MN Dairy Queen sees an amazing pay it forward movement for 900 drivers! Only in Minnesota!

Both of my kids happen to be reading Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Kenzie read it once at CES and then in her 6th grade English class while Cash is reading it with Mrs. Hegge now.

I can't think of a better book for kids to read right now.

Last week the kids saw that the movie was on TV. Needless to say, everything ground to a halt as we all sat down and watched it.

Talk about a powerful story. Kristie and I watched the whole thing with lumps in our throats while Kenzie pointed out some of the differences between the book and the film while Cash said the book was so much better.

Week #16 – December 21 and 22 – Christmas Vacation

Teaching Thought #68 - Picking Up Butch

This is one of my all time favorite videos. It’s that time of year where showing this to your class can send them off to Christmas vacation with the right frame of mind. It’s not what we have or what we get; it’s what we give. Think of how the simple tradition of “picking up Butch” has impacted the lives of these student athletes?

In what simple ways can we (administrators, teachers, and students) impact the lives of those around us?

Teaching Thought #69 - What Comes from the Heart Touches the Heart

Simply - Kids know if you aren’t being authentic. The best way of showing your authenticity? Bring the passion. Now Dave Burgess talks about passion in terms of three different areas: content passion, professional passion, and personal passion. Use those as often as you can in class.

Think back to a teacher who profoundly influenced or impacted you. I bet you can recall their passion in one of those three areas. Simply covering material or meeting standards doesn’t motivate or inspire anyone. Certainly not the kids of ours who need the most motivation and inspiration!

Teaching Thought #70 - Have a Merry Christmas!

Moments of discovery. This week in a Zoom, I had a discussion with a student about his paper on "Young Goodman Brown." In the discussion - he was writing about Faith at the beginning of the story and then Faith at the end - I realized something new about the story that I never saw in the 500 previous time I've read the story. When Brown, our main character who leaves his young wife Faith behind in Salem as he goes into the woods - where he will have his faith tested by meeting the devil - he is happy and sure of himself, but Faith is sad to see him go. However, when he returns she is so happy to see him. But he is sad and depressed.

In all the times I read that story, I never made that connection until this student, Dylan, asked about it. In our discussion, this new realization hit me.

Now I ask you, what other profession allows for such a deep dive into a subject and yet allow for new discoveries like that?

This is an absolute must listen. In this Tim Kight and coach Urban Meyer talk about the importance of leadership and culture. Here is the big takeaway for me - if someone came and looked 'under the hood' of your classroom or team or building or business, what would they see? What would a close inspection reveal?

How does your leadership bring the greatness out in your students or team? I love Kight's point about how many leaders who are obsessed with the numbers or test scores or indicators. Here is a great point - leadership is not setting a goal, tracking performance against the goal, and then getting mad when you don't reach your goal.

Of course you're not getting the goal! What are YOU as the leader doing to get the most out of the people who are working for you to reach that goal? Turning them loose with zero guidance, support, inspiration, love, and guidance is never going to get you the goal you want. And then getting angry with them is never going to make anyone work harder. Ever.

Kight offers more - Every number that you look at (or goal you wish to attain) is created by how people choose to behave. So your job as the leader is to understand the behaviors that created the numbers. You have to be an expert at cause and effect.

Yet, what do so many of us do? We look at a spreadsheet of our goals and only see where the read arrow didn't meet the goal.

This is my favorite comment for it applies to so many of our so called "leaders" today: I can teach any sixth grader to find red on spreadsheet and get mad. It's not leadership. It's accounting with a bad attitude.

As a leader, you are the cause. What are you going to change about how you lead so that you get a different effect?

HINT - doing more of the stuff that never worked in the first place isn't going to do it.

What is your culture like? Remember, culture eats strategy for lunch. BUT if you aren't careful, your strategy will kill your culture.

Never sacrifice culture for strategy. Period.

Science is a good thing people. Is it perfect? No. It never will be. Even when - for example - during the 18th century doctors would 'bleed' the seriously ill and in the late 19th century where doctors during the Civil War would amputate limbs to avoid serious infections that would lead to gangrene and death, those doctors were STILL on the cutting edge of medicine for those times.

So appreciate how far we've come and that we've been able to get a vaccine this incredibly fast.

Plus, I really want to teach a classroom full of students again.

Twitter is the best PD I've ever had. I learn more in half an hour on Twitter than I did in my first decade of school sponsored PD.

Please get vaccinated. America was built on the sacrifices of others, let's not ruin that legacy by being selfish.

Consider this during the break.

This is what the book we are wrapping up in College Comp 2, Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You, is really all about.

Let your freak flag fly! I love this. This is leadership!!!!

Amen.

I'm going to try this next week: A Zoom scavenger hunt.

I don't know if I'm going to do it during Zoom or assign it as homework for students to share the next day.

Regardless, I need to do more things like this to try and spice up my Zoom sessions.

The sad thing is that this article is even satirical! Just contrast life before the rise of Facebook (or most social media) and the mess we are in now. I think there's a correlation. A strong correlation.

Luke makes a stellar appearance. I might be wrong, but this might be Luke's first real appearance outside of the final six Star Wars films. Well, he might appear as an infant at the end of Revenge of the Sith and he appears as a young boy at the end of an episode of Star Wars: Rebels.

Still, this a worthy appearance.

This is the Luke we all wanted to see in the final three Star Wars films. In fact, this almost makes up for The Last Jedi.

Almost.

Enjoy it. Star Wars geeks born in the 1970's are rejoicing!

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. And now we have been blessed with five grandchildren!

I also happen to have the greatest job in the world: teaching English to high school students.

I am in my 23rd year of teaching at Lincoln High School. I graduated from Lafayette High School in Red Lake Falls 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 Christensen. 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, Laura Brickson, Loren Leake, Katie Hahn, Melora Burgee, and new members all the time. 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
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