TOY Story- A Lesson About Connectivity

When asked what the best part of the past year has been as a State Teacher of the Year, my answer comes easily and earnestly ~ meeting so many remarkable teachers. The camaraderie, collegiality, compassion, and expertise made a life-long impact on me. The words I share with my students, "I am so much better for knowing you," are so true of these teachers as well.

I will always remember the excitement blended with apprehension as we all met for the first time in Dallas last January. I wrestled with my own insecurity about not feeling that I had the level of expertise, life experiences, or credentials to be part of such a select group.

From the moment I stepped off the plane in Dallas and into the van with seven other TOYs - I knew my worries were unfounded. I was instantly among friends ~ and the rest of the year's experiences confirmed that early realization completely.

This five-minute video is a tribute to the many beautiful people I met. It encapsulates a year of learning, growing, and sharing together. It is my TOY Story.

Sticks & Stones

Tools of the Trade- Chicken Soup for the Soul #20

Tools of the Trade

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

~Elie Wiesel

There are days when I find it necessary to step outside my classroom and check to be sure that my name is still in the TEACHER space over my door. Sometimes I feel that I am a student in my classroom rather than the teacher.

My sixth grade students were seated in a large circle on the floor of our classroom. Each student held a different tool in his or her hand. Some were common tools --a hammer, pipe wrench, a flashlight, a screwdriver -- and other were unfamiliar tools to the students -- a copper pipe cutter, an awl, a chalk line. The lesson had gone perfectly. The students discussed how words are like tools -- they have the ability to build or to destroy, and they discovered how the right tool used at the right time for the right job can yield great results. The sixth graders freely shared personal stories of how they had experienced someone’s words used as a tool, to wound or to heal, and some even bravely shared how they had personally used their words at times as tools to hurt or to help others.

I watched and listened with a sense of satisfaction -- the students were engaged, attentive, and enjoying the lesson. They got it! It was one of those times when I sat back and reveled in the magic of being a teacher -- to have the opportunity to watch young people discover a greater truth about life, about each other, and about themselves.

A few days later, one of my students, Laura, had an unexpected and uncharacteristic outburst of disruptive defiance in class. She refused to work with her group. I was aware from reading Laura’s file that she had struggled with defiant behavior in previous years, but we had developed a good rapport and she was always a respectful, positive contributor to our class. Her behavior caught me off guard. I asked her to excuse herself and told her I would visit with her in our next door team center in just a minute. She refused to leave and sat silently glaring at me from the back of the room. I rather firmly told her she needed to excuse herself – this was NOT optional. She knew I meant it. She marched from the back of the room to our classroom door -- huffing and shooting me an angry look, then proceeded to slam the door as she left for the team meeting room.

I continued our lesson and when the students were working together in their groups, I motioned to my aide that I was going to step out to visit with Laura. I gently closed our classroom door behind me, and then marched the five steps next door to our meeting room where Laura was seated. In an unexpected and uncharacteristic gesture of frustration, I slammed the meeting room door behind me. As I stood over her, I began to express how disrespectful and uncalled-for her behavior had been to our class. Her defiance had triggered a wave of out-of-character anger in me and I was sharp in my tone and harsh with my words.

Without looking at me, she absorbed the brunt of my anger with a rigid and steely exterior. When I paused for her response, she slowly turned and smugly stated, “You’re using your tool against me.”

I was speechless. There are times as a teacher when you are at a critical crossroad with a student and the road you choose will make all the difference. Although part of me resented that she was continuing to be so defiant -- even in her brilliant rebuke -- I paused to reflect on a quote that is posted on our team center wall: “THINK! What is the right thing to do, and do that.” The truth of Laura’s words and our team center’s quote penetrated my conscience like a sharp scalpel.

I knew at that moment the right thing to do was to humbly bend my knee, kneel down next to her chair, and softly say, “You’re right, Laura, you are so right. Please forgive me. I have used my words unwisely and unkindly. Will you forgive me?” I paused and waited silently next to her chair and gently put my hand on her arm to reassure her of my sincerity. Her defiance slowly melted away. She turned and looked me in the eye and simply said, “Yes, I forgive you, Mrs. Ekre. I’m sorry, too.” We continued to visit a bit longer and shared a few laughs and a couple of tears. Eventually, we walked back into the classroom together.

For the rest of the day and the rest of the year, Laura never had another outburst. At the end of the year, she wrote me a beautiful letter about how she loved being in my class and that some of the most important lessons she learned, she learned in Room 25. Attached to the note was a small key -- a tool, she said, for a language arts teacher who taught her how important words can be. It serves as my reminder of a lesson I taught as a teacher but one I really learned from my student.

A Lesson About the Tongue

"Death and life find power in the tongue." ~ King Solomon

One of my favorite classroom mottos reads:
Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words, they become your actions.
Watch your actions, they become your habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your legacy.

I have it posted on the whiteboard in the front of our classroom.

Many times throughout the year, we discuss this clever admonition and refer to it in terms of historical as well as personal significance. It immediately came to mind during Pastor Matthew St. John's message last Sunday on Taming the Tongue.

These are the lessons I learned from that message along with the realization that I need constant reminders to help harness the power of my tongue.

The approach of the wise teacher vs. the foolish teacher:

• A wise teacher will be gentle with their words while a foolish teacher uses words harshly.
  
• A wise teacher will use words that are pure rather than foul words of a foolish teacher.
  
• A wise teacher uses words to build others up whereas a foolish teacher's words demean and diminish others.
  
• A wise teacher goes to the source for truth, a foolish teacher avoids the source.
  
• A wise teacher believes and expects the best and a foolish teacher presumes the worst.
  
• A wise teacher knows when to be SILENT ~ a foolish teacher spreads gossip.
  

I recently had the privilege of submitting a story for an upcoming publication of Chicken Soup for the Soul ~ Teacher Tales. The renowned series contains 101 stories in each book with varying stories typically around a central theme. My story will be #55- Tools of the Trade and will be nestled among other teachers' stories about their students, classrooms, and the teaching profession. The new book will be in bookstores in February. Tools of the Trade speaks to the power of words and how our words are much like tools that when used in the right way for the right purpose have great potential for good but conversely, when used wrongly, can induce great damage, dissension, and destruction.

I have included it on the next post as an illustration to the importance of Taming our Tongue. The quote that will accompany my story is a beloved quote of mine from Elie Wiesel, "Sometimes words, in moments of grace, can attain the quality of deeds." Proverbs 15:1 would have been perfectly fitting as well, "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

As a teacher, I know that each day I have the awesome responsibility of using my words wisely~ using them to build, to encourage, to love, to teach, to speak truthfully, and to impart the message to each of my students that they have incredible value and beauty. My prayer each day as I enter my classroom is Psalm 19:14, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. 

And with regard to colleagues as of late, I also whisper this prayer:
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. ~Psalm 141:3

A Lesson About Deception

Our 6th grade language arts department is trying out a new reading program this year in an attempt to have a common core piece to our curriculum. It is called the Reader's Journey and although it has many wonderful components such as guided practice for directly teaching both fiction and non-fiction comprehension strategies, excerpts from good literature pieces, and matches many of our standards, it has its limitations -as all curriculum does.
Most concerning to me is the wording of the Big Questions that anchor each unit. I completely support and encourage the idea of asking the big questions -it is at the heart of learning. We were designed to be curious, to want to know, to learn, to understand- questioning is where it starts. But, the first question worries me as a teacher: Unit 1: How do we decide what is true?
At first glance, it seems like a good question- "Yeah, truth is in fact what we are after isn't it?" And we know that most people have varying ideas and beliefs about what they think is truth. But implied in the question is a very alarming premise. If we get to decide what is true, then truth can be changed or altered by our choice. This is dangerous and deceptive thinking. If I can actually decide what is truth, then truth can be changed or altered merely by my perception or decision. And if this is true, can it really be truth? A better wording for the question could be: How do we know what it true? or How do we decide what to believe is true?
Here is an illustration of the lesson: Student 1: "I decide that God does not exist." Student 2: "I decide that God does exist." The students do not get to "decide" what is true- one is truth and one is not. What we DO get to decide is what we believe to be true. Teaching students to make wise decisions regarding truth in a culture that has bought into the lie that truth is relative is extremely challenging but so critically important.

"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name."
~Psalm 86:11

Lessons for the Teacher

Part of our master's program was to create this blog. However, aside from the required postings for our coursework, I was never sure how I would really want to use this. Until now. After being out of the seemingly endless required readings, assignments, and postings of our master's degree now for a couple of months, I have had the renewed desire to write. As I began to journal my lessons of faith from our pastor's sermons and follow his blog as well as take the time to look at other blogs, I finally felt that I had a sense of purpose and a direction for posting. These are postings about my lessons- my faith lessons that impact who I am becoming as a Christian, wife, mom, teacher, colleague, and friend. It is my educational journey as I desire to learn the most important lessons about life from the Master Teacher- Jesus.

National Teacher of the Year Ceremony- Washington DC

Area Woman Magazine

Area Woman Cover Story