Mr. Ewald @ Riverside Elementary: "The more you focus on what's good, the more good you will see."

Time. Time is the holy grail of education. If we only had more time... Related to that quest, I recently read a book by Todd Whitaker (@ToddWhitaker) and Annette Breaux (@AnnetteBreaux), The Ten-Minute Inservice. Contained in the book are 40 quick (10-minutes) training sessions to build teacher effectiveness. Ten-minute training sessions! That's a manageable amount of time; 10-minutes is affordable.

The first inservice that I wanted to use at Riverside Elementary from the above mentioned book was 'Twenty-Five Reasons to Be Proud of Our School.' A quote that stood out from this chapter of the book inspired the title of this blog post. So with the help of several teachers we planned how we would deliver this to our staff at a staff inservice

First, we showed our staff a video containing of our students. Leading up to our inservice, I was stopping students in the hallway and asking them what they liked best about going to school at Riverside Elementary, or why they were proud to go to school at Riverside Elementary. After the students initially answered, I asked them if I could ask them again so that I could record their responses for a project that I was creating. The following is the iMovie that was shared with our staff.

After the video was shown, we presented an example of what each staff member was about to do next. Each staff member was given four paws to write four reasons why they were proud of our school. All of the paws were then collected and compiled into a giant Huskie paw, which now hangs near the front entrance of our school. We want everyone coming into Riverside Elementary School to know ALL of the reasons that our staff is proud of our school!

Below is a sampling (in no particular order) of the responses.

Proud of my school because...

...of the kids. They are the most important part of our school.
...we practice being respectful, responsible, and caring.
...we have a great support system. The ESO has done a lot to help our school.
...all of the great learning going on.
...everyday the students make me smile.
...we care about our students
...our students and staff work hard everyday.
...the staff never gives up on a student. They work hard with each child's education.
...we are always learning new things.
...we are a team.
...it is fun to be at a smaller school where everyone knows the kids.
...we have fun while learning.
...we grow a little everyday and we are always getting better.
...we have fun learning with the students.
...the students are very creative.
...our students show enthusiasm for learning.
...the kids are so much fun.
...our students are eager to learn.
...we have parents that are involved and communicate.
...our students are willing to help others.
...our community is supportive and involved.
...we are the Highland Huskies!
...we get to be a part of a tight-knit community that is committed to kids.
...teachers work together to improve student achievement.
...it is very rewarding.

Mr. Ewald @ Riverside Elementary

Monday, December 23, 2013

"The more you focus on what's good, the more good you will see."

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