K The Ken Bradbury Foundation

← Speeches & Workshops

February 2010

S’field Hilton, Teachers of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Before you Tip, You’ve Got to Bend a Little

Lots of speeches at a conf like this. This is your dessert.. I promise to tell you nothing earth-shaking, no new set of goals and plans. No talk of testing. And my speech is in no way related to state funding.

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

Most vivid memory of deaf school: basketball at ISD, swimming pool

I’m not a professional speaker.. I’m a teacher, just like you.. Taught 37 years in public schools and now teach a few college courses.

Tipping Point..Your Ah-Ha moment… Every teachers’ conference talks about change… encourages you to change your methods in some way… I won’t.

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

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.

Me: Speech on weight loss… Like Madonna teaching Sunday School How to BEND instead of break…taking the strss off yourself.

LET ME TALK TO YOU ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT... MENTAL WEIGHT... THE THINGS THAT HOLD US BACK.... HOW TO BEND, BEFORE WE TIP

(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.

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 WAYS TO BEND WITHOUT TIPPING… 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...

  1. Realize that no matter what happens to you today, 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. And when class begins, I was still the main determining factor of how that class goes.

In spite of the School Improvemennt Plan, inspite of the government’s totally unrealistic goals for education, in spite of your administration and parents, you are in charge of your class’s education this year.

  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. “Take care of your inner child.” …Whiney brat

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 As a profession, we are terrible about validating each other.. pumping each other up. So often, our teaching is 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 teachers try to create one among their students.. seldom successful … often dangerous. Our Green Pastures 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… Teach at Lincoln Land, currently have three plays in production at once, closed one last weekend, rehearsals begin Monday on a new one, 4 summer camps to plan, taking a group to Alaska and last week I took a new job on the Peoria River boat.

What do I need? Encouragers! People who tell me how we CAN get a job accomplished, not those who tell me why it won’t work.

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.

  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....
  1. Choose carefully whom you try to please. Quest...Inner-Outer Self

HINEY THE MULE

  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” Lincoln Museum…piano..wax figures 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. I’ve talked to audiences of adults in tough situations: Caterpillar management and labor during their strike. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about success and what it means. I’ve known hugely successful people. 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 from school 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. Please....please, drop the chains of stress and worry that you hang around your neck. You are the life-saving figure in the life of your kids…You must learn how to bend before you tip…before you break.

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.

Next year, don’t hire a long-winded speaker like me. Sit in small groups and talk about these things… Your favorite teacher… describe them. Your fondest memory of last school year. A current student who inspires you. One skill that would make you a better teacher. Other than vacations, paychecks, and weekends, the best thing about your job. A teacher whom you admire.

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.

I hope you leave this conference with some new knowledge.. …with some new ideas… …with some new techniques in your bag of teaching tricks..

But most of all… ….that you leave encouraged.. That you learn to bend…for your own sake.. That’s what will benefit your kids most.

One final story… Aaron.. Performing Arts Camp.. ISD football game… very close..one of the best teams ISD ever had.. They lost the deciding game of the season… Boys were still happy except one senior running back… Looking out on the field and seeing Jim Bonds walk by the happier players to hug a sobbing senior boy. We have beautiful wonderful people in our occupation and you’re one of them.

There are miracles waiting for us back in our classrooms… Let’s bend enough so that we can see them.

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