Habit Four- Think Win-Win – You can either choose a Win-Win situation and compromise so that both groups succeed or you can choose a Win-Lose where one is the winner and the other the loser or lose-lose where not one wins.
Habit Five- Seek first to Understand and then to be understood– Do you listen and figure out what the other person is saying before responding or do you only partially listen and then add a response?
We each did a google drawing for the habits. If we were in Kindergarten and first grade Mrs. Todd typed what we said. If we were in second through fifth we typed our own so some words may be misspelled. We didn’t have time to add a picture. When we do these habits we look at our mission statement and vision and then we set our individual goals. For example if we can add numbers 1-10 we might then set our next goal to do numbers 10 – 20. Or if we are reading at a level 20 then we might set it to read at a level 24 next time. We are working on Begin with the End in Mind and knowing where we want to be in the future. Some of us are focused only on this year and some are looking at the far off future.
Habit Two
Begin with the End in Mind
What goals do you see for yourself in five years, ten years, even 20 years?
Set Goals
Plan– where do you want to be and what do you want to do in the future?
Habit Three
Put First Things First
Are you successful with Habit Three- Put First Things First
What does proactive mean to you?
We think it’s choosing our moods, attitudes and how we behave each day. We will take initiative and be responsible.
We will take care of ourselves at home by cleaning our rooms, packing our book bags on our own, we will dress ourselves and brush our teeth, do our homework and reading. At school we will pick the right thing to do even when no one is watching us. We will be responsible. We will make good choices and pick important things. We will use proactive language rather than reactive language.
I’ll do it I’ll try
I can do better than that That’s just how I am
Let’s look at our options There’s nothing I can do
I choose to I have to
There has to be a way I can’t
I’m not going to let your bad mood rub off on me You ruined my day
Rocky River students and staff are learning all about the 7 habits and being leaders. Stay turned next week to see what the students think each habit means for kindergarten through fifth grade students. Each day we will explain one of the habits. See if you do these things in your daily lives.
Habit 1- Be Proactive
Habit 2- Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3- Put first things first
Habit 4- Think Win-Win
Habit 5- Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Habit 6- Synergize
Habit 7- Sharpen the Saw
If you are a leader in me school we’d love to hear from you also. There are Leader in Me schools around the world so let us know who you are.
We’re So Proud and Excited!
Recently at a principals meeting Union County Schools were recognized for their globalization efforts for 2012-2013 school year. The staff got the news that our school (Rocky River) was awarded the designation in Union County as an International School for 2012-2013 at a staff meeting and we are excited and proud of this accomplishment. In order to obtain this designation each school submitted a livebinder presentation showing their globalization efforts throughout the school year then a committee went through the rubric criteria and gave points which were then totaled up and schools were awarded designation for their work throughout the year. International School is the highest award a school can obtain. You needed above 85 points for this category. Rocky River exceeded that total with an average of 96 points. These are the categories awarded throughout the county. Just the year before we were a Global Partners School with 84 points.
Throughout the county there were 19 elementary, middle and high schools in the International category. Our globalization committee is pictured above with the plaque we received. Below is the banner which is hanging proudly in our main hall.
Some areas to get points for included International Sister Schools (England and Australia), Cultural Awareness Projects (Irish Dancers and Jaars – Brazil presentation), Speakers ( Vietnam, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and Colombia), 21st Century Technology ( Voice Threads, Google Docs, Skyping etc., 21st Century communication (Skyping, Blogging, emails, PowerPoint and Professional Development (globalization), classroom web pages, classroom activities highlighting focus countries for each grade, Environmental projects, Service Projects ( Heifer foundation/Beatrice’s Goat. Red Cross, Blood Drives, Relay for life and others), and the UCPS global teacher leaders program and Global gateway program with Professional Learning modules).
We couldn’t have done a lot of this without our ties with others in England and Australia and around the USA. A Room with a View (Middleham, England http://aroomwithaview.edublogs.org/ ) and Upper Plenty-http://upps45p.global2.vic.edu.au/ and Áine Murphy – Pt Lonsdale Primary School in Australia, along with Stephen in New Zealand were always eager and helpful in doing joint projects together. From Skyping to learn about a field trip to London, learning about holidays and customs in Australia and England, reading books and comparing our thoughts (The Boy Who Biked the World, Flat Stanley and Magic Tree Houses books and Julia Donaldson books) were enjoyed by students at Rocky River and our sister schools. We learned about Superstition Mountain and legends, we learned how to sign the Pledge of Allegiance with buddies in Arizona http://blogs.goaj.org/gfraher/
This year we are continuing our learning with other students around the world and we continue to enjoy this a lot. Thank you to everyone that continues to join us in our global learning experiences! Thank you to everyone who helped make this designation possible for our school both locally and internationally.
What do you do to be a global learner?
We are looking forward to 2014 and delving into some global issues around the world. If you have any projects you be interested in joining us on let me know. Water, poverty, environmental, hunger…….
The past few weeks have been busy while the students learned about several Festivals of Light celebrations and holidays celebrated at this time of year around the world. This is some things they remembered from this unit of study.
Our project by Jen is well underway and we keep getting cards from many schools. We are learning about schools near and far away. Some of them have programs like we do and some are very different. We are excited everyday to check the mail and see who has sent them today. Some from California and Canada, Texas, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Florida.
Global Studies – Communicating with Others on PhotoPeach
We also got a wonderful package from friends in Australia. Our pen pals there sent letters and pictures, a map, a tiny stuffed kangaroo (we think he is cute), cards with animals, a calendar and a DVD. It took a while to come to us but it held many surprises. Thank you friends and Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
Other traditions we like to participate in are Christmas plays and services at church. Local churches have Walks through Bethlehem to walk through and children sing in choirs and perform plays. Some of us play music on the piano that is Christmas songs.
We also like to sing Christmas Carols and Songs. Some of our favorites include……….
We love to bake cookies. Some of us decorate them with icing and candies. We make Gingerbread Houses with icing and graham crackers and candies.
We bake shape cookies. We love to eat warm cookies and dip them in milk. We bake with our moms and grandmas. We get flour all over the place sometimes. We stir and mix them. Then we put them on a pan and put them in the oven. Don’t cook them to long or they get hard and brown like rocks.
Have you read “If you give a Mouse a Cookie” or “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar”? What other books are there about cookies?
What is your favorite cookie?
We like putting up outside lights and wreaths with red bows on our houses on shutters and doors.
We put candles in the windows to light at night.
We put greenery inside the house. We hang stockings by the fireplace if we have one. We hang mistletoe.
We put out other holiday decorations.
We hang wreaths on the door.
We put a red bow on the mailbox.
What do you decorate with?
Do you have lights outside? We put them on trees and bushes and around the roofs and porches of our house.
One of my favorite Christmas time traditions is preparing, addressing and mailing out Christmas cards to family and friends. It is also great to anticipate and receive the daily delivery of cards everyday when the postman arrives. Sending someone a card to wish them well on the religious holiday they celebrate is meant as a happy greeting.
Being part of another’s celebration can only enhance your own. People of any faith can marvel at the beauty of a Christmas service or midnight mass. The wisdom and customs of Kwanzaa can be uplifting to all. An unfamiliar Hanukkah party can be a chance to bask in candlelight, eat delicious latkes and learn how to play dreidel. If you’re invited to new celebrations, by all means go! Your presence will be a great show of respect to friends and/or extended family.
Our big, beautiful world is filled with variation in thought and customs. Embracing those differences doesn’t mean diluting your own treasured beliefs and traditions. Celebrate and let celebrate! It’s all good—and we’re good, too, when we offer acceptance and tolerance. Families and countries are a blend of many cultures and traditions.
We started receiving our Holiday Cards this week from other schools with our Projects by Jen. So far we’ve gotten one from New York, Missouri and Ontario, Canada. The students get excited each time we open one. Ours will be mailed out tomorrow when we finishing putting them together. We have 60 cards heading out in the postal mail. Who will be the first one to get one from us? Where will the farthest one travel?
Our first tradition we thought of is the Christmas Tree. Some of us went out this past weekend and picked a special tree from the tree farm on Choose and Cut Day and tied them to the top of our cars to haul home. Some of these trips involved sleigh rides /hayrides to the mountains. Some were nearer to us in the Piedmont. Some of us stopped at a local tree lot set up on a corner near our home and picked one and tied it on top. Others of us get the tree out of the attic or garage and put it in our house already with lights on it. They are not real. They don’t need water. They don’t smell good.
Then it’s time to decorate our trees. Some of us have more than one tree in our house. Some of us have none because we don’t celebrate Christmas. Some of us have only one in the family room. We put on lights, we add ornaments some of them favorites from many years of collecting just right ones. Some belonged to our parents when they were little. A few came from grandmas/grandpas. Some came from special trips we made. We added tinsel and some added popcorn or berry garland we made. Some put angels on top and some put stars on top. Some had white lights, some red or green or blue lights. Some had multi-colored on the same tree. They are tiny little lights.
There are many kinds of trees used in America but these are common ones.
| Firs | Pine | Spruces | ||||||
|
Douglas |
Balsam |
Fraser |
Scotch |
White |
White |
Norway |
Blue |
|
History of Christmas Tree—Early British settlers to North American colonies rarely observed Christmas and did not cut down or decorate trees. Pennsylvanian German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. Germany is credited for the decorated Christmas Tree as we know it.
Decorations were still of a ‘home-made’ variety in 1747 . Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were often placed into wooden hoops for safety. Decorations today have changed from ‘home made’ to store bought in many homes.
In early America, Christmas trees were considered a quaint foreign custom. America was so geographically large, that it tended to have ‘pockets’ of customs relating to the immigrants who had settled in a particular area. It was not until the telegraph communications really got going in the 19th century, that such customs began to spread. Thus references to decorated trees in America before about the middle of the 19th century are very rare. But by 1850, the Decorative Christmas trees came forth. They were embellished with fruits, nuts, tiny wafers, paper cuttings and small candles. Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states.
Before the war the tree lost popularity then after World War II, the Christmas tree again became popular!
The first national American Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge. A tree from the National Christmas Tree Association has been displayed in the Blue Room of the White House since 1966.
In 2002, 21% of United States households had a real tree, 48% had an artificial tree and 32% had no tree. There are many debates about whether you should buy a real tree or an artificial tree.
What is your opinion and why?
A way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time. Pick one question to share an answer with us. We’d love to hear from people around the world. It’s exciting to us when we get a comment to read and compare to our life.
What are traditions at this time of year around your house?
What is the most important tradition to you and why?
What holiday do you celebrate and what traditions in your home go with that celebration?
It’s time for the 10th Edublog Awards and many wonderful blog sites could be listed for several categories so it was hard to pick just one for some of them.
The purpose of the Edublog Awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of blogging and social media. It’s tough to decide who to nominate because you can only nominate one blog for each category and there are many, many super blogs to choose from worldwide and many could fit in multiple categories we felt. A Room with a View and Mrs. Monaghan (England) could go under several categories, Mrs. Yollis’s Class (California, USA) class could also go under many and Ms. Crowther and Upper Plenty (Australia ) fit under more than one category . All three of these teachers and classes demonstrate to others ways to incorporate social media with students. It was hard to decide where each fit the best! We edited them over and over and finally decided on our nominations for most categories. Then we had both Mr. Ross Mannell and Mr. Larry Ferlazzo we felt could have gone under either category. They both inspire teachers and students with their informative information. We constantly learn new things from both of them.
Our nominations are……….
How can you make your blog site more appealing?
What makes a good blog site?
What is the best social media to use?
We are getting excited to start our newest project with the Holiday Card Exchange project.
Welcome to the
Holiday Card Exchange Project
Dates of Project:
December 2 to 20, 2013
THIS YEAR’S THEME:
MITTENS, HATS, & SCARVES
This project will be open to all PreK – 6th grade classes around the world.
We can’t wait to see who we get a card from. Check back with us to see who sends us a card.
