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| I think I'm going to start a "Quotes Corner" in my classroom with a
bunch of famous quotes that are inspirational and stuff. Things
like:
"Be the change you want to see in the world." -Mahatma Ghandi.
"Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. And be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny." -Unknown
I'll have other quotes, too. I have a whole book, and TFA is
rich with quotes. But in the middle of all the quotes, I want to
post this poem that I saw at my doctor's office:
Anyway by Kent Keith
The verses below reportedly were engraved on
the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta, and are widely attributed to her. However, according
to The New York Times, the verses actually were written by 19-year-old Kent Keith in a motivation booklet for high school counselors
published while he was a student at Harvard in 1968.
People
are often unreasonable, illogical,
and
self-centered;
FORGIVE
THEM ANYWAY.
If
you are kind, people may accuse you
of
selfish, ulterior motives;
BE
KIND ANYWAY.
If
you are successful, you will win some
false
friends and some true enemies;
SUCCEED
ANYWAY.
If
you are honest and frank,
people
may cheat you;
BE
HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.
What
you spend years building,
someone
could destroy overnight;
BUILD
ANYWAY.
If
you find serenity and happiness,
they
may be jealous;
BE
HAPPY ANYWAY.
The
good you do today,
people
will often forget tomorrow;
DO
GOOD ANYWAY.
Give
the world the best you have,
and
it may never be enough;
GIVE
THE WORLD YOUR BEST ANYWAY.
You
see, in the final analysis,
it
is between you and God;
It
was never between you and them anyway.
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| I got this from a friend last year. I read it again recently and
it gave me a little more "oomph" to get through the past few
weeks. It's a poem written by a teacher named Taylor Mali who
does Poetry Slams, and with his attitude he sounds like prime Teach For
America material, though I don't think he has any ties to them. I
just mean he's idealistic about teaching just like TFA is. He
sounds like the teacher I want to be. This poem is called "What
Teachers Make," referring to how much money we teachers make.
http://taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=13
| | |
| First week of school. Round 2.
PRAISE GOD. Guys, it's RIDICULOUS how different teaching is this
year from last year. Everybody can tell the difference... my math
specialist, with a big grin, said, "It's like night and day, isn't it?"
as I nodded in full agreement. Guys... I've been having SO MUCH
FUN the past four days teaching these kids!! It's
ridiculous!! This is the best job in the whole freaking
world!! Let me tell you what I think about why:
-a year of experience with kids goes a long way... i know how they think now...
-i actually did NOT plan much over the summer. i fully used the
summer to just chill and relax and enjoy being married to monica.
so using the summer as extra planning time actually was not a factor...
-***most significant change*** I changed my focus from me to GOD.
Instead of me trying to be a good teacher for the sake of my reputation
with Teach For America or for the sake of my personal reputation with
my principal (or to satisfy my own pride and say "I told you I could be
a good teacher!" to myself and to my parents and friends).
Instead of all that, I decided to teach for THE GLORY OF GOD. And
how do we do that? By getting GOD involved in our schools and in
the lives of our kids. And yes, I know, that's currently illegal,
but we can easily do that by getting TEACHERS together and praying for
our kids. Because God is SPIRITUAL, not a physical or verbal
idea, we don't have to say a word to our kids. All we need to do
is pray to God for our kids and then, just like that, He gets involved
in their lives. Isn't that cool? So I vowed to start up a
prayer group of teachers this year at school, and I think that vision
and focus has changed EVERYTHING. I think so because I think it
invited GOD into my school and now He is covering everything that I do.
Let me give you some examples.
First day of school: After a brief introduction of me and my Two Rules
in class ("Be Nice. Work Hard.") I gave the kids an activity that I saw
last week. You can try it. Look at these four words:
horse
clock
chair
nose
One of these words is not like the others. One of these words
does not belong. Can you figure out which one and why?
Write down your answer.
If you guys are like my kids, you'll sit there and wonder if you have
the right answer, and some were so unsure that they didn't write
anything for fear that they were wrong. But when we shared
answers, I'd say, "You got "chair?" Everybody else who got
"chair" raise your hand." Hands went up. "Ok, now tell us WHY did
you say "chair." And they'd say something like all of the other
words have an "o", but chair doesn't. I'd say, "Cool! Does
anyone have a different answer?" And I'd get things like, "Nose,
because a horse has legs, a clock has arms, a chair has legs, but a
nose doesn't have anything like that." I'd get all sorts of
answers and I'd point out that some people have the SAME answer, but
with different REASONING. Like the chair is the only one that
doesn't move by itself. From there, I started to REALLY have
fun. I started to preach.
"Guys, what I want you to get out of this activity is this -- you all
came up with different answers for different reasons and they were ALL
correct. So I want YOU to see that each of you in here are
capable of creative, ORIGINAL thoughts. And it's a BEAUTIFUL
thing, guys! That you each have a BEAUTIFUL mind that thinks
differently from EVERYBODY else's mind in here. You see things
that nobody else in here sees! Isn't that awesome? I mean,
sometimes two people might have the same answer and same method, but
only sometimes. And sometimes your answer might be wrong, but
that's okay because you're learning! In math, we're always
tempted to find that ONE answer. One plus one equals...
two. But guys, there's other ways of getting "two." One
TIMES two. PLUS three minus one. Don't fall into the trap
of thinking math is a STRAIGHT line from one place to another. It
goes ALL OVER like this! <arms waving in the air> Let's look at
the quote at the top of your student surveys. Somebody read that
for us. "A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of
patterns." -G.H. Hardy. How does a painter use patterns? <we
discuss> How does a poet use patterns? Or if you don't
know poetry, think of the songs you hear on the radio. How do
they use patterns? <we discuss> So look, this is a
famous mathematician who spent his life studying math. And G. H.
Hardy saw math as a BEAUTIFUL thing...just like painting. It's
not just a one-to-one straight line to every answer, guys. It's
BEAUTIFUL. Because you use your mind. You use all of your
creativity and your mind to paint patterns with your ideas. And
that's what we'll be doing this year. Any questions?"
That totally came from God, and it was so much fun to say, guys.
=) You should have seen these kids when I said that they all have
beautiful minds capable of creative, original thoughts different from
everyone else. The whole room brightened up for a second because
their eyes just LIT UP. It was a beautiful thing.
Our classroom environment is so dang positive right now, I feel like
I'm in another world. Our class motto, written up at the front of
my classroom, thanks to mon, is this:
If there is a problem, WE LOOK FOR A SOLUTION.
If there is a better way, WE TRY TO FIND IT.
If we need help, WE ASK.
If a teammate needs help, WE GIVE IT.
If there is a mountain, WE CLIMB IT.
We also have a big sign that says, "There are no shortcuts." We demand hard work in our class: Be Nice. Work Hard.
In the past week at school, I can tell that these kids feel good about
themselves and feel safe in class. I greet all my kids at the
door every morning with a handshake and a good morning. Already,
some of them won't walk in until I greet them.
God has blessed my class with an atmosphere of peace, love,
hospitality, courtesy, inspiration, and motivation. He's
given me time to spend with mon outside of school, time to spend with
coworkers who need it (we have one new first-year Teach For America
teacher who cried on her second day and thought about quitting =( so it
was good to spend almost an hour with her debriefing the week), time to
spend with students (I had one student already get sent to in-school
suspension for almost starting a fight. I visited him, and the
in-school suspension teacher insisted that I take him to my room to
spend time with him because "You'd make a good mentor for him, Mr.
Cheng." So we spent 30 minutes talking, and he told me the story
of a little boy trying to be tough in a world where kids tell him, "I'm
not gonna fight you here at school. Nah, I'm gonna git some
people and we're comin' to your apartment to fight you." Have you
been in fights before? I ask. Yes. Have people come
to your apartment to fight before? Yes. They bang on the door and
yell at me to come out and fight. Is it always a
fist-fight? No. Once they brought a weapon. What kind
of weapon? A pistol. He has two siblings and his mom is
pregnant. I told him not to make me worry and to promise me that
he won't get into any fights this year. He laughed and said
that's too hard. You can pray for him. I gave him that book
that I'm currently reading, "Life in Prison." It's written by the
co-founder of the Crips gang who is now in prison on Death Row, but
spends his time writing books and funding programs to keep youths out
of gangs. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts in gang-prevention outreach to youths. I hope the book
will make a difference for this student and my other kids.) God
has been good to me and it's only been a week. I have yet to
start that prayer group, but I already know some key people who will be
in it. This is good stuff, guys. I pray that the year
continues as it has begun. I pray that it gets better. I
pray that it's not just me, but the entire school, and all the teachers
that can turn to God and pray and ask him to watch over our kids and to
teach them, save them, and their families. All to HIS
GLORY. "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the
glory, because of your love and faithfulness." -psalm 115:1
peace out, guys. keep on livin' your life for Him. it's good stuff. =)
praise God.
i'll be in touch.
in Him,
gary
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| Missions trip was EXCELLENT. God showed up in a variety of ways,
and mon and I will send out a full update letter in email form.
Thanks for praying, guys!!
-g
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