On Monday, we will have our final official assembly, taking the time to honor some students who have achieved.  Good Citizens will be awarded, and Math League students will finally be given the ribbons they earned at our competition, last month.  A couple of those Math League students will also get to put a pie in Mr. Culbertson's (or my) face.

Additionally, Monday is Fly Up day.  Most students will have 15 minutes to meet and interact with their teacher for next year (There is still a teacher vacancy in the fifth grade.).

Tuesday will be our Positive Behavior reward day.  Students who have not had an office referral in the last month will get to participate in Water Day.  Participants will get wet while doing fun activities during a 50-minute block of time in the morning (Our time is 8:55-9:45.).

Then comes Wednesday.  Wednesday is our last day, with dismissal at 11:45.  We will likely have time for an end-of-the-year slide show, and then yearbook distribution, before the fifth graders take their final walk-through to say goodbye to the school  (Tears and snot all over the place!).

I know I haven't had the time to get to everything I wanted to do, during the last quarter.  This weekend, I must devote a big chunk of my time to getting report cards ready to go home on the last day.  Maybe I will begin to breathe again before digging in to get ready for the new batch of Hoggatteers.

The song was a part of 1972's Man of La Mancha.  I remember hearing Jim Nabors sing is on Gomer Pyle, USMC. I was a kid when I heard it, but I remember stopping in my tracks and listening to the crescendo and the operatic lyrics.  To dream the impossible dream is only the first line of a song with a much more motivating message.

When I heard that song, I wondered what it all meant.  I didn't ever stop to analyze the lyrics.  The truth is that when Gomer stopped singing, I couldn't exactly look up the song on the internet.  A kid might think this is a song about doing hopeless things - and it sounds like it could be, with lines like No matter how hopeless - but as an adult I see it's more about perseverance than anything else.

At the same time, Impossible Dream is also an homage to the person who overcomes hardships.  I love that it recognizes that it's not going to be easy.  If fact, the person may be put down, beaten up, and given over to failure, but s/he succeeds regardless.

With the school year drawing to a close, we remember that our school's theme has been Dreams.  May we all continue to pursue our positive dreams!

Principal Hennessey posed this question to make our teachers reflect on the school year.  My response follows:

First, we must have a desire to produce good citizens.  Before we concern ourselves with academic standards, we must focus on the conduct of our students.  This may be addressed with positive behavior programs and tangible awards, or it can include negative consequences, but will only mean something to children when they are allowed to truly see their personal progress.  I’ve seen how etiquette can transform a “rotten apple” into a “fresh spirit”.  When a kid sees the fruits of his efforts, he feels success.  Even if he can’t read or spell, multiply fractions or write a cohesive sentence, he can succeed with good manners.  And that’s a stepping stone to his overall success.  When he recognizes that every positive, small effort makes a difference to someone else, he wants more of the feeling that he gets.  Like a drug, he wants more and more, until he looks back and sees how far she has become.  He looks back and he sees that he has become a new person, without the limiting weights of his former insecurities and low self esteem.

My wish is that the entire school could create and expect an etiquette program that begins with impressing visitors and results in creating good citizens more than in name alone.  While recognizing our good citizens is important, it is more important that we create an entire society of good citizens who are prepared to face the world.  It’s more than the eye contact and firm handshake:  this also pertains to food etiquette, the use of polite phrases like thank you, you’re welcome, I’m sorry, and excuse me, and it involves referring to adults with a yes, ma’am or a no, sir.  I didn’t used to think it was this important, but the time has come for a stark return to politeness.  Then, we will have students who care about the other things and who will possess the drive to press upward.

Our question must be, Which specific expectations will we encourage?

Next, we must find passion.  When I think about the times when I have felt the most successful as an educator, my mind’s eye zooms in on the times when I have been the most creative.  They are the times when I have generated memories for my students that will last throughout their lifetimes.  They are the times in which my reactions to their issues, problems, or concerns were the correct reactions.  All of that is a result of a passion for what I do.

For the teacher next door or the one down the hall, passion may hide in another place.  Those human preferences and individualities are the spice of life, and I should hope we would never lose sight of them.  My autonomous classroom can explode with vibrancy and passion if allowed and nurtured to do so.

It is the variety of methods and the diversity of characters in the school that give it a collective persona for the community to see.  If the public sees us running around, wildly out of control, constantly attempting to catch up with an ever-changing list of regulations, they will, first, feel our pain, and second, begin to blame someone.  But if the public sees our passion, they are more likely to overlook the inevitable negative issues that will spring up.

The question then becomes, How do we foster passion in our staff?

Finally, we must have freedom.  Of course, there is a fine line between passion and insanity, isn’t there?  Just as I am positively passionate when I get to creatively choose the routes that will work most effectively for my teaching style and the chemistry I have with my students, I am also negatively passionate when things don’t make sense.  My wish for Cecil Floyd is for those positive passions to feed off of one another and flourish.  If the concepts of intervening, individualizing education plans, and multiple learning intelligences are true, then how true are the same concepts for teachers?  Do we not have individual strengths and weaknesses, as well?  Are we not also gifted and special in specific areas?  Do we not have our own styles and teaching personalities?  Do we not have our own ways of connecting with students?  When teachers are allowed to stretch and grow, students will definitely benefit.  Greatly.  Behaviors will improve, we will be safer, and mastery will increase tremendously.

The question this time is, How does an administrator/leader/boss/facilitator maintain control, guidance, and accountability while allowing the teachers to stretch in different directions.

I fully believe that all of these wishes are meaningful, reasonable, and yes, grantable.

We are currently attempting to follow a deep thinking unit I've put together, entitled World's Fair 2.0.  The unit roughly follows the premise that, since the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis was so popular, we will create our own World's Fair in present day.

The unit has 15 modules in it, each addressing fourth grade standards.  These standards can be viewed in the right column on each module page, in the form of our leaning intentions.

World's Fair 2.0 explicitly lays out the steps for student success in each part of the project before providing guidelines and instruction. Students are able to integrate all parts of the curricula as they address the learning intentions in a much more interesting method.

Each module has an online component, as well.  I have linked reading material for students to use as they research varying aspects of this interesting - and often controversial - event in our state's history.  Additionally, students are asked to make an online submission as a part of each lesson, either as individuals or as a team.

Offline, they will perform science experiments and do a great deal of writing.  The unit is broad-reaching and requires many of the skills for which we have striven throughout the year.  While we are not going to hit every aspect of this deep thinking unit, this year, I foresee it as being a hit when fully implemented in the spring of 2016.

I have linked the project homepage to our Missouri History page as well as my page for teachers - Teacher Collaboration.