K The Ken Bradbury Foundation

← Speeches & Workshops

Feb 2008

Assistant Principals Assoc. Lisle, IL Ten Commandments of Stress Reduction Noon: meal. Me: 12:30-1:30

Man…you’ve heard a lot of speeches this week. I’ll talk fast, you listen fast. Actually, I just came to check something out.. Jason Leheay.. snot-nosed little boy at summer camp.. Could this be the same guy?

Communicating: David. .basketti Beginning a speech: Bummy Teen Prostitution..selling yourself.

I’m not a professional speaker.. I’m a teacher who talks. 37th year of teaching.

I come to encourage you today. The more strange the world becomes, the more I love and admire and sometime fear for our profession.

Me: speak on weight loss. Me: Speech on weight loss… Like Madonna teaching Sunday School

If I’ve learned one thing  We can’t do our best.... fulfill our purpose, until we learn to get rid of what’s holding us back. Success is not so much a process of “putting stuff in” as “taking stuff off”.... especially for adults... We’ve spent more time loading it on. You’ve spent 3 days putting stuff in and on in your workshops..Now, before you leave, let me help you take a few things off.

Traveling theatre .. Four schools a day…dealing with 4 administrators a day for about two weeks…Frankly, it was depressing…. So much of your job is putting out fires that you have little time to dream…to plan..to really change things and make a difference.. I hope I can help today.

I didn’t drive up here to collect a speaking fee… I would pay not to drive above Peoria… I really do care…I really hope we can change things for our kids….

A big part of your job is to affect and change and improve the attitudes of others. Question: How much time do you spend simply doing that for yourself?

LET ME TALK TO YOU ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT... MENTAL WEIGHT... THE THINGS THAT HOLD US BACK....

In other words, how to remove some of the stress from your job. (I thought about asking you to name the one thing, that if removed from your job, would make it less stressful..but afraid you’d name somebody in this room.)

First, a warning…people are watching you. Talk about changing attitudes all you want and all they will hear is your attitude and very few of your words.

My teachers: Piano…Mildred, finger Trumpet: Jimmy Zimmerman You’re being watched every moment.

Our head football coach..former student. Biggest shock of his life. First year..tough guy..chewed kids out… Then the day when he divided the frosh up among the seniors..same attitude. Let me give you a list of resolutions ..of Commandments… Weight reduction…dropping the stress…. This is a smorgasbord … take what you like and leave the rest.

  1. Thou Shalt Not Rehash the Negative

Our teacher’s lounge For once, don’t get if off your chest Teacher I know..kids drive her crazy.. ..meet her in IGA...guess what she talks about...

Corrie Ten Boom “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorry, It empties today of its strength.” To lose weight, skip your morning calisthenics. Every morning I do calisthenics... From the perspective of a teacher, when you talk to me, talk about the future. I’m probably smart enough to remember the past. Let’s stop rehashing the negative.

The last principal I worked for was a complete doofus. No concept of time or scheduling…could never find anything on his desk… If you had a conference with him you had to email him afterwards to remind him what you spoke about.. And..he was one of the best administrator’s I’ve ever worked under… He was happy. He was positive. Because he had no memory to speak of, he never dwelt upon the past.

  1. Realize that no matter what happens to you tomorrow, YOU are still the one who determines how the day will go. Mom: Alcatraz … boats in harbor My last senior class who had been the terror of our school ever since Jr High. I saw the list and it looked like a prison break. I never dreamed they’d make it this far alive. But when class began, I was still the main determining factor of how that class goes.

In spite of the School Improvement Plan, inspite of President Bush’s totally unrealistic goals for education, in spite of your superintendent and board and parents, you are in charge of your life and your job…YOU are still the main determining factor in how the day will go.

  1. If life’s bumming you out, chances are you aren’t giving enough of yourself. This is the opposite of what the self-help books preach.

Self-centeredness : depression. Becky...funeral... Carl Menninger JHS girl: CFS

A. Sweitzer: “The only ones among you who will be truly happy as those who will have sought and found out how to serve.” If life is bumming you out because you’re asked to give so much, give more.

  1. Collect Interesting and enthusiastic people My favorite Peanuts cartoon…Charley Brown, Snoopy, storm.

As a profession, we are terrible about validating each other.. pumping each other up. So often, our jobis judged by popularity …thus: jealousies. Ed A: constant validation….

Collect interesting and enthusiastic people. Marie...salt and pepper shakers.

Friendships don’t have to simply be things that happen...They can be created... Not alphabetical. I hope you have a support group among your colleagues. Some educators try to create one among their students.. seldom successful … often dangerous. Our Green Pastures Teachers Workshop….

Nuture friends who encourage you. Who take joy in your joy. Even if you must go outside your own faculty.

Tony Compello “Five years from now you’ll be pretty much the same as you are now except for two things: The books you’ve read and the people you’ve met.

And the best way to do this is to become an encourager yourself. My schedule… We’re all busy, but I have the microphone. Yesterday I did a symposium on Abraham Lincoln in Quincy. On the way up last night I stopped in S’field to do a presentation for DCFS. As soon as I finish my speech I must dash down to Pike County to present a concert of Lenton music in Perry, and tomorrow I’m spending the entire day in nursing homes with my college class interviewing the residents about their life stories. Somewhere driving down I-55 I need to figure out what I’m going to play tonight. Do I need sympathy? No..I need encouragement. Encouragers! People who tell me how we CAN get a job accomplished, not those who tell me why it won’t work. I’m sure you are going to bring home lots of wonderful knowledge from this conference, but what your teachers need most is simply your ENCOURAGEMENT.

architect Johnstone: (Charlie Rose show) 90 years old. Hottest place in hell for whiners and complainers ..... “If life were 100 times longer, there would still excuse for every getting bored by it.” Cultivate friends who are not bored by life. Encourage ye one another.

  1. Don’t get so busy with the important things in your life that you forget the important things in your life. James Dobson..monopoly Dad...hay ...rain.... It is so easy for an administrator to get buried under the piles of responsibility and forget why they’re in the building. On the cover of your program.. “Leaders serving Children.” Notice it does not say, “Leaders serving school boards,” “Leaders serving parents,” “Leaders serving the IHSA,” or “Leaders serving the State Goals and Standards.” It’s “Leaders serving children.” Jan Terry…remarkable.. “It’s about the students, stupid.”
  1. Choose carefully whom you try to please. Quest...Inner-Outer Self

HINEY THE MULE A question you must surely ask yourself at least once a day as an administrator.. “Okay, just who am I supposed to please in this situation?” And you know the answer: you do what you know is right.

  1. Lighten up.... Jim Kern...MRS. BROWN Matt…baritone I sent this plan to the State....NEW SIP..No reply. --Minus 10 points if your athletic facility is at least 40 times bigger than your special ed room --tour classes..2 points for every smile seen in class... --minus 10 points for every hour paperwork takes away from teaching time. --deduct 20 points if school still serves peanut better sandwiches with chili... no reason but it makes as much sense as the rest of the SIP --School earns 100 points for every teacher who’s been there for over 10 years...says something about the school --double school’s points for every parent who comes to the school for anything other than a ballgame or to complain. --1000 points for every teacher given the boot because they couldn’t teach. Now THAT would give you a score that told you something about the school.

Seriously … I’d love to make a trip around the state and give each faculty one message… as both the state and federal gov. are now determined to make teaching a science, RESIST! Think of the finest teachers you ever had… it was not the goals of the Illinois Manufacturers Association which made them great. Keep the art in your teaching.

Lighten UP: PHYSICAL CHECKUP... Illinois Power

LIGHTEN UP.... ....go barefoot more often ....turn off the TV some night and pull taffy. ...eat nothing but ice cream for a whole day. ...wear underwear backwards...will break into uncontrollable giggles for no reason every time you think about it. ....walk up to biggest grouch you know and say “I just want you to know that I feel great!” It’ll throw them off all day. ...do some serious coloring ...start teaching to succeed instead of fearing failure... ...break the dress code occasionally. Your own, not the schools. .....McDonnald’s “Have a nice Day” Why? … plan an all-out attack on your most serious behavior problem..bother them with affection, with attention, with love.. cause some real trouble in their life. (Kidnapping kids at camp)

3 things in life are real...WHEN YOU’RE BORN, WHEN YOU DIE WHEN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN A CHILD’S LIFE.. in everything else...LIGHTEN UP.

  1. Don’t take yourself too seriously.. chances are, no one else does.

Chillochothe...”probably dead” Church lady...music at her funeral. Jeff W...Free Spirit..Robbed and tied. Travel LIghter...Your anxieties? Look in your purse or pocket or billfold...ME: comb. Roger Ebert.

  1. Start living in the present. I’ve taught thousands of kids over the years, including summer workshops in self-esteem.

ONE CONCLUSION: Success in life boils down to one thing... love. Success boils down to loving what you do and loving the people around you. The ability to live in the present. Some of you during my speech have been thinking about how long...., tomorrow, this weekend. When you drive home today, enjoy the moment you’re in.

Show at New Salem one night.. turn out the lights and look at the moon. As Americans, our live is so filled with “things” that we seldom leave time to enjoy where we are and what we’re doing.

  1. If you have faith, use it. It’s not against the law for you to use whatever faith you have. I noted in your program that you have several moments of silence built into your schedule. I plead with you today to build similar moments into your own personal schedule. Some day perhaps we’ll live in a world where we can once again use the “P” word..Pray! To speak to a group of school administrators and not use the word prayer is like telling the occupants of the Titanic… “We’ve got lifeboats, but we can’t tell you where we hid them!”

Please....please, drop the chains of stress and worry that you hang around your neck. No one in your entire community makes a greater impact on our future. Keep it up. Please. Please.

Once a year..my college fraternity meets.2 bankers, 1 builder, 1 prison warden, 2 Insurance executives, one lawyer, 1 impliment dealer, one state worker.. I am by far the lowest paid diner at the table…and the happiest. I can go to bed at night knowing that I made the world better by affecting the life of a child. I hope that each night you can do the same.

Stood in freezing cold in S’field winter to hear Barack Obama announce.. Attended a rally for Hillary Clinton. Was in an airport crowd to watch John McCain make a few remarks… I frankly don’t care if I don’t meet Romney… But I will guarantee you this…before November, each of them will claim to be the education President. And I guarantee you this…none of them…not one of them… can make the difference in a child’s life that you can.

Encourage each other. There are enough forces working against us…let’s not be one of them. If the kids are the hope for tomorrow, then you are the hope for our kids.

Have a great finish to your year. It really is your choice.

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