You're Killin' Me, Smalls...

While I prefer NOT to fly by the seat of my pants, there are just times when the BEST ideas come to me on my drive to work.

Can I get an Amen?

Well....this one came to me on the way to work on the FIRST.  DAY.  OF.  SCHOOL.  

"You're killin' me, Smalls."

Anywho...I was doing a quick run-through of my day, when my mind meandered to a training from my friends Larry and Angela Thompson of Responsibility Centered Discipline.  

How fortunate was I to work with them for 6 years!?!  

Training right from the mental judo master himself?  

Get.  Out.

And Angela?  

She just "gets me."  

Love her.  

So....

As I was driving straight into the sun (it was a little hot here that day,) I saw the face of an angel: Clint Stoppel.  

Larry had a life-size photo of Stoppel (a teacher/coach in our district) that was something nothing like this in ANY way other than the fact that it was a full-body shot.  

The original was completely dead-pan, grumpy and foreboding.

So...pretty much NOTHING like my super hippy-chick pic*.

That's my 3rd Grade Style Peace Sign!

Larry had us write down all sorts of crazy on sticky notes.  

It was about 10 years ago, and I can't recall if it was things KIDS say, or TEACHERS say, out of frustration.

Responsibility Centered Discipline is all about never GETTING to that boiling point.

If you haven't heard of the Thompsons, do yourself a favor and check them out!

Well...I decided to flip that on it's head and have the kids write down the characteristic they WANT in a "Groovy Teacher." 

We used a CL structure called "Picking Stickies" to accomplish this.  

 It shaped up like this!

And we all LOVED it!  

I tied it all together with the kiddos writing down characteristics of "Groovy Students!"

Pretty sure it'll be a 1st Day of School Keeper!

Jenn

*In case you are wondering...Our school-wide theme is "Reading is Radical."  I don't typically wear tie dye on the first day of school, and generally reserve the tie dye for day 3.   :)