Claudia Guerrero Ofelia Alvarez

 While grading the students tests, the teacher gets frustrated due to the students not passing the test.  As she continued, her anger increased due to most of the students not passing.  The teacher already frustrated asks the students what in the world happened on this test yesterday?

 The teacher collected herself, did a Top 20 breather and starts over  The teacher asks the students help me understand what happened yesterday  Tell me what parts of the test were you confused about or did not understand

 Poor test results  Students don’t work hard enough  They don’t care  Parents are not supporting  Students failed because I am not a good teacher  Someone will find out

 Feelings of helplessness and anger  Negative attitude  Classroom disruptions  Poor test scores  Students are called to leave classroom  Negative parental comments  Other teachers succeed and receive awards  Administration ignores their input

 Sanchez 98  Yang 97  Garcia 95  Etc.

 Teacher wanted to go out of his way to congratulate students  Wanted people to know he was doing an outstanding job as a teacher  Wanted students to know that if they had applied themselves they too would be on the top 10 list

 An assembly was held every Spring. The top 10 students were called to go up on a stage.  They were given pizza.  These top 10 students were to eat their pizza in front of 900 students as a reward for their outstanding work.

 Being sarcastic  Threatening punishments  Yelling  Making negative judgments  Blaming others  Shutting down This makes the situation even worse.

 In the heat of the moment, we tend to react with no time to collect ourselves.  Therefore, the responses tend to lack clarity, good judgment, and effectiveness

How can we survive these difficult situations?  When we receive a hit unexpectedly, we need to make the choice to be above the line with our choices  We need to give an elegant pause between the hit and the response

HIT {Pause…Think…Choose} Respond _______________________________________ HIT React

 We cannot change and remain above the line if we are unaware we are below the line, or if we do not want to realize we are below the line.

1. We become aware after the incident is over. 2. We become aware during the incident. 3. We become aware when the invitation arrives.

They are aware of what’s going on in the classrooms. They have the ability to look in the mirror to see the power they have to make choices that create a positive difference for everyone involved.

1. What invitations do you receive and accept? 2. What are your indicators when you go below the line? 3. Is there a connection between the indicators and you thinking you are not good enough? 4. Identify values you have when you take a hit. 5. What action would you like to take?

“A mother came to Mahatma Gandhi concerned about how much sugar her son was eating. She asked the great leader if he would talk to her son about eating too much sugar. Gandhi asked the mother to come back in a week. When the mother returned the following week, Gandhi agreed to speak to her son. The mother asked Gandhi, ‘Why couldn’t you have told my son last week to stop eating sugar?’ Gandhi replied, ‘Last week I was eating sugar. This week I gave it up.’”

The moral of the story: “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

 Teachers must be authentic.  For Top 20 teachers an important value and purpose is the philosophy of kaizen - a continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life.  Kaizen: a Japanese word where kai = change and zen = good

 The purpose of teaching is to bring about good change in our students. For this to happen, “we must be the change we wish to see” in our students.  If we want curiosity to stay alive in our students, we must overcome our need to be right and stay curious.  If we want students to move outside their Comfort Zone and learn from mistakes, we must be willing to attempt new things outside our Comfort Zones.  If we want our students to listen, we must be active listeners.  If we want students to develop Star Qualities through school, we must develop our own Star Qualities through teaching.  If we want students to overcome limiting beliefs and keep stupid in the box, we must deal with our own limiting beliefs and feelings of stupid.

 Routines, school day begins and ends at the same time, and year after year, the events in a school is pretty much the same. After years of teaching the experience of a school year becomes mundane.  It becomes easy for a veteran teachers to just sit back and ride out the rest of a career until retirement.  But, Top 20 Teachers maintain a desire for growth and continual improvement.

 With two years left in her retirement she attended a Top 20 session.  After her three-day training, committed to implementing what she learned.  Pat’s personal kaizen made a positive difference in her students’ lives as she began to teach Top 20 classes in her school.  Although Pat retired from counseling and teaching. She now coordinates Top 20 training sessions for every teacher in the Windsor School district.

 The kaizen philosophy is not only to be practiced by wise veteran teachers, but also to be implemented early in a new teacher’s career.  Recent college graduates, who often receive many Not Good Enough messages in their first years in the classroom, develop negative mental habits and behaviors to compensate.  New teachers feel intimidated by the amount of preparation and content that goes into teaching.

 Was hired to teach Latin American Geography to freshman.  Student asked, “what is the agricultural crop of Peru?” she answered “corn”  Teacher didn’t know the answer lying to the student activating a feeling of Not Good Enough.  Once the students found out that corn was not the right answer it created a lack of trust in their teacher.  Teacher vowed to be honest and have the students answer the question together.

 Attended a Top 20 training session a month before she began her first year of teaching.  Maureen’s kaizen has taken the form of personal reflection which she titled: Important Things I Learned My First Year of Teaching.  Some of her insights include:  Set the tone for the year on the first day and sustain it.  A soft voice instead of a loud one gains students’ attention.  Students won’t remember all you taught them, they will remember how you treated them.  Respect your students and celebrate all their successes.  Listen carefully to parents before you respond.  All students can learn.  Thank students who correct your typos and spelling errors.  Remain calm in a difficult conversation, and your words will have more impact.  Don’t expect perfection, but be willing to work towards it.

 As teachers, we are experts especially about our particular subject area. We are expected to know the answers.  When we don’t know the answer, our Not Good Enough button can get activated and manifest itself in our resistance to growth and learning.  Our desire for kaizen is rooted in humility and the awareness that we don’t know everything.  Lacking knowledge or certain skills does not mean we cant be effective teachers. Lack of kaizen does.  Top 20 teachers desire growth and learning more than approval or the appearance of knowing it all.

 How strong is your desire for kaizen:  Identify an area in your professional life where you want to improve?  Is there an area of growth or learning to which you are experiencing some resistance?  What did you become aware of while reading this chapter regarding an action you would like to take?

KEEP CALM AND KAIZEN ON CHANGE GOOD