What
are you good at? What do you feel
confident doing? Maybe it’s something you’re naturally good at, maybe
it’s something you’ve put in hours of practice learning how to do and now it’s
something other people come to you for your expertise on, or maybe it’s
something you never thought you were good at, but thanks to the encouragement
from others you’ve pursued it and has now become a strength of yours.
Teachers are humble people, but for just ten seconds pause and reflect on
you. What is your IT?
My
seven year old son, Coen, is awesome. He
teaches me so much more than I can even begin to tell you. I recently asked him if he could tell me what
he’s good at. He smiled and proceeded to
tell me all about the things he’s good at: baseball, riding his bike, writing
stories, drawing pictures, and being a brother.
He then told me he was going to practice baseball every day so he could
be the best on his team. Coen knows his
strengths and he knows what he has to do to get better at them. He knows that with practice and hard work,
he’ll become a better baseball player just like I know that by practicing
teaching writing, I’ll become a better writing teacher. Last week I had
the opportunity to read in his classroom.
On the board were notes from students to each other. One of Coen’s friends wrote a note to him
that said, “I like how you are so focused at the carpet.” FIRST GRADERS are taking the time to notice
their classmates and are giving each other shout outs. His teacher, Mrs. Fleck, gets it. She is intentional on creating a class
culture that focuses on student strengths.
She is setting up a system for students to notice their peers and
allowing them to positively showcase them for all to see.
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| "I like how focused you are at the carpet." |
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| Compliments to classmates on display in Mrs. Fleck's 1st grade classroom. |
We
are surrounded by family members, co-workers, and friends each day that each
bring their own set of unique strengths to various situations each and every
day. Do we highlight the strengths of those around us and allow them to
shine? What if we took ten seconds each
day to let someone know that you’ve noticed them? Let’s get ourselves in the habit of using our
own strengths, but let’s also help cultivate the strengths of others. My
son knows his strengths and with encouragement from myself, his dad, his
grandparents, his teachers, his coaches...he’ll grow into an even better
him. We want that for all kids,
right? I’d go even further to say that
we also want it for each other as well.
Jimmy
Casas believes in being a champion for students-it’s one of his core beliefs.
In his book Culturize he offers a couple culture-building ideas
that you can implement in your classroom or your building right away that will
make a difference for your students or your staff:
- Recognize
What’s Going Well-take a minute or two to reflect on the work you do and how
it cultivates a positive culture in their classroom or school. Share
WHY IT MATTERS!
- Change
Student Behavior by Changing Adult Behavior-I can’t even tell you how
many times I wrote down “We get what we model” in my notes from listening
to Mr. Casas speak at our March Staff Development Day! He says, “If
you want to improve student behavior in your school, you must change the
way the adults in your school interact with students and with each other.”
If we model appreciating each other’s strengths, it will become
habit.
- Reach Out and Call Someone-If it’s not a phone call or text, trying emailing or leaving a sticky note of encouragement on someone’s classroom door.
What
if you don’t know what is a strength of yours? Tap into those who are
closest to you! Ask your friends,
family, spouse, best friend, a teaching partner. Chances are, if you
asked them, they would be able to list a plethora of strengths they notice in
you! We’re all busy and we all have a
million reasons excuses not to live our excellence. Find an
accountability partner (an accountabilibuddy!) to encourage and hold
accountable when the busy sneaks in. So...let’s start living our
excellence RIGHT NOW. If we model a life
of living our excellence and encourage others to do the same, we will have
develop a CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE!
Speaking
of strengths...I couldn’t have wrote this blog post by myself. A HUGE
shout-out to these AWESOMIZERS:
- Mr.
Brady Gudgel, music teacher at Sunrise, created the graphic at the top.
Mr. G is crazy talented and aside from being a champion for kids, he
is fantastic at graphic design.
- Mrs.
Kelsi Fleck, first grade teacher at Lincoln, you are a champion of
relationships. Thank you for sharing pictures of your students
work. We are lucky to know
you.
- Missy Hurt, Instructional Coach at
Murphy, is a champion for teachers. Without you, this piece would
have had many, MANY more commas and misspelled words I’m sure.
- Sarah Morrow, third grade teacher at Sunrise, is queen of calm. Thank you for reminding me to take each day “Bird by Bird.”
Twitter Tuesday Questions:
Q1:
How are you living your excellence each day?
Q2:
How are you encouraging others to live their excellence each day? Or how can
you start?
Q3:
What are you doing in your classroom or in your building to cultivate a culture
of excellence?
Q4:
How are you making the most of each day and opportunity you have for the
remainder of this school year?
#learnbps
