Monday, October 8, 2012

Ten Commandments

Sometimes things show in my mailbox and I don't have a valid explanation for it.  I'm sure many of you can relate to junk mail, but I've had some magazines pop up in my mailbox that don't make any sense. Oh well, that's another blog post. One magazine that shows up frequently is my S&C: School and Community magazine. It's the magazine for Missouri educators (that's me!). I'm 98% sure it's in my hands right now because of my membership to MSTA. 



This issue had several articles that stuck out to me. First, an article about the Common Core State Standards. Has your state adopted them? According to the mag, 43 states have officially adopted the standards. The article started with a statistic from the Missouri Teachers Association Leadership Symposium this year: 41% of attendees felt that they were familiar with the basic idea of CCSS, but did not feel confident in the specifics of the standards. Eeek! I feel the same! I am barely getting used to the grade level expectations. Now, we're talking alignment!? Whew. I need to sit down and let me brain soak it all in. On an extremely positive note, I'm excited to be involved in this incredible process of creating career and college ready individuals. This quote sums it up, "Common Core streamlines your curriculum and allows you to move deeper with learning. [...] We will experience greater success with students when we simplify."  
Tell me your thoughts! Have you started preparing for the Common Core?

Another article that grabbed my attention was about stress. Sometimes I feel like a magnet that attracts stress wherever I go. I find myself worrying about situations out of my control and stressing to no end. My To Do list tends to grow as I check off another item and I can never squeeze it all in one day. Now as I sit here stressing about my high levels of stress, I can find comfort in these commandments:

Ten Commandments for Reducing Stress
The Joy Project
1. Thou shalt not be perfect nor even try to be. 

2. Thou shalt not try to be all things to all people and spread thyself too thin. 

3. Thou shalt leave things undone that ought to be done. 

4. Thou shalt not criticize thyself for decisions that were made without the benefit of hindsight. 

5. Thou shalt learn to say ‘No’. 

6. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself and thy supportive network. 

7. Thou shalt switch off and do nothing regularly. 

8. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant, and unattractive at times. 

9. Thou shalt not even feel guilty. 

10. Especially, thou shalt not be thine own worst enemy, but be thy best friend.

I think I will tackle one commandment at a time. I'll start with number eight. It seems to be the easiest and requires the least amount of change for the time being. 

5 comments:

  1. I love reading your blog!! I so do not feel ready to completely adapt CC but my school district and even my school, are doing all they can to get us ready.. As a grade level, we are focusing on math as that is where we feel weakest on. We have started math talks allowing the kids to figure out different way to do mental math! It is pretty neat to see the kids do thing I never thought of myself!!!

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  2. I LOVE this list and am SO curious about the Joy Project. Thanks, Jordon - I always get SUCH a positive vibe when I stop by! Happy football season!!

    Barbara

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  3. Common Core has found a home in my district (Gardner-Edgerton in KS). Our K-2 have fully adopted the curriculum standards. Twice a month, each grade level across the district meets at the board office to discuss CCSS. Once a month for Math and once a month for ELA. These meetings have definitely helped me understand the expectations of us as teachers and the students. Also, 3rd & 4th grades have incorporated one CCSS lesson a week into our instruction.
    Erin
    http://adventuresinthirdgrade-brown.blogspot.com/

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  4. As a fellow Missouri teacher, is your district using MSIP 5? We were planning to "experiment" with CCSS this year, but thanks to MSIP 5, we are going full speed ahead with it. MO teachers have it a little easier, seeing as our GLEs and state assessment are pretty tough. But it is still a challenge to teach a standard when no one really knows what it will look like in state assessment format.
    I love the destress commandments. I haven't met a teacher yet that is relaxed in the month of October!

    EmilyK

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  5. Just found your blog and I'm so happy I did--I needed these commandments tonight! #4 is ringing true for me right now, but I spent the weekend enjoying #8 :)

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