1st day of school

First day of school went fairly well. Using the model I learned at Capturing Kids Hearts worked nicely. The "time-out" signal gets their attention and I think they are beginning to understand what we discussed about the way we treat each other. There were 2 who chose to go to classroom time-out. One 3rd grader, after going through the 4 questions with him because he was talking, straightened up right away. The four questions are:
1. What are you doing? --if you don't get the right answer, ask it again--sometimes "nothing" IS the right answer.
2. What are you supposed to be doing?
3. Were you doing that? --the answer to this one is always "No."
4. What are you going to do about it?

I am working on social contracts with all classes and , hopefully, by the end of their second class with me, the contracts will be completed and signed.

to be continued....

Is it August already?!

August is definitely here in all its hotness. I really feel sorry for the band folks who started summer band practice today. Glad I'm not one of them.
As for me, I head back to school in about a week. I am encouraged by the things I've learned this summer at my workshops and look forward to putting them to the test. I have in my mind to write down some "ponderings" from each day so I can measure how I am doing. Whether or not it will be in this blog or in a notebook has not been decided. I suppose sharing these things would be what this blog is all about. Check back with me towards the end of the month.
God bless.

Summertime

This has been a pretty busy summer for me. I have attended two 3-day conferences, one at the University of North Texas and one at the Round Top Retreat Center in Round Top, TX. Both were excellent conferences.

The first was with John Feierabend learning his way of teaching general music to the kiddos. I've had his books for a while now but didn't quite know how to start. Now I do!

The second was "Capturing Kids Hearts" and not only was the material good, the location was fantastic! If you're ever offered a chance to attend "CKH" anywhere-it's worth the time and money. If it happens to be at the Round Top Retreat Center, even better.

For the first conference, I stayed in a dorm room/cubicle and except for occasionally (I just spelled that correctly without spell check!)eating lunch with people in the class, I pretty much did things on my own. The second conference, I stayed in a beautiful room full of antiques and a friend from my campus and learned that I really need to socialize more. I have one regret from that trip: I did not go into town with them the first night and missed a great opportunity to bond with other teachers from my campus and my district. Feeling left out is not good, but to essentially be the one who chose that for myself was more than not good. I was able to find lots of things to take pictures of around the grounds and that was wonderful, but...

That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures!