Today's challenge: WRITE ABOUT YOUR GOALS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR.
This school year is a completely new experience for me. I'm teaching in a new building, I'm not traveling between buildings. I'm working with older students AND I'm getting my master's. I recently volunteered to be the 'class rep' for our cohort so I know this will entire slightly more work and organization.
As I thought through my goals, it was actually really hard to narrow down all the things I want to do, without overwhelming my already jam-packed schedule. I had a hard time deciding on just one or a couple of things to focus on. I'm sticking with the two that are the most relevant right now. Instead of adding my own personal goals, I'm going to attempt to stick to the ones that have already been set for me.
Goal # 1 Be there. Make their day. Choose your attitude. Play.
The Fish Philosophy, it is part of Pike Place Fish Co.'s motto to build relationships with their customers.
Be there: In the class room, I will make an effort to really listen when a student is telling me some strange story about an old hunting dog and a chicken. If I can't give that student the real attention to hear his story, I will at least try to tell him that I have to do something else right now, but I want to hear about it later.
Make their day: Giving compliments (not necessarily related to their artwork) can make a huge difference in building relationships with students. Also, remember to tell colleagues thank you for doing things around the building.
Choose Your Attitude: I'm generally optimistic, but sometimes my attitude is affected by negativity.
Play: I will make an effort to interact with my students in a fun way, either on the playground, or chatting with them at lunch. My plan is also to schedule 'reward' days in which we play games and have fun in our regular classroom time (for about 1/2 a session).
Another great thing they mentioned in the video, is that they have to be patient when a customer asks a question, it might be a question someone just asked 20 minutes ago.....they might get asked that same question 1,000 times a day, but each customer that visits the Market doesn't know that. This made a lot of sense, as what I do can be sort of repetition, I need to be patient when I get asked the same questions over and over.