I agree with the statement you made about how we need to listen to others even if we do not agree with them. Everyone deserves to be heard. Effective listening makes it possible to get clear messages across and avoid any misunderstandings.

I can relate to this sentence because this happens with my 14 year old son. During parent teacher conference, his teachers always speak highly about his participation in class but that he falls behind when it comes to completing assignments in class. To them it seems that he is always in a rush to complete an assignment when he has trouble understanding what it is asking. I believe that there are students who need extra support from teachers. Assignments should be broken down for them and teachers should encourage students to ask questions when they don’t understand something.

It took me years to realize that it is never too late to pursue a career. I had to push myself out of the hole I was stuck in and work towards what I really want in life and that is to become an educator. No one but you can take the steps necessary to get to where you want. Here I am today continuing my education and so close to the end.

Percussion is VERY different than someone that only plays the drums. There is a common misconception that percussion is only drums.

The main take away that I got from reading this article is that there doesn’t have to be rules pinned on the students all the time. This teacher created a classroom of principles as opposed to rules. He chose to put the focus on the conditions for learning rather than trying to control student behavior. Trying to constantly control and monitor student behavior takes away from valuable class and instruction time. This seems like a philosophy that could quite possibly work very well! It also promotes a positive classroom atmosphere, which is more along the longs of my teaching style.

I absolutely love this as one of the main classroom rules. I have never heard of this being included as a classroom rule before. It is a rule that is imbedded with positive reinforcement. Learning is new for every student. They have been learning things before but will always be introduced to something new. Sometimes learning can be scary and intimidating for students and, as teachers, we rarely take that into consideration. It is an act of courage to have the openness to learn something new, and apply it within our lives. I love this type of guideline/principle and will definitely be utilizing it in my future classroom.

“Meaning Business” means that it will take the entire being of the teacher to accomplish their goals for their students and classroom. It will require energy mentally, emotionally and physically. The author of this article explains the aspects of meaning business as it pertains to these different categories of ourselves. As teachers we have to constantly and consistently find and maintain that balance.

I had to read this sentence a few times over. This was such a powerful point. I am a beginning elementary teacher, but I have also been an early educator for 10+ years now. I used to believe that my passion for education and love for my students would create such a strong bond that my students would listen to me and respect me. However, this was not how my experience teaching in schools played out. This above sentence states that you will need BOTH love and skill. Love without expertise is powerless. Love without experience can be powerless as well. It is important to have find a healthy balance when implementing both love and skill in promoting a positive classroom atmosphere.

These rules should be planned by considering all students, in all situations, regardless of the activity or situation. I appreciated the three general guidelines to keep in mind when creating your classroom rules. The three guidelines are:
1. Phrase your rules in the form of a positive statement.
2. State your rules clearly.
3. Minimize your list of rules (most teachers have 3-5 rules)

For a new teacher like myself, this general guideline is very helpful in the beginning stages of teaching as well as trying to formulate rules for your classroom.

The above sentences stood out to me right away. As teachers, It is so easy for us to get carried away with creating rules and guidelines for our classroom by getting stuck on the every day, little details. It is important for us to constantly consider that the rules and guidelines we are putting in place is for the safety of our students, but also for a more broad goal on supporting and enhancing student achievement. That should be your ultimate goal.

When I think about multiple literacies, I try to connect traditional literacy to other forms of literacy. I see a relationship between learning to code and learning to spell/write. Do others see this connection, or am I stretching too far?

Because the names of the various percussion instruments are tier 3, I would show pictures and video of the various instruments. If possible, I would try to find actual instruments (perhaps from a band director or music teacher) to show my students so they can more fully comprehend what these words mean.

Again, I think there is a trade off. People who are blind or deaf often develop an acuity of their other senses that is far greater than that of a sighted or hearing person. So I’m not sure it’s accurate to say that someone able to use all their senses is at an inherent advantage in intelligence over someone who is not. Instead, I’d think about the different ways people absorb knowledge and how to balance the tradeoffs.

By way of personal example, I recently learned that I have a rare condition in which I cannot produce mental visual images. I only recently learned that other people literally see things in their mind’s eye. I do not. This is clearly a deficit in some ways and I feel the loss of it now that I know others have this ability. At the same time, it goes a long way to explaining my intense presence in the moment, my constant narration of events and the scene around me, and the rich vocabulary I’ve developed. Things that other people see in pictures in their mind, I see in words that feel so real that I could touch, smell and see them. I’ve cultivated a different kind of intelligence as a result, but I would not say it is lesser.

This is a good point. I also think we should normalize pauses in conversation. We shouldn’t have to have instantaneous answers and responses. It should be okay to say, “wow, I hear that. Let me think about that for a minute.” When conversation is so fast paced, it can be hard to really listen and reflect before speaking. I think this contributes to the phenomenon of formulating a response while listening.

I find this interesting because in English/rhetoric & composition, we spend a lot of time talking about the need to communicate to an intended audience. Writers and speakers are always asked to communicate with the audience in mind. But I don’t think we spend enough time asking listeners to listen with the speaker or writer in mind. We put all the burden on the speaker/writer and little on the listener. This is relevant, in my opinion, to debates about what constitutes “appropriate” language or proper usage conventions. Whose standards are we being asked to perform to and whose cultures, language practices and conventions are being marginalized? Focusing on listening and empathy seems important in this regard.

I think this lacks empathy and imagination for the many reasons a student might struggle to persist. I also think we should consider what we can do as educators to create conducive environments rather than simply looking to change the mindsets of students.

I can no consider that my struggle could be from a lack of thinking clearly so this gives me more of a reason to be mindful of this and also to self reflect on it.

People with ADHD are often given tips and tricks for how to better focus their attention. They are trained to work against rather than with their brain’s natural way of functioning. While I generally agree that people with ADHD can benefit from learning how to focus their attention and manage their time, I think many also cause themselves unnecessary pain trying to work against their natural inclinations. People with ADHD are better described as having “variable attention” and can be astonishingly focused (“hyperfocused”) on tasks that engage and interest them. Instead of always trying to better focus on externally mandated tasks, we can also give people with ADHD the opportunity and means to engage with tasks that are meaningful to them. We can help them to leverage their ability to hyper-focus and to think creatively. But this requires starting from a standpoint of seeing ADHD as a divergent way of thinking and processing (with attendant strengths and challenges) rather than simply as a deficit.

I wanted to take my fears and turn them into successes, even if it was just for a moment.

One characteristic of many (not all) autistic people is rigid thinking. But, they also tend to think and communicate with clarity and precision. Non-autistic people might respond to this clarity and precision by saying that they are not being flexible. So, in this scenario, these two habits of mind might be in contradiction. And it might be that an individual may possess one to a greater degree than, and possibly at the expense of, the other. Rather than looking at these as attributes every individual must possess, it might be helpful to see them as contributions individuals make to a greater whole.

There are certain habits of mind and ways of thinking that our society traditionally values and rewards. However, I’ve lately been thinking and learning about neurodivergence and understanding this not as a deficit but as a different way of thinking. I have not yet had time to really think through whether these 16 habits encompass that divergence, but it is something I am attuned to. And, in general, I become uncomfortable with attempts to definite “intelligence” in very specific ways that don’t account for different kinds of intelligence. I appreciate that the habits of mind are trying to focus on an approach to learning rather than narrow, discrete skills or content. But I also find myself uneasy.

The twist in the middle was really unexpected to me?

I think the whole metaphorical – Qiqi appearing – very cool as she serves as a messenger in her mind.

Excellent closing to this whole reunion of father and son.

This definitely, seems to be the father doing this to remind his son of something his son loved, right? Seems to be just for his son?

Urban Farmer, not familiar, I am not familiar with this word as much as I should be!

This guy was in the right place in the right time – and it helped develop the thought process better for the father and process all this, pretty good placement.

I like habits of mind as a general way to think about solving things. I think not only solving a problem but knowing how you solved it is very important. Almost like algebra, they don’t just ask what you got for x, but how you solved for x. You use to think with clarity, applying past knowledge, and persisting,