Saturday, January 28, 2017

What's Your Good Thing?

So this past week in the exciting adventures of Mr. Mouton, Mr. Mouton survived the first full, normal week back since Christmas break. The first three weeks have been filled with two 3-day weeks and an early release day on the other week. Naturally, I was ready for the normal weekly routine to kick back in. Well, let’s just say that it was an interesting week. This week was packed full of things. Some good & some bad. To say the least, it was a bit stressful, but we all made it through like we always do. No matter how stressful it may seem to get, we just have to take it one day at a time. Eventually, you get past the struggles and some good starts to peek through.

Now, I’m not just blogging to talk about a normal work week. The week ended on a such a positive note for me that I just felt I had to share.  

So, a little background…

When I was in high school I took a class called Teen Leadership. This was class was designed to teach you how to be a better person and build a classroom community between the people in the class. By the end of the course, you really got close and developed relationships with everyone in class. I loved it. Coach Kilgo taught the class and that only made it better. My brother was also in the class which was hilarious and awesome. It was one of my favorite classes that I took in high school. One of my favorite things that we did was called “Good Things”. Each day we started out by telling the class one good thing that had happened to us the day before. It didn’t matter how big or small the something was, but the idea was to make you realize how lucky and blessed your life was, at least that’s what I took from it. No matter what circumstances a person may face, there’s always a positive. Even if that positive is that you woke up that morning to fight another day. It was awesome. I always enjoyed hearing what everyone else would say. Mine always consisted of I ate something amazing for dinner or did something awesome during football season, but we all got to share everyday and it was a great way to learn about our classmates.

I have done this a few times in class a few times with my kiddos. I wish I would have done it more. I usually do it with my homeroom kids on Mondays. I tell them to tell me one good thing that happened to them over the weekend. Their responses usually consist of I played with my friend, had a sleepover, or got some game or toy. But, I had only ever done this with my homeroom kids. Well, I have 5 different groups of kids that I see everyday. Each group has it’s own personalities and uniqueness.

This past week the topic taught in class was fractions. Fractions is one of the most difficult things we do in my opinion. Last year, I felt that fractions was the most difficult thing for me to teach. I just didn’t feel like did a good job communicating the skills, and I felt that I didn’t provide my kiddos with the best learning possible. I have made it a priority to be better this year, and I’ve changed things and come up with different strategies. This past week I felt went pretty well teaching wise. They had on Friday over the topics that had covered in class. Now, I have a kiddo that doesn’t always perform that well in math. Math is a struggle for him, and sometimes I feel like he doesn’t enjoy my class. I just haven’t been able to make that connection with him that I have with most of the kiddos. So, he took his quiz and turned it in. I always grade the quizzes in class that way the kids know what they scored before they leave. I went to grade his, and wouldn’t you know… He made a 100! I was pumped! I even got up to show another teacher on my team. I just had to call him up and let him know what an awesome job he did. He walked up, and I acted like I had bad news and covered his score. He got to my desk, and I looked up and revealed his score. The smile on his face was the reason I teach. I had never seen him smile like that in my class. He was overjoyed and proud of himself. He went “Yes!!” and pumped his fist. I told him I was so proud of him, and gave him a high five. It was awesome, and when he went back to sit down you could tell how excited he was.

There was about 10 minutes left before school got out, and all of the quizzes had been turned in and graded. I let all of the kiddos know what they got, and he again was pumped. I’m not sure why “Good Things” was on my mind, but I felt like it was something that we should do. I told the kids to pack up, and have nothing on their desk. I explained that we we’re going to try something we had never done before. I have a little minion that sits in my paper clip holder. I explained that whoever is holding the minion was the only person allowed to speak (besides me). We were going to pass the minion around and each share one good thing that had happened to them this week. I just felt that it was a long week for all of us, and I thought that it would kind of good to reflect on the week. So, the minion is going around. The responses are typical 10 year old responses, “I had cocoa puffs for breakfast”, “I signed up for M&M”, “I got to hang out with my friend after school”. You get the point. The minion finally got to the boy that scored the 100, and his good thing surprised me. He said, “My good thing is that you made fractions simple and easy for me to understand.” I was shocked. I never thought he would say something about math class as his good thing. It made my heart feel really good. I know that I had the biggest, cheesiest smile on my face. My week leading up to that point had been super stressful, and at that moment all the stress went away. That single moment of when he said that made my week awesome. It made me think, “Man, this was a good week”.

Isn’t it crazy how much of an impact something so small can have? Just by having the kiddos share one good thing that happened to them, my whole outlook on the week was changed for the better. He could have said anything, but he chose to say that. That’s why I love my job. His excitement and pride for his learning is why I do my job. No matter how stressful your week may be… There is always something positive you can take away.

What’s your good thing?

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

One Word

The night before we return back to school from Christmas break, I’m sitting here on my couch thinking about a lot of things. I keep seeing people post their resolutions for this year. The thing about resolutions is that we all know they seem to kind of fade away after a little bit. We all start out with great intentions to do these amazing things and change our lives, but somewhere down the road it fades away. For me, it’s incredibly frustrating to have this happen over and over. I think one of the issues with it is that we set these lofty goals that seem like a great idea, but it takes a drastic life change to achieve them. Now, I’m not saying resolutions are pointless or unattainable. A person may not drastically change his/her life, but there is some good to make resolutions and reflecting on yourself each year.

One of the things I kept seeing on Twitter was the hashtag #OneWord. I decided to look into to see what it was all about. What I took away from it was that you set one word that is going to drive you. One word that you’re going to reach. This idea is from Jon Gordon. I didn’t go too deep into, but from what I saw I thought it was a great idea. I decided was going to choose my one word and that word was going to be the driving force behind me this year. I just wanted to take the chance to kind of explain my word and why I chose it. I’m going to my word on my mirror that way everyday I start out by seeing my one word.

My #OneWord for 2017 is: Grow

Grow. I started out by looking up the definition of grow, and the first one pertains to physically growing and maturing. Well, that’s not exactly the grow I’m looking for. I dug a little deeper and found two that I liked. You know, I’m not that great with ELA stuff, so the example sentences below helped tremendously. ;)

Grow -  to arise from as a natural development from an original happening, circumstance, or source.

-  to increase gradually in size, amount, etc.; become greater or larger; expand.

I think we all know the type of grow I’m talking about. It’s not physical growth, but it’s more emotional growth. There are many different aspects of my life that I want to grow in. One of the areas I want to GROW in is as a teacher. One of the most important aspects of my life is my job. You all know that I’m a teacher. I’m smack dab right in the middle of my second year of teaching. My goal is to continue to grow and become a better a teacher. I don’t know everything there is to know about teaching 4th grade math. Do I think I do a decent job at? Yeah. I would want my own child in my class, but I know that there is so much room for improvement. I don’t want to fall victim to complacency and think I know everything. I don’t. As a teacher we should never stop trying to learn new things, and I want to learn new things. I learn new things everyday at work. I want to continue that, and the word GROW is vastly important to me as a teacher. I want to listen and take in advice from other teachers, but I also share knowledge and experiences that I have with other teachers. I believe that I have some great knowledge that is worthy of sharing with teachers that are just starting out. That’s a big step for me, but I want to grow in that way of being a teacher.

Another area I want to GROW is my relationships. Each day I encounter hundreds of people. It just happens that a majority of those people are children. My students are one aspect of relationships I want to grow. We have already finished half of the school year in what seems like a blink of an eye. I know there are kiddos that I haven’t reached or that I haven’t really developed that relationship with this year. I want make that a focus for the second half of the year. I want to reach those kids that I might have missed, but I also want to continue to develop the relationships that I do have with kids. That doesn’t just mean current 4th graders. I love seeing my old kids from last year. I want to continue to grow with them. There are younger kids that I see all the time that know who I am, but I don’t them. I want to take the opportunity to learn their name and something about them. It’s my favorite part of the job, and I want to develop the relationships with my students as much as I can before they’re gone!

A big aspect of relationships is my family. I’m very fortunate to have such an incredible family that is supportive and amazing. We all get along, and that is a rare thing. We all have our health and we’re all off doing amazing things. I love my family, and I love the relationships that I have built with each member. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t grow with them. I’m lucky to live 5 minutes from my parents. To some people, that may be terrible and not far enough, but I can see my parents anytime I want to. That’s a blessing that not everyone can say, and I love spending time with them. So, when I just come over on Saturday morning just because, I cherish it because I get to spend time with them & talk with them. I’m also very lucky to have a brother and sister. I think most of you know that I love my sister, and I would do anything for her. She’s awesome, and my best friend. What gets lost in the shuffle, is that I feel the same way about my brother. The relationship I have with my sister is different from the relationship I have with my brother. I love my brother. My brother is a complete and total badass, and I have been his number one fan forever. My favorite thing to do was to watch him in high school do his thing, and I was so proud of him. He has grown up to be a great man, and I like to them I played a little part in that. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see him as often as my sister. That’s partially my fault. I haven’t made the best effort to attend his out of town games (car issues), but that’s no excuse. I want to grow in both my relationships with my brother and sister. I love them both very much.

Lastly, I want to grow in my personal relationships. I’m a huge homebody, and the idea of sitting on my couch alone doesn’t deter me in anyway. I like have some alone time, but it has hindered my personal relationships. I want GROW in my relationships with my friends. I don’t see them that often, but a lot of that falls on me. I want to be more active and be willing to go out more places with them because I’m missing out on a lot of things. I would love to have a girlfriend. Someone that I can just talk to all day and never get sick of it. Someone just to do life with. Problem is it’s hard to meet someone while sitting on the couch. So, I also want to just GROW as a person. I don’t want to spend my life alone. I want to get out there and meet people, and that involves me taking risks.

I have no idea what is in store for me in 2017. What I do know is that I’m going to focus one word: Grow. I want it to drive me in everything that I do. I want to become a better teacher, son, brother, & friend. I’m almost 25 years, but I know that I have a whole lot of room to still grow in every aspect of my life.

What’s your one word going to be?