The Response-Able Educator Newsletter
May 20, 2004
Join
thousands of others who are taking action
to improve the quality of their relationship
by subscribing to Thomas Haller’s
FREE Educator Newsletter
|
___________________________________________________________________
Welcome! This is a free newsletter on becoming a Response-Able
teacher and developing Response-Able students.
___________________________________________________________________
MISSION STATEMENT
My mission is to inspire, encourage and uplift the spirits
of educators so they can in turn inspire, encourage, and uplift
the spirits of their students.
=======================================================
IN THIS ISSUE
=======================================================
- Quote
- Spirit Whisperer Contemplation
- Facts
- Teacher Talk Tip
- Bumper Sticker
- Book Report
- Sign of the Times
- Article: Homework
- Training Opportunity
- Sister Publications
- Manage Your Subscription
=======================================================
=======================================================
America believes in education: the average professor earns
more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in
a whole week.
--- Evan Esar (1899-1995)
=============================================================
2. Spirit Whisperer Contemplation [back
to top]
=============================================================
What if there is plenty of time? What if what they don't
get now, they can get later? What if there is no right time
to learn this lesson?
=============================================================
=============================================================
The number of male public school teachers is at a 40-year
low. Of America's 3 million teachers, only 21 percent are
male. In elementary school, male teachers now represent 9
percent of the teaching force. That is down from 18 percent
in 1981. Minority males make up 16 percent of the teaching
population. Forty-two percent of public schools have no minority
teacher. (National Education Association survey)
=============================================================
=============================================================
"Always/Never" Pay attention to how you use the
words "always" and "never. "
"You always blame someone else."
"You never attempt to do anything extra."
"Why do you always interrupt me?"
A problem for teachers who use "always" and "never"
in their Teacher Talk is that the words divert students' attention
from the issue that needs to be dealt with and focuses it
on the accusation. A typical internal response to "You
always have to be first" is denial. The student remembers
the one time three years ago when she chose to be last. She
is now so busy thinking that she does not always have to be
first that she is unable to attend mentally to the problem
at hand.
============================================================
Chick Moorman is currently booking summer and back-to-school
programs. To reserve your date, contact Chick at ipp57@aol.com.
=============================================================
=============================================================
Spotted on a Chevy Blazer in a driveway in Milan, MI:
If it weren't for Sports
This would be about my Honor Roll Child.
=============================================================
========================================================
"Are you a teacher?" I asked a customer who wanted
to purchase a "Spirit Whisperer" book at the Michigan
PTA annual convention.
"No, I'm a room mother and a PTA officer," she
responded.
"Well, I just want you to know that 'Spirit Whisperers'
is a book for teachers. It's about how to teach to a child's
spirit. (I often give this explanation at my book table because
I want to make sure people know what they are buying. I don't
want a parent to buy a book intended for teachers, thinking
it has lots of parenting examples in it.)
"I know," she said. "It's not for me. It's
for my son's teacher. It's an end-of-the-year appreciation
gift. His teacher is a Spirit Whisperer, and I think she could
use it. She gets a bit discouraged in this age of overemphasis
on test scores. Plus, I want her to know I care about her
efforts to teach children rather than curriculum."
I sold her the book — personally autographed, of course.
The interesting part of this situation is that it was not
an isolated incident. I had similar conversations with several
other parents looking for appreciation gifts for teachers
who touched their children's spirits, who taught to the human
side of the teaching equation.
Several other customers purchased graduation gifts for soon-to-be
teachers. All in all, I sold over 25 books to customers who
wanted either a graduation gift or one to show appreciation.
In each case, I recommended three different books, listed
below, and let the customer choose. If you know a teacher
you want to appreciate or a 2004 college graduate in the field
of education, consider the following:
SPIRIT WHISPERERS: Teachers Who Nourish a Child's Spirit
by Chick Moorman ($25.00)
Spirit Whisperers exist. They are out there in every school,
in every grade level, in every part of the country. They coach,
they lead youth groups, they teach school, they counsel, they
administer, and they parent. Most often they do their work
in anonymity. Quietly, steadily, they go about their task
of teaching to a child's spirit. This book is an effort to
celebrate Spirit Whisperers and help them remember that there
are others like them working to inspire, nurture, uplift,
and help young people tune in to the spirit and power within.
TEACHER TALK: What It Really Means by Chick Moorman and Nancy
Weber ($13.00)
This book is about teachers' talk — the comments, questions,
commands, and suggestions that teachers direct at students
every day. It explores the way teachers talk to children and
exposes the underlying "silent messages" that accompany
their spoken words. By selecting words and phrases intentionally
and using the Teacher Talk suggested in this book, teachers
will empower their students and enhance their students' learning.
OUR CLASSROOM: We Can Learn Together by Chick Moorman and
Dee Dishon ($20.00)
This book will help K-6 teachers create a classroom environment
where discipline problems are less likely to occur and where
students are less likely to activate the new three R's — Resistance,
Reluctance, and Resentment. The book shows how to build an
atmosphere of togetherness and cooperation, focusing on activities
and strategies that foster notions of belonging, interdependence,
and mutual respect.
=============================================================
7. A Sign of the Times [back
to top]
=============================================================
How would you like your students to go to the ShopRite Center
for physical education and the Flowers Library and Media Center
to check out books? Thanks to the school's sale of naming
rights, that's exactly what happens at the Alice Costello
School in Brooklawn, NJ. The gym and library have been renamed
and sold to the highest bidder.
The school name could be next.
"A lot of small schools are fighting for their survival.
What we are doing here is going to be the norm in ten years,"
Superintendent John Kellmayer says.
Can't you see it now?
Ads on the sport teams' jerseys.
Company logos on the basketball court's free-throw lanes.
Advertising on the sides of school buses.
An exclusive arrangement with Pepsi for vending machines
that give the school a cut of the proceeds.
Junk food vending machines to entice students to spend lunch
money on Little Debbie cupcakes and Butterfinger candy bars
to help increase the school's budget.
Corporate logos in the upper right-hand corner of each student's
desk.
Rental of display cases in the high school to promote local
businesses.
An e-bay auction of the school's name to the highest bidder.
It's a sign of the times.
===========================================================
8. Article: Homework
[back to top]
========================================================
By Chick Moorman
There are two first-grade classrooms in an elementary school
in a small southern Michigan community. They are located directly
across the hall from each other in the early childhood wing.
Both first-grade teachers are ten-year teaching veterans.
Both teach language arts using the whole language/experience
story approach. Both take their jobs seriously.
Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Brown often invite their students to
express themselves through drawing. Each of them encourages
students to create experience stories by adding words to their
drawings. Stories are displayed in the classrooms for a short
period of time and then added to each student's work file.
Both teachers watch for misspelled words and words that children
ask for help in spelling. These words become each individual
student's special reading words for a week. The students carry
their individual collection of words around with them fastened
to their belts with a shower ring.
When adults in the building see Mrs. Johnson's or Mrs. Brown's
students walking in the building, they stop them and ask them
to read their words. The first graders are easy to spot because
of the tag board words bouncing at their waists as they move
through the building. After the children read their words
to the adults, the adults sign the last words on the rings,
signifying that they witnessed the students reading.
Each teacher has students line up to go home at the end of
the week with words in hand. Each teacher has students read
their words to her before they exit the classroom. Each makes
two piles of words as the students read: one pile contains
the words the child read correctly, and the other contains
the words the child read incorrectly or did not read at all.
Up to this point both teachers handle the reading words identically.
The similarity ends there.
Mrs. Johnson throws away the words her children know and
gives them the ones they don't know to take home and practice
with their parents. Mrs. Brown throws away the words her students
don't know and gives them the ones they read successfully
to take home and read to their parents.
Imagine the weekend scenes that occur in the homes of these
first graders. On one side of the street, Mrs. Johnson's student
takes out the pile of words he doesn't know and begins to
struggle. His parents, anxious for the child to learn to read,
overreact and add concern and pressure to the mix. The child
continues to struggle as the parents' concern rises. They
begin to see their child as a poor reader.
In the house across the street, Mrs. Brown's student gets
out his words and begins to read. He is flawless in his efforts.
His parents get excited, give praise, and call grandma to
tell her what a great reader her grandson is. They see their
child as a student who is learning new words every week.
What is the purpose of homework, anyway? In first through
third grades, shouldn't it be just to go home and show off
a little? What is the value of sending home words, problems,
or worksheets that the child cannot do? That scenario only
sets the child up for more struggle. If a student has homework
that he does not know how to do, his choices are to do it
incorrectly, blow it off, sit there and struggle, or ask a
parent for help, thereby revealing his ignorance and adding
pressure to the learning situation.
How about sending work home that helps the child look successful?
How about creating a moratorium on homework that is not understood?
How about helping students see homework as fun by allowing
them to go home and show off the things they CAN do?
(Feel free to print and distribute the above article as
long as you attach the following tag line:
Chick Moorman is the author of "Spirit Whisperers: Teachers
Who Nourish a Child's Spirit" and "Parent Talk:
How to Talk to Your Child in Language That Builds Self-Esteem
and Encourages Responsibility." The books are available
from Personal Power Press at (toll-free) 877-360-1477. Chick
Moorman also publishes a FREE E-newsletter for parents as
well as this one for educators. Contact him at ipp57@aol.com
to get your free subscription to one or both newsletters.)
===============================================================
Chick Moorman is available to keynote your back-to-school
inservice day, fall staff development meeting, conference,
or recognition dinner with "Celebrate the Spirit Whisperers."
Contact him at ipp57@aol.com or call (toll-free) 877-360-1477.
Full-day seminars include the following topics: "Teaching
for Respect and Responsibility" and "Achievement
Motivation and Behavior Management."
============================================================
9. Training Opportunity:
Helping Parents Learn Verbal Skills [back
to top]
============================================================
WANTED: Training facilitators to learn the Parent Talk System's
Language of Response-Able Parenting model.
GOAL: To help parents learn effective verbal skills to use
with their children.
Take a giant step toward helping the parents in your school.
Become a skilled facilitator of the Parent Talk System by
attending our summer facilitator training. Join the growing
number of people from around the world (USA, Mexico, Spain,
and Australia) who have learned how to help parents raise
responsible, caring, confident children. We will help you
learn to put the highly effective Parent Talk skills into
the hands of parents in your school, church, or organization.
You will leave this three-day training with the skills and
confidence to touch the hearts and minds of parents in your
community!
Parent Talk System Training Details: July 29, 30, 31 Dearborn,
MI Spring Arbor University Campus
Facilitated by Chick Moorman and Judith Minton
Limited to 25 participants. Graduate credit available.
To request a detailed brochure, email ipp57@aol.com. (Be
sure to include your mailing address.)
==============================================================
10. Sister Publications [back
to top]
===============================================================
Are you receiving our two sister publications, The Response-Able
Parenting Newsletter and our Couple Talk Newsletter? If not,
and if you would like to receive them, email ipp57@aol.com
and tell us which one you would like to receive.
===========================================================
11. Manage Your Subscription
[back to top]
========================================================
A.) If you are receiving the newsletter as a forward and
would like to insure that you get your personal free subscription,
e-mail ipp57@aol.com and
request to be added to the educator newsletter.
B.) To remove yourself from this list, e-mail ipp57@aol.com
and ask to be deleted from the educator newsletter.
C.) Back issues of the Response-Able Educator Newsletter
can be found here.
D.) Are you interested in receiving our parenting
newsletter? If so, e-mail ipp57@aol.com
and request to be added to the parenting newsletter list.
E.) Please recommend this free e-newsletter to any teachers
you know who are interested in adding tools to their teaching
tool boxes.
F.) Please notify us if your e-mail address is about to
change. Send your name and new e-mail address to ipp57@aol.com.
Be sure to let us know your old e-mail address so we can unsubscribe
it.
============================================================
To find out more about books, tapes, and materials by Chick
Moorman, contact him at (toll-free) 877-360-1477 or on the
web at www.chickmoorman.com.
========================================================
Subscriber comments, ideas, and concerns are valued. Email
your
comment to IPP57@aol.com
========================================================
Privacy Statement: Under no circumstances do we sell,
trade, or exchange your email address, ever. It is safe with
us. Always!
=========================================================
To find out more about workshops, seminars, and keynote
addresses presented by Chick Moorman contact him at toll free,
877/360-1477 or on the web at www.chickmoorman.com.
========================================================
Copyright 2004 Chick Moorman Seminars, all rights
reserved. Share this with your circle. |
