Motivational Activity: Wonder Word & Vision Board

Part 1 Wonder Word: At the start of each semester, every student will pick ONE WORD that will drive their actions for the next few months.  The word should be something that they struggle with, something that needs their attention, that needs work.

• First, have students come up with a list of 3-5 bad habits they have.  These should be things they need to work on.  Examples to inspire:
• Procrastinates
• Angry
• Lazy
• Loud
• Mean
• Jealous
• Doubt
• Discouraged

Next, have the students write down an OPPOSITE word next to each NEGATIVE word: a word that could attack that bad habit.  Examples:

• Procrastinates:  ACTION
• Angry:  PEACE
• Lazy:  ENERGY
• Loud:  STILL
• Mean:  KINDNESS
• Jealous:  ACCEPTANCE
• Doubt:  POWER
• Discouraged:  OPTIMISTIC

• Now, have students pick ONE Wonder word they want to use to guide their year.
• Write it down on a 4 x 6 notecard (LARGE and IN DARK MARKER)
• Write student name in the bottom right hand corner

Part II Vision Board:

Once they have their  Wonder Word, the Vision Board bring it to life.  They may create one organically with paper (below) or search apps for “Vision Board” to create one electronically on their Smartphone or tablet.

Paper poster:

• Take a large piece of construction paper
• Have students glue the index card with their Wonder Word in the middle of the paper
• Image hunt:  Students now look for images (in magazines, the internet, or by drawing) that represent their word.  
• For example, if their Wonder Word is “action,” they might cut out pictures of athletes, or people writing, working, planning, or cleaning.  If their word is “kindness,” they might find pictures of volunteer work, or people smiling and listening to their friends,

• Glue those images onto the Vision Board
• Students share their Vision Board in small groups or whole class
• Post on wall in room
• Revisit Wonder Word and Vision Board often (daily, weekly, monthly).  Circle up and talk about the struggles kids are having with their word or the strength they have gained from their word,

How to Seat Students Strategically yet Secretly

On the first day of school or anytime you want to rearrange your clientele, greet them at the door with a smile and a playing card.

• Buy two decks of regular playing cards:  tape one set of cards on the desks and place the other matching set in a bowl.  
• As they enter your classroom, they pull a card and search for their match.  Once they find it, they have found their seat.  Once everyone is seated, walk through class checking their matches and collecting their “loose” card.  
• Place all loose cards back in the bowl and later in class when discussing school supplies, draw a card and raffle off a pencil, highlighter, or notebook.  The kids love it and you have seated them “by chance,” keeping them from clustering up with friends and isolating others.
• BONUS:  You now also have an easy way to “choose” students by chance.  Leave cards taped on desk and keep their partners in a can.  Pull a card throughout the year for a “volunteer” or a game.  The randomness of the cards ensures you will never be “picking on anyone.”

“Social isolation, which is especially risky for adolescents, can result from students being ignored, bullied, or teased and tends to flourish in environments predominated by social cliques” (Blum, 2005, p.3).  With this simple exercise, these “cliques” are covertly broken, and you have proven you are organized and creative within the first seconds of meeting them.

Class Energizer: Bear-Ninja-Cowboy

(REPOST)

What do you do when your classes will resemble a collective episode of the “Walking Dead.”  Yes, teenagers can resemble zombies, sleep deprived, hormonal zombies.

Unfortunately, I need my zombies to be productive.  We need to get workin’.

WIth that being said, I also needed to bridge the gap from a sloth-like class to an intellectual powerhouse of a classroom. What’s a girl to do?

Bear-Ninja-Cowboy.

This is a simple energizer that includes the entire class, takes no more than 10 minutes, and will wake everyone up with a little laughter while also reconnecting your kids to one another (need to build that classroom community back up, right?).  It is a take off on ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS, but the kids use their entire body to portray one of the three characters.  It is an elimination game, so you may want to have a little candy treat for your final two kids.

Simple steps:

1. Have everyone stand up and cue some cheesy music of your choice (I used the original soundtrack from the TV show “Glee”).  

2. Kids mill around to the music and when the music stops, so do they.

3. Have them face the person closest to them, shake hands, and then turn so they are back to back.

4. You now countdown (3-2-1-DRAW!)

5. They take three steps away from one another and then flip around on the word “DRAW”!

6. This is where they have three options:

A. BEAR:  Raise hands over head like claws, stand on tip toes, and growl REALLY LOUD!

B. NINJA:  Crouch down, pull one knee up, place hands in front of chest, flat like in a karate chop position.  Make “Ninja sounds” (i.e. hayahhh!)

C. COWBOY:  Stand up straight and tall, have two guns pulled at waist level, make a gun shot shound (bam, bam!).

7. DEATH CODE:

A. Bear KILLS Ninja

B. Ninja KILLS Cowboy

C. Cowboy KILLS Bear

8. Dead person sits down.  If there is a TIE, both people stay alive and continue to mill about the room until they pair up again.

9. Keep going until you have your final two.  Have the whole class circle around them and cheer them on.  

10. Make sure to reward then both for a job well done.

This is silly, takes little to no prep, and can be used anytime your class needs a “pick-me-up” or even when you have the dreaded ten minutes left until the bell at the end of class.

Now we shall see if the bears, ninjas, and cowboys can kill the post summer zombies!  Wish me luck!

Remembering Mentors: Mr. Bright & Mrs. Reyes

Mr. Bright, Teacher/Director, Kaneohe, HI...one of my first true mentors...

Behind every human being is a team. It may be made up of family, friends, perhaps even their own children. But, what team is behind the person that decides to jump in to one of the craziest, most taxing, most fulfilling professions there is? Who creates “the teacher”?

Easy...other teachers. As a proud product of the public school education system, I’ve been lucky to have slew of mentors that have entered my life over the years and collectively inspired me to try my hand at teaching. As my 13th school year begins, I would like to honor two of them today.

Mr. Bright: Teacher/Theatre Director, Castle High School, Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Mr. Bright was the drama teacher and director at our local magnet school for the arts during the 1980’s and 90’s.  He passed away a month ago, and although I could not make it back to Hawaii for the funeral, this is my tribute to him.

When Mr. Bright came to my high school to talk about bussing across town to the “fancy theatre,” I thought “no way, I’m not worthy” but something about the sparkle in his eye, his infectious smile, and his bounce must have screamed love to me and my little punk rock self got on the bus and auditioned for my first main stage production: the funky Motown version of “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Wiz.  

One of the showstopping ballads in the musical was Auntie Em’s song to Dorothy, “If You Believe.” Mr. Bright decided to use it as a warm up song for the entire cast. Each night before curtain we would stand backstage holding hands and sing “If you believe,” trying desperately not to ruin our meticulous stage make-up. He would always end with hugging each one of us (a cast of 50!) and whispering in our ear, “I believe in you.”  It became his mantra.

Mr. Bright taught me how to take risks, he taught me how to accept all types of kids, and he taught me how to love with an open heart. He showed me that diverse groups of people can come together and create magic...literally, create magic.

He passed away earlier this month- 81 years old with his family and the almost the entire island of Oahu by his side. Mr. Bright spoke with words of love every day and affected generations of young people including my struggling teenage self.

All I know is there are some amazing productions going on in heaven right now.  Thank you for believing in me, Mr. B. - I love you.

Mrs. Reyes: 8th grade Language Arts, Kailua Intermediate School in Kailua, Hawaii.

The reason I’m an English teacher today can be credited to one of my earliest mentors- my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Reyes. Mrs. Reyes had a short helmet of tight curls, she wore thick glasses and bright colorful muu muus. The three words used to describe her most? SHE LOVES KIDS. She thought of every kid as her own. I remember her catching my friend Jimmy drinking alcohol behind her classroom after school one day - he poured some tiny bottles of vodka into a Big Gulp cup from 7-11. Her 1st response before she walked him up to the office was how creative he was to recreate a scene of William Shakespeare in the pub? I don’t remember all of her specific lessons, but I do remember how she made me feel: important, invincible...loved.

She took trips to England in the summer and brought back cool masks, snow globes of Big Ben, and tubes of dirt from Stratford-upon-avon.  The year I had her she decided that Romeo & Juliet was too elementary, so we were going to read Macbeth..in 8th grade. I can still recite the witches' scene today.

Ten years ago, when my son was two years old, I was living in Kailua and walking back from the beach. Before I knew it, I turned my jogger stroller to the right and was headed towards Kailua Intermediate. I wanted to see if Mrs. Reyes was still there...she WAS! The office directed me to her room...the same room in the back of the school. I started to get nervous...would she remember me? Is this weird? I popped my head in the door and saw a much different looking woman who I actually thought was a sub: Mrs. Reyes had undergone gastric bypass surgery, so there was actually much less of her! She greeted me with “Bush?” (My maiden name!) I said, “Yep!” We laughed and talked, she tickled Toby and I thanked her for helping me find my bliss. She had no idea I was an English teacher. She was stoked.

I don’t think people plan on becoming a mentor. I think it grows organically out of a genuine love and sincere yearning to make a difference. We don’t always know the kids we are affecting. What actions will you take today that a middle-aged adult will look back on decades from now and thank you for? Wouldn’t that make all the hard work worthwhile?