First day of school jitters

There are normally a lot of jittery stomachs the first day of school.  New teacher, new class, new school.  There is an unknown in that.  And then for some students there is total readiness.  But in both cases there is feeling that students like and need.  A feeling that may not be there for the summer.  

It is the knowledge that there is structure.  They know what they are doing during the whole day.  They know what comes first then next and so on.  They know what is expected at school, and for the most part strive to to do.  There is a schedule posted, (hopefully, a good teacher would have one up) which brings comfort to the students.  

As I write this that might be why kids miss school during the summer.  They may not say it, but inside somewhere they do.  Even for us adults we like to know what is going on and when it is taking place.  Kids lose that structure during the summer, (for the most part.)  And more than likely don't have a schedule posted of their summer day.

Are kids ready for school to start?  Maybe more so than adults.  Structure is a big thing.  Just the other day I had a student tell me they were ready for school because of just this reason.  Structure

Wes

Sleep or Family

How can it be that you can have all the energy in the world when you are moving and when you sit down you can't stay awake?  Ya that is me.  Trying my hardest to stay awake during church and nothing.  Nothing I do helps.  Church is the worst.  I hate to say it but church is the worst.  And I don't want it to be that way.

So maybe half the problem is getting to bed at an average time of 11 or later.   Wow, and I hate that.

I have noticed that there have been a few times when someone asked me how I was doing and I said that I was tired.  Working hard and was tired.

" That's dumb who cares if i am tired."   

Or my other thought was "that is kind of like the Sadducees fasting and disfiguring themselves so that everyone knew.  There they have their reward; everyone knowing."  

Am i tooting my own horn when I do that?  Saying that I am sooooo tired? I work hard and because of it I am tired.   I don't want to be like someone who wants everyone to know how great I am.  I don't want to go and solicit myself.  

The next day.  And now I find myself pushing 11 o’clock, and probably won’t get to be until 11:30.  I really do love sleep, but there are a few more things that are important than sleep.  My family is the main one.  They need my time and I want them to have some of that time.  So that pushes other fatherly matters, and late night working into the evening and night.

But they are worth it.

Wes

Scouts and moons

Sun moon and stars. If you want to see the solar eclipse the best place to see it is going to be Southern Utah. I live about about 10 miles north of the best place to see the solar eclipse. Apparently I have heard it's not going to be a full solar eclipse, but just a partial, where there is going to be a ring of fire around the moon. The moon is not going to cover the full sun.

The last time I saw a solar eclipse I was a scout at a jamboree.
I was sitting there listening to the speaker ramble on and on and on and on and on.You better make your way to Southern Utah and see it, for it won't happen for quite a while again.


"What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"

- Robert H. Schuller

Note passing.

Ok note passing gets a little too much sometimes, It doesn't bother me to bad, unless it goes on and on and on.  Then it is a little too much.  But then today after school I find a note on my desk from a student that wrote a little note, not the ordinary note.
Here's the note
God made a wonderful teacher, a teacher that never grows old.
He made him smile of sunshine and molded his heart of pure gold.
In his eyes he placed bright shining stars, in his cheeks fair roses you see,
God made that wonderful teacher, and he gave that teacher to me.
G  ood
R  eally nice
I    ncredible
M arvelous
M erry

Then I think a time when someone left a note on someones desk when they went outside for recess and when they came back in trying to find out who it was from.  Yes this was a note that lifted this note receiver up.  Some notes are good and help others feel better.
Go leave someone a note tomorrow.

Wes

educationwithwes.weebly.com

the coat

Life's landScapes

Do we ever just sit back and cherish life's beauties.

Life's dependencies

We may feel we have become self-sufficient but in reality we may have become more codependent not only on other people but on technology.  Today we depend for life's necessities almost wholly upon the activities of others. The work of thousands of human hands and thousands of human brains lies back of every meal you eat, every journey you take, every book you read, every bed in which you sleep, every telephone conversation, every text you receive, every garment you wear.

A Growth Mindset, "Music and the Spoken Word"

There are some amazing things shared on "Music and the Spoken Word"

A Growth Mindset
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

What we think about others and ourselves has the power to shape our world. How often have we heard ourselves say things like "I’m not a morning person” or "I’m not very smart” or "That’s just the way I am”? If we believe our talents and personality will never change, then they probably never will. If we believe our fate is set in stone, then it probably is.

On the other hand, if we believe that desire, hard work, and persistence are much more important than intelligence or natural ability, then change and growth are possible.1

A high school valedictorian observed that her classmates always thought she was so successful in school because she was naturally gifted with talent and intellect. They thought that everything came easily to her. But she will tell you that the only reason she excelled academically was the simple fact that she studied more and worked harder.

Anyone who plays a musical instrument or runs a marathon will tell you the same thing. Their achievements come of sacrifice and serious effort, not luck or good fortune. Of course, there are those who are naturally gifted in one way or another. But we were not created with a fixed set of abilities; rather, we were created with a deep-seated ability and yearning to improve, to grow, to become more than what we are.

While we don’t have much control over innate ability or natural talent, we can usually control how much we try. We cannot do much about how tall or short we are, but we can control how dedicated we are and how intently we resist giving up. Such a mindset empowers us to step outside our comfort zone and seek new opportunities for progress and change—creating growth and development in place of rationalization and regret. We will then find—to our joy, but not to our surprise—that we can achieve remarkable things.

Our reactions to life's lessons

The greatest problem facing any organism is successful reaction to its environment. Environment, speaking scientifically, is the sum total of your experiences. In plain United States, this means fitting vocationally, socially and maritally into the place where you are. If you don't fit you must move or change your environment to fit you. If you can't change the environment and you won't move you will become a failure, just as tropical plants fail when transplanted to the Nevada desert. Learn From the Sagebrush ¶ But there is something that grows and keeps on growing in the Nevada desert—the sagebrush. It couldn't move away and it couldn't change its waterless environment, so it did what you and I must do if we expect to succeed. It adapted itself to its environment, and there it stands, each little stalwart shrub a reminder of what even a plant can do when it tries!

Life is a landscape.

Do you like landscapes and time lapse.  Well prepare to be inspired.  Life is wonderful and this will show us just how wonderful.

Love of Reading, don't be a grump

Some kids struggle with reading, which in turn makes it so they don't want to read.  Even good readers at times may not want to work on their reading skills.  To work on those things are boring!
But turn it into a game and the desire to participate goes up.  Especially when there are records to be broken.

Life works the same way sometimes.  We get bogged down by routine, and forget what and why we do things.  We need to remember the fun in life and the joy.  Then remember who we are doing everything for--our families (most of us.)

Don't be a grump, enjoy life.

Wes

Printer

Printer

So I couldn't get the printer to copy what I wanted copied the way I wanted, and then when someone asked how i was doing I basically said that the copier wasn't coping the way I needed to. I was a little frustrated because it took 45 mins. Of my time to get pretty much nothing done, then got thinking. It wasn't the copiers fault. It was doing exactly what I was telling it to do. I would punch some commands in and it would do it. It was the operators fault.

Life is the same, we get what we punch in. We may not know the exact things that need to be punched I for what we want out. And if we keep punching in the same things we will keep getting the same thing out. We may have to stop along the way and ask someone. But once we learn what needs to be put in we will get what we want out.

Life is like printer. You get what you tell it to give you.

Wes

You can not bring toys...

Yes this a picture of me. When we first found the photo booth app on the iPad we were laughing so hard. It was a hilarious time. Though out life we have to take little moments and have a good laugh. Sometimes those laughs will be about ourselves, at other times about little or big instances that happen during life.

My son is going to have a grandparents day at school soon. So he asked his grandma if she would come. While he was talking to her about it he told her:
You can bring pictures and tell stories but you can't bring toys or real guns.
When he told me and my wife we died of laughter.

Life is fun enjoy it.

Wes

Beauty all around

I get caught up in every day life and forget the beauty all around. It may not be in a grand scheme, but life has little moment where there is- Beauty all around.

Garden of weeds

Well this could go a lot of ways. But, well I have neglected my garden for a while now. My potatoes are buried in weeds, corn has kind of grown but haven't picked any. Pumpkins and squash are bug infested and dying. We pulled up all our lettuce over a month ago after it got too old. And so forth. We get over run a lot in life and our purpose in life is to figure it all out and make it work. How can we handle something way better after this life if we are lost in this life.
Everything we go though is placed to help us prioritize. Have fun with that.

Wes

Equals Effort

  So I kind of left my last blog hanging.  Yeah, I guess I purposely did that.  I have noticed that more and more, I think especially with technology that our generations are getting lazier and lazier.   We don't want to work as hard any more, and expect just as much or more.  Talk to someone who grew up 50 yrs ago.  It was work work.  And then someone who grew up 70 yrs ago (the previous generation).  They came from the Depression era, and life was work work work.  You had to work, there was nothing just given you, work for it or you had absolutely nothing.
    So the connection in life between success and effort has been lost in a way.  People want to succeed in life and try and do it with as little effort as possible.
  Yes there might be some that have found their place in life, and have made it.  But, most that have achieved anything have had to put forth effort.
  So here it is again, the definition of effort.

ef·fort \ˈe-fərt, -ˌfȯrt\
noun
1 : conscious exertion of power
2 : a serious attempt
3 : something produced by exertion or trying
4 : effective force as distinguished from the possible resistance called into action by such a force
5 : the total work done to achieve a particular end <the war effort>

Nothing in life will be truly achieved without effort. 
You want to succeed in life?  better find some effort.

wes

Success equals

So the past little while I have been thinking about something that makes a big impact on each of our lives. I have known it, but just some things that have been said by different people and things I have read have made me start to ponder this topic a little more.
One story is of a group of leaders that went forth among the people and did declare the word unto them. And then it says "And Alma, also, himself, COULD NOT REST, and he also went forth." What make a man not be able to rest,and gets him up to go and do? It seems some people in life have it and others don't. Or do we all have it, with some knowing how to cultivate it while others are not sure how. And if so how do they get it.
Another story talks about a man that "could not be restrained"
Then I heard someone say, and I have always known this but something went to clicking inside, "their achievement level is directly related to their level of effort."
So I went and looked effort up in the dictionary.
ef·fort \ˈe-fərt, -ˌfȯrt\
noun
1 : conscious exertion of power : hard work <a job requiring time and effort>
2 : a serious attempt : try <making an effort to reduce costs>
3 : something produced by exertion or trying <the novel was her most ambitious effort>
4 : effective force as distinguished from the possible resistance called into action by such a force
5 : the total work done to achieve a particular end <the war effort>
Examples
He put a lot of effort into finishing the project on time.
It wasn't easy, but it was worth the effort.
We need to expend more effort.
Origin: Middle French, from Old French esforz, esfort, from esforcier to force, from ex- + forcier to force.
First use: 15th century
Synonyms: elbow grease, exertion, expenditure, labor, pains, sweat, trouble, while, work

More tomorrow
Wes

Lonesome meow

So yesterday there happened to come from somewhere this kitten that we didn't know we had.  Well it got meowing up a storm and trying to climb up the back door.  When my wife and daughter were outside it would follow them around and continue meowing.  They made sure it had plenty of food but it still continued on.  This scared my little girl.  Well by the time I had gotten home from work they had put the kitten in the shed.  Well my son then let the kitten out and it continues on with it's psychotic behavior.  Well the meowing dyed down and it just followed them and me everywhere.  This would happen until  we would go in side and the meowing would start up again.  So is this cat sick, or, is it really lonely?  

Doesn't life bring those type of people to us?  Those that truly need us, and yes some of them may go overboard sometimes.  Maybe we're the meowing kitten?  But let's remember that through life we all need others.  It might be someone to have, someone to talk to or listen to, maybe it might only be the need to be acknowledged.  

Let's not let that lonely meowing kitten rip our door down before we realize what they need.

Be a friend.  A good ne.

Wes

--
Wes Grimm
4th Grade Teacher
Iron Springs Elementary
"Love Learning"

One long day

So school starts tomorrow, and it has been one long day.  You never have one of those days.  HA HA.  Didn't quite get done what I was thinking, but what did get done was helpful to not only me but 10 others as well.  I guess that is what life is all about.  If I would have done what I thought I would have gotten done it would have been beneficial to me and my class, now it is beneficial to 10 times more, teachers and classrooms.

Go out and share yourself.  The results will be amazing and the reward...
well who needs rewards.



wes

Fwd: Over and over

It has happened twice now!

2 posts and both times I lost it when I went to post.  That never happens in life does it?
Well we just have to learn and keep going.



--
Wes Grimm
4th Grade Teacher
Iron Springs Elementary
"Love Learning"