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How Full Is Your Bucket?

How Full Is Your Bucket continues in chapter four with a personal story from Tom Rath, the grandson of the coauthor, Donald O. Clifton.  Tom's story talks about the type of family he grew up in and the advantages he had over his friends because his family was a very positive, extremely encouraging, helpful and loving family.  His parents and relatives always focused on his strengths and constantly assisted him with anything he was interested in pursuing.  As a result, when he was diagnosed at a young age with a disease that causes tumors to grow throughout his body without  any warning, he was able to remain positive, though apprehensive, and focus on what could be done to manage his health.  This story was included in the book to show that positive emotions help to buffer against challenges encountered in life.  We are not all faced with major challenges like this, thank goodness, but I'm sure we know people that have been.  I know from my own experience that the ones that try to remain positive and take each day one day at a time and surround themselves with positive people are the ones that are able to face the hardship.  The book then continues with a list and explanations of five strategies to utilize in order to become a "bucket filler."   

This book is my favorite so far.  It has made me think about the  impact a positive approach with students can make.  We really have no idea the struggles many of our students face day in and day out.  Many of them have no positive influence or emotions in their lives and therefore they do not know how to approach others in a positive way either.  Their challenge may just be negative parents that focus on what could be improved and not on what they do well.

I really believe that if we followed the strategies outlined in this book it would have a positive impact on every aspect of our school, even our test scores.

How Full Is Your Bucket?

The second and third chapters in this book focus on how positive and negative behaviors and incidents affect productivity and the impact that every interaction counts.  As one might expect, negative people can hinder and cause great damage to any organization, even schools.  Positive people and interaction can improve orgnizations and make them more productive.  The statistics in chapter 2 are very compelling. 

I have seen negative behavior at work in my classroom from students and the impact causes students to become angry or give a comeback and others to shut down.  The older students often thinks its funny and say that it doesn't bother them but I think it really does.

Chapter three focuses on the fact that every encounter or interaction we have has an impact, be it good or bad.  Praise and recognition for hard work and effort builds people up and makes them more productive.  Negative criticism does the direct opposite and cuts much deeper. 

As a teacher, there are little things that can be done to make classrooms a more positive place.  Verbal praise in front of other students builds a positive atmosphere.  Teaching students to say positive things to classmates also helps.  When correcting papers, indicating the number of correct answers instead wrong answers is a positive approach we can utilize.  I think the "Good News" cards we send also help tremendously.  I know that we are all over taxed time wise and we don't take the time to recognize students or each other as much as we could or should.  Just having a positive outlook or frame of mind and deciding to keep the negative comments to ourselves will help.  There are a lot of negatives in and around schools today but we as educators have got to stay focused on the positive things we do that impact the live of students.

 

How Full is Your Bucket?

The author of this book,Tom Rath, worked with his grandfather, Donald Clifton, to write this book.  Tom's grandfather was dying of cancer at the time.  The fist draft of the book was completed only a few weeks before he died.  Donald Clifton was a psychologist and decided one day that his profession needed to look at what is right with people instead of what is wrong.  Through his case studies he began to look at the positives and not the negatives.  The first chapter simple explains the meaning of the title.  Interactions with others that are positive fill our "bucket" and negative ones "dip" water from our "bucket."  When we interact with others in a positive way we add water to their "bucket" and when it is negative, we "dip" water from their bucket.

This book has caught my attention.  There is not enough in the first chapter for me to apply anything to my personal life but I like the book. 

Fish Sticks

The end of this book reveals all three steps involved in bringing your vision to life.  A group of workers from the sixth floor of Good Samaritan return to the sushi restaurant to find out what came next after you had discovered your IT (vision).  Living your vision and allowing yourself to be coached by others and being willing to coach others were the steps Ishy revealed to them.  After trying to get things going the group returns and wants Ishy to provide a list of things or suggestions of things that worked for them at the restaurant.  Ishy said that that was not possible because it was up to them to discover a plan that would accomplish the desired environment on the sixth floor.

One of the things I take from this book is that in the work place things will not gel unless everyone works toward the same goal or vision.  We are in the business of educating children and even though we have our own classrooms and sets of students, we still need to work together to take each and every child from kindergarten to sixth grade.  If anyone teacher fails to do his or her part on a daily basis, we fail the child.  Another point I have learned from this book is no matter how long we have been teaching, each and everyone of us can improve and become a better educator.  We need to be willing to try new programs and ways of doing our job.  We also need to take the time to help others and share what seems to work in certain situations.  I thingk we often fail to realize that just because it worked once doesn't mean it will work in every situation.  Now, I'm off to try and live my IT.

Fish Sticks!

Pages 38-77 unfold the plan Rhonda has to get and hopefully keep the sixth floor on track.  After meeting with Ishy, making notes and contemplating about her experience at Ishy's sushi restaurant, Rhonda begins to converse with her co-workers.  She wants to find out how they feel about the job they do at the hospital and what responsibility they possess in the fullfilment of this obligation.  Rhonda's goal is to discover the role each one of the staff members plays in the overall goal of the sixth floor which is to provide quality care to patients within a warm and friendly environment.  Everything seems to be rocking along until a new vice-president of nursing is hired by the hospital that does not agree with what is going on and she immediately questions what Rhonda is doing.  Miss Scallpell ditches the visual reminders that Rhonda has in place and she has to take another approach.

This book brings up a very important point related to our school.  What is the vision we have for the students at East Central and what role do the individual faculty members play in that vision.  For me, the role is clear cut.  I am to teach the gifted resource students to the best of my ability and make sure they are engaged in activities to stimulate their minds outside the regular classroom.  I am also their advocate and my hope is that I can acquire some materials that will be helpful to the regular classroom teachers that will take the burden off of them in the teaching and enriching of these higher level students.

 

Fish Sticks

Rhonda, a nurse at the Good Samaritan Hospital, has been promoted to manager of the sixth-floor nuro ward..  The previous manager, Madeleine, began a new program that made the sixth floor a better place to work and was so successful that other people in the hospital and even other hospitals along the East Coast wanted to know about her program.  Madeleine left to become a consultant and now Rhonda had her position.  Rhonda questioned her ability to do as good a job and was worried that things had already begun to unravel under her leadership.  She sought the advise of a dear friend, Margo.  Margo took her to a sushi bar in New York where a woman she knew was the only female sushi chef and a very good one.  The chef, Ishy, and her sushi chef husband had built a very successful business.  Ishy had also helped Margo with the same problem at the bank where she worked that Rhonda was facing at the hospital.

The beginning of this book brings to my mind the new beginning of each school year when a new set of students come into our classrooms eager, most of them, to learn what they need to be successful in that grade.  What we teach them should excite them and leave them begging for more.  The energy we put into our jobs as teachers should motivate our students to put as much energy into the work they do.  We should take the time to meet their every need so that each one can be successful and crave for more of what we have to offer them.               

Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8, pp. 30-43

Pages 30-43 of Craft Lessons continues with more aspects of writing that can be taught to K-2 students through teacher examples, student examples and good literature.  I have not mentioned up until that each lesson also includes a resource material box where the materials needed for each lesson are listed.  This is a great help and expedites preparation.  I was really fascinated at some of the aspects of writing that are introduced at this level.  Some of them, for example cause and effect and personification, seem very advanced to be taught to K-2 students but the writiers present the craft lesson on a level this age child will be able to grasp.  The craft lessons in this section of the book have been very good.  I am looking to forward to seeing what aspects of writing are taught at 3-4.

Craft Lessons Teaching Writing K-8

This book was written to be a resource book for classroom teachers that could be used to give them ideas for writing workshops that are age-specific.  Teachers have a difficult time knowing what to expect in a child's writing as well as what editing skills should be taught.  This book explains that there is no fixed scope and sequence to writing development but that teachers that are knowledgeable about writing will have a sense of how writers grow toward proficiency.  This book states that the most important part of the writing process, crafting and recrafting, or drafting and revising, is the part teachers assist with the least.  If students are going to learn how to write and write well, teachers much teach them the skills that are need.

The writing skills in this book are referred to as "crafts."  The crafts are broken down by grade level and prior to each there is justification for teaching the craft.  There are also resources listed to be used to teach the craft to students.  Suggestions for extending the crafts are given at the end of each craft lesson.  The writers of the book point out that teachers should focus on a few crafts or issues concerning their students' writing each year and not bombard students with a lot of issues that they are not ready for and can't master in a year anyway.

In order to learn to write and write well, students must be given the opportunity to write daily. Practicing writing and understanding what the students do well and don't do well in their writing should be the basis for what is taught to the students in terms of their writing.  Students that play sports practice playing and coaches teach their players the skills they lack to play well.  Teachers should do the same when it comes to writing.

As a pull-out resource teacher, writing daily is impossible since I only see my students once  week.  However, developing a set of writing skills that I will focus on at each grade level and expect students to demonstrate in their writing is a great idea.  I have taught second through fifth grade in the regular classroom setting, so I have some idea about what should be expected in children's writing.  I have also learned from the first part of this book that students cannot and should not be left to do the drafting on their own.  Teachers should keep a close watch and assist students during the drafting phase and help them make decisions about their writing.  In order for my student to become good writers, I will have to give them time to write, respond to their writing in a positive way, teach them the skills need to be a good writer and use literature as much as possible to illustrate good writing.