Unconditional Certainty

It is has been published that people can live 40 days without food (how long have you gone without food during a non-illness time?).  It has also been published that people can live 7 days without water (or any other liquid) and less than 3 minutes without oxygen (that is why knowing CPR is so important).  We all cannot last long without something else – HOPE.  There is nothing like hope.  There is no medicine better than hope.  There is no shot in the arm better than hope.  That is no food better than hope.  Hope is the expectation that tomorrow will be better than today.  Hope is wanting something to happen. Hope is that expectation for a certain thing to happen.  Hope is an optimistic attitude.  Hope can make the present less difficult to bear.  Hope lies in the dreams of people.  Hope is being able to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel and believing that light is not a train coming in the opposite direction.  Hope is an anchor.  Hope is one of the three than remain.

You do not have a single class full of perfect kids.  You will not have a single class full of perfect kids in your career.  Nope.  There it is.  I’ll be writing about perfection next week, so suffice it for now to state that perfection is not possible.  You are also a rarity if you have any class full of “Tier 1” kids who knock it out of the park day after day after day.  So, you will have 15-20% (or more) of your students that need academic assistance beyond what is offered during a “regular” class period.  A certain percentage of students will have given up and have lost hope.  Why?  Because no one has instilled any shred of confidence in them to give them hope.  You see, without an actual demonstration of success there is nothing to be confident about.  If a student never has any success, then they have no hope at ever having success.  Students who fail miserably on a summative test and then are asked to do test corrections makes no sense – if they didn’t know it before the test then they won’t know it after the test!  This kid need re-teaching and a confidence boost.  Competence will not come before confidence.  Confidence has to come first.  Kids shouldn’t walk out the door thinking that tomorrow will be another day of failure.  We have to be the ones who supply the hope.  It has to be a big part of what we do. Kids have to expect that tomorrow will be better than today.  They need hope. We all do.

Used Paint

Have you ever bought anything that was used? Previously owned?  Gently worn?  As a nation, people sell many items for the purpose of making money. Hopefully, that is not a revelation for you.  Craigslist recently put out data of the top ten items that is sold through its site.  In descending order:  (1) Cars – an average profit of $100-$500, (2) Appliances – an average profit of $75-$150, (3) Motorcycles – heavily seasonal profit margins, (4) Bicycles – popularity is on the rise, (5) Furniture – solid wood pieces have a high demand, (6) Electronics – Bose products sell best as do other high-end electronics, (7) Computers – people tend to sell these rather than repair them, so there are good buys out there if you know your way around a mother board, (8) Yard Equipment – see computers, (9) Power Tools – usually sold in groupings, so the savings is solid, and (10) Cell Phones – people constantly upgrade so there is a good supply.  One thing that I have never seen for sale is used paint.  Think about that for a minute.  I mean there are millions of gallons of paint sold daily, but there is never a “End Cap” at Home Depot where there is a half-price sale on used paint. There is a reason for that.   Once the paint is applied to a surface, that’s it. Paint will not be resold.  It may be painted over or scraped off, but it just will never be re-sold.  That’s why you have to be careful not only where you apply the paint, but the message it sends.

Think of your daily interactions with students as painting a picture and you are the one applying the paint. You are the artist.  Once that paint is on, that’s it.  How is the paint applied?  With a broad brush?  Is it possible to paint over it?  What kind if picture are you leaving for those you teach?  You cannot sell used paint.  Earlier this week, I provided you with a blank canvas and some water colors to paint a promise for your students that you will live by during this school year. A promise to your students. An example to set. Think about the promises that you have made over your lifetime. Did you keep all of them?  I  have advised many times to make very few promises, but to make sure that you keep them all.  That is one way to build credibility…or to lose it.  So, I hope you really thought out that promise to your students.  I hope that you have that framed promise hanging in your classroom.  I hope that you have pointed this out to your students today.  In a special way, you are selling used paint with a promise that you intend to keep.  Average profit = priceless.