Monthly Archives: April 2012

Happiness Is a Choice

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy asks Charlie Brown, “Why do you think we were put on earth?” Charlie answers, “To make others happy.”

“I don’t think I’m making anyone happy,” Lucy replies, “but, nobody’s making me very happy either. Somebody’s not doing his job!”

Charlie talked about life in terms of giving while Lucy only thought about getting. I know a lot of people like Lucy. Preoccupied with getting and having they are so aware of what they don’t have that they never enjoy what they do. They live in an “if only” world, always at least one-step away from happiness. “If only I could get this raise, make this sale, pay off my debts, and win this game, I’d be happy.”

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Words That Hurt, Words That Heal

Every now and then you run across an idea that changes the way you look at things. And sometimes it’s really annoying because if you change your perspective you often have to change your conduct. That’s the way I felt after reading a book called, “Words That Hurt, Words That Heal” by Joseph Telushkin. It’s all about gossip and other uses of words that hurt people. He makes a powerful case for the advice of moms everywhere: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” And to prove how hard it is, he challenges his reader to go twenty-four hours without saying an unkind word about or to anyone.
He reminds us about the power of ego-destroying criticism, brutal anger, nasty sarcasm, hurtful nicknames, humiliating betrayal of secrets, malicious rumors or careless gossip. “Unless you’ve been a victim of terrible physical violence,” he says, “chances are the worst pains you have suffered in life have come from words.”

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Let The Butterfly Struggle

A young mother was fascinated watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon but she became concerned at the creature’s enormous struggle to create a large enough opening. After a while it appeared that the butterfly gave up, overwhelmed by the task. The mother feared that the butterfly would never make it without help so she delicately cut open the cocoon. The grateful butterfly wriggled out but its wings were shriveled. The loving lady who wanted so much to help actually sentenced the butterfly to a short life with undeveloped wings by terminating a natural process that required a great struggle through a small opening. This struggle is designed to force blood from the butterfly’s body into the wings giving it strength and vitality.

Author Unknown

One of the hardest things for loving parents is to know when to let kids work their own way out of the rough patches in life. Of course we should always be supportive and demonstrate caring, and we should look for opportunities to give them strategies and tools to deal with their problems. What we have to be careful of is being so over-protective that we deprive them of the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes. If we are always willing to bail them out so that they do not suffer the natural consequences of their choices we do them no favors. In fact, we may be preventing them from growing the strong wings they need.

The Attitude of Gratitude

The Easter Season brings to mind new beginning and motivates us to assess our lives and make adjustments in actions and attitudes to improve our outer circumstances and our inner selves.


Such improvements should always start with relationships because of their vast potential to produce joy and pleasure as well as grief and pain. The key is to take responsibility for maintaining and improving each important relationship even if that means letting go of grudges, taking the first step, and/or committing to be a better parent, child or significant other. Think how much you can improve your life if you nurture the best in everyone you know.

Next, monitor your attitudes — especially any tendency to be negative, pessimistic or cynical. Resolve to think, act and speak more positively about yourself, your children, even your coworkers. Think how much warmth and light you can bring into the world with extra smiles, kind deeds and encouraging words.

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I’m Emma: A Story of Self-Control

 
A frazzled mother entered a grocery store with a crying child. “Emma,” she said, “you can do this. We just have to get a few things.” Moments later, the child became more upset and the woman said calmly, “It’s okay, Emma. Just a couple more items.” When the child became hysterical in the check-out line the mom took a deep breath and said, “Emma, hold it together. We’ll be in the car in a few minutes.” In the parking lot a woman stopped her and said, “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice you in the store and I just wanted to compliment you on how patient you are with little Emma.” The mother laughed. “Well thank you, but the truth is, I’m Emma.”
 
Self-control is a virtue that doesn’t come easily. This mother had to work on it, talking herself through each challenge. According to Dr. Daniel Coleman in his book, “Emotional Intelligence,” controlling impulses like frustration and anger is a crucial aspect of character. In fact, he says, “Those who are at the mercy of impulse — who lack self-control — suffer a moral deficiency.”
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Parent and Teachers: The Ultimate Partnership

I firmly believe that one of the most important ingredients for a positive educational experience for a child is the home/school connection. Thinking about what it takes to build a strong connection between home and school, three prerequisites come to mind, Respect, Humility, and Partnership.

Respect. Effective school programs require mutual respect of parents and teachers.  If teachers see parents and other caregivers, grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, guardians, and family friends, as ill-informed and in capable, the home to school relationship will be demeaning and apathetic.

Likewise, if parents see teachers and school staff, principals, para-eduatiors, and daycare workers as self-centered instead of student-centered, they will perceive the home to school relationship as bureaucratic efforts to keep parents in their “place.”

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Why Today’s Students are Different

If you do any educational reading you have most likely come across the term “21st century education”. There is little doubt that the students we educate today are very different that the students of just 10 years ago. They live in a world rich with technology, global access and a worldview like no other time in history. The characteristics of 21st century education will change the face of education, pedagogy, technology integration, and academic focus.  In  order to achieve within this developing context and beyond, it is accepted that students need:
  1. Reading literacy
  2. Information literacy
  3. Technological literacy
  4. Skills for personal knowledge building
  5. Oral literacy and numeracy  
According to Marc Prensky (2001b), “… today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.” They are “digital natives,” born into the digital age, while adults are “digital immigrants,” adapting their skills and thinking processes to a new world. These digital natives have fundamentally different expectations of access and interactions with technology.
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Why Schools Need Parents

I’ve written articles in the past about the importance of parents being involved in their child’s school, siting benefits to their child academically, emotionally and socially, yet their continues to be a lack of parental involvement in schools?  Why?  I really don’t have the answer to this questions.  I have given the assignment of talking to our parents and finding new ways to involve them to the preschool directors and principal at out schools.  So here is my question, how do we get today’s parents actively engaged as partners at school?  Is the day of the PTA or PTO come and gone, are parents so busy they don’t have time to support their child’s school? I’d love to have some input here.

For many people, the first introduction to their school parent group is through the fall school fundraiser. Fundraising is a part of the mission for many parent groups,  so they can support the school by paying for extras like playground equipment, athletic equipment or special programs, parent groups contribute much more. They support teachers and staff, enrich the educational experiences of students, and improve schools. Through their efforts, parent groups form strong bonds and form a strong and supportive school community.

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Bringing Technology into the Classoom

Technology is here to stay, the challenge is for educational leaders to figure out how to make the transition from real life to the classroom.   Education blogs, on any and every topic, abound online. Unfortunately, few educators have the time to go out and search for them. The list below highlights blogs that have good free resources, offer information about school reform trends, or share how-to videos.

The list below, highlights some of the best education blogs I’ve come across or have heard about from other educators.

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20 Things Students Want the Nation to Know About Education

Ann Curry hosted the second  Education Nation Summit to address the developments, challenges, and progress of the past year, as well as identify and explore new, exciting opportunities to reinvent America as an Education Nation. In their “Voices of a Nation” discussion, young people provided insight into their own experiences with education and what they think needs to be done to ensure that every student receives a world-class education. After the discussion Curry knew these students didn’t disappoint. She told viewers, “Students wanted to say something that made a difference to you (adults) and they did. Now adults need to listen.”

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