Truth Tuesday III – Help!

“It’s intelligent to ask for help. No one need do it all alone”.


Hear, hear! If you are not sure about what you are doing with your content, your students, or your practice, ask for help! There are many others available in your building, at the TEN, and within your group of friends that are there for YOU!

When it came to getting help with content, my best resource was the teacher’s guide. However, when it came to how to get my point across to students, my colleagues were the most help. I always taught with at least 2 other teachers on my grade level and made friends with the librarian for extra super-duper help! Did you know that part of the librarian’s job in the school is to collaborate with the teachers!? I didn’t know that until I went to graduate classes to become a librarian! After being a one for 3 years in public schools, I realized how much I missed by not asking my schools’ librarians for more help.

Another person who would be incredibly useful to you is the special education teacher. They can give you suggestions for teaching methods that work especially well with lower level learners. You are responsible for reading your students’ IEP folders and abiding by the accommodations for the students in your classroom who might be on an IEP. I used to borrow materials from the learning lab to assist my IEP students in the regular classroom. Ask and you shall receive!

The reading and math specialists (or Title I teachers) are there to assist students with special needs in these areas. However, if you ask for help from them, they are likely to be of significant help to you and the students that may be attending these extra “special classes.”

The school counselor is another cooperative person I have contacted in the past when I was having behavior issues with certain students. They can help you establish behavior plans with students in your class and can help with behavior issues in your classroom.

This quote isn’t just for teachers; it is a great quote for your students as well. Make sure that you let them know that no one knows everything, but everyone knows something! It’s okay to ask for help. I used to tell my students “ask 3, then ask me” when I was working with a small group of students (such as in reading or math groups) or with an individual student. Usually, they received correct information from the first person they asked and were able to complete work on whatever activity they happened to doing.

As a VERY independent person, asking for help is exceptionally difficult for me. I have learned (usually the hard way) that asking for help doesn’t mean I’m dumb, it means I’m smart enough to recognize that I am probably acquainted with someone else who knows the answer or can show me where to find the answer!

Truth Tuesday II – Risky Business

Today’s truth: “We can do more and learn more when we’re willing to risk.”

I like security! I like to be cuddled up on the couch in my comfy jammies, wrapped in a snuggly quilt, and creating a safety zone around myself! I like the security of a contracted job, locks on my doors and windows, a safe neighborhood, and passwords to my private stuff.

However, I also like to experience wonderful new people, places and activities. What does that make me? An anomaly, I guess.

Here are some risks I have taken in my professional life:

• As a 27 year old divorced single mother, I went back to college to get my teaching degree.
• After teaching three years of 4th grade I was moved to teaching 1st grade.
• I piloted Saxon Math curriculum for my district.
• I changed districts after 14 years because of my desire to have a self-contained classroom and my school preferred me to teach only Reading.
• I was one of the first users of a Smartboard in my school.
• I changed districts again when I found out I could work as a school librarian while completing my master’s degree and obtaining my LMS certification.
• I taught and was the librarian at an inner city school.
• I moved from the inner city to a small country school district to be a librarian.
• I started my own company after being laid off from that little country district because of budget constraints.

My personal life is also filled with risky business, but I won’t go into that. This is just to say, risk SHOULD be your business! Take a risk; try something new, for goodness’ sake! This goes for us “old” teachers too. Deciding that you don’t need to learn that ‘new technology stuff’ is like me hiding under my quilt on the couch. Students take a risk every day learning new things; we should be able to risk new ways of teaching, too.

My favorite quote is “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten”. Change is good.

Truth Tuesday I

“Truths” are quotes or statements that I sincerely believe and adhere to. They aren’t really rules, like “Respect others”; they are just simple truths about living and learning. I love the book of Proverbs, so there may be some of those here in the future. I also found a lot of these “truths” in a book called Inspiring Discipline, A Practical Guide for Today’s Classrooms by Merrill Harmin. The book is over 15 years old, but these truth statements will always be true and used in a classroom with kids, will be effective in helping them to learn how to live and work peacefully together or alone. I have some of these statements posted in my office, to remind myself to be patient with myself and others, and to be courageous and peaceful.

Everyone needs time to think and learn.

Powerful. Potent. Compelling. I am typically impatient with myself when I don’t immediately understand and learn something new. It is frustrating! I just need to remember this particular truth!

The world now is seeking immediacy in everything; fast food, faster internet, instant messaging, etc. When we hear something or try to learn something new, it takes a moment to process through our brain. For example, if I said “I want to live in Italy”, it would take you a few moments to really think about what that entails: how would I get there, how much does it cost, why, when will you go, what would you do there, where would you live, and so on.

In the classroom you could read this truth statement and discuss with students what they think it means. Ask questions about how long it takes to learn a new skill – tell a story about when you had to take a long time to learn something new. Post a sign with this statement to help students to remind themselves to give it time when they want to learn something new. There’s no need to rush. Why? Because, as the sign says, everyone needs time to think and learn.