Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Social Stations

Posted by Amazing People, on 12:30 PM
Today I'm super excited because we go back into Social Station rotation in counseling classes this week. Here's what we have planned:

1. In the Creation Station, we'll be writing thank-you notes, like these, only on 3x5 cards, for a volunteer in our community who distributes them when she sees a man or woman in uniform. We must never forget ... 


2. At the Staging Station {with or without puppets}, we'll be role playing different scenarios and working through some common, every-day conflicts.


3. In the Ukulele Lab, we'll be learning our first few chords. In a fun development after a Twitter convo yesterday, we'll be adding ten ukuleles to our lab thanks to the generosity of authors Dave and Shelley Burgess of Teach Like A Pirate and P is for Pirate fame. 
I sure hope Mr. Fred can find us ten more chairs!


Update: Yay - the new UKEs have arrived! 



4. In the Reflection Station, students will be writing and drawing their thoughts about last week's Dennis Lee show and/or our Hometown Heroes pep rally.


5. There'll also be a Gaming Station and a Collaboration Station, both of which will have connection activities to sharpen our problem-solving and leadership skills.

UPDATE: Check out this collaboration!






So there ought to be something for all learning styles and work preferences. Do you use Social Stations to facilitate and nurture your students' social and emotional growth? If so, we'd love for you to share how they work.

Need more ideas? Check out this presentation on Character Centers!






Thursday, July 23, 2015

Opening Doors

Posted by Amazing People, on 10:30 AM
Today I'm excited about a $5 purchase I made at Half Price books.
It's a doorstop for the heavy door at the entrance to Hero Headquarters. 
Perfect, right?


And, if you know me, you know that I see more than just a doorstop. I see an acrostic for four critical aspects of leadership.

S is for service.
               T is for trustworthiness.
                   O is for open-mindedness.
 P is for passion.

Effective leaders start with the heart. They're on the lookout for ways to make things better because they're all about serving others. Effective leaders are also trustworthy. We can count on them because they are honest in their dealings, they keep their promises, and they show integrity by being in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Effective leaders have a growth mindset. They're lifelong learners who firmly believe that anything is possible. Anything. And effective leaders live life with great passion. They go to great lengths to enthusiastically and wholeheartedly transfer energy and light to others.

But those are just my thoughts about what STOP might stand for.
I'm so eager to hear what my superheroes at Bales think when I pose the inquiry: What leadership skills will open doors for us?

If you're in the area, please stop by Hero Headquarters; 
we'll keep the door opened for you!





Wednesday, June 10, 2015

For Good

Posted by Amazing People, on 5:00 PM
I know, I know, I'm supposed to be on summer break,
but I couldn't get this empty bulletin board off my mind
so I went up to my new space and decorated.


And now that the grief of that hard good-bye has subsided, 
I am so super excited about my new opportunity.
I'm planning a lot of really fun stations, in Leadership Central.
This bulletin board area will be one of them.
Here's the inquiry: How can we use our superpowers to change the world ... for good? I've listed a few things that we can do, with intention, to spark that change.

Listen.
Show empathy. 
Lift each other up.
Apologize.
Forgive.
Be Kind.
Respect. 
Volunteer. 
Talk it over.
Tell the truth.
Show gratitude.

We're going to talk about what they would add.
And I'm going to have blank bubbles for them to do just that.

There'll also be a brainstorming center,
a make-and-take center,
a role-play center,
a reflection center.
I'm especially excited about the latter because I've got a three-sided dressing-room mirror that we'll have questions posted on and reflection journals to scribe their answers. I'm positively intrigued by the possibilities ...


So today I'm feeling grateful, 
for the chance to nurture the skills of our middle-aged leaders as they soar to new heights and lead, on purpose, to change the world
 ... for good. 








Saturday, May 23, 2015

Developing Leaders

Posted by Amazing People, on 12:56 PM
This morning I woke up with leadership on my mind. When I stumbled on #satchatwc, it moved to my heart. After the chat, I went on a walk and felt it literally going to my feet and filling me with all sorts of plans for the upcoming school year in my new space at my new school, and now I'm really excited about developing leaders.


This weekly Saturday-morning chat, moderated by the motivational and effervescent Shelley Burgess, starts at 9:30 am CST and lasts an hour. I use TweetDeck to follow along and weigh in. On the chance that you've not been a part of a Twitter Chat before, here's how it goes. 

On Twitter, we have 140 characters for our answer.
Today, that wasn't a hard framework to work within,
but sometimes it's tricky and we have to be creatively concise.

Our topic this morning was The Leadership Countdown.
Here are the questions {published with Shelley's permission} and my responses, followed by a few of my favorites.


Empathize, equip, empower, engage with energy & enthusiasm.

That's how I answered. Then I read through all of the other reflections and I truly connected with this heartfelt response from my friend Steph Frosh:


And I love this one, from Art Liberman:


How would you answer that reflection question?


Thank you for being here, friend.

Another favorite answer from Steph: 

Talk about the power of collaboration, moving from me to we!


I know it won't work.

Here's a good one from Shelley: That's how it's always done.
and an illustration of Amos to go with it.


Don't these culture-killer reflections set your mind spinning?


Give kind, get kind. {Kindness is the real global warming, after all}

And one of my faves, this one from Jessica Torres;
Make your words count.


Another winner from Danielle Brown: Share your awesome today.


Be someone's SUPERHERO.

And this one, from Jonathan Kegler {and God}:


And a fan favorite from Beth Houf: Walk the talk! 


Let's grow. 

More wisdom from Steph:


Dave Burgess added these two words: Join Us.


My one little word: Kindness.

Other reflective OLWs I connected with: 
impact, resilience, relationships, transparency,
authenticity, innovation, engagement,
passion, outreach, growth.

Shelley tells me that in just over an hour, there were some 2000 tweets, retweets, favorites, and interactions. Click {here} to read through the archives. 

Now I'm heading to the pool for some reflection of a different kind along with some much-needed Vitamin D.
Before I go to soak up some sunshine, riddle me this:

How are you developing leaders for tomorrow today?
{Oh, and don't worry about your word count.}





Friday, April 10, 2015

Inspiring Mentorship

Posted by Amazing People, on 7:00 PM
This evening as we close out another week, I'm on Cloud 9 about all of the amazing things going on at our school. One of my favorite annual events, our Round Up Carnival fundraiser, is just around the corner. In fact, the Fun Run is tomorrow morning. The generosity of our community really shines at Round Up time. From the countless hours of volunteerism leading up to the event, to the staff members who donate Teacher Treats and provide gathering opportunities to our students, to the giving family members who buy tickets not only for their own kids but for our families in need, I am blown away and stand in awe. Of all of it.
All of it, for the kids.

Thank you, Shelley Burgess, for this beautiful reminder.

We get more of what we focus on, so it just makes sense to affirm and encourage the positivity and passion of these dedicated volunteers and servant leaders.

Another reason I'm super energized this week is because I got to Skype with Paul Solarz's fifth graders in Illinois yesterday and I couldn't have been more impressed with this student-led classroom. Their plan is to mentor some kindergarten students in their school family and I was invited to empower and equip them 
with some start-up skills.



Because of some obvious front-loading, leadership and coaching from an award-winning educator, this pirate classroom could quite clearly run itself. Talk about your positive climate; I seriously didn't want the hour to end. We focused on strengths and self-esteem as we collaborated to launch their mentorship program.
I asked reflection questions like these: 
What is your superpower?
How do you use those superpowers for good?
Who is your superhero?
To whom are you a superhero?
What is your Kryptonite?
What superpowers will you use as you mentor? 
They asked me questions back:
What is my superpower?
Can a pet be a superhero?
What happens when I can't cheer someone up? 
What made me want to write the book?
What are some of the chapter titles?
What's the name of my website?

I challenged them to use their Covey wisdom and begin with the end in mind, then suggested a few activities that they could use as they build that relationship with their little buddies. In honor of National Poetry Month, they willingly and eagerly attempted my Empathy Switch poem and hand challenge with me.

So as I prepare to call it a day, my emotional reserve overflows with the assurance that there are students like my new friends at Westgate Elementary at the helm and taking the lead. 

Check out Learn Like A Pirate and see for yourself how you could set the course for such smooth sailing with your shipmates.






Thursday, May 2, 2013

Let's Play Cataclysm: DDA

Posted by Amazing People, on 1:00 PM
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is an open source zombie-survival roguelike.

You can find out more and download the game for free from the official website...

Website: http://www.cataclysmdda.com/
Wiki: http://wiki.cataclysmdda.com/
Source (GitHub): https://github.com/TheDarklingWolf/Cataclysm-DDA

Let's Play Cataclysm: DDA




Watch the Trailer:


Watch the Trailer on YouTube: Let's Play Cataclysm: DDA Trailer
Watch the Part 1 on YouTube: Let's Play Cataclysm: DDA - Part 1

Playlist (All Episodes)


Watch the playlist on YouTube: Let's Play Cataclysm: DDA v0.4

Short URL for the playlist (Share with friends!): http://goo.gl/pksog

LP & Game Info


Options

Skill Rust: 1 (capped at level)
Static Spawns: True
Width 46
Height 41

FONTDATA

Topaz-8 (download the font)
12
12

Screen size ~1800x1000, scaled to 1280x720 for YouTube.

Series 1 Character (v0.4)

Stats: STR 8 / DEX 10 / INT 8 / PER 11
Positive Traits: Quick, Fast Reader, High Adrenaline
Negative Traits: Far-Sighted, Asthmatic
Profession: -
Starter Skills: -

You can find this let's play and more gaming videos from my YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/TheZemalf - Click Here to Subscribe on YouTube!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Zen And The Craft Of Writing

Posted by Amazing People, on 10:00 AM
When I first started writing fiction I read a lot of books about how to write. How to write attention grabbing stories. How to engage emotionally with the reader. How to keep the story moving forward. The inciting incident. The danger of excessive adverbs. Why you should show instead of tell.

I�ve read widely enough to have a fairly well developed sense of taste. I know when something�s really good. I know when something�s bad. I know when it isn�t quite working. 

The difficult part though is knowing what needs to change, and how to change it.

Reading the ideas of great writers and teachers definitely helped. What they said made sense. Not that there is a fixed way to do anything, but it gave me a sense of the basics and a foundation to build on.

The other route to educating myself was to start critiquing other writers at a similar level to me, and getting my own efforts critiqued by them.

This improved my writing by leaps and bounds. Not only by getting feedback on my work (it can be quite the eye-opener when you realise the discrepancy between what you meant by something and how it was taken), but also by seeing how others do it and which parts havean impact and which parts leave me cold.

In fact, I would say reading the WIPs of others has been the greatest teacher I�ve had.

Initially I would stick to technical comments, grammar, better sense of setting, use of the five senses and so on. All of which are definitely useful. But I was reluctant to say whether I thought the idea was any good, if it held my attention or if I glazed over.

I didn�t want to hurt anybody�s feelings, and in any case what difference did it make what I thought?  My thinking was: Look at what they�re trying to do, help them do it better.  Keep personal taste out of it.

But as all of these ideas about good writing became more ingrained inside me, a strange thing happened. I began to notice that a lot of the books that were successful did not necessarily follow these tenets.

Even books by writers famous for their thoughts on the writing process (Stephen King and Elmore Leonard both spring to mind) departed from their own advice in their own novels.

In addition, many of the books that were selling like gangbusters seemed to be be very poorly written and edited.

These were books repped by big agencies, distributed by major publishers. I�m not talking about some self-published hit which was then taken up as a money-making exercise. I�m talking about authors that passed all the strict requirements of agents, went through many drafts, got accepted by a big six publisher, were edited by the best in the business, and then released to the public.

And they were awful. But hugely successful.

What did it mean? How could it be so important to follow all these guidelines and jump through so many hoops when that didn�t seem to be important to the book buying public at all?

At this point my own writing was getting a fairly positive response from those who read it. Polished, formatted correctly, clear goals and characters. But something wasn�t quite working or connecting.

I began to realise that as I was afraid to tell people what I really thought about their work, so they were afraid to tell me. So I changed my approach. I started to tell people exactly where I lost interest, what I didn�t like, where I thought it felt like something was missing.

As you might imagine, some people did not take kindly to this. But some did. They were relieved to finally have someone treat their work seriously and hold it up to a standard they�d  actually like to reach.

And they also took it as permission to tell me what they really thought about my work and exactly which were the boring bits. 

And it was awesome. My writing really started to come together.

That�s not to say all the technical stuff wasn�t useful or important, but I had my priorities the wrong way round. First the story has to be something worth telling a story about. 

I know, hardly a staggering insight, but it's not just one of the things that needs to be in place, it's THE thing.

What that means in practice will vary from person to person, but it�s still the place to start. Everything else can be fixed or tweaked.

And it really helps to have someone just tell you if it grabbed them or not. Obviously it�s just an opinion, and different people will tell you different things, but developing a sense of judgement about how others respond is an integral part of the process too.

Does it still sting when someone tells me my new chapter seems superfluous? Of course. But I let it go. I remember how frustrating it was when everyone was telling me everything was great and I was getting nowhere. And then I write something better.

If you found this post useful, please give it a retweet.
*
Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad. 

Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charlie?

Posted by Amazing People, on 7:46 AM
Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley?
Rebecca Caudill

Carrying the flag is an award for a child at the Little School who has been very good. When Charley Cornett starts school, his brothers and sisters explain to him that such a high honor is a privilege and goes to someone who has been the most helpful. This has been a tradition at this school in the Appalachian Mountains. Charley happens to be a very curious boy who gets into mischief. Growing up in the mountains has been the perfect place for him to love rocks, snakes, tree-climbing, and exploring. Certainly he is not expected to ever be the one who carries the flag! Yet, one day, Charley ends up with the award in a surprising way. And Charley learns something big that day too.

Rebecca Caudill grew up in Kentucky and many of her books are rich in pioneer history and/or the Appalachian Mountain setting. Tree of Freedom was a Newbery Honor book in 1959 and A Pocketful of Cricket, illustrated by Evaline Ness won the Caldecott Medal in 1964. The latter has beautiful poetic prose. Another popular book (among many!) is The Best Loved Doll. In honor of her contributions to children's literature the town of Cumberland, Kentucky dedicated a public library in her name, and the state of Illinois created the annual Rebecca Caudill Award for the favorite children's book of the year.

It is well worth the time to explore the website that hosts the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader Book Award.

http://www.rcyrba.org/

Children from Illinois vote for their favorite book of the year from a list of twenty titles. The choices over the past 25 years provide a wonderful list of quality reading for young readers. I loved this quote by the author found on this site: 
�The first essential in any book is that it have something significant to say --a book that leaves the reader with bigger ideas than when he began reading - that stimulates his thinking, stretches his mind, deepens his feelings. A good book sticks to your ribs.�  Rebecca Caudill

In her intentions for the role of children's literature in the lives of children, she is an author after our own hearts!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sai

Posted by Amazing People, on 6:39 PM
Atualizado: 9.1D01
Substituto do Enel desde a 9.1A



Nome: Sai
Titulo: Ex Anbu ~  Substituto GAY do Sasuke no Kakashi Team.
Anime: Naruto Shippuuden            

Sai desde pequeno, sempre teve muita inclina��o para o lado rosa da for�a, e  mesmo depois de grande, essa queda se manteve firme e forte. Coisa que pode ser claramente notada na estilista de moda totalmente recalcada que o ajudou a escolher o designer de roupas desse Artista. De umbigo de fora e roupas coladas, Sai se mostrou um expert em criar desenhos animados, e estes desenhos poder�o muito bem acabar com o game de qualquer her�i que possui total depend�ncia de bosses em quest�es de segundos. Al�m de Rusher, possui skills de suporte que al�m de transform�-lo em um eximo homicida do Middle game, poder� ajudar seus aliados com suas periquitas  assassinas!     


Pontos fortes: Sai carrega bem a classe de Summer, portanto ele consegue ser equilibrado em todas as etapa do jogo. Apesar do Middle ser o seu forte, no Late ele consegue acompanhar sem grandes dificuldades, heros aben�oados com transforma��es de grande attack speed. Tudo isso gra�as aos seus le�es possu�rem dano � base de agilidade. Encerrando com chave de ouro, Sai tamb�m pode se tornar o terror de qualquer her�i que possui depend�ncia total de Boss devido ao seu combo infernal de summons capazes de reduzir um life de 10k a 0 em quest�es de segundos.   
 Pontos fracos: Early n�o � seu forte e se n�o tomar cuidado, poder� se tornar feeder. Possui desvantagem contra heros que contenham blink ou skills em �rea poderosas, pois sem os seus 'desenhos', ele n�o � nada. 

Estat�sticas:
Early/ Middle / Late Game: 6 / 8 / 7
Assassino: 8
Creepador: 6
Ladr�o: 4
Suporte: 8
Rusher: 10
Vs Aizen: 5

Item: Pergaminho de pintura

- 50 all stats
- Aumenta em 8 segundos a dura��o dos le�es (Q)
- Proporciona ataque speed em �rea para seus aliados. (AOE: 600~aproximado)


Attack Command (C)


Descri��o: Skill usada para for�ar todos os summons invocados a atacar um determinado alvo
Alcance: 600

Choujuu Giga � Sumi Lions (Q)


Descri��o:  Sai usa seu jutsu para invocar uma grande quantidade de le�es animados, que atacam seus inimigos conforme seu comando. Essa t�cnica al�m de ser muito boa para deny, ao final de jogo se torna sua principal t�cnica para farm, uma vez que os le�es invocados possuem dano a base da agilidade.
Level Requerido: 1 / 6 / 11 / 16 / 21
Dano Base: 51~55 / 101~105 / 201~205 / 401~405          
Life: 700 / 1400 / 2100 / 2800 / 3500
Armor: 0 / 50 / 100 / 150 / 200
Quantidade invocada: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
Dura��o: 12 segundos
Tempo de Recarga: 15 segundos
Dano f�sico extra (em creep): 0.50 x Agility
Dano f�sico extra (em heroes): 0.25 x Agility

Lions Attack  (Q+Q)


Descri��o:  Os le�es invocados ao usar o comando (Q), podem saltar sobre seus inimigo, quebrando a distancia estabelecida, dificultando ainda mais a sua fuga.
Alcance: 800
Tempo de Recarga: 7 segundos

Sumi Nagashi  (W)



Descri��o: Compartilhando a sua arte pornogr�fica homossexual com os demais, Sai desenha algumas cobras no papel que ganham vida e com isso v�o deslizando em dire��o aos seus oponentes causando dano m�gico e um stun de 2.5 segundos.
Level Requerido: 3 / 8 / 13 / 18 / 23
Dano (em crepes): 250 / 500 / 750 / 1000 / 1250
Dano (em heros): 187,5 / 375 / 562, 5 / 750 / 937,5
Alcance: 800
Tempo de Recarga: 12 segundos

Choujuu Giga � Sumi Birds  (E)


Descri��o: Simplesmente � a skill mais apel� do Sai no Middle Game. Al�m dessas gaivotas  em tamanho fam�lia possu�rem um dano sinistro quando est�o contra um �nico inimigo, podem ser usadas no transporte tanto do hero como tamb�m de seus Aliados.  
Level Requerido: 8 / 13 / 18
Dano Base: 101~105 / 201~205 / 401~405
Dano extra: 100 / 150 / 200 ~ Dano projetado a uma unidade a cada 0.25 segundos
Life: 3000 / 5500 / 8000
Armor: 100 / 200 / 300
Alcance de dano: 400
Dura��o: 20 / 22.5 / 25 segundos
Tempo de Recarga: 60 segundos

Transport (E+Q)


Descri��o:  Voar, voar; subir, subir. ~ Sim, isso se tornou poss�vel gra�as a essa skill. Atrav�s do comando (Q), o p�ssaro selecionado usa sua habilidade de recolher uma unidade e transport�-la para um determinado ponto. O seu uso mais efetivo � salvar algu�m da morte ou ent�o sobrevoar o terreno para cortar caminho.
Adicionais:  Para poder carregar aliados, � necess�rio ativar a skill: Transfer Command (E +E). Com isso o Sai perde o controle de seu p�ssaro e o seu aliado poder� us�-lo como bem entender. (Ideal para ajudar o feeder do seu time a garantir alguns bosses). 

Ninpou Choujuu Giga � Ultimate Jutsu (R)


Descri��o:  A arte Final de Sai. Al�m de causar stun em �rea durante 5 segundos (come�ando a contar desde o primeiro efeito at� o segundo), possui dano instant�neo que poder� garantir boas quantias de gold durante o jogo.
Level Requerido: 15 / 20 / 25
Dano (em creeps): 3000 / 4000 / 5000
Dano (em heros): 2250 / 3000 / 3750 
Tempo de Recarga: 100 / 110 / 120 segundos


Colabora��o: FN_Yuuki; LordKaukek e Luks012

Mais informa��es? Por favor, colaborem e nos deixem coment�rios!

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