The Response-Able Educator Newsletter
September 30, 2004
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Welcome! This is a free newsletter on becoming a Response-Able
teacher and developing Response-Able students.
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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.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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- Quote
- Bumper Sticker
- Spirit Whisperer Contemplation
- Teacher Talk Tip
- Teacher Talk Seminar
- Being on Topic
- Teamwork
- Article: So What Are Students Going to Remember About
Your Classroom Ten Years From Today?
- Facts
- Manage Your Subscription
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“To be educated, a person doesn’t have to know much or be
informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably
to the transformative events of an engaged human life.”
—Thomas Moore
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Spotted on a Chevy van in Merrill, MI:
“The Good Stuff Is in the Middle.”
Hemlock Middle School
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3. Spirit Whisperer Contemplation [back
to top]
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“Pay attention,” we often tell students. What if the most
important attention students can pay today is to their own
thoughts? Are you teaching students to pay attention to their
own thoughts and to where those thoughts are taking them,
or are you teaching them to pay attention to you and to where
you are taking them?
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When you apologize to a student, the structure of your Teacher
Talk is important. If you yell, use sarcasm, or publicly ridicule
a child, an apology is appropriate. When apologizing, be careful
with the word “but.” “I’m sorry I reprimanded you in front
of the class, but your choice of behavior was inappropriate”
uses the word “but” to excuse your behavior. The apology is
stronger if you change the order of your Teacher Talk. Say,
“Your choice of behavior was inappropriate, but I’m sorry
I reprimanded you in front of the class.” An even more effective
apology occurs when you replace “but” with “and.” Tell the
student, “Your choice of behavior was inappropriate, and I’m
sorry I reprimanded you in front of the class.”
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The Teacher Talk Seminar is currently one of our most requested
seminars. Skill-based and practical, this verbal skills training
offers teachers strategies they can put to use
immediately. Chick Moorman is currently booking summer and
back-to-school programs.
To reserve your date, contact Chick at ipp57@aol.com.
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5. Teacher Talk Seminar
[back to top]
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The Teacher Talk Seminar is currently one of our most requested
seminars. Skill-based and practical, this verbal skills training
offers teachers strategies they can put to use immediately.
Chick Moorman may be coming to a city near you with this
dynamic and enlightening seminar. Check the dates and places
below. Email ipp57@aol.com to request a brochure on the seminar,
which is titled “Achievement Motivation and Behavior Management.”
LANSING, MI — November 5, 2004
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — November 15, 2004
MILWAUKEE, WI — November 16, 2004
To bring the Teacher Talk Seminar to your school, contact
Chick at ipp57@aol.com or call (toll-free) 877-360-1477.
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Patty Tamble teaches math to high school students in Sauk
Rapids, MN. Like many tenth to twelfth graders, her students
are not always on task. “I have some students,” she says,
“who waste their time and disrupt others rather than work
on problems.” Patty set out to correct that situation.
“I remember what you taught us, Chick — that if you want
a behavior, you have to teach a behavior,” she said to me
recently. “I decided to apply it to work time.”
One Monday Patty set out to teach all her student how to
“Be On the Topic.” Using the direct teaching approach, she
taught five behaviors that are necessary in order to “Be on
the Topic.” They were:
1.) Turn to the proper page.
2.) Open your notebook.
3.) Pick up your pencil.
4.) Info in upper left-hand corner.
5.) Concentrate on your work.
As she wrote the five items on a large poster, she made the
first letter of the first word in each point extra large,
spelling the word “TOPIC.”
Near the end of the period of each of her classes, Patty
debriefed with her students by asking them to rate themselves
on a scale of one to ten on how well they had been on the
topic that day. She also assigned students to complete the
sentence starter, “Next time, we can be on the topic better
if we . . .” A brief discussion followed.
“The five steps are clear and easy for my students to remember
with the help of the poster,” Patty says. She adds, “It also
helps to give the behavior I wanted a name.”
Asking, “Are you on TOPIC?” has replaced going up to students
and giving them such reminders as “Pick up your pencil and
get to work.”
“Since I invested the time in teaching the behavior I wanted,
my students have been on task a lot more often,” Patty reports.
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The following was overheard at the beginning of the school
year kindergarten orientation at MacGregor Elementary School
in Bay City, MI:
Kindergarten teacher Valerie Haller, explaining the importance
of parents and teachers working together: “I am an early childhood
specialist. I am an expert at teaching five- and six-year-olds.
You are an expert on your child. Together, that makes us a
great team.”
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8. Article: So What
Are Students Going to Remember About Your Classroom Ten Years
From Today? [back to top]
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By Chick Moorman
Marilyn O’Brien’s third graders spent $210 on tropical fish.
The investment represented the culmination of six weeks of
effort on the part of Marilyn, her students, and the entire
school population. Two weeks later the fish were dead. The
ich disease and a faulty heater had combined to destroy them
all.
This is not a story about how fish die, nor is it about good
deeds that make for happy endings. It is simply an account
of a group of third graders involved in planning, caring,
and doing. It is a celebration of the beauty of the process.
The message is simple: Products die, processes live.
The process began innocently enough with a comment from one
of the students. Two weeks into the school year, he noticed
the cloudy condition of the fish tank in the school library
and said, “Hey, you can hardly see inside the tank.” A classroom
meeting confirmed that there was indeed a problem with the
library fish tank and that something needed to be done about
it.
Marilyn O’Brien believes in the value of helping children
work through real-life problems using real-life solutions
while checking out real-life results. So she allowed the tank
talk to continue. As the tank situation took up more classroom
time during the next few days, Marilyn listened, asked questions,
and shared her own perceptions. She was supportive, patient,
and nondirective. Marilyn believes that initiative cannot
be taught; rather it is learned by children who are given
the room to initiate.
The third graders decided they needed a clean tank, fewer
snails, new gravel, a filter, a bubbler, some plants, and
new fish. They created a scheme to acquire the money to finance
these decisions. Their plan to raise money involved holding
a cookie sale, sponsoring a movie, and soliciting donations
throughout the school.
As the money began to come in, the third graders started
planning their purchases. The eight-year-olds called pet shops,
priced fish and aquarium equipment, and made additional decisions.
It quickly became clear to them that more dollars would be
necessary.
A contest was devised. The students filled a small fish bowl
with candy hearts and red hots, then invited students throughout
the school to buy chances indicating how many pieces of candy
were in the bowl. Whoever came closest would win all the candy.
The third graders eventually raised over $200.
They then debated the pet shop vs. discount store question
and decided to go with the pet shop. They picked two stores
and checked them both out. Marilyn and five students whose
names had been drawn from a hat did the major purchasing of
tank equipment on a Saturday. During the next two weeks the
remaining students had an opportunity to visit the pet shop.
Their task was to buy the fish.
After six weeks of collecting money and two weeks of spending
it, the library fish tank was complete. The third graders
had planned, organized, and stocked the aquarium, which now
occupied a place of prominence in the school library.
The new fish enjoyed a week and a half of healthy living.
Then one youngster noticed that a fish he had bought was missing.
When he reported this mystery to the class, the students headed
en masse to the library, where they quickly noticed the missing
fish lying on the bottom of the tank, dead.
Then it began.
“Look at my fish! It’s got white things all over it.”
“Mine’s got the same thing!”
“Mine, too!”
The fish looked gruesome. Marilyn left the librarian in charge
of her students and headed immediately for the pet store.
Ich disease was the diagnosis. A bottle of medicine that turned
the water blue was the prescription. The correct number of
drops was added and
the vigil began.
Students and teacher watched day by day as the fish took
turns dying. Each morning produced the all too familiar scene
of fish floating on top of the water or lying silently on
the bottom of the tank. The grieving process stretched over
several days and included tears, anger, detachment, and an
occasional cuss word.
It was difficult for the third grades to watch the fish die.
They became discouraged and felt helpless. The question of
WHY kept surfacing, and it was very clear that the students
wanted an answer.
Consultation with a fish expert revealed that the most probable
cause of death was the temperature of the tank. The heater,
which worked well on school days, was insufficient to warm
the water when the heat was cut back on weekends. Lacking
warmth, the fish contracted the ich disease and eventually
died.
Marilyn’s concern matched that of her students. Thinking
of the time, effort, energy, and love that went into the project
— as well as of her students’ reactions — Marilyn, too, was
upset. And she understood that something had to be done.
The owner of the pet shop refused to replace the fish, since
they had been healthy when they left his store. In the end,
Marilyn bought three goldfish.
The project is over now. The unexpected result of so much
effort turned out to be three goldfish swimming around in
the library fish tank. Today they serve as a constant reminder
of the fickle relationship between effort and results.
Results can never be fully controlled. We can have total
control only over the degree of effort we make. Expected outcomes
don’t necessarily follow.
Even so, this group of third graders learned many valuable
lessons about identifying problems, searching for solutions,
creating plans, and following through. They also experienced
firsthand the unstable relationship between effort and results.
What are students going to remember about your classroom
ten years from today?
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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.” He is the co-author of “The 10 Commitments:
Parenting with Purpose.” His books are available from Personal
Power Press at (toll-free) 877-360-1477.
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Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller are available to keynote
your conference or present one of their highly acclaimed full-day
seminars for your building or district staff.
Their most popular seminars are:
- Celebrate the Spirit Whisperers
- Transforming Aggression in Children
- Teaching for Respect and Responsibility
- Brain Functioning
- Behavior in Children
- Achievement, Motivation and Behavior Management
Contact them at ipp57@aol.com, or call (toll-free) 877-360-1477
to discuss possible dates and topics.
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In a recent Canadian study, obese children rated their quality
of life as low as that of young cancer patients because of
teasing and health problems.
Overweight adolescents are more likely than normal-weight
children to be victims and perpetrators of bullying.
Obese girls were more than five times more likely than normal-weight
girls to physically bully other youngsters at least once weekly.
Obese boys and girls were more than two times more likely
than normal-weight youngsters to be victims of “relational”
bullying — being intentionally left out of social activities.
—Pediatrics, May 2004
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10. Manage Your Subscription
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Be sure to let us know your old e-mail address so we can unsubscribe
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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.
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your
comment to IPP57@aol.com
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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.
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