10 Rules for Students and Teachers

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I stumbled across the 10 Rules for Students and Teachers, written by Sister Corita Kent in 1968. Sister Corita Kent was a peace activist, artist, and college professor. You can learn more about her at http://www.corita.org/. 

10 Rules for Students and Teachers

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student: Pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher: Pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined: this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything. It might come in handy later.

Feel free to download by clicking on the picture above. 

The point where we realize we're out of time

As the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter, the difference in the score was great, but we still felt a sense of hope for our daughters. We wanted them to come out on top, to be winners, successful in their efforts. It would take a lot on their part, but they could still come back. 

But as the clock ticked and the game got closer to the end of the last quarter, we reached the point in the game where everyone realizes that there’s just no way to win. There’s too many points that are needed and not enough time to get them. 

All hope lost, the realization washes over me. Out of time. The game is too far gone and there’s nothing left to do but keep playing and going through the motions... trying to improve skills that can possibly be used in a win in the next game. But this game, it's over. A mark in the loss column.

Sometimes we cross paths with students where we feel like we’re out of time. They’re “too far gone” for us to do much for them. We have hope in the beginning, but our efforts don’t amount to enough within the time that we’re given. And we lose. 

We lose an opportunity to make a difference. We lose a student to the grind of an unhealthy lifestyle, or to a negative family situation that perpetuates itself through another generation. 

But we don’t lose faith or hope. We believe we've done everything we could have. We hope we’ve gotten better at cracking the code. Better so that we won’t lose the next student who passes our way. 

Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. - Alabama's Twitter Chat

There are many inspirational and important quotes spoken or written by Martin Luther King, Jr. Tonight's twitter chat (Alabama Education Chat) will focus on seven and how they relate to educators. We hope that you will join us tonight from 9-10pm CST as we celebrate MLK day and his inspiring words.


Everyone is welcome to join us Monday nights 9-10pmCST for #ALedchat. We value the insights, perspectives, and experiences of those in our PLN.


Here are the quotes and questions for tonight's chat to get you thinking in advance:

“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” Does your school embrace this? Give examples.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.” How does your school/system encourage acceptance of others?

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a constant attitude.” How does forgiveness play a role in what you do? 

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted…” Give examples of how kids learn to do their best no matter what the task is.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” How does your school answer this question? 

“The time is always right to do what is right.” Do you think students find it hard to follow this? How do we help them understand this quote?

“…if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Give examples of how kids can learn persistence.

Bring your experience and passion to #ALedchat tonight, 9-10pmCST.

Time Converter

Please click the time converter link above to convert 9pmCST to your time zone. 

TIP: If you have never done a twitter chat before, you may find it helpful to go to tweetdeck and enter the hashtag #ALedchat. Sign in with your twitter account. The website will "filter out" all of the other tweets except for the ones with the hashtag #ALedchat and put them into one column.  (P.S. The hashtags are NOT case-sensitive.)

Dealing with Distractibility in the 1:1 Classroom

Here is a presentation I shared in a workshop titled Dealing with Distractibility in the 1:1 Classroom. Feel free to use or share!

http://bit.ly/Distractibility