…or is it?

How did you handle your frustration with your peers and superiors?

As challenging as students can be, adults sometimes try teachers’ patience more than the kids do. After all the kids are supposed

to be wired backwards!

What conflicts did you have with adults this year?

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Lest you think I’m trying to be warm and fuzzy, there’s a book that will validate what has just been presented.

Book Review

Remember: Teachers ADAPT. They don’t ATTACK!

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Main Points of the Book:

1. Accountability became a huge deal in America by mid-twentieth century.

2. Rules, laws, and procedures were put in place to avoid corruption, to ensure fairness, and to protect people charged with keeping things fair.

3. If everyone in this country received all of the rights that were due to them, they would get 374% of what was due to them.

4. Accountability does not necessarily guarantee that a goal will be met; sometimes it only means that someone followed procedure, even though the goal was not met.

5. If only we have enough laws, rules, and procedures, we may one day stumble upon the perfect way to get things done,Sound familiar????

In short:

Therefore…• If you want your ship to come in, you must build a dock.

Anonymous

• By perseverance the snails reached the ark.Charles Haddon Spurgeon

• Henry David ThoreauShall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can?

• We conquer by continuing.George Matheson

• It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life. – As quoted in The Complete Phil Ochs : Chords of Fame (1978) by Almo publications

How did you handle your frustration with your students?

• How many rules, exactly, did you have in your classroom?

• How many of the rules were honored by your students? Why or why not?

• If you were a student in your own classroom, would you want to go inside, knowing what the rules were?

A Real Life Comparison

Still want to go?

• How many rules, exactly, were there? How does this make you feel?

• How many of the rules do you think the patrons of this establishment obey? Why or why not? How great an effort must the employees put into enforcing the rules?

• If you were a potential customer, would you want to go inside, knowing what the rules were?

A Simpler Way…

The Four Agreements

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• Ruiz, Miguel. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide To Personal Freedom. San Rafael, Calif.: Amber-Allen Pub. , 1997. Print.

• Be impeccable with your word • Don't take anything personally • Don't make assumptions • Always do your best

Be impeccable with your word.

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Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the work to speak against yourself or to gossip about other. Use the power of the work in the direction of truth and love.

Don’t take anything personally.

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Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Don’t make assumptions.

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Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Always do your best.

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Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

And then teach procedures…•Printing•Food•Acceptable Use•Idleness•Lavatory•Sharpening Pencils•Using Computers•Browsing for Books•Borrowing Books•Disposing of Waste•Pushing In Chairs•Asking for Help•Fighting with Others•Logging In•Saving Work•Computer Malfunctions

Alternative Medicine

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Protect youself! Stock up on gambits!

Get gambits from this document:

• http://www.longwood.edu/staff/jonescd/Longwood/sped313/cdis.htmlgam·bit/ˈgambit/Noun1. (in chess) An opening in which a player makes

a sacrifice, typically of a pawn, for the sake of some compensating advantage.

2. A device, action, or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage.

You really need to read this.

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Examples of Gambits

• Refuse to respond (wipes away the payoff)• Give “the eye.”• Teacher proximity• Name dropping• Secret signal with student• I-messages• Granma’s law—you do what I say, then you get what

you want• Three part message—”John, I want you to stop hitting

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• Have the student repeat the offending act until he is sick of it• Do the unexpected• Turn out the lights• Play a musical sound• Lower your voice; make them strain• Talk to the wall• Cease teaching• Scan the room• Sit down on the job.• Pick up a book and start reading• Ask the offending student a direct question

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• Ask a favor• Change a student’s seat• Thinking chair• Allow voice and choice• Meet and greet students at the door to assess their moods.• I can’t control you, but I can hold you accountable.• Remove the audience• Table the matter.• Schedule a conference.• Fog the matter.

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• Agree with the student (and what is your point?).• Change the subject.• State both viewpoints.• Refuse responsibility.• Dodge irrelevant issues.• Are you done?• Unless you have something new to add, I’m

finished with this conversation.• Call the bluff.

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• Time out in the classroom• Time out in another classroom• Who squad• I like you, but you still need to…• OK, if you promise to do this, but you don’t, what can

we agree upon as a consequence?• You are right. Mr. Jones does allow food in his

classroom, but…• Let me sit down and tutor you…• You can do this. Let me help.

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• Teach procedures for becoming unstuck.• Use sequence charts.• Make mistakes OK.• Focus on past successes.• Recognize achievement.• Make learning personal.

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How did your classroom arrangement work out?

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Time Management

The What-If Box

WHAT IF I DON’T DO THIS?

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Garbage Can

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To Do List

Today

This Week

As Able

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Safe Place

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Calendar

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Scheduling Flukes• Testing• Assemblies• Half-Days• Field Trips

Unpredictable, but you know

they’re coming!

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