Mirror Image

Memo Minutes
Volume Two
Mirror images are often a welcoming embrace of something pleasant to see. Mirror images are the surface image; the shiny outside; the outward appearance; sometimes able to depict what is really at the core. Our Petree students have at the core of their academic experience the values of Success, Teamwork, Attitude and Respect. They know that Success means to be a finisher. Teamwork means to be a listener. Attitude means to be a learner and Respect means to be a leader. These core values are woven throughout our school’s vision, mission statement and commitment statements.
Our students look forward each day to coming to school. When they come, they look daily into a mirror. This mirror is the teacher. The image of learning, perseverance, caring, responsibility, and leadership is the reflection given to our students which shapes the core of their academic experience.
Teachers, you hold a precious and fragile mirror within your persona of teaching. You hold a valuable commodity within your implementation; your style; your presentation, and communication of learning to your students. This priceless mirror is you! Imagine everyday that your students will see in you the reflection they need to catapult them closer towards becoming lifelong learners. When you imagine yourself as the mirror they are looking into, the desire to polish that mirror becomes instinctive. Continue to be a polisher of your mirror—a polisher of your profession. Continue to prepare yourself daily through the deep study of your craft so that when you teach, your students will see the image which will be the welcoming embrace of something pleasant ----- a student of high academic achievement and a student of lifelong learning and knowledge. Continue to be the mirror image your students need to see in order to achieve. Keep it polished. Principal, Shelia F. Burlock

Quote for the minute: “There is a brilliant child locked inside every student.”
Marva Collins, American Educator.

Motivation

Motivation relates to the areas of affect, interest and focus. Each individual student who walks through our door comes with his/her own unique affective domain and interests—both of which play a pivotal part in keeping the child focused. The affective domain relates to what is going on in the child’s personal environment which has an adverse effect on how this child performs in school. The area of interest of the child directly correlates to differentiating instruction for the child. What does he/she like to read? What kind of genre? What sports, hobbies or pastimes prompt attention? What kind of music, movies? Who is their hero? What do they dream of becoming when they grow up?

As educators we need to suspend all assumptions. This is part of our Guiding Principles of our PBS program called STAR STATUS. As educators, we cannot make the assumption that we “know” all there is to know about our students the moment they walk through the door. To make this assumption will hinder us from putting forth sincere effort and time to get to know our students as individuals. However, when we approach our students’ areas of need by learning their affective domain and interest, we begin to build a relationship with them. It is this relationship which plays a key part to motivate them and keep them focused on the rigor and relevance of learning.
Building relationships means having a sincere and strategic plan of action to put forth the effort to really, really get to know our students.

TIPS:
1. Take 2 minutes for 10 days to talk with a student one on one about an area
of personal interest to them in order to begin to build a bridge of trust.
After the ten days, begin the process with another student. Continue until
you have completed the process with every student in your class.
2. Volunteer to participate in our Fall and Spring Neighborhood Walks.
3. Volunteer to attend non-academic events involving our students. This requires a major sacrifice on our part, especially when it means giving up some of our own personal time, yet our students really feel valued when they see us outside our regular educational routine.

These are just a few among a variety of things we can do to build bridges of communication and trust in order to motivate our students. The most encouraging comment I once received as a principal is when a teacher said to me, “Mrs. Burlock, I wake up now every morning and smile because I like coming to work.” This teacher communicated personal motivation which she later confirmed to me stemmed from how our school’s PBS program was beginning to take off. After her comment I thought, what if every child at our school woke up and smiled and thought “I like coming to school.”

As educators we all know that daily we play a big part in this motivation. And even though we are not the only ones influencing this motivation, how we interrelate and communicate with our students is a significant factor in this motivation.
So as we begin our new school year, let’s think of what would make us say to ourselves, “I just like coming to work” and let’s work together to promote this same motivation in our Petree students.
Mrs. Burlock, Principal

Quote for the minute: “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Walt Disney

RESILIENT

Memo Minutes

Volume Five. February 2, 2009

Students today live in a fast track society filled with fast food, fast technology and fast choices. Everything comes at them so quickly.
However, success oftentimes comes slowly after multiple attempts and frequent repeats. As educators we have the awesome opportunity to demonstrate to our students how to be resilient. We can teach our students how to be durable, strong and forbearing. We have the remarkable privilege to put an imprint on our student’s lives of what endurance looks like –the endurance to keep on keeping at something. We can show our students the determination to work at the same goal multiple ways, for long lengths of time until the desirable outcome is obtained.
This is being resilient.
There were many in history that was resilient in spite of having frequent disappointments. These are some of the people we speak about and teach about during Black History Month which is America’s History because of the impact their contributions made on all of America. These clouds of witnesses cheer us on because they experienced what it is like to be durable, strong, and resilient against insurmountable odds. They knew how to continue moving forward resisting all kinds of obstacles and oppositions. They were resilient and resistant to the hurdles thrown at them and they found creative ways to navigate around, through, and beyond until they overcame.
And now we can gain encouragement from our history in order to teach this life skill to our students. Here is how:
When we are resistant to low performance, we are being resilient.
When we are resistant to labels, we are being resilient. When we do not allow labels
to define us or limit us then we are being resilient.
We will resist discouragement. We will resist fatigue. We will model for our students how to be resilient, how to forbear, how to be steadfast and always abounding and how to be durable. We will continually seek to differentiate ways to teach our students until they reach the desirable outcome of becoming life long learners.
WE ARE A RESILIENT STAFF OF COMMITTED EDUCATORS! WE ARE PETREE!
Shelia Burlock, Principal

Quote for the minute: "Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and dramatist