Weekly Inspo Vids - Week Eleven
Hello all!
Man, what a week. We had the long days of conferences with a decent parent turn-out. Lots of good conversations.
I want to take a quick moment to share the details of one specific meeting. In all my years, it was the coolest parent conference I’ve ever had.
The mom of one of my very engaged, very bright kiddos sat down. She asked a few questions about how he was doing in class and we did the typical back-and-forth banter. Then, she pulled out a notebook and said she had a few “special” questions she had planned to ask each teacher.
I was intrigued.
She asked the following three questions and studiously scribbled down my responses. It was very cool.
Her questions:
If you could have any celebrity sub for a day, who would you choose?
As a business teacher, I didn’t want to choose anyone too obvious, like Elon Musk or Warren Buffet. I went with Nick Kokonas a lesser-known but infinitely fascinating entrepreneur.
What do you hope your current students will one day tell their kids about you?
Such a great question! I sort of stumbled through an answer. I talked about wanting students to feel like I was giving them truly practical tools they could use the day after graduation. We’ll see if that ends up happening.
What resources do you need? Parent help? Funding? Anything else?
This individual obviously had a desire to truly help in any way necessary. It was very apparent. I’ll keep my answer to myself simply because it was highly related to my individual situation.
I truly hope you have some parents who are as genuinely curious and obliged to help as this mom. She made my night! (She also brought me snacks:)
Enjoy this week’s newsletter!
P.S. I chose this week’s video not because it has a specific tie to education, but because educators are often very lonely. It can be an isolating job, and I thought this was wonderful advice.
Weekly Video
Use in staff newsletters, encouraging emails, etc.
Possible Caption: Be a good friend. It’s invaluable.
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Looking for a past video. Check our archive.
Weekly Quote
“In my experience, each failure contains the seed of your next success — if you are willing to learn from it.”
Paul Allen
Weekly Emailable PD
Use in staff newsletters, emailable PD messages, etc.
This week we’re talking about connecting with kids in the classroom on a daily basis. In a bit of a twist, I’m actually going to share a few slides with everyone, simply because I believe in this tool so much. I use it with my own students and have seen a massive return on the time invested. (Big shout out to a colleague for introducing me to it!)
At the end of the series of slides, I include some additional instructions, tips, and some questions to get your teachers started.
Trust me when I say the small amount of time it takes to implement this tool is a very small price to pay for the depth of relationship it can create. And it works with the most challenging students!
