Check it out here.

My CC 1 class reads The Dip. I make them do it because, even though quitting is at the heart of it, the point of the book is simple: if you commit to something, go all in. Don't quit that. In order to go all in, though, you may need to quit other things. You know stuff like wasting time watching TV, bing watching Netflix, sitting on social media, and so on.

But there is no doubt it leaves an impression. Just look at the text I received from a student below.

On the choir trip, some students wanted to check out the book store at the Juilliard campus. Look what book Juilliard happened to be featuring!!!

Week 30 (Apr. 1-5)

Teaching Thought #134

Be missed if you’re gone.

This is a key idea that one of my favorite writers (and people), Seth Godin, talks about all the time. I think it’s perfectly relevant to teaching/education.

If you’ve built connections, made a difference, impacted others, brought hope, cracked a joke, shown you care, then if you’re gone, you’ll be missed.

Isn’t that half the battle?

Yes, I want to teach skills and get my students ready for the real world and college. That’s all vital. But that doesn’t happen if the connections aren’t built first.

Teaching Thought #135

What is your cage?

Seth Godin writes in What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn):

So much freedom, so much choice, so many opportunities to matter.

And yet, our cultural instinct is to find a place to hold us, a spot where we are safe from the obligation and the opportunity to choose. Because if we choose, then we are responsible, aren’t we?

The cage keeps us in, certainly, but it also keeps everything else out. It protects us from a world that we’ve decided offers pitfalls, not opportunities.

Kafka wrote about the cage in search of a bird, a trap that was incomplete until it had found something to trap. But the reverse is more true, and sadder still. We’re often birds that are unhappy until we find a cage that takes away our freedom.

What is it that you allow you to cage you, to take away your freedom? Is it the curriculum?

That you must follow it line by line without finding a crevice or two to inject some personality and flair into (you know, the stuff kids really remember from school)? Is it a new project or idea? That your department or admin might not support?

Try this – and it won’t happen over night – once every couple of weeks, try something that you’re passionate about or invested in. Keep trying it with each class until it works and impacts kids. Then repeat that with something new. Over the course of time, you will have an amazing bag of tricks that you then can allow your textbook to supplement instead of the other way around.

Teaching Thought #136

Let’s teach for mastery, not test scores.

This is an interesting TED Talk from Sal Khan (of Khan Academy). The idea – teach for mastery – is certainly nothing new. I recall reading about William Glasser’s The Quality School way back in 1995, which argues the same concept.

Khan has a great point, but I think it’s a flaw in the nature of education: if you are in a math class and after a few weeks you take a test, you receive your score: 90%. Nice. That’s an A, but there are still a few key concepts that you haven’t mastered. But that’s you. You’re an A student. What about those who scored a 75% or 70%? They are missing out on a quarter of the key concepts.

Yet in traditional schools, what do we do? We go on and move on to higher concepts that build off of all the concepts we were to have mastered.

Not efficient or idea. But neither is our education system.

This is why it’s important to focus on these two questions: what will you have students do when they have mastered something? And what are you going to have students do when they haven’t mastered something?

Teaching Thought #137

What’s your Noble Teaching Purpose?

Lisa Earl McCloud was featured on the Entreleadership podcast. She talked about the importance of having a noble selling purpose. She studied top of the line pharmaceutical salespeople. She discovered that the best ones have some purpose that drives them and inspires them.

She visited with one rep who was the top seller in her entire area.

After shadowing her for several days, she asked her a key question on the way to the airport: “What do you think about when you’re on a sale?”

The lady responded that she thought of one of her first times selling a certain drug. She was in a doctor’s office waiting for a moment to speak with the doctor when a little old lady came up to her and asked her if she sold a specific drug.

She did.

The lady said, “I just want to thank you. You have given me my life back. Since my doctor prescribed that medication, I can actually get down on my hands and knees and play with my grandchildren again. I can travel again to see my other children. Thank you.”

The pharmaceutical rep said that she thought of that little old lady every single time she went on a sales call.

McCloud dubbed this a “noble selling purpose.”

So as a teacher, what is your noble teaching purpose?

What made you want to impact the lives of your students? What teacher made an impact on you? What assignment changed your life?

Ponder those and keep them at the front of your mind when you prepare lessons, design curriculum, or even enter your classroom.

Your students will be better for it.

Teaching Thought #138

All students need recognition. As I’ve said many times before, find a way to catch your students doing something right.

Can’t I just teach? Why do I have to be a cheerleader too?

Well, you can just teach. But I’m telling you this: if you encourage and recognize your students often, you will find your teaching transformed.

When have you ever complained about being encouraged and recognized too often?

That’s what I thought.

Answer this question: when was the last time most of us got any applause?

It’s graduation.

That’s sad. If you are in the encouragement business.

And like it or not, we all are (or should be, anyway) in the encouragement business.

Have you ever heard anyone disliking an organization or wanting to leave a place because they felt that they were being encouraged too much?

If you give recognition and encouragement to your students, it not only will cement culture but it will increase buy in. You will find that your students will work harder for you.

Wouldn’t you?

Here is a free resource: 43 ways to recognize your team. Come on, now. There has to be one idea here you can take and implement.

I don't think there has been anyone who has been a guest more often on the Entreleadersdhip podcast than Seth Godin. That tells you something! Here he talks about the importance of making a difference.

Stuck on an escalator. Come on now! This is learned helplessness. Get up and - as Seth Godin would say - lean into the dip!

Still, the best PD available.

Sparkol (VideoScribe)

I subscribed to this app/website for several years. It is expensive, but if you ever want to create videos like the classic "Common Craft" video series, this is the tool for you.

It's super easy to use, and I had a blast using it.

Examples of how I used it - along with a tutorial on how to use - are below.

Was to create trailers for my classes.

Once on open house, I had all of the books we read in College Comp 2 on a table outside my room with this video cranked up and playing on loop on an iPad. It was great!

to introduce assignments.

Imagine being so well known all you have to do is type four letters into Google and your blog pops up? Well, that's all you have to do to find Seth Godin's blog. Want to learn a lesson in commitment and discipline? Seth blogs every day. And there is so much gold here. Follow him on Twitter too @ThisisSethsBlog

I am married to the most amazing person in the world, Kristie. It was love at first sight. At least for me. And it still is.

We have four wonderful children, Casey, Koko, Kenzie, and Cash. I also happen to have the greatest job in the world: teaching English to high school students.

I am about to begin my 21st year of teaching at Lincoln High School. I graduated from Lafayette High School in 1992. I decided to enter the field of education because of two amazing teachers, Mr. Mueller, my fourth and sixth grade elementary school teacher and assistant baseball coach, and Mrs. Christianson, my 9th grade English teacher.

I attended Northland Community College, and had my life changed by the amazing Dr. Diane Drake. Then I transferred to Bemidji State University in 1995. There I had amazing professors who further inspired me to teach English (Dr. Helen Bonner, Dr. Mark Christensen, Susan Hauser, and Gerry Schnabel). I graduated with my BS in English Education in 1997.

I student taught with the wonderful Lisa Semanko and then began teaching full-time at LHS in 1998.

I took a year's leave of absence in 2001-02 to return to BSU for my MA in English. There I had the privilege to teach and work closely with my greatest mentor, Dr. Mark Chirstensen. I earned my MA in English in 2006 and was honored with "Thesis of the Year" for my creative non-fiction, braided, multi-genre memoir, "Meeting Myrtle: A Biography."

In 2013, thanks to my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Jodi Holen, I was offered an adjunct teaching position fall semester at the University of North Dakota. Tuesday nights I teach Intro to Education: Teaching and Learning 250 from 5-8. Those three hours fly by in about ten minutes.

Then in 2016 I was blessed to win a WEM award (thanks to a nomination from a former student (and now an elementary school teacher), Ciera Mooney.

In 2017 I became part of the #pineconepd podcast club along with Brian Loe, Jeff Mumm, Kelsey Johnson, Kelly Weets, Josh Watne, Tevia Strand, Megan Vigen, Mariah Hruby, and Laura Brickson. This has been one of the best forms of PD I've ever been a part of. They make me a better teacher every time we meet. Please think about joining us in the summer at the Pine Cone Pub from 6:30 - until we've solved all the world's problems. For that evening anyway.

Thanks to the inspiration of Shane Zutz (our former principal) I devised this as a way to distribute my Teaching Thoughts and add more content to, hopefully, help out and inspire others.

Email: kurt.reynolds@myprowler.org
Website: http://teacherscribe.blogspot.com
Location: 101 South Knight Aver Thief River Falls MN 56701
Phone: 218-686-7395
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kurt.reynolds.5?ref=bookmarks
Twitter: @teacherscribe