SoDak it Hurts

To celebrate the excellent work of the Oral Interpretation, One Act and Poetry* students - tonight we are holding the first Todd County Fine Arts Night. In two acts, high school students who’ve competed and received state-level recognition will perform the pieces that brought home the gold to Todd County.

The show begins at 7:00 at Todd County Middle School - let’s hope the weather holds out for us!

My mentor here in explained an excellent concept to me a while back. She talked with me about daily investing myself into my lessons so I can teach enthusiastically and hook my students no matter what the material.

She told me I need to find a way to be passionate about either the topic, the material or the method of teaching.

Since then, I’ve found even when teaching what might seem a lifeless strategy, if I can choose an excellent topic or piece of reading to practice that strategy, then it can be enjoyable. If I’m not passionate about the topic or subject matter of our discussion, it is my responsibility to make sure I am passionate about the baseline material or strategy of instruction for the lesson. Lastly, If neither the topic of discussion or the material pull me out of bed in the morning, I must invest myself in the way I communicate the information. How can I challenge myself to walk my students up Bloom’s taxonomy so they feel like geniuses? How can I create or steal an activity that will liven up the material or stimulate the topic of conversation?

Some days, like this past Friday, I was running on all three cylinders. It was excellent. Of course, those kind of excellent days are never guaranteed and it’s important to be ready and able to draw the students in, to twist the kaleidoscope a couple of millimeters and show them a new way of seeing.

Consistency is one of the most important qualities I’ve observed and come to value while here in South Dakota.

Being consistent as a person and teacher applies to everything: discipline in keeping up with plans and systems in the classroom, with expectations for students, with mindsets as a teacher and what the purpose is for teaching. Outside of the classroom, I see how it is necessary to be consistent and intentional in the ways I interact with the community and establish relationships. It is never acceptable to have ‘on’ and ‘off’ days/weeks or be ‘in’ and ‘out’ of things.

Whether it is in my classroom or in my personal life, I’ve come to notice the people who effectively fulfill what they believe their purpose to be and regularly play to their strengths are those who choose to be consistent. Consistency requires established, measurable goals and an adherence to them. In order to be consistent it’s important to participate in responsibilities that are worth your time and energy. It has become clear that consistency is very closely linked to awareness of who you are, what you can do, what you want to do, what you are willing to do and finally, what you have to do.

Consistency, I believe, identifies intentional and purposeful living.

It is consistency that my students deserve.