Reach Before Teach (Middle School)

July 26, 2019 Confession: I love the idea of subscribing to print magazines. Many, actually. I like to look at the recipes. But . . . I don't always get to them right away. And they stack up. Higher and higher . . . and then I stash them places until I can get to them. And then there's this overwhelmingly huge stack and . . . I ignore them. I know. It truly does sound crazy, but once the magazines are all together, I don't know where to start going through them. One a day?? Two a week?? So I ignore them. They intimidate me. The size of the project is so big - go through all those, tear out the recipes I want, file them, dispose properly of the magazines . . . So I ignore them. This is real for my brain, and it makes me feel for every student who sits with a blank paper in front of him/her on the desk. Where to start? What to write? What if I make a mistake? What if I do it wrong? What does the teacher want?  As teachers, we walk by, point to the blank paper, and say, ...

July 18, 2019 I'm so blessed to be in a classroom with a variety of students from a variety of backgrounds. Maturity at the middle school is a wide span - we have kids who are more mature than some adults I know, and I have students who are just beginning to understand some of the concepts of maturing. Emotional control is a hot-button topic for middle school. What, exactly, does it look like? We have the problem/concern that these are middle school students , and they are experiencing a wide swing in moods. This leads to an appearance of almost no emotional control at times. Also, what emotional control is age appropriate? We have some teachers who think they should be as composed as "reasonable" adults, while others are more apt to give the students the benefit of the doubt when the student is not behaving in an emotionally mature manner appropriate for a middle school student. Let me be very honest. Sometimes I am not emotionally mature. Usually, while in the mid...

July 11, 2019 Full disclosure - I'm not a fan of change. It causes me stress and panic. I like to plan; I like knowing what's going to happen. I'm really, really best when there's a routine. When I started reading about executive functions, and I read about the function of shift/flexibility, I found myself nodding and saying, "Ohhhhhh!" a lot. It made me understand myself a bit better, but it also gave me some insight into how to help people who are weaker in managing this executive function. I'm known as the structured teacher  in our building. I think of James Earl Jones saying it. I'm known for having consistent expectations; I'm known for having high expectations for myself and my students. (Side note - reading What Great Teachers Do Differently  by Todd Whitaker, and he has chapters on these topics. It's a great read if you haven't picked it up.) I tend to get students who need structure and consistency (think students who have i...

July 1, 2019 I kinda feel like my pastor must some times. He starts a series of sermons, and he interrupts that series because something caught his attention, and he wanted to address is. Let me explain. Before we went on vacation, I wanted to start a series on executive functions. If teachers better understood these, I think students would be better served in the classroom. I think teachers and staff everywhere would do well to at least be familiar with them. It has changed how I think (a lot of things have changed how I think . . . executive function understanding is just a part of that). But . . . Last night, while on Twitter (my very favorite social media), I read a Tweet that said, paraphrasing - the most important person I lead is . . . me (credit Steve Gutzler with the original Tweet). This hit me hard, if you want to know the truth. I don't think of me leading myself. I make decisions, but lead myself?? Hmmm . . . I had to think about it. Some of you are going to...