K The Ken Bradbury Foundation

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JHS Opening ‘96

. Been a rough summer. Bob Dole will probably not be making a charitable donation to the JEA this fall. ………newspaper article on kids in the WalMart parking lot have half of you worried if you were the JHS teacher they were impersonating. Look... after Bob Crowe, they have to have somebody to imitate. “Ken. I’m the most mimicked man in Jacksonville and I have no idea why.” Last week in Ponderosa, Pat Kennedy told me to keep it short. Some comment about attention spans. Pat was always my hero in college. A Sr when I entered as a Frosh. I admired him…. although I thought he was asleep when I first met him. I watched him for a year and he never changed. St. Peters last Sunday… 91 year old lady. Sat by her. grabbed coatsleeve.. Keep it short. I’m in a hurry today.

Here at JHS... FHA conf. Teen Prostitution..selling yourself

I did my student teaching at JHS.. Orginally: Emma Savage.. last minute switch.. “You two are too much alike.” I still don’t know what that meant. Finally: Louise Norris. “Consider whether teaching is truly for you.” My assignment: General English for Juniors. And: commons supervision with Henry Jackson, Jr. Each had a door to guard. Guess who’s door they tried. Went on to attend graduate school with Henry Jackson. Best of friends. To this day: “Ray, how are you?”

First...a word from the Illinois State Board of Education: “The state goals for 95 which replaced the state goals for education of 1994 which amended the goals of 93, 92, and 91, have now been changed to the state school improvement plan for 1997 which although closely resembling the state goals for 1982, are actually a rewording of the 1948 state plan to improve education which were actually no more than a half-hearted stab at rewording the Magna Carta.” Translated: “As long as we keep changing our mind, we have job with the State Board.”

On several occasions I’ve tried to write a reply to the state board’s attempt at setting goals, but I’ve never known how to spell (raspberry)

(Dr. Freeman: “Oh God, he’s just set morale back ten years.”)

S.I.P....6 stages of accepting a fatal disease..

  1. Shock 2)Anger
  2. Barter
  3. Rationalization
  4. Acceptance
  5. Hope...Hope that they’ll change they’ll so busy changing their minds that they’ll leave us alone.

Stress.... I’ve heard opening day speakers talk about relieving teacher stress. Does little good. Before we can think about it, they open the doors and let kids into the school.

Let me give you a report from the front lines: Triopia’s been in school for five days already. The kids didn’t change over the summer.

Best speakers say things you already know....

I like to operate from the theory that anyone who’s taught for a few years is already an expert on teaching. Getting ready for a new school year…. not so much a matter of putting on new attitudes but shedding some old habits.

Getting rid of the stress that can kill your effectiveness in the classroom

The secret to great teaching is found in the soul of the teacher.

Good teaching is not about school improvement plans. Good teaching is not about restructuring the method of school finance. Good teaching is about the teacher. The state doesn’t know that. Many school boards don’t know that. Some parents know that. All of your students know that. But it is vitally important that YOU know that.

However you define spiritual, it’s a spiritual thing.

  1. DON’T REHASH THE NEGATIVE

Our teacher’s lounge Who ever said, “It’s good to get it off your chest,” should be shot. If you have to do it, stay away from me. I don’t want to hear it. Teacher I know..kids drive her crazy.. ..meet her in IGA...guess what she talks about... Teachers: worst in the world about taking their job home Insurance men on golf course. Ministers. That’s a compliment...and a curse.

Corrie Ten Boom “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” You don’t have enough time with your kids to bring the failures of the past with you. Let go of them and live in the present.

Americans: famous with European tour guides: “Where do we go next?”

In the few minutes I’ve been talking, some of you have… Stop it. Pay attention. Live in the present. It’s a spiritual thing.

  1. If life’s bumming you out, chances are you aren’t giving enough of yourself. This is not sound psychological advice. It is, however, good sense. Self-centeredness : depression. Becky..a member of your school board......funeral... Carl Menninger

Sweitzer: “The only ones among you who will be truly happy as those who will have sought and found out how to serve.” You are in a giving profession. That’s the way you’re programmed. If you want stress, try giving less of yourself. Give more.

  1. Collect encouragers. Marie...salt and pepper shakers.

Relationships don’t have to simply be things that happen...They can be created... Nuture friends who encourage you. 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. If you are typical teacher, you will very soon be faced with a classroom filled with kids who don’t like you on that particular day. If you aren’t mature in your thinking, you’ll think this somehow makes you less of a person. Teachers who aren’t secure in who they are don’t realize it’s often because they face a hundred kids who aren’t secure in who they are and they direct it toward you. Grow up. Teachers need a support group of peers. Mine are called Ed, Patty & Julie. I can walk into a school and show you which teachers don’t have this support group. I have to look quickly because they don’t stay long. Find one. Make one. Look for those who need it. Support is a spiritual thing.

  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.... How many times have I stupidly rushed through to finish what my lesson plans called for at the expense of a student who needed an extra moment. Teaching is a spiritual thing. THAT should be your priority.
  1. Choose carefully whom you try to please. I’m just enough of a Calvinist to believe that if we listen closely, we end up where we’ve been called in life. I think I’ve been called to teach. That may not be the case with every teacher. If not, consider another line of work.

But if you are called to teach….When you teach, who are you trying to please?

LEGAL ADVISORS ARE NOT TEACHERS: You are. Don’t be fooled by the legal advice warning you about getting overly concerned about kids. You cannot be a good teacher without having an unbelievable concern with kids’ lives.

JOURNAL COURIER EDITORIAL WRITERS ARE NOT TEACHERS> You are. Their job is to sell tomorrow’s paper. Your job has eternal impact.

PUBLIC OPINION IS NOT A TEACHER. You are. Public opinion changes with the wind. You’re hired to do what lasts. What you know is right even if at the time you may have no idea how to get it done.

It’s a spiritual thing.

Quest...Inner-Outer Self

HINEY THE MULE

I heard it once said that “Laughter is the beginning of prayer.” We need it to clear the clutter before we can truly spirtual. In other words: Lighten up! Don’t take yourself so seriously. If you look around you’ll notice that no one else is. Jim Kern...MRS. BROWN

Post ..Jalepeno pepper

Sometimes you have to recognize the ludicrous for what it is I sent this plan to the State....NEW SIP..No reply. Start with 100 points.

--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 --30 points for each athlete who’s been coached to think they had a good time playing a game..even when they lost. 60 points for every coach who agrees. --double school’s points for every parent who comes to the school for anything other than a ballgame. --1000 points for every teacher given the boot because they couldn’t teach. -1000 point for every principal who sings Happy Birthday to the students (get more examples) -1000 points for every Len Bogle who takes the lead in the Passavant Follies and shows kids that giving of themselves can be fun.

LIGHTEN UP.... ....go barefoot more often ....skip social studies some day and pull taffy. ...celebrate the opening of school with ice cream. Mr Neil: tough piano teacher.. I remember the Pepsi.. and there wasn’t even one there! ...wear your underwear backwards...will break into uncontrollable giggles for no reason every time you think about it. ....walk up to biggest grouch in your school and say “I just want you to know that I feel great!” It’ll throw them off all day. ...For one of your institutes, make human relations a priority: Our four-school institute: guitar playing, nature walk, water colors, 3 on 3 basketball, storytelling. You are the most important factor in this building. You need refreshing and revitalizing. ...start teaching to succeed instead of living in fear of failing... ...break the dress code occasionally. Not the school’s, but your own personal dress code.... ...if you have an administrator who’s not afraid of the Big Bad State Board, hug him .....McDonnalds “Have a nice Day” Why? ....Think about your favorite and best teacher...Did he or she have joy?

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.

Dangers of taking yourself too seriously: 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.

  1. If you have faith, use it. For every minute you spend worrying about your kids, spend a minute praying for them. Worry is a waste. Prayer is power. It’s a spiritual thing.

My story...........

Only another teacher can possibly know how important your job is. This teacher is so proud of you. This teacher is so desperately concerned about what you do and how you feel about it.

Again, the secret to good teaching is not on the agenda of the school board, it’s inside you.

Please....please, drop the chains of stress and worry that you hang around your neck. You’ve created most of these anxieties… It’s up to you to get rid of them. You’ve been told this so often, you may not even hear me when I say it, but ……….No one in your entire community makes a greater impact on our future. Keep it up. Please. Please.

Don’t give up. We get to be around people who for some is the worst time of their lives. Don’t give up. Bob Slavens

I’m not talking about “your kids” then leaving on my national speaking tour. I have a class at 10:00. Guidance counselor is taking my class and he couldn’t follow a lesson plan if Moses brought it to him on stone tablets. I work with many JHS kids in theatre and summer camps. I work with many of you. My nephews are in your school system. Employment has tempted my brother’s family several times to leave Jacksonville. In each case, it’s been you people and your school who’ve kept them here.

I look out here today and see so many friends. I do a great deal of speaking for teachers’ groups in schools which I never visit again. Today is different.

Lighten up and do what God has called you to do. Mold, inspire, discipline, TEACH> It’s a spirtual thing. Thanks. Now I’ve gotta go teach. And so do you.

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