Have you ever met someone and right off the bat, you knew you weren’t going to jive with this person?
I was used to being the smart kid. I'd never encountered a class where I wasn't one of the first to shoot my hand up whenever the teacher asked a question.
I grew up in Tinytown, Texas (okay, Waller actually) where everyone knew my last name and we had cows across the street from our high school.
When I was a superintendent, sometimes, when I least expected it, I was reminded of students I had known throughout all the years I had been around the education system. Once I was reminded of one simply by walking by a student at a water fountain.
You are in fifth grade. The last bell rings, and as your herd is trampling into the hall, YOUR MOM suddenly appears right there at Mrs. Harper’s classroom door. Oh, the sheer panic, as you murmur Why is SHE here, but let’s be honest, you already know what you did, and now you are busted.
Recently, I attended the Mississippi Association for Middle Level Education (MAMLE) and sat in on the Keynote Speaker’s presentation “This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents”.
Some ideas are worth sharing – and that’s the belief that the organization known as TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) was founded upon in 1984.
I asked my mother once if there was a secret to handling children. “Parenting is mostly distraction and sleight of hand,” she responded.
