Relating to life experiences...

I would like to share life experiences with you. I hope these are not only words that get lost in the wind but that they endure in your hearts.

I don't know where to start.  Life has its ups and downs.

At the beginning, when I first came to the United States, I had a mixture of happiness, anxiety, uncertainty, and a little fear, as I would be here with new people, culture, language, leaving my family. I did not know what new things I would discover. I knew that things would not be easy but I knew that I could do it.

Reflecting back,  I think that these are the same feelings our children have on their first day of school.

I lived in The Woodlands, TX  for 8 years where I learned many things.  But the most important thing I learned was to be independent and to appreciate what I had, which for me was the most important thing in life: family.

Even though my family is far, I had the need to listen to and speak with them, have the support and to be able to speak and listen to the words of encouragement, and congratulations on all that has been lived in this new place.

This makes me think about the parents of our students, who are the ones who help motivate, support and give words of encouragement and congratulations to our kids for all the achievements made in the school.

Life goes on and each day we learn something new. At this stage of life, our part as teachers is to apply all our knowledge and experiences to our students, but if you touch their hearts with love and pedagogical tact they have learning for life.

Liliana Donaghy

Dual Language Instructional Aide III

S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting

S.M.A.R.T Goal Setting

Have you ever created your own SMART goals? We have done this in year's past in our PLC's. Have you thought about doing it with your students? We are setting goals with our DRA scores, so we could implement using their unit assessments, Aimsweb data, etc. You can use this sheet I have attached as well. I have made a data sheet and discussed goals and celebrations with my students using data sheet's for unit assessments, but I haven't added the measurable and time-bound piece to it. So can I challenge you over the next few weeks to set S.M.A.R.T. goals with your students? I am going too. In my own life personally and with my 4th grade daughter, and my business (outside of teaching), I have used S.M.A.R.T. goals, and they have helped me to become focused, created measurable, and attainable goals. I will admit attainable goals are hard for me, but I am working on it. 

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."-Michealangelo

Go forth and be S.M.A.R.T. about your goals. 

Rachel Spears

3rd grade ELA and SS

Their success is MY success...are you a DO-er?

Well it is MY TURN……Deep breath! Just wanted to tell you about myself. I am a doer. I enjoy helping people shine in their abilities. Their success is my success. If you need help I would be glad to help you and will definitely learn from your abilities. We are all trying our best and we should all always remember that we have special talents and when we blend them all together a perfect picture will form with patience and appreciation. The same with children, time, patience, and appreciation for what they can give is unlimited.

Each day is to be enjoyed and a memory to be made. 

Linda Dinger, SPED aide

Sweating the Blog Words...

I can't.

I just can't.

Not yet.

I, in fact, missed my 'time' to post to this blog.

I've written four previous posts to this. And then deleted them.

I've whined, cried, cranked, pretty much every emotion you can think of over this blog to Glenn. At first he was shocked and stunned, because talking about anything and everything IS one of my strong suits. Heck, he once had to pay a bum/hobo $5 to leave us alone at the Waco McDonald's because I had struck up a conversation with him.

Then I explained my terror. My 'work family' would be reading this and it needed to be good.  And next to my very own personal family, y'all are the second most important people to me. See. I don't want to appear like a big, ole goober to y'all with my writings. Because y'all count. Each of you impacts my life in a good way. When someone or something impacts your life positively you don't want to disappoint that person/people or thing.

So, sometime before 2016 I will come up with something totally amazing to write about. I promise.


Brenda

Blessed to be a PE teacher at Watkins

I am in my 29th year of teaching and enjoy coming to work every day.  Many people my age are now retired from teaching or preparing to retire to experience life without having to get up every day and go to work.   Sometimes I wonder if something is wrong with me because I love what I do so much, even though every morning on my 1/2 hour drive to work I have to "pump myself up mentally" to prepare to teach such large numbers of students and try to give each one the attention they need as we go through our lessons. PE is my passion! I get excited at the silliest things and laugh at kids stories and jokes which scares me because I actually get the jokes.  I guess I will always be a big kid at heart which is why I am such a "fit" for my job as the PE teacher here at Watkins.

Randi and I are "old school" when it comes to our belief on how people should be treated on a daily basis.  It is simple...Do unto others as you would have others do unto you".  We spent the first 2-4 weeks teaching our students our belief and the rewards have been way beyond our expectations! The Wylie Essentials go right with our belief as well.  If a student interrupts us during instruction, we just say "#5" and they put their hand down or stop talking.  If they don't ask their question at the end of instruction, we make sure to go to them once they are in an activity to see if they still need an answer to their question or maybe they just want to tell us something that recently happened at home, etc.
It's taking the extra time to go to them and let them tell us what was so important to them that has helped us build relationships that continue to grow every day.

It is so exciting to see a child learn a new skill and how the simplest thing to us is an enormous success to them!  I know it is just one of many reasons I love my job so much!  We can give more and more responsibilities to our students now that we have their respect and they have ours. It is awesome seeing them work independently so well.  I am truly blessed to be a teacher at Watkins Elementary. Thank you Mrs. Speicher for supporting us and letting us teach "out of the box".

Julie Sandy

Sometimes it’s harder to learn to fail than it is to learn to succeed.

It’s two days before Christmas. I’m behind a computer, taking the TeXes ESL Certification Exam, in a cramped room with a dozen others. It’s been a goal for quiet some time. I’ve spent hours and days absorbing theories, policies, procedures, legalities, acronyms, and their meanings to pass. Throughout the exam, I tell myself, “You’ve got this!”

However, two hours into it, I’m encouraging myself to, “Just hold it (my bladder that is) until all questions have been gone through”. “Then I’ll take my one allotted break, come back, review and correct with a clear mind.” Skipping the ones I don’t know, and marking answers I’m unsure of, I finally reach the end. My hand goes up to request a bathroom break. No assistant enters the closed in room. I wonder, “Did I misread the dismissal procedures”. My bladder pain increases, as does my spastic clickage to retrieve the test room procedures. Suddenly, my mouse comes to a halt when the words, “Your test is over” scream across the screen. “What! How is it over, I’m not done yet?!”

Yes, I, the Watkins Elementary Technology Instructor had aborted my test, accidentally, with one wayward “click”.  I pleaded my case to the testing administration, but was assured nothing could be done (or undone rather).

I cried all the way home that day.

You see, that exam was my birthday present from my mother. Every year, beginning as a child, she bought me an outfit for my birthday (to keep the celebration separate from Christmas). This year I wanted to dress up my credentials (a luxury my personal budget could not afford).  Instead I received a robe of disappointment.

I felt like an inadequate learner (and instructor). Hmm, this must be how kids feel when they try so hard yet fail.

But failure is a part of learning (and growing) in knowledge and character. Mrs. Speicher reminded us of this at our last staff meeting. She also pointed to us and proclaimed, “Grit starts with you”. Ya! That’s right! What kind of positive character role models can we be if we fail at failing?

Therefore, I’ll be taking that exam again (after the required days have passed), but with an even greater dose of grit (and know how) behind me.

And, I’m sharing this nugget of learning with the kiddos. Because they need to know that sometimes it’s harder to learn to fail than it is to learn to succeed.

Denise Gay, Computer 

What do you spread?

On May 19, 2008, my family’s lives forever changed. I had five days until kindergarten graduation, my husband, Marty, had just ended spring football, and being the athletic director/football coach, was working on the football field. The plans were for a new press box to be placed on the bleachers, and Marty was tearing down the old one. As best as we can tell, he was knocked off the 16 foot ladder by the last board, hitting the chain link fence below. He did not have any broken bones, but had 8 bruises and 5 fractures to his brain. We were told there was no hope of him surviving, and if he did, we needed to find a nursing home that would take him and take care of his needs because he would not be able to function.

After two months in a coma, seven months of rehabilitation, and many, many prayers, Marty did get his memory back, re-learning how to speak, eat, write, dress, and walk. He is truly a miracle, and our family learned many lessons through this experience.

One lesson that was brought back to us time and time again, is that everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Everyone struggles and has suffered or is suffering more than you know. Whether it be our students who come to school hungry, listening to fighting parents, dealing with alcohol or drugs in the home…to our teachers and staff dealing with sickness, a shortage of money to pay bills, and the list goes on and on.

Proverbs 16:24 tells us that “kind words are like honey…sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” Wouldn't it be great if every student, teacher, administrator, maintenance and lunch crew received a kind word multiple times a day from us? For them to know that someone cares and knows their name? I would like to challenge you to go out of your comfort zone this week and not let a person pass you in the hall without a “hello” or “how are you doing?” Spread that honey generously!”

Debra Schumaker

Kinder

Use your words wisely!

As I prepare to write this blog, I realize how terribly uncomfortable (petrified might be a better word) I am about writing my thoughts down so that multiple people can read them.  My stomach is in knots and my hand is shaking!! This uneasiness comes from a comment my high school English teacher made about a short story we were assigned.  Apparently, she didn't feel as though I could write very well!  She wrote (in red) “I think you must have plagiarized this. You couldn’t have written this on your own!” Because of this one comment, I have never been secure in my writing ability  Unfortunately, it is set in stone that I can’t write. Now you would think that I could have left this far behind me; no, not me – I carry it with me still!!  I tell this story to emphasize how important our words are to our students.  Our words both positive and negative can have a lasting effect on our students.  So, be kind and positive with your words and actions.  “Let your words heal and not wound.”




Jennie Campbell

Remember to BREATHE!

If you would have told me two years ago I would be teaching PE to elementary students I would have laughed and said, Yeah…right!”. For twelve years I worked with special ed 5^th and 6^th graders, specializing in Literacy. I worked with the same 5-7 children every day.  A year and a half ago my husband took a position in Dallas. “Oh my god,” I thought. “What am I going to do?”. I sent out a few resumes and two days later Jennifer Speicher called me. I had a phone interview and was so excited to become Watkins new PE Assistant.

Fast forward, first day of school. Talk about overwhelming. Fifty plus students at one time! Julie Sandy, the PE teacher, welcomed me, taught me and showed me that I had a gift to give every day to the children. YOGA. I strongly believe in the mind body connection. I tell the children to breathe. To focus their minds. To quiet themselves. We focus on core strength. It amazes me to see our classes come to complete silence as we start our stretches and build their confidence as they become stronger. Physically and mentally. They will say things like, “Wow! I couldn’t do this when we first started”’ or “I love these stretches, they FEEL so good”. They are nonstop all day, its stressful. I teach them to breathe. It’s something we all forget to do, yet it is so important.

I feel extremely blessed to have this position at Watkins Elementary. Julie Sandy and I have the same values and teaching styles, which is why I believe we are such a good team. It is a privilege to work with the children and staff members of Watkins. It is never too late to make changes or to try something new.  Remember to Breathe!

Randi Campbell

PE Assistant