Cindy Martin has a dream…

Cindy was born to inspire others. She became a teacher and has been inspiring students, friends, parents, and colleagues her entire life.   Her elementary bus driver called her “smiley”. She was severely pigeon toed and classmates made fun of her often.  She wore a brace to correct her feet.  When Cindy was 10, she lost her 13 year old bother.  He was hit by a car while crossing the street to go to his bus stop.  She learned at an early age the importance of living life everyday as if it was her last day.  This was the first of many more difficult experiences she had to struggle with to find her smile again.  Her father died of cancer when she was in college and she worked in between classes to pay the bills for her family.  It was his wish for Cindy to graduate in the education field.  She did.  She married soon after college which ended in an ugly divorce.  Friends talked about all the bad breaks she had and wondered how she managed to keep a positive attitude.  Even so, she considers herself the luckiest woman on the face of the earth.  She found inspiration in the littlest of details to keep a sunny attitude. She finds appreciation in everything she sees, touches, hears and feels.  She even gives thanks for dirty laundry, knowing it is a blessing to have the clothes to wash.   She is an educator, a wife, a mother of two, and owns her own business now. She is an inspiration to many.  Now, she wants to inspire the world!  Vote for her to win her OWN talk show with Oprah called iInspire! Support her dream to inspire others to follow their dreams and make inspiration infectious.  Press the link to vote and watch her video. 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE AND SEE CINDY’S AUDITION VIDEO 

(written by hr best friend)

iInspire with Cindy Martin – OWN TV Audition

You can see a little mini version of what it would be like, if I had my OWN television show on the Oprah Network.    ♫ Please νⓞte often and post on every social network you belong to!

Cindy’s Audition: ⓘInspire with Cindy Martin – ⓞWN TV

http://bit.ly/aIb3VG

The voting is unlimited!

♫ ❀L♥VE❀

-Cindy

Teaching Science Inquiry

Science Inquiry is a step beyond ”science as a process,”  where students learn skills, such as observation, inference, and experimentation.  Students need hands-on experiments where they make their own discoveries at all grade levels.  It is important for teachers to not give students answers during inquiry lessons, but to play the role as a guide or facilitator during lessons.  Teachers can do this by asking students more questions about the lesson. Questions should include the students senses.  What do you see, smell etc.  After lessons, teachers should help guide a discussion about what the students discovered. Why they think certain things happened during experiments?  Did discoveries differ in different groups?  Students should have a journal to collect data and be given opportunities to retest experiments.  Most of all, students should be engaged in their own learning process and have fun.  Engaging students in inquiry helps students develop an understanding of scientific concepts, an appreciation of the nature of science, and the skills necessary to become independent learners about our world naturally.

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High Expectations for Students

Having high expectations for students, I know from experience, always results in higher achievement. However, the expectations and goals need to be different for each student. There are usually groups of students who can achieve the same high goals, but having one high expectation for all students can sometimes leave other students feeling like failures. The key is to have different goals in various subject areas for each student. Knowing all students can learn is a MUST in order for teachers to move forward in helping each student to improve.  This knowledge needs to be brought to forefront of your consciousness by staying aware of your words and thoughts, even out of the classroom. I’ve heard educators who claimed to know all students can learn, but then would utter the word “He can’t learn anything” while eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge. Some teachers indicate that a whole class was impossible to teach. We have all had students who seem like they don’t understand a concept, no matter how many different ways we introduce it to them, and then suddenly they walk in one day and POOF – they get it!  If the teacher had considered it too difficult, or had given up before trying a different strategy, the light may not ever have switched on for that student.  How do we communicate our high expectations to students? Here are strategies used successfully:

1. Tell the students your expectations for the whole group and then individually pull them aside to explain individual goals.

2. Find out as much as you can about their interests by taking surveys and asking questions.  Teaching students using their interests is one of the best ways to break through any intellectual block they have had in academics or behavior. For example, if a student loves boats, use boats in math examples, boat books or magazines for reading, and let them write about boats.

3.  Communicate your expectations to the parents in newsletters or parent conferences.  They can give you great insight to what the student’s interest levels are as well.

4.  Provide opportunities for students to work in groups to make discoveries.  Don’t answer questions, but instead lead them to make their own discoveries by asking questions and communicating to them that you know someone in their group will find the answer.  This may seem difficult the first few attempts, but once they get the hang of working together to get answers without the teacher, they will be hooked and not depend so much on adults for the answer. This is our main goal as educators. To create a learning environment where students are independent learners and teachers only play the role of facilitating, leading and inspiring.

5.  Provide specific verbal encouragement all day. For example, “Johnny, I knew you could solve that math problem. Can you share what you found with the rest of the class?”  Students love to know they did something well and share with others.  Once you share an accomplishment with the class, you’ll notice the rest of the class will follow suit and even try to do better than the example you shared.

6.  If your goal for a student is a behavior issue, use signed contracts with the student stating your mutual expectations.  If necessary, attach it to their desk for daily review.  The contract should state what the expectation is, how the student can achieve it, and what they will receive when accomplished.  You don’t need to give candy etc… but it is helpful to let the student choose their reward.  The reward system should be gradually removed once the student consistently demonstrates a pattern of the expected behavior.

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The President Speaks to School Children

Many parents and even some educators are outraged about the President’s pro-education address which will be delivered tomorrow.  Even the chairman of the Florida Republican Party Jim Greer said,  “President Obama has turned to American’s children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American’s youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves.”

When the President speaks to school children, it will target kids Pre-K through 6th grade.  The White House  released President Obama’s Prepared School Speech today  so parents and schools can read it prior to showing it to students.  Obama will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

Do people really think that President Obama is going to turn our children into a cult?  Is the speech going to make our children into zombie-like obedient Obama lovers who will do anything he asks?  OR Is it just another speech intended to inspire students to stay in school and get a good education because of the high drop out rate?  Other Presidents gave similar speeches and the nation watched without questioning the speech.  Watching any public leader give a speech about the importance of education should be inspiring and necessary to for children to hear.  If for some reason the President does say anything a parent disagrees with, the parents should use this as a “teachable” moment to discuss their views with their child. Education is all about hearing information, discussing information with others, exploring different views, taking the information that works for the individual and throwing out information that doesn’t work.

Many people are embarrassed that it has even become an issue.  “Students have the right to listen or not to a speech, to stand or not stand for the pledge, to pray silently or not at all in public schools.  Public schools can’t stop people from thinking freely.” a volusia county teacher said.

What do you think about President Obama’s Speech?

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What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonological awareness includes the auditory and oral manipulation of sounds.  It is awareness of words, syllables, or phonemes (individual speech sounds).  Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness.  It is awareness of individual sounds in words such as /c/ /a/ /t/ in cat.    An understanding of how to detect, break apart, blend and manipulate sounds in the spoken language is important for students to understand letter-sound associations.  Students should understand that words are made up of sounds or phonemes.  Research shows that blending and segmenting is critical to learning how to read.

Onsets (the first sound of a word) and Rime Blending (end part of a word), should be practiced, modeled and repeated on a routine basis.  An example is for the teacher to say /s/ and then /at/ and then ask the student, “What is that word?”

Onsets and Rime Segmentation should be practiced and modeled also.  An example is for the teacher to say the word /pat/.  Then ask the student “What is the first sound?” and then ask “What is the end part?” ( /p/ and /at/)  This should be repeated using several words.

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Incorporating Acts of Kindness in the Classroom

Bobby was a kindergarten student I had in my classroom who had many behavior problems.  He could not get a diagnosis from doctors to identify a reason for his behaviors.  He wanted to do well, but couldn’t sit still, contain his emotions, comprehend or reason with logic and struggled academically.  He always felt like he didn’t fit in and sometimes he didn’t.  The other students tried to make friends with him, but he tended to eventually ruin friendships by his inappropriate language and behaviors.  I kept an Acts of Kindness dry erase board in my classroom.  When a student saw another student act in a kind way, they would tell the “kindness keeper” to write the person’s name on the board.  Bobby’s name was never on the Kindness Board, until one day toward the end of the school year.

We planted a spring garden by the classroom and went outside to water our plants daily.  This day, a beautiful little girl held her cup of water very carefully, trying hard not to spill the water on the way to the garden.  As soon as we got close, she lost her balance and stumbled.  The cup of water flew out of her tiny little hands.  Tears streamed down her red face instantly.  This made all the other students cling tighter to their cups of water, but none of the students moved to console her, except one.  Bobby did not hesitate to grab her cup, pour his water into it  and pat her on the back.  I was shocked and so were the other students.  One student shouted out, “He was nice! We need to put his name on The Acts of Kindness Board.” I agreed and this lead us to a class discussion about his wonderful actions and how the rest of the class could have acted differently.

Adding Bobby’s name to The Acts of Kindness Board made him happy for a short period, but he still had the same problems as he did in the past. However; this made him more aware of his actions in the future.  He started to point out when other students were kind and tried harder to be nice to others.  His parents told me that he came home and told them about getting his name on the board.  Previously, he did not talk about school at all with them.

Teachers cringe when having to add anything extra to the curriculum because of having too much now and not enough time in the day to do it in, but wouldn’t it be worth the 5 seconds to point out the kind actions people do for others.  There was no reward other than having their name on the board for a week.  Students who knew their parents were coming in for a conference were busy all day trying to be nice to others to get their name on the board with check marks tallying how many kind things they did to show their parents.

Take the time to encourage kindness in your classroom.  Especially for all of you who have “Bobby’s” in your classroom.

by Cindy Martin

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How to be an Effective Leader

When thinking about the word leader, you can substitute the word for teacher, parent, boss or anyone who actually leads anyone.  Think about the way you lead.  Do you tell others what to do?  Do you voice your views?  Have you used fear tactics? How do you get others to do what you expect of them?

To be a good leader, an enlightened leader, you must stay in the background and become an astute observer of others actions.  After making observations you need to ask yourself how you can create a learning environment that helps everyone act responsible without noticeably interfering.  Your job is to be as invisible as possible if you want to be effective.  As a parent or teacher, one strategy can be for you to leave the room to allow everyone to react without feeling they need to live up to your standards.  Then if there is conflict or an undesired behavior, perhaps you could suggest a way to resolve it or tell a story of how others have resolved a similar problem.  Trust that they will be able to make their own right path and walk away.  Your goal is to make others say, “I fixed this myself.” to empower others to take personal responsibility.  If the outcome is desired, try a non verbal gesture of body language.

Fear tactics have proved over time to be ineffective.  When others feel threatened, they might act a desirable way for the disciplinarian in their presence, however; after the disciplinarian leaves, studies have shown chaos in groups.  Although being able to control others behaviors with fear can work, it is short lived and only feeds the disciplinarian’s ego.  Studies show that children usually detach themselves from a strict dictatorial parent or adult.

Instead of thinking that you know what is best for other people, trust that others know what is best for them.  Let your feelings or desires be known, but trust them to make their own choice.  When there is a desired outcome, give praise for them making their own choice, even if it was not the way you would have chosen.

Don’t take personal credit for the outcome or achievements of others.  Let others take ownership of their actions.  If you are an effective leader, the ones you lead will follow and become effective leaders.

“Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe Me.”

Look what happens

With a love like that,

It lights the Whole Sky.”

-Hafiz

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Making Personalized Photo Books for Students

I am an elementary teacher and I enjoy making individual photo albums for my students.  I’ve been making them for over fifteen years, capturing my students memorable experiences to share with their families and reminisce over as years go by.  

photo album

I started out making hand assembled booklets with pretty (and expensive) paper, gluing in the pictures, and hand writing the captions.  Then Creative Memories and Bare Books came along and I was really hooked.  For the next few years, I naively spent about $5000.00 and countless hours during the year making my books.  When I handed over my creations to the parents, I hounded them to be careful, making sure that they understood the expense and effort that had been put into each album.

Then, my own beautiful children came into the world.  I discovered that working on my class scrapbooks at home was no longer an option.  That is, unless I didn’t mind my children “helping”.  That meant more hours spent after school, enlisting help from others and scrambling to use every spare minute during the day.  Even so, I wasn’t willing to give it up.

This year I thought I would try something new.  I discovered that a major retail store offers an option to make photo books on-line at a very reasonable price.  I was able to upload my photos to their website, choose a layout, crop, edit, add professional looking captions, and choose from a variety of backgrounds.  My books took a fraction of the time to create and I spent only $250.00.  They look terrific, too, and if a book is damaged or lost, I can reorder a new one because it is saved to my account.  Shipping was fast, free and I was able to pick them up at my local store.  After seeing the finished product, other teachers have decided to utilize an on-line photo book program.  I’ve even influenced a few converts through my blog!

Now, I am planning for the next school year.  I recently discovered that Kodak has an interesting photo book creator on their website.  It is slightly higher in price, but the quality should be better considering it is Kodak.  What I really need now, however, is a photo book program that caters to education that is affordable to teachers.  Teachers need attractive school themed backgrounds and clip art that match subject areas as well as holidays.  There is a lot of business out there for the company that caters to education, and lots of busy teachers who would be grateful to find that company!

Article edited by Nancy Jo Flynn

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