Category Archives: Encouragement

“Rut roh” – Don’t get in a teaching rut…

21 Friday Jan 2022

Posted by in Actions, Choice, Compassion, COVID-19, Decisions, Encouragement, Kindness, Leader, Leadership, Students, Teachers, Understanding

≈ 2 Comments

One of the slogan statements of a recent popular TV show stated that “Winter is coming.” Nope, the dull of winter is here. That stretch after Christmas and before spring break. The long haul, per se. Some days are cold and dreary outside, even in Mississippi. Today’s high is suppose to be around 35 degrees with a real feel of 26. As we were out at parking lot duty this morning, the temperature was a brisk 27 degrees. We were taking it on the chin, literally. That cold hard slap of the wind in our face.

Talk about depressing? The happiness of Christmas feelings is gone for teachers and students. Throw COVID into the mix, and we have many schools that now look like skeletons. Contact tracing, make-up work, substitute shortage… As Billy Joel said, “I can’t take it anymore.”

But…

I believe this… teaching is as much about psychology today as it is about knowing how to teach your subject. You have been hired, so that is a given. Teachers like students, and students like teachers seem to get into a proverbial rut this time of year. The drag… spinning, wanting to go forward but unwilling to lock it into four-wheel drive.

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Back to the psychology… I’m pretty sure many teachers’ lessons are planned and ready to go. Let’s hope so anyway. But, what about you as a teacher, are you ready to go? How are your students seeing you? What are you bringing to your classes? I’m all for facilitating a lesson. I’m all for teaching, but I refuse to be in a rut. As the teacher, you have to be the “ray of light” not only for your students but for other teachers as well. Trust me, some teachers need it more than students.

Now, more than ever, your teacher’s creativity needs to be seen. Use your Jedi mind tricks. Now is the time to let your students see you smile; it is after Christmas, after all… Sing a little song, dance a little dance, help your students, give a little bit more encouragement, maybe even understand that life gets in the way. Go buy some contagious enthusiasm. Not sure how much it costs, but effective it will be.

It’s a choice, and we all make the decision every day. The bad and the good of it is everyone takes notice. What will they see? Be the “spring,” pun intended, that gets others out of the rut. Spring is coming.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2022 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… Twitter @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

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An educational slide becoming a constant…?

01 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in Circumstances, Connections, Culture, Decisions, Educational Leadership, Encouragement, Engagement, Leader, Leadership, Value

≈ 2 Comments

Let’s start today’s blog off with questions…

Is our society becoming incapable of understanding what education should be? Can society think in terms of what is good or bad for education? Has relativism taken over?

I’m a big fan of educational cartoons. One that I often use in my college class is the pic for today’s blog. Yes, it is dated, but the idea from 2010 has not changed any, I believe. Can you see the slide? Has society taken education out of the hands of educators?

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The most gloomy aspect of our educational slide is that the problem continues to feed itself. This past week, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released the 2020-2021 District and School-level Assessment Results, and in it was the 2020-21 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) Executive Summary.

When I dove into the findings, the two areas that caught my attention were comparing the top ten and bottom ten schools of 2020-21 and preceding years of reported results. Guess what? Not much changes. While there is a resorting, per se, the top ten and the bottom ten are usually the same schools. Now, let me say that I acknowledge that the last quarter of the 2019 school year and the 2020-21 school year were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just think, we have students who did not set foot in a school building for almost 18 months. However…

Now, here is the interesting part… If you take the map of Mississippi – Census Low Response Score that predicts the mail return rate of the 2020 census based on the return rate from the 2010 census, you will find that the top ten schools are primarily in communities with a high self-reporting census rate. The bottom ten schools are primarily in communities with a low self-reporting census rate. Connection, correlation, thoughts? Is it, or the lack of, leadership, money, teachers, students, parents, community buy-in? It has to be something, right? Is blame even the right word to use?

While each one of you, I’m sure, will have conclusions of your own, I suggest that no community wants their educational setting to be low-performing or in the bottom ten. Why would they? The money winning questions has to be, though, what has to change? What needs to happen? Talk about hitting your head against the wall enough times to make your head hurt and then saying you don’t have a headache… Maybe the better question is, why is it happening? For change to occur, hard questions must be asked, and answers must be found to say that we want a fair and equitable education for all. The notion of “the better we all do, the better we all do” works.

As educators, what we do and do not do matters. As for educational leaders, teachers, students, parents, community, the same is true. Remember, the slope of a slide only goes downward. Let’s find ways to help everyone climb and reach for what education should be… for all.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

Want to share this leadership thought with others? Click on one of the social media sharing buttons below and help spread the good…

A text from my mom and the thought of influence…

08 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Character, Compassion, Decisions, Encouragement, Essence, Expectations, Future, Influence, Inspiration, Kindness, Purpose, Relationships, Teachers, Value

≈ 2 Comments

This past Saturday, Heather and I were on the patio drinking coffee, and I get a text from my mom asking me to read something on Facebook. For some reason, I could not open the link (technical difficulties), so I call mom and tell her. Well, one thing led to another, and she ends up reading me the below post. For those who know my mom, she is not one who always shares her feelings. But, she was excited about this. Mom stated it was one of the best things she has read of late and thought about us since we are teachers and the value of influence we have. 

As she was reading it to me, I looked it up online and actually found the post. What was interesting, it was posted on my 7th grade English teacher’s page. The story, as far as I can tell, has an unknown source. By nature, I try to be conscientious about my blogs and wanting them to be “original thoughts,” but I believe this post is worth reading…

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The Teacher and the Stolen Watch

AN OLD MAN MEETS A YOUNG MAN who asks;
“Do you remember me?” 

And the old man says no.  Then the young man tells him he was his student. And the teacher asks:
“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers:
“Well, I became a teacher.”
“Ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.
“Well, yes.  In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher.  And the young man tells him the following story:
“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it and I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed his missing watch and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you. Then you went to the class:
“This student's watch was stolen during classes today.  Whoever stole it, please return it.”

I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.  Then you closed the door and told us all to get up and you were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.  But you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

So we did, and you went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it.  You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said:
“Open your eyes. We have the watch.”

You didn't tell me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either.  That day you saved my dignity forever.  It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day my dignity was saved and I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor even scold me or took me aside to give me a moral lesson, I received your message clearly.

And thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.  Do you remember this episode, professor?

And the professor answers:
“I remember the situation, the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket, but I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.”

This is the essence of teaching:
“If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach "

Credit - Unknown

As I read this again, I agree; it is pretty good. As educators, we really never know the power of our influence. Just like in the story, there will be plenty of students we cannot remember – if you teach long enough, it will happen. However, little things matter. One little thing here or there. The things we do or say that inspire. How we communicate and make others feel. Showing students that there is a better way. You never know, we might just save their dignity. You might not remember them, but they will remember you. Yes, to teach is to educate. But I will add this to the last line of the story – To influence and inspire… An essence of teaching that can only be measured with time. 

Who will you influence and inspire today? 

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

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“Ready or not, here I come,” said the school year.

13 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in Actions, Classroom Leadership, Classroom Management, Decisions, Educational Leadership, Encouragement, Engagement, Kindness, Leader, Leadership, New School Year, Rest, Teachers, Understanding, Useful

≈ 6 Comments

Hide and seek… the seeker would always start with, “Ready or not, here I come.” Well, the school year, like a 500 pound gorilla, does not hide. Every August, it opens its doors to all, ready or not. We do not have to go looking for it.

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Educators are in meetings, school supply lists are getting filled, new clothes possibly bought for the first day, and whatever else everyone does. The sound of the first bell of the opening day is like the start of the Kentucky Derby… “and they’re off.” By the time those horses make the final turn, teachers are much like them… worn out at the end of the day… legs tired, out of breath, heart beating fast. Last words of the first day for a teacher, “I can’t wait until the weekend gets here.”

Just think… to put this in calendar terms… we have 36 school weeks to go until May, 180 school days… I will not give you the number of hours 🙂

If this is you, let your heart not be troubled. As educators, we are all in this together. No one is on an island… UNLESS you choose to be there by yourself, and that is a much more serious problem on its own.

So, what are some “things” that will help you not always feel you are waiting for the weekend as school happens this year? Three “things” I believe are very important. All three work, directly and indirectly, to make your life better as a person and as a teacher.

Have a classroom leadership plan, not a classroom management plan.
To borrow a paragraph from a previous blog on classroom leadership Teach with classroom leadership not classroom management……
“Classroom leadership is centered around empowerment, not only for you, as a teacher, but for the student as well. Classroom leadership should be based on a vision and principles, not managing students like they are products on a shelf; a vision that shows what the end result can be – where students can grow, and finish better than they started. Classroom leadership should be about influence, and that is what leaders do; influence inspires, management manages. When people are inspired, they do not have to be managed.”

As an educator, I believe this with every educational fiber I have in me. Part of classroom leadership is “doing right by students.” When you do, they will do right by you in return. When you have an inviting atmosphere in your classroom, you do not have to sell your product.

Learn your student’s names.
Yes, and learn to pronounce their names – correctly. Get hooked on phonics if necessary to pronounce them. It will show an investment on your part. Sometimes, all a student has, is their name. We really do not know how they are being acknowledged outside the classroom. We all want respect; correctly learning and pronouncing a student’s name might seem small, but huge rewards can pay off. You might be surprised how quickly respect can be earned doing this. Also, try to acknowledge everyone in the class at least once during the class period. One more idea… meet them at the door.

It is essential that you take care of yourself and your family.
We all know that our home carries over into our jobs. I have really never met anyone who can separate the two entirely, even when they say they can. At one point or another, we all get run down. To bring our best to students in every class, we must be at our best.

I know it is hard, and we all “want” to do better, but try to plan your family life out by the week. Now, there will be surprises and hiccups, but at least you have an idea of what is going on. Yes, we are here to serve others, but we cannot do that unless we take care of ourselves. Above all, get some rest. Teaching tired benefits no one. A good and restful you is good for all. Try to eat right (that’s what I am working on right now..) and try to get some steps in (this too). Sitting behind a teacher’s desk is not good teaching any way.

Yes, the school year is upon us. There are so many things that we cannot control, but these three things we can. Work on perfecting them as the new year begins. Everyone will be better for it.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

Want to share this leadership thought with others? Click on one of the social media sharing buttons below and help spread the good…