Quote of the day...

"Accept -- then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it...... This will miraculously transform your whole life."

--Eckhart Tolle

Quote of the day...

"A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us.  To live is to be slowly born."

--Antoine de St. Exupery

The Rules for Being Amazing...

Quote of the day...

"A sunny disposition prevents a hardening of the attitudes."

--Reed B. Markham, American educator

What is being creative?

A great message...

Quote of the day...

"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home."

--Confucius

Quote of the day...

"If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye, and say, 'I will be bigger than you.  You cannot defeat me.'"

--Ann Landers

Blogs in Plain English

Quote of the day...

"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came --
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the bank."

--George Cooper: "October's Party"

IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY!  I HOPE YOU GET THE CHANCE TO GET OUTSIDE AND ENJOY IT.

Quote of the day...

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

--Henri Bergsson, French philosopher

Drew Johnson Blog: Congratulations to all Bluff View Students, Parent...

Drew Johnson Blog: Congratulations to all Bluff View Students, Parent...:  

Drew Johnson Blog: Thank you to Design Homes for the donation of a Ga...

Drew Johnson Blog: Thank you to Design Homes for the donation of a Ga...: The picture below is of the Design Homes team installing the Gazebo at the High School. This was a very generous donation to the school!

Drew Johnson Blog: All Day 4K in the News. Congratulations to the who...

Drew Johnson Blog: All Day 4K in the News. Congratulations to the who...: The following is an online article and feature by Patrick Anderson that was in the Sunday LaCrosse Tribune PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — Mikey Pettit...

Quote of the day...

"Growth demands a temporary surrender of security."

--Gail Sheehy

BAK Little Hawk News...: La Crosse Tribune Article on Full Day 4K...

BAK Little Hawk News...: La Crosse Tribune Article on Full Day 4K...: Article on Prairie du Chien Full Day 4K

Technology will not fix education...

Re-Post from a blog that I follow...

We need to take bigger mental leaps as educators and policymakers

Quote of the day...

"There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing."

--Alfred Wainwright

Quote of the day...

"Bad weather always looks worse through a window."

--Author unknown

Neat Concept...

My friend from grad school is the principal at this school in La Crosse.  I'm really anxious to see how this goes for their district!  I'm sure it will prove to be very beneficial with the "summer slide" that we tend to see with students!

Hamilton Elementary School --- La Crosse

Announcement from Help Desk...

We are currently using about half of our bandwith.  It is fine for staff to use whatever you wish, including streaming.  If we hit the 100mb threshold we can reevaluate.

There were also a few changes made to the staff internet filter, so you should see less blocking of sites.

Thank you!

Google Reader in Plain English...

Drew Johnson Blog: Community meeting on School Report Cards

Drew Johnson Blog: Community meeting on School Report Cards: PRAIRIE DU CHIEN AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT WHEN: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 TIME: ...

11 Simple Ways...

11 Simple Ways to Create Genuine Connections with the People Who Make Failure Impossible

from zenhabits by guest

‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’ ~Jim Rohn

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Scott Dinsmore of Live Your Legend.

There’s probably one thing we can agree on: The people around you dictate your success.
They can also forecast our failure.
There is no faster, more effective way to fill the gap between where you are and where you aspire to be than having the right passionate and supportive people in your corner. There is no bigger life hack.
Environment is everything. And it’s 100 percent in our control.
But it can be intimidating to change our surroundings, and most of us aren’t doing a thing about it.
Over the past couple years in creating How to Connect with Anyone, I’ve surveyed, interacted with and interviewed over 10,800 people on this very topic.
The responses were terrifying…

• 85% didn’t think they were living up to their potential
• 93% believed the people you surround yourself with are critical to success
• 99% said they could be doing a better job of surrounding themselves with passionate, supportive and successful people

We know how important it is to connect with the right people.
We know how many things could be possible if we changed our surroundings. We’ve heard stories of the changes people have made, the businesses they’ve built, the weight they’ve lost, the lovers they’ve met, and the things they’ve experienced – just as a result of connecting with the right people.
Yet so few of us know how to tackle it. We have all kinds of reasons why we don’t reach out and make the connections we could – we don’t live in a big city, we’re an introvert, we’re not worthy, we have nothing to offer, we don’t know where to start…
So we do nothing. And the gap between dreams and reality widens.
So over the past decade, and more specifically the past year, I’ve gone on a quest to figure out how we can create that supportive environment that changes our career, business and life.
Years of studying social dynamics, human interaction and personal rapport (and being obsessed with making new friends), lead me to make some discoveries that have allowed me to connect and befriend people in all walks of life, from rock stars like Warren Buffett and Tony Robbins, all the way down to the interesting girl at the bar or the stranger on the street.
Most importantly, it showed me how to create that support team of everyday people who will not only inspire us, but more importantly, will refuse to let us fail.
It was that group that caused my business, Live Your Legend, to go from growing by exactly 0% for the first four years, to growing by 10x within six months of surrounding myself with a new group of people (including our good friend Leo!). Twelve months later it grew by another 160x and turned into the movement it is today.
The reason this happened was simple …
Changing my surroundings took my thinking from “How could I possibly do this?” to “How could I possibly not?”
When that shift happens, it ripples across your whole world.
So today I want to share 11 simple things you can do starting today to begin creating that environment of support that makes failure impossible.

11 Simple Ways to Connect with the People Who Make Failure Impossible

1. Know the impact you want to have. Connection starts long before the first interaction. Be the guy glowing with passion. Let the people around you feel your fire for the impact you want to have on the world. Prompt others to share what makes them come alive. Share in their excitement. There is no more empowering, genuine way to connect. If you don’t know the impact you dream of making, how will you know who you want in your corner to make it happen?
2. Fire toxic friends. This one’s painful, but an absolute requirement. Identify the people in your day-t0-day life who you notice constantly put your ideas down. The ones who don’t support you and leave you drained after an interaction. Make a list. You must start spending less time around them.
Leo is the poster-child of this and is actually one of the experts in our Connect with Anyone course just for that reason. He realized he had a job he hated, 70 pounds he wanted to lose, a sm0king habit he wanted to kick and a lifestyle that was killing him. He ended up moving his whole family halfway across the world to San Francisco – all in search of a more empowering environment. I’m not saying you need to be that extreme, but you must recognize how badly the wrong people can infect your potential.
3. Find new surroundings. Leo constantly stresses that you need to replace old habits with new, more empowering ones. Same with people. If you leave your toxic friends but have no one else to hang out with, you’ll likely go right back to them. This can start as simple as seeing one inspiring friend for an hour every week or so.
Take your passions and start to overlay them with the people in business and in life who see the world the same way. Take inspiration from everywhere: TED talks, movies, articles, local events, Google searches – anything goes.
4. Create a relationship road map. Write out the people you want in your corner. Be as specific as possible – ideally with actual names, but at least with industries and areas you want to spend more time with. Create a “Dream Connections” list of the industry leaders and game changers you’d love to meet and collaborate with. If you don’t know who you want to meet, it’s going to be pretty tough to meet them.
5. Discover who you already know. The odds are that you or the people close to you already know a handful of people who could change your world. Go through your existing networks including friends, colleagues, past employers, alumni groups, sports teams, friends of friends.
Who’s already connected to you in some way that you’d like to get closer to? Make a list of at least five, but keep going as long as you can list names. Then start setting up lunches and meetings to reconnect.
6. Enlist the help of others. This action alone will cause your community to explode with new interesting people. Ask your existing network who they know who fits the criteria of whom you’re hoping to meet. Ask every person you meet for a referral. Never leave a meeting without asking for one person they think would be good for you to meet and who would also benefit from meeting you. Always start with the other person’s interests in mind.
Only ask for one, though. Be specific, so it’s easy to think of someone. Sample Script: “Thanks Natalie, this has been a total blast. Also I’m curious, I’d love to chat with a few other people about long-distance trail running. Can you think of one person who comes to mind who would have some fun chatting through this stuff over a tea or a meal?”
7. Create unique value and learn to help anyone. All of us have things we can offer to others. Nothing feels better and nothing creates faster, more memorable genuine connections. What are your unique strengths, talents and passions? If you design logos, offer someone some free help with the branding for their new venture.
I once gave a copy of The 4-Hour Body to a new business friend who wanted to lose some weight. The next time I saw him, he’d lost 30 pounds. Is there any better gift to give? Before going to a meetup with a bestselling author and entrepreneur I admired, my wife and I created a list of our favorite vegan restaurants in San Francisco – because we knew he only ate plants and had just moved to town. We would have appreciated the same in his shoes. Your ability to help is only limited by your creativity.
8. Great genuine online connections. I see connecting online as maybe step one of twenty, but it is still an incredibly powerful, high-leverage step. Today there’s a community for every passion imaginable. You just have to do some looking. Join a private club or a forum. Even if it costs $20 or $100 a month, it’s worth checking out. You can always cancel later. I met my first group of online entrepreneur friends through Leo’s A-List Blogging Club, and his Sea Change Program has turned into an incredibly community for habit change. We’ve created our own members-only Connection Forum as part of the Connect with Anyone Course for this same reason.
9. Build your in-person community. As soon as you can, take the virtual connections into the real world. No matter how big or small your town is, you have to find people in the flesh and blood with whom you can spend consistent time. Check out meetup.com, Craigslist, Facebook & LinkedIn groups or the classifieds of your hometown paper. Or better yet, walk into the hot local restaurant or cafe and ask the owner what’s happening in your realm of passions. Start attending events and saying hello. Watch what happens.
10. Make people a part of your world. The more personal the better. Get out on double dates, have beers, go on workouts, travel together. Do anything you can to make these people a part of your life. But only if you genuinely care about having them in your life. People will see straight through anything less than honest intentions.
11. Show Up. Nothing happens if you don’t show up. If you never press send on that email, dial that number, or walk through the door of your local event, you will never find the surroundings you need. And often times that leads to 99% of the results … showing up. At the end of the day, that’s the only thing that has lead to the connections that have changed my world. And it’s the only thing that ever will.
If you aren’t willing to show up, nothing else matters.

So, who’s in your corner?

The most recent studies show that over 80% of people are not happy with their work. This is a tragedy. It also means that most the people around us encourage complacency. They endorse these lives of quiet desperation that so much of the world is living. They put down our ideas on how to be different, and think we’re crazy (or even stupid) for thinking we can take the road less traveled.
They tell us it’s impossible to actually build a life and career around work we’re truly passionate about.
The more time we hang around them, the more we start to believe it and the less we actually try to make a meaningful impact in the world.
But we have a choice.
We can choose to continue to hang around the people who tell us we’re stupid for thinking things could be different. Or we could surround ourselves with the people who inspire possibility.
The choice is 100% on us.
Either way, one thing is for sure. The people around us will change our world.
The question is, will they kill our dreams or make them come true?
That’s on you to decide.
You have more control than you likely realize.
Do something with it.
After all, what could be possible with the right people in your corner?
Scott Dinsmore is the founder of Live Your Legend and the creator of How to Connect with Anyone – an interactive online course to surround yourself with the world-changing people necessary to build your ideal business or career. The course is open for enrollment to the first 100 students until this Friday at 11:59pm PST. ZenHabits readers even get a special deal. Learn more about the course here.

Growth Mindset...

I am currently reading Carol Dweck's book on the fixed vs. growth mindset.  It is a fascinating concept, and something that is very prevalent in the way students and adults make decisions and attempt tasks.  I hope you enjoy this article taken from Larry Ferlazzo's blog.

~Laura

Response: Classroom Strategies to Foster a Growth Mindset

By Larry Ferlazzo on October 15, 2012 1:03 PM

The question asked last week was:

What are actions teachers can take to help their students develop a growth mindset?

As Professor Carol Dweck -- one of authors of today's guest response and the developer of the term and concept -- has written elsewhere:

Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait--they have a certain amount, and that's that. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time.

Thanks to Professor Dweck's work, I have been explicitly applying this concept in the classroom for the past few years, but won't take up space here to share my experiences. Instead, I've developed a list of resources you can access here.

We're lucky today to have Professor Dweck and Dr. Lisa Blackwell, the co-founder of the organization designed to help schools be more effective in helping students develop growth mindsets, as the co-authors of today's guest response.

In addition, several readers offer their comments.

Response From Carol Dweck & Lisa Blackwell

Dr. Carol Dweck is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, and internationally renowned expert on mindsets and motivation. Her colleague and Mindset Works co-founder, Dr. Lisa Blackwell, is a former school leadership coach and the principal designer of Brainology. She is currently VP of Design, Implementation, & Evaluation at Mindset Works, which offers curricula, professional development, and tools that foster a growth mindset in students and educators. Learn more about deepening student motivation at Mindset Works:

Students typically begin each new school year with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. Will their teachers be supportive or severe? Will they succeed or not? Adding to the anxiety is the fear of public embarrassment if they do have difficulty. Here is a 5^th grader talking about how he feels about challenges and about making mistakes in class:

 ]

Our research¹ on the growth mindset² shows that students who believe they can grow their basic abilities have greater motivation and higher achievement than do students who believe their abilities are fixed, and that teachers can influence students' mindsets. The beginning of the new school year is a great time to establish your classroom as a growth mindset environment. Here are some things you can do right away to lay a foundation for growth all year:

1) Establish high expectations (not just high standards). Research by Geoffrey Cohen and colleagues³ shows that this increases motivation in vulnerable students. So let students know that you are challenging them because you know that all of them have the ability to meet those expectations. For example:

• Use lesson-framing language that outlines high expectations, as in this Growth Mindset Framing Tool.⁴ For example, when introducing a new topic, you can tell your students, "This will be a challenging concept to learn, but all of us can reach the goal. I want you to stretch."


• Write comments to your students that contain specific feedback on ways to improve, along with an explanation that you are providing it because you believe they have the capacity to develop a high level of skill in that area.

2) Create a risk-tolerant learning zone. Let your students know that you value challenge-seeking, learning, and effort above perfect performance, and that the amount of progress they make individually is more important than how they compare to others. Make it clear that mistakes are to be expected and that we can all learn from them. For example:

• At the beginning of the year, write a letter to your students saying how much you look forward to supporting their individual growth, and explaining that mistakes are welcome in your classroom. (See this Welcome Back Letter⁵ contributed by a middle school teacher.)


• When you introduce a new topic or assignment, tell students they should expect to find some things confusing and to make initial errors. Ask kids to share their "best" mistake of the week with you, and what they learned from it (and do the same yourself).

3) Give feedback that focuses on process--the things students can control, like their effort, challenge-seeking, persistence, and good strategies--not on their personal traits or abilities. Avoid praising children for their "smartness," and instead help them understand the importance of their own actions in achieving success. Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck⁶showed that praising students for effort triggers growth mindset thinking. But many students think that effort is simply doing something for a long time, or doing the same thing over and over. Instead, help your students understand the many ways to employ effort effectively, such as seeking out challenges, setting goals and making plans, using creative strategies, and sticking with it when they are having difficulty. For example:

• Recognize your students' effort with tools such as this Effective Effort Rubric⁷ and teach them to use it to self-assess and build on their effort strategies.


• Give feedback that is appropriate to the situation--for example, don't praise effort if the student did not work hard. See the Growth Mindset Framing Tool⁸ for sample language in situations where students worked hard and succeeded, made an effort but have not yet met the goal, or did not exert effort.

4) Introduce students to the concept of the malleable mind. Recent research in neuroscience shows that our brains develop through effort and learning, and that they are more malleable than previously thought. Teaching this can be a powerful way to help students develop a growth mindset about their own ability. For example:

• Have your students read and discuss an article about the malleable brain, such as You Can Grow Your Intelligence.⁹ Let students know that when they are practicing hard things their brains are forming new connections and making them smarter. Instead of feeling dumb when they struggle, they will learn to "feel" those connections growing.


• Teach students about how the brain changes with learning and how they can build their brains with effective learning strategies through programs like the Brainology¹⁰ blended learning curriculum.

By introducing the growth mindset into your classroom early in the year, you can begin to build a culture of growth that will support your students as learners all year long.

Quote of the day...

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."

--George S. Patton

Quote of the day...

"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day."

--Abraham Lincoln

Quote of the day...

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family."

--Anthony Brandt

BAK Little Hawk News...: Updated Announcement - Jump Rope for Heart...

BAK Little Hawk News...: Updated Announcement - Jump Rope for Heart...: Please see this updated information regarding Jump Rope for Heart at B.A. Kennedy: B.A. Kennedy --- Jump Rope for Heart

YOU Matter...

As a follow up to a great taco lunch on Friday, just one final THANK YOU.  In my busy days, I do not take enough time to tell you of all the WONDERFUL things I see in our building day in and day out, or to recognize the many talents that I see in each of you.  These talents combined - of ALL staff - are what make B.A. Kennedy what it is, and that is a great place for students and staff.  In closing, please take a few seconds to read Angela Maiers' "The YOU MATTER Manifesteo."  Thanks for everything you do.  It does not go unnoticed.

Are the kids in your classroom students or learners?

Interesting thoughts here: 

Students or Learners?

Quote of the day...

Every minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs. 

-Ally Condie

Drew Johnson Blog: Wisconsin Intensive Interventions Selection Tool

Drew Johnson Blog: Wisconsin Intensive Interventions Selection Tool: The Wisconsin RtI Center and the DPI have put together a filterable tool to help schools find the right interventions. Find it and a guidanc...

Flipping the Classroom...

Although flipping the classroom is something that (from what I have learned) is more geared toward middle and high school, this is still an interesting watch... and there are ways we can incorporate this with our own teaching --- especially when it comes to reinforcing concepts at home.

Enjoy!

Quote of the day...

"In wildness is the preservation of the world."

--Henry David Thoreau

BAK Little Hawk News...: More staff learning to blog...

BAK Little Hawk News...: More staff learning to blog...: We spent some time tonight exploring blogger again!  I am always impressed with the many features that staff figure out right away that I h...

What if money was no object?

Quote of the day...

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experiences and character.

--Henry David Thoreau

Thanks for sharing, Ms. Bartels!

Quote of the day...

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

--John Muir, renowned Wisconsin naturalist