Practice what I Preach

One of my favorite things in teaching is when I see kids succeed and feel good about themselves.  THAT is my whole goal in my classroom....to make students feel that they can succeed, that they are good at something.

I absolutely love when a student who struggles in the "regular" classroom can succeed in my classroom.  Seeing them gain that confidence in themselves is what validates what I do and how I do it.

One of the reasons I get particularly proud is that I do NOT set low expectations.  In fact, I set fairly high expectations.  But I work the kids into them and the achieve!

Currently, my 3rd-6th grade students are working on naming the notes of the treble clef.  We do flash cards, we do worksheet, we even do on-line note naming games.  All of those are tools I use to evaluate their learning, and my teaching.  Then, we do the culminating activity.  This activity, at first, freaks out the kids.  They get nervous, they think they can't do it.  But they learn quickly that they can.  And it helps that this last activity is NOT graded.

This culminating activity is  4 days of Note Naming Speed Tests.  They get a worksheet with 63 notes on it and I time them.  We discuss how this isn't a race against anyone but themselves.  The goal of this is simply to do YOUR best, whatever that is.  Then, we set individual goals based on their first speed test.

Now, I do mix this up by doing a "Wall of Fame" as well.  This is to entice those top note namers to push themselves a little harder.  I keep track of everyone's times and the top 5 fastest get on the wall of fame.  Now mind you, there are already names/times on that wall of fame from last year.  So they have to try to top them and break into the wall of fame.

Because each student has individualized goals, no one feels badly that they aren't on the wall of fame.  In fact, they cheer on the kids who are close and trying to break in!

Classes are finishing their 4th trial and it is fun to see kids celebrate their success and advancement over the 4 tests.  Since I keep track I can tell them immediately if they were better, worse, LOTS better, etc.

It's fun to watch the kids and how different they all are.  One little girl pushed SO HARD the first trial that she broke into the wall of fame first try.  The other 3 tries, she never got close again to her original time.  Where another student tried hard every time and finally on his 4th try broke into the wall of fame.  He had nearly gotten in the 1st try, but he got one of the notes wrong.  (Yes, they have to have a perfect paper to get onto the wall of fame.  Perfect and fast.)

Then there was the little boy who got 5 right the first try.  Yes, he got 5 out of 63 in the 4 minutes they are given.  He was sad, he was upset.  I talked to him and we got a game plan on how he could improve.  We put that plan into action.  Today he did his final trial and had a 58.  Yes!  He was SO excited about what he was able to do.  He didn't hold it against a classmate who broke the 1st place record.  He was excited for his classmate and thrilled with his own success.

So I was thinking about this tonight when I was doing my first workout on my new Hybrid Recumbent Bike/Elliptical.  Wow, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to ride that bike for 30 minutes.  Yikes!

So, I thought about my students and what I say to them.  I did 10 minutes and let myself have a break.  Then, after I could breathe again, I did 10 more minutes.  Then I took a break again.  But I didn't need quite as long this time before I started again.  Then came the real kicker.  I tried the elliptical instead of the bike.  Oh my goodness, that is a mean machine.  I made it 3-4 minutes before I needed to stop.

At first I was mad at myself and feeling badly that I couldn't do more.  Then I thought about what I tell my students...that was the best I could do today.  Tomorrow I can try to do a little more.  If each day I try to do a little more than the day before, I can't do anything but go up!  I also will remember that we all have our down days.  Nearly every single student has one of the 4 trials where they slide backwards, it's normal.

So, I have decided that I am going to do my best each day, try to improve a little from the day before.  BUT, allow myself to have a "backwards day" if it happens, without kicking myself for it.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a competitive person.  I take things personally and I hold myself to very high standards.  So when I go to my exercise group, or when I workout with Mike...I push myself to the levels of the best person in the room.  Even if that is NOT my level.  I always feel like I need to be as good as they are.  It drives me crazy when Mike and I work out together and I am dying and he is barely sweating.  I beat myself up over it, expect to be able to push as hard as he does.

Tonight I decided that I need to Practice what I Preach.  In other words, I need to do MY best, not someone else's best.  That's what I tell my students every single day, they are trying to do THEIR best not their neighbor's best.  If it's good enough for me to tell all of my students, shouldn't it be good enough for me?!

That's my new motto.  I will do my best, I will not beat myself up if I don't do as well or as much as Mike or someone else.  I will work each day to do a little more or a little harder than the day before.  I will allow myself to go "backwards" if I know that I am doing my best and that day, that is my best.

By the way, my legs still feel like spaghetti after tonight's workout.  And my butt is going to be sore in the morning after riding the bike!  But tomorrow I will do it again, work through the spaghetti legs and the sore butt.  And I will do MY best, not someone else's best.  I CAN do this!