Just like all of you , I do not think Ron Clark is a fad. I have been here long enough and I have been through many fads. This book is different and he seems to be different. I read this book, and remember back to when I was in fifth grade with Mrs. Harvey and I remember all of the rules we followed, and the manners that we taught. Now, I received those same kind of manners at home, but it was interesting to have those manners come from your teacher. I am so much like my fifth grade teacher. I do have those rules and expect those to be followed, just like Ron's 55 rules. Now, Mrs. Harvey didn't have 55 rules, but we learned to respect her, and that is what I expect of my students. IN the fifth grade, they have to give respect in order to earn the respect. I haven't seen Mr. Clark although I would really like to as he seems to be an "old school" type of teacher, but one thing is different from when I was a fifth grader. That one thing is positive reinforcement. Mrs. Harvey rarely gave positive reinforcement, so if you received it, that meant a hole lot! My students, I have found, even the ones that try me each day, need that positive reinforcement several times a day. At times it can be hard to find something that they have done today that is positive; and when you do, it may only last a few minutes before they begin to act out all over again. I hope one of these days then that one of thse fifth grade stduents will look back and remember me like I remembered Mrs. Harvey!

Question #2 - Week 4 (Dave's Question)

O.k.  Blogging is coming to a close.  I hope you have found this to be a new, convenient, and hopefully innovative way of holding professional conversations.  I have had the thought, and have read it in a few other comments, that what is contained in Ron Clark's Essential 55 is really good stuff...not rocket science...but sometimes the most impactful stuff is the stuff that makes the most sense.  What I want to know is, after having completed this book study, how has both the book, and the conversations that we've had, and are having, impacted you in whatever it is that you do.  Whether you are a elementary, middle, or high school teacher, a substitute teacher, a bus driver, a custodian, a food service person, an educational consultant, a superintendent, a high school principal....whatever....how has this impacted you?  What has changed?  What have you done differently since we started down this path?  What will be different tomorrow?  In a week?  In a month?  In a year?  This book study and the conversations that it has sparked can have as great of an impact on our practices as we decide that it can.  The question is, how do we put it into action.  I've had conversations with building principals and staffs from a lot of different places, and many times you hear people talking and saying things like, "We're doing Marzanno." or "We're doing Baldridge right now."  or "Last year we did 'High Schools That Work'" or "Next year we're studying Ruby Payne."  What I would like you to think about, comment about, and hopefully embed into your very being is moving away from this idea that this is the next flash in the pan, hot idea for the moment, and then we'll be on to something else.  We may look at other things, and I dare say that we will, because if you aren't growing, you're dying, but this hopefully isn't just the latest fad.  How do you intend to keep it fresh, and to keep it meaningful, and to keep it real?  I hope you've enjoyed this process.  I know I have.  It has been a pleasure.  Thank you for all that you do for kids.

Question #1- Week #4 (Vickie's Question)

Can you believe that this is the last week of our PD/blog? It has went very quickly, but I want to take to time to thank everyone for participating. You have been very open and shared a lot of ideas.

This week my question is not based on a specific rule, but what Ron Clark talked about on pages 81-94.

The topic is Tips for Setting Punishments and Rewards.

Ron Clark talked about developing consequences/punishments including a 5 step process where students put their name on the board as a warning, then add checks for each additional occurrence.

Ron Clark also talked a little more about rewards and the fact that praise is effective and should highlight what students have done well and the talents they have in certain ares. He also mentioned that giving students accolades in front of others can have a big on students.


My questions are...

How do you set up praise and awards in your classroom or area of the building that you work in?

How do you keep parents informed on their childs behavior?


Share your creative ideas. The main purpose of the above questions are to share & steal ideas.


I also want to end the blog with Ron Clarks last words of the book.

"If this book has done nothing else, I hope it has inspired you to make more of a difference in the lives of children. Guide them as they grow, show them special moments for them that will add magic to their lives, motivate them to make a difference in the lives of others, most important, teach them to love life."

*If you have questions that Dave and I have not asked please feel free to create a new post for others to answer.

Have a Great Week!
Vickie

Question #2 - Week #3 (Dave's Question)

This week my questions/comments are regarding Ron's rule # 45: "Never cut line.   If someone cuts in front of you, do not say or do anything about it.  Let it happen, but let me know about it.  I will handle the situation.  If you fuss with someone who has cut in line, you could get in trouble as well.  It's not worth it; just let me know what happened.  Please handle all disputes with other classmates in the same manner, by coming to me with any problems before you take matters into your own hands."

I'm going to go with my same kind of concept that I talked about last week, and that is, how do we generalize this way of thinking to have a greater impact on what happens in the classroom on a daily basis.  I do like over all theme of what much of this week's reading assignment was about - which I felt like was focused on manners.  So the question is, "What are some ways that you use or have used to get kids to see that we don't need to sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff."  There are a lot of behaviors that ultimately end up in the office where one child thinks that something is a much bigger deal than what it is.  What are some ways that we can get kids to respond with a more thought out approach, a less instinctive knee jerk reaction to whatever the situation is.  IF someone steps on your foot while you are standing in line, you shrug it off, not push them down and call them stupid.  How do we keep driving that idea home?

I guess I should have maybe picked another rule to write about since Vickie also picked this one, but I guess we both think there is something significant there to talk about.  At first when I read about Ron wanting his students to tell him when there is an issue, I starting thinking about how that might end up in a tattle-fest, but I suppose that with the other structures that he has in place, there would probably be another rule about how it is not polite to point out other's faults.  I do believe that kids should be willing to try to address things on thier own, but we have to teach them the skills necessary to address them appropriately - without true conflict.  Conflict resolution is an important life skill and doing it peacefully will get you much farther in life than by bullying your way to what you want.  Kids need to know that and know that we expect it of them.

Question #1- Week #3 (Vickie's Question)

Before discussing my question, I want to highlight Rules #50 and #51!

Rule #50
Be positive and enjoy life. Some things just aren't worth getting upset over. Keep everything in perspective and focus on the good in your life.

Rule #51
Live so that you will never have regrets. If there is something you want to do, do it! Never let fear, doubt, or other obstacles stand in your way. If there is something you want, fight for it with all of your heart. If there is something you want to do, go for it and don't stop until you make it happen. If there is something you want to be, do whatever is necessary in order to live out that dream.

Those rules really stood out to me as being powerful. As I read them, I thought about my own life and just how much I am able to focus on the good things in life instead of worrying about things that are out of my control. I also thought about my daughters and how I am hoping they will do the things in the two rules listed above, but have never said it like Ron Clark did. What GREAT rules!

Okay... On with my questions.

My questions will focus on Rules # 45 and # 48.

Rule #45
Never cut line. If someone cuts in front of you, do not say or do anything about it. Let it happen, but let me know about it. I will handle the situation. If you fuss with someone who has cut in line, you could get in trouble as well. It's not worth it; just let me know what happened. Please handle all disputes with other classmates in the same manner, by coming to me with any problems before you take matters into your own hands.

Rule #48
If any child in the school is bothering you, let me know. I am your teacher, and I am here to look after you and protect you. I am not going to let anyone in this school bully you or make you feel uncomfortable. In return, I ask you not to take matters into your own hands; let me deal with the student.


Everyone that works with children understands the importance helping students to deal with conflict. After reading Rules 45 & 48 along with the explanation of each (Ron Clark goes into lots more detail under each rule) answer the following questions....

1. Do you agree with his rules? Why and/or why not?
2. What is your policy/stance on how students deal with someone who bullies, cuts in line, etc.

Have a Great Week! Thanks for all of the great conversations happening each week! Keep up the Good work, Focus on the Good in your life & life without regrets! :)
Vickie

Question #2 - Week #2 (Dave's question)

My post this time I think will be much shorter than my typical.  My question is really more of a challenge to see how it might be implemented in our school, than a question.  As far as posting comments to my question, I'd like you to focus you questions and comments and challenging each others thinking along the lines of what Ron talks about in his Rule #16:  Homework will be turned in each day for each subject by every student with no exceptions.

My question or challenge to you is this:  How can you, and what would it look like to generalize this concept in your classroom? 

I know in past years we have had discussions and even committees formed around the concept of homework completion.  I think homework completion is important, but I really want the majority of your comments to focus more on how we could generalize that in the classroom so that it impacts you and your students in your classroom with your set of expectations.  Maybe it is a chart of number of kids per class that completed homework.  You could post that as 18/21 or in a percentage format.  Maybe it is number of tests passed with at least 80% of the questions right/points earned.  Maybe it is number of subtraction math facts known in 5 minutes.  You decide what is important to you at your grade level, or maybe it isn't even necessarily a grade level thing.  If you think it is important - go with it.  Maybe you feel it is really important for kids to set goals to improve on the number of sight words that they know on average as a class and see if they can improve upon that average number from month to month.  The point is, I can't tell you what it is that you should think is important.  I do, however, love the idea of posting a public goal - which is really what Ron Clark's homework sign is all about. 

It is about saying loud and clear, "Here is what is important to us in this class.  It is so important that we want everyone else to know what it is."  And then, more importantly, actually making a point to talking about that and utilizing that goal quite regularly to motivate kids to do their best.  How cool would it be for us to be able to stop in your class, or maybe even more powerfully - for you to stop in each other's classrooms for the same purpose - to say in 3 seconds, "Hey guys, we're really proud of you.  It says on your door that you wanted to improve on your class' overall missing assignments.  It says you wanted to decrease your total number of missing assignments as a whole class by 10 a week, and this past week you reduced the number by 37!  WOW!  That is awesome!"  What might be even more powerful is if you could look at some of the goals that your students are setting as individuals in their data binders and look for some common threads and try to set and post a classroom level goal that is achievable as a whole by most of the students meeting their own personal goals.

If you want us to announce that your class made their goal of improving their percentage of multiplication facts by 12% over the last time you did the test, and the goal was 10, tell us.  We'd be happy to make a big deal of it!  We can have everybody in the gym hooting and hollering or say something on the announcements in the morning...let your imagination go wild.  If it is motivating kids to do their best, then we're all ears.  Discuss...share...think...throw out ideas of how this might look, how might we support you in it?

Have fun.  Think big.  Go Bucks!  (o.k. - maybe that didn't belong in there, but I figure that you really can't go wrong with that statement in any application.  Our pastor said it in church the other day, after all.  Actually, he started with "O-H" and you know what followed.  :-) )

Question #1- Week #2 (Vickie's Question)

This week's question is not about a specific rule but something mentioned in Rule #18. Rule #18 says "You will make every effort to be as organized as possible." When going into specific details about that rule Ron Clark said...

"Each year, I always ask my former students' new teacher how they are performing in class. Mainly, I am interested in seeing which areas I had prepared the students well, as well as the areas where my students have weaknesses. This is sometimes hard to do and very humbling because it isn't easy hearing a teacher tell you how your students went to her unprepared. If you are really interested in becoming a better teacher, though, I think it is a necessary evaluation, and besides, it is rewarding when you hear positive comments."
(Pgs. 63, 64)

This made me think about several situations in my career when feelings were hurt when someone said things like... "My kids this year are SO low" or "These students do not even know their math facts". Teachers from the grade level before often take that as an attack, their feelings get hurt before they can even ask the questions... "What do you mean by low?" or "What specific skills are they lacking?"

After moving into my current position, I quickly learned that most grade levels are saying the same kinds of things. When teachers get a new group of students, they immediately start to stress about what gains need to be made, what the needs are of each student and just how much work they have to do in a small amount of time.

There is so much stress on all staff members to work harder and get more done with less time. This added stress causes the new teacher to worry about how they will get all students where they need to be. It also causes stress for the previous teacher because they know just how hard they worked and it hurts to hear that your students are still not where they are expected to be. That hurt stands in the way of truly finding out how to get better at what we do.

In every interview, we ask potential employees a very important question. "At the end of the lesson or day, how do you know if your students get what you taught them? This question could be asked of teachers, Project MORE mentors, an aide or anyone else that works with children.

My questions for everyone are...

How do you know what you do well or what areas need improvement in your job?

Do you include community members, students, parents or anyone else in deciding what areas to make improvements in?

What is the best way to have those professional conversations to help each other grow, without hurting others feelings?