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?

JUST A VERY SHORT OVERALL OBSERVATION

I think we've cleared up where to post what.  If you're responding to someone else's quote you post a comment under thier original post, if you are posting a new strain or thought, it goes out front as a new post.

So here goes...new thought...

I just have to say, the collaboration and sharing of ideas on here is really getting me juiced up!  I think the Blog is probably not unlike most other things, it will be as effective as we choose to make it.  You clearly have dedicated yourselfs to making it very worth while.  I am so proud to be a part of this group!

Thank you guys. Every single one of you should be proud of yourselves and of the work that you do for out kids.

Dave

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The Essential 55 - By Ron Clark: Question #1- Week #1 (Vickie's Question)

The Essential 55 - By Ron Clark: Question #1- Week #1 (Vickie's Question): "For the first question this week, please read this quote about Helping Students become Motivated Learners. (B. Adams, Iowa State University)..."
1. Yes, praise does help motivate students. Students need feedback to let them know how they are doing, if they are being successful. I know sometimes in Kindergarten a student will have very few skills, academic or social, and I have to make sure to praise the skills they do have to keep them enthusiastic about school and learning.
2. When as a group the students have done a great job, I tell them to "kiss their brains" because their brain is doing what they tell it to do. I also have them pat themselves on the back or give them a high five or a thumbs up.
3. In kindergarten, it is often the little baby steps forward that we have to motivate with praise to keepthose students with issues moving forward.
4. I don’t think you can give too much praise, as long as it is honest, serious praise.

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

For the first question this week, please read this quote about Helping Students become Motivated Learners. (B. Adams, Iowa State University)

Helping Students Become Motivated Learners

Fundamentally, the process of motivation stems from stimulation, which in turn is followed by an emotional reaction that leads to a specific behavioral response. In the classroom, if a student's behavior is regarded as desirable and is rewarded, the positive reinforcement stimulates the student to repeat the desirable behavior. Conversely, if a student's behavior is regarded as undesirable and the individual receives a response with a negative undertone, demonization results. Furthermore, anxiety and frustration often result if behavior thought to be positive does not lead to proper recognition, reinforcement and reward.

Basically, motivations stems from unsatisfied needs. However, it must be understood that individuals are motivated through a wide variety of needs. Some people are highly motivated by money, others by power, and other by praise. Since teachers are not usually in a position to offer students money or power, the focus here will be on praise. It should also be noted that some people are self-motivated and perform because they like challenge and want to perform. While educators can't make or teach students to be self-motivated, they can encourage and promote this highly desirable personal trait. Generally, students will show some self-motivation if they (1) know what is expected of them, (2) think the effort is worthwhile, and (3) feel they will benefit through effective performance.

Watch what you say

Some teachers feel that motivating students is really not one of their job responsibilities. However, whether they like it or not, students are expecting and collecting feedback from their instructors. Teachers need to be very aware of impact that their verbal comments and nonverbal body language have on their students' motivation level. Below are some tips for being a motivator and not a demotivator.

Things to do

Show honest appreciation. When teachers use "I statements" to convey their honest appreciation about a student, the teacher is communicating personal appreciation, rather than using a mechanical or an exaggerated response. Below are some examples of honest appreciation."

"I appreciate that."
"I like the way you said that."
"Thank you very much for that."
"I sure like your taking that risk."

Communicate empathetic acceptance or understanding. Because students will often make incorrect responses, it is up to the teacher to respond without discouraging the student from being willing to take risks and attempting to problem solve. "I'm with you" statements communicate an empathetic acceptance or understanding of what a student has experienced or what they are trying to communicate. This communicates that the student is not alone, and the teacher appreciates their attempt to perform. Below are some good examples of "I'm with you":

"I might make that same mistake."
"Lots of us feel that way."
"I can see how you would do that."
"I understand why you would say that."

Provide attention without praise. This is done when a teacher simply gives time and attention to a student by listening carefully. When teachers do this, they are supporting and encouraging a student without causing the student to grow dependent on the teacher approval or praise. Below are a list of things to do when giving attention without praise:

Use honest appreciation or "I'm with you."
Use non-threatening physical touch like a pat on the arm or shaking hands.
Use sincere eye contact that shows you are truly listening.
Simply give students time so that you can listen or communicate with them about a situation.
Greet a student after their absence.

Use plain corrects or incorrects. Sometimes it is best to tell a student that an answer was correct or incorrect without stimulating any distracting emotion. This allows the teacher to treat the students like intelligent people who do not appreciate overstatements or exaggerations. Below is a list of some appropriate plain correct responses:

"Yes, that's right."
"Okay."
"Yes, that's just what I wanted."
"Correct."
"Yes, thank you."
"No, the correct answer is _____________."
"You had the first part right, but the last part was incorrect."
"Thank you for taking a risk to answer that, even though it was the wrong answer."

Provide praise and reward for all. Teachers must be fair in distributing their praise and all students should receive praise. Look for positive things to say about a students work even when pointing out problems or mistakes with the work. Some might receive praise for bigger accomplishments than others but even the lower performers need a regular pat on the back. Teacher should also gives praise to the class as a whole to encourage the class and also build team unity.

Cautions
Too much praise can lead to a student becoming dependent on it. When a teacher's praise becomes a pleasure for the student instead of serving to motivate them, it basically becomes a addiction. The student begins to require constant praise and develops no personal initiative.
Unfairness is an issue that occurs quite frequently in many classrooms. Consciously and unconsciously teachers tend to react more positively to some students more than others. Teachers need to try to put personal differences aside and treat each student equally so that each students has the same opportunity to be motivated to learn.

Manipulation happens when teachers focus their attention on the positive behavior of a student or group of students in order to hint that a certain behavior is the most desirable. This works in some situations to motivate students to modify their behavior; yet, underneath it is really saying that it is okay to manipulate people to get what you want Below are a couple of examples:

"Look at how well Sally did on the assignment."
"I really like how well this side of the room is contributing."

Exaggeration quickly devalues honest relationships between students and teachers. Exaggerated praise includes statements such as those presented below. When these kind of statements are used repetitively, students are not encouraged to be intrinsically motivated, rather they depend on extrinsic motivation.

"Great answer!"
" Super!"
" Wonderful!"
" Sensational!"

The overall goal of teachers should be to help students develop into self-motivating learners. Students who are encouraged to become motivated lifelong learners will be more successful in and out of the classroom.

Ron Clark Rule #3
“If someone in the class wins a game or does something well, we will congratulate that person. Claps will be of at least three seconds in length with the full parts of both hands meeting in a manner that will give appropriate clap volume.”

Okay... Here are the actual Question(s)...

After reading Ron Clark’s Rule #3 and the passage above (From Iowa State University) please answer the following questions.
1- Do you think praise from peers and teachers helps to motivate students? Why and What positive results have you seen due to this positive praise?
2- Do you use some form of praise when working with students? Give an example that others may want to try.
3- How can we use Ron Clark’s Rule #3 to motivate even the most unmotivated students or students with discipline issues?
4- Can we ever give too much praise? Why do you feel the way you do?

I look forward to reading your comments. Remember to not only answer the questions, but to also respond to what others say. Any issues or questions about blogging, please let me know.

Have a GREAT week!

Vickie

Helping Students Become Motivated Learners Reference:
This information was adapted from an Iowa State University 245/268 curriculum and instruction (CI) class in the spring semester in 2000 and was taught by B. Adams.

Question #2 - Week #1 (Dave's question)

I was in Jen Davis' classroom this morning and one of her students, Chrisitan Rezes, offered a particularly high level answer in explaining why he came to the conclusion that 6+7 was 13. They were working on doubles, so I think Jen was looking for something on the lines of "I know that 6+6=12, so 6+7 has to equal 13." However, Christian not only wasn't thinking that way, he was able to clearly explain that he was thinking through the problem at what both Jen and I recognized was at a much higher level of mathematical understanding. I would venture a guess that if given grade level appropriate questions on this topic, Christian would score very high in the "Number, Number Sense and Operations Standard." His explanation went something like this (I'm paraphrasing here)..."Well, I know that 7 is only 3 away from 10. 7+3=10, so I took 3 away from the 6 and in my head made the problem 10+3=13."

Here's my connection to the Ron Clark book. I believe it is in Rule #3, he talks about punishment and reward. One thing that he expect and models in his classroom is that he praises and expects the class to praise students. I'm trying to model that here. Praising Jen for this moment fits two purposes. I brought the whole thing up because she was a good example of how this might actually look in your classroom. Secondly, she modeled it for Christian. Christian gave an answer that was nowhere near what she was looking for at the time, but she recognized it as an outstanding answer, and then, possibly more importantly, she stopped what they were doing as a class and pointed it out to the rest of the class, and had them clap for him. I was sitting right next to Christian, and I can tell you because of my proximity, this meant the world to him. He knew that Mrs. Davis valued his thinking and rewarded him with praise for not only taking the chance to say something in front of the class, but for saying something pretty important as far as identifying his thinking being at a higher level than what she was actually looking for.

My question is simple. Please list off a few REAL examples of how we can do this type of thing in the classroom and also how we can expect it of each other in all that we do.

We have to be willing to build each other up and encourage each other to take risks. We have to share what we learned from that process, which could be, "Don't ever do...it crashed and burned for me." or it could be, "You have to try this. It totally changed what I am able to do in my classroom. We have to have extremely high expectations for our students and never let them believe that you believe anything less than the fact that they can do amazing things, whatever they may be.

I think the most important thing that we can take away from this, and this seems to be a recurring theme, (in fact it was mentioned at an 8:00 meeting this morning) is that we need to make education as “real world” as possible. Students can make connections to what we are asking of them, when they can see the “why” of what you are trying to do with them. I personally do not believe in praising students for nothing, but when they do something that is worthy, we have to take the time to spell that out.

This whole line of thinking makes me think back to when I was teaching 5^th and 6^th grade. We were studying economics at the time. I knew the owner of a local pizza shop, and used that to the best of my ability. Our students interviewed him and talked with his suppliers etc. It was actually quite involved over several weeks, but ultimately they had to open their own virtual pizza shop and included all expenses and purchasing and all other costs of doing business, and then we tried to do calculations on number of pizzas that must be sold to make profits…anyway, it was REAL to them, and maybe one of the best lessons that I ever did, and I tried hard to build off of that kind of learning. That lesson was kind of an “a-ha” moment for me, and I became a better teacher because of it. You can't do that with every lesson, but you can look to how you can make students understand why they need to know what you are doing right at that moment.

Please list some “real world” ideas that you have done, or intend to try in your classroom, and more importantly, STEAL, STEAL, STEAL these ideas from each other, and praise each other for taking the risk of sharing ideas.

Respons to book itself.

I love the emphasis on politeness. I can't see doing many of the specific things in my high school class, but I still am going to work on it where I can.

Ron Clark Book Study

What I really like about this book is that it reinforces the concept that students need to be respectful. I think we ignore too much inappropriate behavior. For example, when Ron Clark took the candy/books away from students that didn't say "Thank You" in 3 seconds. I agree with him but I find myself thinking it would be really hard for me to do that.

How to Post

I am not sure that there is a right or wrong way to post. My suggestion is that If you have a question for everyone, you should do a new post. If you are responding to what someone else has said you should reply to their post (at the bottom of what they asked). Each week Dave and I will ask 1 question each. We want everyone to reply to that question. If you want to ask a new question (which is also Great) you can create a new post. When you want to read what others are saying you can see how many comments have been made on each post. You can also respond to all comments made within a post.

The reason for doing it this way is to reduce the number of posts. If on a Monday, Dave and I each ask a question and everyone responds with a new post it will be difficult to find the questions.

I hope this helps!
If you still have questions let Dave or I know!
Once again, thanks for joining in this book study!
We are at 31 people so far! :)
Vickie

How do you want things posted?

Clarify: Is it ok to just comment on posts or do you want our comments to be in the form of a post? Sorry didn't do this with you last time so wanted to make sure how you wanted the blog to flow.

I am really excited about the book study. I think that it would be good to have building wide rules as well as some that apply to each grade level/class room.

My first question is do you believe we need an essential X number of rules in our building, or do you think that this is something that we would individualize at the classroom level, or both? Should there be a short list of "rules" or expectations that are clearly defined at the building level? If so, please throw out a few that you think would be good for discussion. I really think of them more from the perpextive of "this is just how we do things here - because It's the Wildcat Way." What I am personally going for with this "Wildcat Way" thing is a way that we can generalize it as much as possible so that I don't need to be giving examples on the announcements, but so that it is engrained in who we are and what we are about. We are tryingg to raise respectful, responsible young people. We want to teach kids that in order to be successful in life, you have to work hard, and that choosing to not be successful, and therefore choosing not to work hard, is not something that anyone in our culture is going to accept. But we have to drink the coolaid too. IF we say that it is important to work hard, we have to model it and expect it, and push kids to achieve more than they ever believed in themselves/of themselves was possible, and then when they achieve it, we celebrate like crazy, but we tell, them, "See, I knew you could!" so that they begin to believe it too.

Welcome to Ron Clark book study- The Essential 55

Thanks for signing up for this book study. Whether you are taking it for Ashland Credit, CEU's or just to be a part of the book study, I am glad you decided to join in.

Each week Dave and I will post 3 or more questions from the portion of the book that we just read. Please respond to each of those questions along with make a comment on what 5 other people say. When commenting on what other people have to say, keep in mind ...

-Ron Clark - Rule #4-

"During discussions, respect other students' comments, opinions, and ideas. When possible, make statements like, "I agree with John, and I also feel that ..." or " I disagree with Sara. She made a good point, but I feel that ..." or " I think Victor made an excellent observation, and it made me realize..."

Each week we would love to have someone (besides Dave and I) offer up a question or two for the group. As you begin reading let us know if you think of a question that you would like to ask the whole group. Email it to one of us and we will add it the the questions each week.

Thanks again for participating. I hope you enjoy the book study and feel that you grow professionally from participating.

Thanks,
Vickie