We never really say "thank you" enough. All too often, we ask people to do things and maybe we come to a point where just expect them to do things for us. We might expect mom to cook dinner or the cafeteria workers to serve lunch, but how often do we say thanks for your hard work? I'm experiencing this right now with the Disney Trip. A lot of hard work and man hours have been spent organizing, planning, and reorganizing the trip so that everyone has a great time. Ms. Castle, Mrs. Oetzel and myself are ready to hurt each other right now with mounting frustrations and stress over the trip. At this point, instead of me complainging that we did something wrong, have to do something again, or need to do things we haven't done, I just simply want to say "thank you" to those two for being such a huge help in all of this. I want to say "thanks" to the parents who have been patient and have understood our policy decisions and "thanks" to those parents who have stepped up to help out! IT TAKES A TEAM!!!
LIVE AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE!!!
1. Say "thank you"
2. Stop complaining!
3. Focus on what you have, not what you don't have.
4. Model an attitude of gratitude
5. Be satisfied with simple things and be mindful of little things
6. Give to someone else
7. Practice random acts of kindness
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Big Band Week!
Concert Monday night, Large Ensemble Festival on Tuesday and Wednesday, Select Band on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. (all while preparing for my grad school midterms!)
Having a very large, robust middle school band program is incredibly stressful, but it's at times like these that I really enjoy taking a step back and appreciating all that we do and all that we have accomplished. The 8th grade band sounds amazing, both 7th grade bands are kicking butt, and the 6th grade band is in all probability the most proactive group of 6th graders I've ever had. Our retention numbers for next year are super high and depending on how many 6th graders we get, we could have almost 350 kids in the band program, WOW!!!!
The hard work all year is paying off for us and it thrills me to see so many kids loving music in the same way that I do. We have more kids than ever practicing every morning before school, more kids giving lessons, more peer tutors, more in select band, and it just continues to grow and get even better.
To my students - I am proud of you!!! I don't think any middle school band director anywhere could have as much fun as I'm having right now; thank you!
Having a very large, robust middle school band program is incredibly stressful, but it's at times like these that I really enjoy taking a step back and appreciating all that we do and all that we have accomplished. The 8th grade band sounds amazing, both 7th grade bands are kicking butt, and the 6th grade band is in all probability the most proactive group of 6th graders I've ever had. Our retention numbers for next year are super high and depending on how many 6th graders we get, we could have almost 350 kids in the band program, WOW!!!!
The hard work all year is paying off for us and it thrills me to see so many kids loving music in the same way that I do. We have more kids than ever practicing every morning before school, more kids giving lessons, more peer tutors, more in select band, and it just continues to grow and get even better.
To my students - I am proud of you!!! I don't think any middle school band director anywhere could have as much fun as I'm having right now; thank you!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Making Good Choices
Over the years, to my own students and to kids who come to our summer camps, I have always made this statement: What you do when noone else is looking or when an adult is not around, is a direct reflection of who you really are.
As parents, the goal is to teach and raise our kids the best we can in hopes that when we aren't around, they make good decisions and the right choices and behave in a way the isn't emberrassing to themselves or us. Every kid that I have ever known (it's in the thousands now) has messed up at some point - but what I am concerned about is did they learn from it?
On the jazz trip this weekend, some of our students (middle and high school age) chose to behave in a way that I know would have emberrased their parents if their parents knew what they were doing. As a disclaimer, I want to take this time to point out that I think I have really good kids - kids that make the right decisions when it comes to drugs, alcohol, stealing, etc. However, in the presence of an adult that wasn't their parent, their topics of conversation and general disrespect to the adult that was with them continues to bother me. It bothers me because they are smart kids and they know better. It bothers me because I truly do not feel like the decisions they made are an honest reflection of who they are. And, it bothers me becuase those that were not part of the behavior didn't do enough to try to stop it.
So - the question is - and students you can answer this - what does it take for you to behave when your parents are not around? Do you give in to peer pressure and do things that you know you shouldn't, or do you stick to doing and saying what's right? An unfortunate side effect of poor behavior is that the teacher cannot trust the student anymore - and when a student cannot be trusted, their opportunites decline severely. We stop asking the student to help us, we start "watching" their behavior more closely, and limit the opportunties they have to make bad choices. We cannot reward poor judgments and poor behavior, but we can expect students to learn from it. We ALL make mistakes, which is ok, so long as we learn a lesson and do our best not to repeat those mistakes.
What are your thoughts?
As parents, the goal is to teach and raise our kids the best we can in hopes that when we aren't around, they make good decisions and the right choices and behave in a way the isn't emberrassing to themselves or us. Every kid that I have ever known (it's in the thousands now) has messed up at some point - but what I am concerned about is did they learn from it?
On the jazz trip this weekend, some of our students (middle and high school age) chose to behave in a way that I know would have emberrased their parents if their parents knew what they were doing. As a disclaimer, I want to take this time to point out that I think I have really good kids - kids that make the right decisions when it comes to drugs, alcohol, stealing, etc. However, in the presence of an adult that wasn't their parent, their topics of conversation and general disrespect to the adult that was with them continues to bother me. It bothers me because they are smart kids and they know better. It bothers me because I truly do not feel like the decisions they made are an honest reflection of who they are. And, it bothers me becuase those that were not part of the behavior didn't do enough to try to stop it.
So - the question is - and students you can answer this - what does it take for you to behave when your parents are not around? Do you give in to peer pressure and do things that you know you shouldn't, or do you stick to doing and saying what's right? An unfortunate side effect of poor behavior is that the teacher cannot trust the student anymore - and when a student cannot be trusted, their opportunites decline severely. We stop asking the student to help us, we start "watching" their behavior more closely, and limit the opportunties they have to make bad choices. We cannot reward poor judgments and poor behavior, but we can expect students to learn from it. We ALL make mistakes, which is ok, so long as we learn a lesson and do our best not to repeat those mistakes.
What are your thoughts?
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