Rethink Your Commute for Peace & Efficiency (Episode 59)

      Today, we�re back with our series How to Leave on Time and NEVER Take Papers Home Again going to get real practical about using our commute time to make our day more peaceful and efficient.
       Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/62HXRz_L8xA

       I know mornings can feel rough. Many days, our hugest success feels like simply leaving the house with all our clothes on. But once we're in the car, we�ve got a chunk of time to do something with. Let�s talk about how to use that time to really make an impact on the rest of our day.
       You gotta get to work somehow: car, train, subway, bus, bike, walk, carpool. You have some amount of time it takes to commute. Don't underestimate the value of this time. And don't think it's not enough time to really make an impact. It can be huge.
       Instead of just vegging out or letting that time happen to us, let's talk about ways to repurpose our commutes for peace and efficiency.

• Pensieve & efficiency planning
• Soul Care, meditation, music, & Audiobooks
• Relational phone calls � Phone Errands

       Everyone is going to use this time. But now you're going to repurpose it to make a difference.
       Your 1st step might be to use your next drive to brainstorm ideas that you could use your drive for. Get them all out. Then next drive come up with a plan. Put it in order, then hold loosely to it. Write it on a notecard and keep it visible in your car, so you see it every drive. Be interruptible for life, of course, but now that you have a plan, you�ll know what to do next each day.
       Then put it into plan and get started reclaiming this time to have more peace and efficiency.
       Conversation of the Day: What is something you could do during your drive to work that could make your day more peaceful or efficient?
       Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Boundaries, Excellence, and WorkLife Balance (Episode 39)

       Today, we talk about how we teachers can still be excellent while holding firm boundaries between work and rest ... and how we can model and teach our students how to do this too.
       Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/RZgBYb3lshk
       This conversation is very unscripted and covers a lots of mini topics within this whole conversation. Enjoy! We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic and where you're at in your journey. Let's travel this together. :)
       Conversation of the Day: What task do you feel like you must do during the summer so you can survive the next school year?
       Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Finding Your Best Yes (Episode 36)

        The 19th installment in our series: How to Leave on Time and NEVER Take Papers Home Again ... Today, we�re gonna help you find Your Best Yes.
      Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/CpJJrkD4M60

      I got this catch phrase from the book The Best Yes by Lysa Terkurst, and she's from our town. I'll be up front and confess that during this phase in my life audiobooks are the only way I can get my reading in. So I read her book and pretty much remember only the title. But the title and the main idea have made their way into our vocabulary and are helping us focus.
        Here�s the way this simple question works: at any point during your day, you can ask yourself, �Is what I�m doing �my best yes�?� Because if I�m saying �yes� to this task, I�m saying �no� to other tasks. It�s being self-aware of what I�m doing and taking charge of my moments.
        Maybe school got out 20 minutes ago and we�re vegging on Instagram before we start plugging away at our never-ending to-do list. This question we would ask, �Is this my best yes?� If you answer �no,� then you ask yourself, �What would my best yes be?� And you go do that. There�s nothing wrong with vegging for a few minutes, just be aware of what you�re doing and say, �Yes, vegging for 5 minutes is my best yes right now. Set my alarm for 5 minutes of vegging, then choose a new best yes.�
        Or maybe you�ve got four important planning tasks to choose from. Before you dive right in, you could ask, �Which one is my best yes for right now?� Which one do I have enough time for right now? Which one do I have the energy for right now? Which one is super urgent and has to get done? Which one am I procrastinating doing but really should do? It�s self-awareness. I think we can get so wrapped up inside ourselves that we need to stop and see ourselves and our situation from the outside so we can breathe, then do the best yes.
        So it�s a simple question with a deep process. �Is this my best yes?� This is just one more tool to help us not let all our time slip through our fingers each day. 
        Conversation of the Day: Try this question all day today and share the most interesting struggle of your day. Let�s see what we learn about ourselves, our motivations, and our distraction points.

          Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Stop Calling Them Rough Drafts! - Episode 21

        The 13th installment in our series: How to Leave on Time and NEVER Take Papers Home Again ... In which we're back to go deeper on a topic we mentioned in Episode 20: Rough Drafts. And we're here to share why we stopped calling them "Rough Drafts." Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/7UPeY1u72WY
        So how did calling them Rough Drafts become such a big deal for us?
        I noticed my students turning in their rough drafts with all kinds of obvious errors in them (obvious for them, I should clarify), and when I asked them about the errors, they would say, �Well, this is the ROUGH draft, right? We�ll just fix them later.�
        It started to bug me. They were almost trying to write drafts that were rough. They weren�t caring about polish and excellence.
        But it�s hard for some students to get their first draft done, right? They get sort of paralyzed if we put pressure on them to turn in polished work when they�re just getting their thoughts down. How do we help those kids?
        I take a page out of Anne Lamott�s essay, �Shitty First Drafts.� In class, I call them crappy first drafts. Her idea is that everybody�s first draft is crappy�she uses a different word. So the main goal of your first draft is to get your thoughts down on paper. Sure.
        So that helps take the pressure off?
        Yeah, our first drafts will all be crappy, one way or another. But then she makes a point of saying that we aren�t trying to make crappy drafts�they just are because they�re our first try. But with each draft, we should try to get our best crappy draft. Our best draft possible.
        This sounds like a contradiction.
        And it is. It's an amazingly helpful, sticky-idea contradiction. So I�ve changed my language from �Rough Draft� to �Best Draft.� When students ask, �When is our rough draft due?� I respond, �We don�t turn in rough drafts. Your best first draft is due on Tuesday.� It really ruffles their feathers, and they get the point. It takes repetition, but they really start to realize that just because it�s our first draft doesn�t mean is has to be rough. And just because they put in the effort to turn in their best first draft, doesn�t mean it�s going to be great. All first drafts require massive revision because they�re crap. But they�re great crap because they�re done! Getting a best draft done is a great success. They need to know both realities.
        I don�t want to sugar coat anything for them, but I want them to really grasp both realities.

1. First drafts are always crappy and always require massive revision. And 
2. Doing your best effort on the crappy draft gets you closer to an awesome draft later on.

        So I have outlawed the phrase �rough draft� from my classroom and replaced it with �Best First Draft.� I�m a firm believer that words are powerful, and what we call things really makes a difference. This isn�t just a switch in words. It�s a shift in mindset, and it�s yielded massive results with my writers.
        Conversation of the Day: How do you get your students to turn in their �best drafts� of their essays?
          Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Grade Essays 10x Faster & Improve Student Writing - Episode 20

        The 12th installment in our series: How to Leave on Time and NEVER Take Papers Home Again ... In which we show you how to grade student essays 10x faster and watch their writing quality skyrocket in the process. Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://youtu.be/6syYDbjNbGY
        So far in our series, we�ve been looking at our daily schedules and how to save time and focus in lots of different areas, so we have more time to plan and grade in the classroom. You�ve probably been aching for us to get to the never-ending pile of papers to grade. Ack! It really seems hopeless and eternal sometimes, doesn�t it?
        Many episodes ago, we talked about making the decision to not take papers home. How many of you made that decision? How many of you stuck to it? Seriously, you�ve taken no papers home? If you�ve stuck to your guns, awesome for you. Even though it brings a little (read �A LOT�) of anxiety at first, you�ve probably already started to figure out ways to grade them at work instead of at home. Which is the ultimate goal: NO MORE PAPERS AT HOME � EVER! It�s amazing the little nooks and crannies of time we find when we have to.
        Remember, Jonathan didn�t take a single paper home for 7 years of teaching middle school English, so it�s possible. Maybe you just need to be reminded that it�s possible. The only voices I ever heard were always telling me it was impossible, you�d always have papers at home. Not true. He did it for 7 years. 7!!!
        One of the big switches I made was an aha moment for me in how I was grading essays. I would assign an essay, teach them through the process, give them days in class to write paragraphs and ask me questions, then collect a rough draft. That started the dreaded paper grading cycle. I would use my grading rubric to fix all their errors in a timely fashion so I could get the essays back to them to edit for their final drafts.
        Here�s the problem I kept seeing: Students only really fixed the errors I found because I was the expert and if I didn�t find them why should they fix them?
        And that got you thinking, right? � No wonder they don�t know how to edit their essays, you were really the one doing all the editing! No wonder some of them would throw their essays in the trash right after they get them back�they only cared about the grade they got when they fixed your edits.
        So you had to find a way to flip things so they were doing the editing and you were doing the grading. Which are different! And the journey he headed down saved him so much time, and his students got sooooo much better at writing and revising.
        With the next batch of essays, I only wrote a letter grade at the top. No comments, no marks, nothing but a grade. Well, of course, my grading time got done way faster. I was spending under a minute grading each essay. I internalized my essay rubric that I was using before and only wrote a letter grade. Then I handed the rough drafts back and they looked for all the work they were used to me doing for them, which, of course, wasn�t there.
        �Why did I get this grade?� many asked.
        �Let�s figure it out,� I replied.
        So I walked them through how to grade their essays. I handed out my �Fix These in Your Essays Now� cheat sheet, and we got started. Here's the link for you to get it in our Teachers Pay Teachers store >>> https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Essay-Writing-Revision-Checklist-Rubric-402032. We highlighted hook/intro sections, thesis statements, topic sentences, quote proof and page numbers, transition sentences, thesis echo in the conclusion, and solid closing lines that resonate. They did it. Not me. Then they wrote notes in the margin if any of it was missing. They finished going through the Revision checklist. They made all the marks. They � They �. They. Not me. I already know how to grade essays. They�re the ones who need to learn. I hadn�t been teaching them how to grade their essays.
        Then I asked them if their letter grade matched their essay. If that grade was fair? They all saw why now. And the right person did all the editing.
        Then a surprising thing happened � looking back, it shouldn�t have been surprising: On their final drafts, they were a little more able to see things to fix. But where I really saw progress was on Essay #2, 3, 4. That year, I actually assigned 9 essays and didn�t grade a single one at home. And my students� writing skills skyrocketed!!!
        It�s gonna be difficult at first to not make any marks on the essays. It�s gonna be difficult to teach them what you see in your essays. It�s gonna be difficult to focus on the macro ideas and not the micro commas errors. It�s difficult, but we get difficult, we�re teachers. This is what we do. But for a long time I wasn�t doing the difficult thing when teaching writing, which really in the long run, ended up the easy thing. Not taking papers home.


        Conversation of the Day: If you tried to teach your students how to grade their own essays, what do you worry might happen?
          Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.

Love & Respect with Students - Episode 19

        Today, we�re going deep into our hearts and talking about how to love and respect our students. Watch the YouTube video here >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBr3cgZWSc4
        My realization on this topic started a few years ago in the teacher�s lounge at lunch. I used to eat lunch in there often, and on this particular day, these teachers were complaining about these boys in their class who were giving them a really hard time.
        I was thinking in my head, �That�s weird�they�re great kids in my class.�
        Then I started to notice what I felt was the problem. There was something in their tone.
        And then one of them said this, �They just don�t have any respect. And I said that to him, �You need to start respecting your teachers.� And he said back to me, �I�ll respect you when you respect me.� That got her really mad, and she said, �I�ll respect him when he starts respecting me.�
        Her statement connected my brain up with a marriage book we�d read called LOVE AND RESPECT by Emerson Eggerichs. In it, he discusses the core needs for males and females. Males crave respect, and females crave love. Sure, we all need both, but he makes the case that we crave one more. Jonathan even did a poll once of a whole bunch of his guy friends who didn�t know he�d been reading the book. His question was: If you had to choose between having unconditional love or unconditional respect, which would you rather have? And more than 80% of them said respect.
        So how does this idea transfer into our classrooms with our students?

1. Let�s start realizing that this is an actual need. Girls crave love. Boys crave respect. And when we start giving it to them, they start giving it back.
2. We�ve gotta do it first. We can�t wait for our students to respect or love us first. I often use this little example with my students when they say someone else is doing something stupid they wish would change. I ask them, �Who�s the more mature one: you or them?� So I�ll ask you, in that situation with that student who never shows you respect, who is more mature, you or them? You, right? Then you�re telling me that you�re gonna wait for the immature one to take the first mature step here? How about since you�re the mature one, you show them what unconditional respect looks like?!
3. A key word here is �unconditional.� Your love and respect cannot have conditions. Sure, there are discussions and consequences and discipline that has to happen from time to time, but those can all happen with respect. This will save you time in the long run, and you'll start to see the time-saving results sooner than you think.
4. Guys, realize that loving your female students can be tricky today. Let me share some ideas:
• Listen to them. Stop and listen.
• Advocate for them. Boys are not allowed to talk down to girls in my class. It�s not tolerated. And girls aren�t allowed to tear down other girls.
• Call the boys to chivalry and advocacy. Call them to manhood.
• Broaden and empower the horizons and possibilities for the girls.
• Give them blessings and encouragement in their endeavors.
5. Ladies, give your tough boys unconditional respect and see what happens. 
• Don't yell at them. (unless they're doing something dangerous) Yelling only makes them feel disrespected and defensive. If you want to be respectful, never yell. You don't need to.
• Validate their ideas. Or at least the good parts of their ideas. Then ask questions about the parts you aren't sure of. Give them the chance.

         Then to take this a step even bigger, start thinking about this with your family members, spouses, children, friends, etc. It�s amazing the areas it�ll change your heart, words, and actions.
         Conversation of the Day: Share a way you show love or respect to your students.
          Hop on over to watch the video and share your thoughts in the conversation.