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The 3 Ships: Inspirational Passages for Educators
von: Randy Russell
BookBaby, 2021
ISBN: 9781098374754 , 172 Seiten
Format: ePUB
Kopierschutz: DRM
Preis: 11,89 EUR
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Chapter 1: RelationShips
Relationships are the Foundation of Success
Thriving relationships are a foundation for successful families, classrooms, teams, schools, school districts, and a happy life. Most people have a desire for meaningful and important relationships. Children want to have a meaningful relationship with their parents. Parents want to have a meaningful relationship with their children. Students want to have a meaningful relationship with their teachers, counselors, and principals. School staff members want to have meaningful and impactful relationships with their students and families.
Relationships are built through connections with people in our lives. Key characteristics of an authentic, positive relationship are acceptance of our past, supporting our present, and encouraging our future. In order to build strong relationships, we must build strong connections. Throughout this section, stories about relationships that model those connections are discussed.
The following story about the power of perspective was shared by Harry Amend. Amend served as a teacher, coach, counselor, principal, and superintendent. He is a speaker, consultant, and author.
Jane’s Fourth Grade Miracle
“Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.” Colleen Wilcox
On Friday evening, Jane got the call from her local school district congratulating her, and informing her that she had just been selected for the new fourth grade teaching opening. The first day of class would be Monday and Jane could come to the school over the weekend to pick up her class list and decorate her classroom if she wished. There would be twenty-four students in her ethnically diverse class. As Jane looked over her class roster, she noticed that all of her students had an IQ between 130 and 155. Jane felt flattered that as a first-year teacher, she had been selected to teach such an advanced class.
Jane immediately got online and started purchasing and developing enrichment activities to supplement the district’s fourth grade curriculum. As her first year flew by, Jane’s students accepted every challenge and thrived. At her year-end evaluation conference, Jane was surprised when she walked into the principal’s office, and the district superintendent was also seated at the office table. The superintendent spoke first. “Jane, I asked to attend your conference because I wanted to meet you personally. I know you are a first-year teacher and I wanted to hear directly from you to learn what you did this year to achieve such extraordinary achievement with the twenty-four students in your class. Your class has some of the highest Fourth Grade Test scores in the state.”
Jane replied, “When I looked at my class roster and realized that every one of my students were high achievers, I knew I had to work extra hard to provide enrichment materials that would stretch and motivate my students. Every day I reminded them that I expected them to do their very best.”
With a puzzled look, the superintendent gazed over at the principal, who returned her gaze, with a look of wonder of his own. After a long and awkward pause the principal asked Jane, “What made you think that these students were high achievers?” Jane pulled the class gradebook out and opened it on the table in front of the two administrators. With her finger, she ran down the list of the student IQ’s next to each student’s name. The IQ’s were all between 130 and 155, the genius level, for every kid.
With tears welling up in his eyes, the principal began to choke up. He knew full well that many of these students were from struggling families. He also knew some of these students had experienced little or no success in school until this 4th grade year. The principal also knew eleven of these students had been “frequent flyers” in the school discipline system. He had checked and confirmed that not one of these students had a discipline referral in the past academic year, even from their PE class. In a halting voice, the principal said, “Jane, those numbers next to the student’s names are their locker numbers,” at which time the superintendent also teared up.
Why were these two experienced administrators so moved? Was it because they knew how these fourth graders and their families struggled? Or were they weeping because the District had spent many dollars trying to support these families, with little or no evidence of success prior to this year? Did they feel some guilt for having put this many “at-risk” students in the class of a first-year teacher? Or were they touched by the sincerity and innocence of a young leader who was audacious enough to challenge these children to excel. Was it naivete or inexperience that caused Jane to believe in, and commit to, a bright future for her students?
The Golden Rule
In Jane’s Fourth Grade Miracle, the teacher treated her students with the dignity and respect they deserve and how she would have wanted to be treated. Most people know this as the Golden Rule - to treat others as you’d like to be treated. Because we would like people to be kind to us, we often have an expectation for people to treat us as we would treat them. Being considerate to one another sets a positive, caring tone which then leads to a positive, caring climate. When people believe they have value, feel important, and are a part of a positive, caring climate, they will reciprocate. In schools and classrooms, teachers, administrators, and staff must treat their students with kindness in order to build a strong relationship. By modeling kindness, students can learn to be caring, generous, and compassionate toward others.
No matter what the situation is, our thoughts, gestures, and comments have a big impact on those who receive them. It is easy to say the first thing that comes to our mind when we are upset or mad at someone else. But, we often don’t comment when we are happy with someone or when they have done a great job. Building healthy relationships means reflecting before reacting and being careful with our words. Being considerate in what we say and how we say it is a sign of respect to other people – especially to the students and families we serve.
What does kindness look like? It could be a smile, a pat on the back, a hug, or a word of encouragement. It could be as simple as genuinely asking someone, “How are you doing?” and then taking the time to listen and connect with them. Kindness is not fake, but it can be practiced and honed. Asking a student or colleague, “How can I help?” shows kindness and caring, and we build connections and trust by following through on the helping action. Ask yourself, “who can I be kinder to? How can I show more compassion?” Kindness and care will kindle our relationships with others. It is never too late to be kind. It is important to be kinder than necessary.
Dr. Kristy Brinkerhoff contributed the following story that challenges us to consider the importance of perspectives in relationships and friendships. Brinkerhoff served as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. She is also an author, consultant, and curriculum developer.
Life and Relationship Lessons from a Junkie
“To handle yourself, use your head: to handle others, use your heart.” Eleanor Roosevelt
9:35 AM again…
The squeal of tires sliding across the pavement and the sudden bump of the tires on the sidewalk trigger instant anger, once again. I added fuel to my mental fire, reminding myself of all the other mornings that Ms. A bumped her car to a stop in front of the school. As I stood up and peered out my office window, I could feel my pulse jump and my feet begin to move. I had to move quickly to stop her from stumbling into the school, drunk or stoned, or both. As I passed the office secretary, I mumbled something unkind. I caught her give me an odd look, but following that look came a nod of cohesiveness and support.
As I launched myself down the front steps, Ms. A was just exiting the driver’s side of her vehicle, with difficulty. I could smell the alcohol from six feet away. I cringed and deflected her greeting as I turned left to greet her son at the passenger door. He smiled sweetly at me, reached over to hug his mom and then crawled out of the car. He smelled just as bad as his mom. As he approached me with a dirty face, missing teeth, and shaggy hair, he was grinning. He bound towards me and wrapped his small arms around my legs. I immediately felt my anger deflate as I melted a bit into his tiny but powerful grasp. How could his mother continue to do this to him?
Ms. A came at me from behind, apologizing profusely but I ignored her. We’d had this talk so many times,
“No, you can’t come to school drunk, or high.”
“No, it’s not ok to walk your son into the school while you’re under the influence of drugs.”
“No, you can’t eat breakfast with him because you’ve both arrived too late for...