are TONS of ideas to help you make sure that they are engaged.  Remember, more engagement= less behavior issues and higher academic achievement.  I mean, isn't that why we are all here anyway?

How do you feel when you aren't engaged in a PD or meeting (not a faculty meeting of course!!!) ?  Checked out and bored? Imagine how our students feel when THEY aren't engaged?

We have asked these questions over and over AND they're worth asking again:

WOULD YOU WANT TO BE A STUDENT IN YOUR CLASS???

IF YOUR STUDENTS DIDN'T HAVE TO BE IN YOUR CLASS, WOULD THEY SHOW UP ANYWAY??

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

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• SUPER awesome shout out to Sarj, Heather T., Lorraine, Nate, Dave O., Bates, Aubry, Kevin, Steven,  and Rosa for helping to make the field trip on Tuesday happen!  You guys ROCK!!!
• SUPER awesome shout out to Lucero for organizing the buses and Susan for taking on the permission slips!
• SUPER awesome shout out to Marlys for helping me with a difficult situation!  You rock! ~Tamis
• SUPER awesome shout out to Lynn and Brenda for helping me find coverage when my dog needed emergency surgery! ~Julie
• SUPER awesome shout out to Kevin for agreeing to participate in our IEP at the last minute! ~Tara
• SUPER awesome shout out to Karen, KC, and CL for getting the history books on campus! ~Carol
• SUPER awesome shout out to our Department Chairs (Alisa, Carol, Sue, Heather, Lynn, Cristina, Tamia, and Ken) for working together to formulate SMART goals to move our students to even more amazing possibilities!!
• SUPER awesome shout out to Dustin for sharing his computer with me! ~Carol
• SUPER awesome shout out to Jason for showing me something that will help me save time grading papers- you get "you Da Man" award! ~Carol
• SUPER awesome shout out to Lucero and Bates for holding down the fort while I was absent on Monday!~ KC
• SUPER awesome shout out to KC for picking up food on Friday =)! ~Ryan
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