#18 Teachers These Days (TyC Book Study)

Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are, where you are from, what you teach and anything else you want to include!

Co-author Laurie MacIntosh and her husband Cody went on a ten-month giving spree.  While you may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars from Ellen to give away, can you see yourself going on a giving spree?  What can you give?  How will you do it?  List all the details!

 “Perception is a powerful tool. Students will learn more from you than opening a book.”  What do you hope your students are learning from you?  (Your answer should not contain content-related examples such as, ‘I’m a math teacher so I hope my students are learning math from me.’) What do your students learn by watching you?  What did you learn simply by observing some of your own teachers, both the good and the bad?

 Who is your ‘Colleen’? Explain.

How can you make sure every single one of your students feels ‘seen’?  How can you make sure your colleagues feel ‘seen’?  Who else needs you to see them just as they are?

 We all have an instructional toolkit, but what is in your connection toolkit?

 How can you teach empathy?

List 3 colleagues you would like to reconnect with in the next month.  Don’t give their real names, but after you take a mental inventory regarding your relationship with each of them, identify what you know and what you’d like to learn about them.

 “…research is also beginning to show that the presence of laughter and humor and play in our lives baseically takes a nosedive when we reach about the age of 23… “ Is there enough humor, laughter, and play in your classroom?  …in your staff room?  …at your staff meetings?  …at school events? “  If not, how can you bring more? If so, share tips on how to add humor, laughter, and play in your classroom, in your staff room, at staff meetings, and at school events.

Design your own Kindness Mission.  Share your plan here.

Please post your thoughts about this course below.  What did you like about it?  What didn’t you like about it?  Would you recommend this book study to a colleague?