The Mind Can Absorb...

The mind can absorb what the rear can endure.

That's the lesson I learned today in the meetings we had today. We sat. And sat. And sat. They lectured.

Now, I must be fair. We had an excellent guest speaker who discussed the hope teachers foster in their students. He was articulate, humorous, well-prepared, practiced, and relevant. He was the highlight of the day.

Then the administrative team emphasized the importance of relationships. I absolutely agree that the relationships built between students, staff, and administrators create much of our successes. They spoke very well in this regard because I wholeheartedly believe they are correct.

However, it was also obvious that the admins have no idea how to teach the teachers how to create better bonds with students. It's not that they don't want to do so. They just aren't successful at creating relationships themselves. This inability of theirs translates to an inability to model or instruct the teaching staff to build these relationships.

I really wish the admins would model effective teaching techniques by differentiating their lessons to the staff and would use techniques other than lecture. They are our leaders in education and, in my opinion, should be the models of excellence in teaching.

We did play a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" game using a special PowerPoint template which could be a great approach in my classes. I'm going to request a copy of the template.

Quote of the week: "I don't know the question, but here is the answer."