Substitute

This is not to brag about me but every day that I teach makes me realize how unique I am. The last 2 teachers I taught with let me know how refreshing I was and how thrilled they are to know that they will not have just a warm body in their classroom. After I have conversations like this, I ponder why I'm so different than the majority. Is there something that I care suggest others do or learn our something I can teach to help the rest of the become less than warm bodies.

Today's idea is that I treat these students as if they were my own kids. I always wanted to be that mom where my kids friends felt comfortable coming and talking to me, not because I was cool our fun but because I was a good listener and comfortable to be around. So I take this idea into the classroom. They are my kids or they are the friends of my kids. I treat them like family, mainly because I don't know if they have a family at home. Even if they do, I want to be an adult that they could want to be like in some manner or another. Because sometimes they don't understand or enjoy their parents and are looking for someone else to know and mentor with.

So could more substitutes be successful if they treated their classrooms like each child was their own?

Or maybe it's just that I walk with the Lord and see each student as a child off God, therefore they all have a set of gifts and blessings inside of them waiting to be ignored with love, hope, and Faith.

Maybe they need hope of their own.

Maybe they need a purpose.

I want to shine. I know the Lord shines through me. But only if I shine.

Maybe that should be my catch phrase of the year .... Hope Shines.

My mission

Today was my first day off for the school year. To get technical, it's the first day I wasn't needed in any of the schools. It was a really weird day.

I spent the day listening to Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee. The ending blew me away and reminded me that what I do is my mission, it's not me.

This morning I awoke early with this crazy dream about how to use the 3 main learning styles (kinesthetic, visual, audible) to reteach the classes I had yesterday. Which isn't too wild until I started talking to the kids why I do what I do and then the principal overheard and I ended up speaking to an auditorium of teachers. That would be me doing the work instead of living in the mission.

My mission is to make a difference in every student's life I can. I want to encourage them in some way that will have a lasting effect. Seeing some of these families and the lives they choose to live or currently have to live, makes me want to show them that there is another way to live.

That is just a small portion of students. The rest ...I just want them to know that I see the greatness in them. The thing that irritates everyone else is going to be a strength some day. (That's what I tell my strong-willed daughter.) I don't want their spirit crushed. If I can help them channel it for good or for something useful, I celebrate.

There's another portion that just needs to be seen. I'll never forget the day that the class was talking about about positive words we can use. One of the students raised his hand and said, "Just like Mrs Radtke tells us all the time. We are awesome and amazing. " I celebrated because at least one heard and took it to heart. That's what I would love every student to hear and know ...I see them as awesome and amazing. That I know they are designed for something greater than where they are right now.

I love to just sit and listen to them. Let them know that they are being actually heard and that I care that this means so much to them. They seem stunned that I actually want to listen to them.

Day 2 because even though I have a day of life doesn't stop ...took my Tiny girl into school today and one of the boys in her grade asked who I was working for today. "No one. " "Then why are you here?" That made me pause. I would go and hang out every day in their school if they would let me. But here's the best part ..."Well, can I have a hug?" And that is why I do what I do. This boy had been labeled and he does have some moments where there is no solution until he chooses (which sometimes leads to really long days) but I have made a point to get to know him and to listen to him and to give him words of encouragement and support whenever I see him. Today, I got to give a hug and encourage him to have a fantastic day.

Which reminds me of one last story. Those trouble kids ...whenever a fellow student warns me about them, I shoot it down. I let the whole class know that they won't be a problem for me because they are awesome when I'm around. We understand each other.  It works 80% of the time. If they're in a mood, they take it as a challenge. Makes for an interesting day.

I am truly thankful that the events in my life have led me to find my passion and my purpose. This is something I would do even if I didn't get paid. That is the definition of purpose.

So excited!!

I have an appointment with the teachers on Monday!

Everyone that I've talked to thinks it sounds like a great idea and are super excited about it with me.

I've cleaned up the sites and am on to the next book to add to the site. 

I'm so excited!

I started dreaming about how it could build on into high school and could teach the kids more about lessons that they're going to need to get a job and succeed after high school even. Teach them about finances. Teach them more about relationships and what's important about choosing that right person and how to be the right person. Teach them the importance of having a mentor for all the important aspects of life.

But I need to slow down and do one thing at a time. Start here.

Leading Into Middle School pop on over and check it out. Any feedback would be welcome because it will just make it more fantastic for the kids.

Thanks

Leading into Middle School

http://leadingintomiddleschool.weebly.com/

I was hit by pure inspiration since I last wrote.
Especially because the breakthrough that I thought I had failed. Very sad.

So, I reached out to people to help solve the problem and started getting some solutions and I went and did something to take my mind off of the problem. And wah-la, inspiration.

My plan is to build this site to include all sorts of lessons and pieces of learning for the students to dig into whenever they have a chance. I plan on continuing it until forever. As I learn valuable information that can help grow and create the leader in me, I can simplify it and help the next generation start thinking about the information.

I'm not quite sure how it's all going to work out but I'm excited to be teaching all of this information because it's allowing me to learn it better myself.

Pray for me to get a couple of the bigger chunks already on there flushed out so that the students can start digging into it this coming week.

After sitting here for the past ...almost four hours, I think it's time to take a break and refuel myself.

And the project moves on

Wahoo! So excited that the last try worked at school! Now to create a presentation to send it to the kids. That is going to be the most nerve wracking part of the whole thing. All of my negative voices are popping up and worrying about them judging me. To which I want to smack around because they're 10. It doesn't matter too much what they think about my video recording. But I want to do my best. That is something that I want to be concerned about. I want to make sure that I make the best impact and accomplish the greatest reaction with all of this information.

I'm going to start with the different personality types. Because if you understand that not everyone thinks the same as you, you can learn to talk differently. If you have a strong personality and talk to an introverted personality as if they were you, there's a really good chance you will crush them. Vice versa, they will not take you seriously.

Just helping the students understand that people think differently and most of the problems in the classroom will disappear. Well, I have high expectations. They need to understand that talking differently to different personalities will result in different outcomes. That will help most of the problems in the classroom. At least this is my hope.

I want to take some time to teach them about the strengths and weaknesses of each quadrant of the personalities. Helping them see how they can spot these strengths in their classmates thereby allowing them to make better choices when picking partners to get things done. Helping them know these weaknesses will allow them to be better leaders in the class. They can help their classmates overcome their weakness or help them pair up with someone who has the strength that would compensate.

This is the next focus. Got some good notes started already. Need to try and flush it out better to make sure I get them the best information. Then I'm moving on to conflict resolution.

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers.

Another test run

Personality Plus Strengths: How to understand others by understanding yourself.



Here's another run at trying to get a fun fast quiz for the kids to take at school that will work on their limited access at school. I think it's great that they want to protect the kids. It's just a little frustrating trying to find something new and different for them to do.

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/kmqt9BU/Personality-Plus-Strengths
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/kmyQxBB/Personality-Plus-Weaknesses

Give it a whirl and see what you think.



Thanks

Busy Life or Good vs Great

It has been super long since I wrote on here. There haven't been many days where I haven't kicked myself for not stopping to jot a few thoughts down or some ideas that I have found. Lately it's been weighing heavier because I have so much that I want to do right now ...all at the same time.

Which is where I need to focus and try to discover which is good and which is great. Which choice is going to make the greatest impact to the most amount of people? Which choice is going to have a lasting ripple effect compared to just a drop in a puddle? Which one is God calling me to and not me becoming prideful?

I've narrowed it down to what am I really being called to do. I believe that I am being called to be a light and a spark in this dark world. I believe that I am being called to make a difference in the youth in our community.

That means that I am going to try tackling the project of sparking a mentoring system in our church for one. We have an amazing core of ladies in our congregation. We have had a lot of those amazing ladies get burnt out on what they were doing or they are feeling the call to be effective somewhere else in the congregation. Which has been leaving huge gaps that we have not been able to fill easily. It has been tugging on me for over a year to start up a mentoring program for our youth. I just did not feel prepared or able to run it myself. Recently, I have read enough and listened enough to know that I should not be the magic in this. I need to find resources and create a system for us to use to get this project off the ground. I also have a very energetic woman willing to walk alongside me and get this project rolling to the entire congregation and not just the youth. Her daughter has shared with her the amazing things that are happening at the church she belongs to at college. She wants this to happen here as well. Hopefully that means that I'll remember to use this as a teaching board on the information that I learn to make that go.

The second thing that I'm going to tackle is transforming all the leadership information I have into simple form for 5th graders to use. I spent a lot of time in my daughter's classroom this year and I realized that most of the issues going on in the classroom is due to the children's lack of integrity. character, people skills, and want to be the leader. They all want to be followers. It is a very sad state of affairs. I was at a leadership convention and I was sparked by the idea of transforming all the leadership training that I have had and that I have access to into 15-20 minute bits for the kids to learn in their spare time. Things that are applicable to what they go through every day in the classroom. This is hopefully where I'll remember to place all of new things that I've created for them. Kind of try it out here and hope it works. They main problem that I'm running into is the security on the school's system does not like some of the websites available. Need to keep working on those bugs every chance I get.

My first project is going to be the personality types. I LOVE Personality Plus by Florence Littauer. It has been an eye opener. There are many other great authors who have worked on the same ideas of the four quadrants. But I like to use hers best, especially the for Parents version.

I took her quiz and created a website friendly version. I want the kids to be able to do this in a few seconds or a few minutes and then get on to some sort of lesson on what the results were. If they need to do the paper version, it may take all of the free time up that they have available. I know it has when I tried doing the paper type for my girls.

So... let's see if these work. I started with just the strength ones so far because I didn't want to put all that work in and have it be for naught.

https://www.qzzr.com/c/quiz/378274/personality-plus