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Dear Jennifer,
On behalf of the entire MindOH! team, my sincerest appreciation
to all of you who gave us the gift of your time to log onto our Fast
Company Magazine Fast 50 application to comment and vote on MindOH!
While the Fast 50 winners will be announced in the coming New Year,
you've already made us a winner. It's clear to us from all of your
wonderful comments that we're still on the right track and that you
support our mission to help kids make wiser and healthier decisions.
Many of you shared with Fast Company readers that there is a
definite need for our tools to be made available to all children in
their homes and schools. We are actively pursuing that initiative as
fast as we can! It makes all of the hard work worthwhile when we
hear stories like the one from a mother who shared a personal story
of how our tools have helped her son get off drugs and begin his
journey to finding himself again!
If
you have time, here's a link to read more comments.
One thing I am absolutely sure of, with the kindness and support
of all of you as friends and family of MindOH!, we will make MindOH!
a reality for many, many more kids in 2005!
We wish you and your families a wonderful safe holiday and a
prosperous and Happy New Year!
Amy Looper, MindOH! Chief Visionary Officer
| MindOH! Book Review: "Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for
Teachers from High School Students" |
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Review by Leslie Matula, MindOH! Co-Founder and
Nationally Recognized Character Education Expert
One of the most common complaints we at MindOH! hear from
students is that adults don't listen to them. Kids feel that
they rarely have the opportunity to tell their side of the
story about anything. So it's not surprising that one of the
things students like most about our materials is that they are
given the opportunity to express themselves in a responsible
and respectful way and to be heard as a result.
Fires in the Bathroom has given a group of high
school students a similar opportunity, by allowing them to
tell their side of the story about experiences with school,
teachers, and their education. There is a great deal of wisdom
in the author's stated purpose to "learn from students."
One of the things I like to tell kids is that we are all
teachers, and we are all students. We have a lot to learn from
one another. The problem for most of us adults is that being
the teacher is a lot more comfortable than sitting in the
pupil's seat, but that is exactly the place you need to sit
while reading this book, so you can learn a thing or two from
these young co-authors.
As the author points out, we sometimes allow order to trump
other important goals. We often place more importance on
"keeping the place running smoothly," rather than trying to
understand the underlying causes of poor behavior or
performance. And while students need to be continually
reminded that they must accept responsibility for their
choices and that part of becoming successful is learning to
deal effectively with the challenges of life, we adults need
to be reminded of what Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert
Coles so eloquently stated: "The child is an ever-attentive
witness." It is our behavior and our performance
that will ultimately shape the lives of those young people we
are fortunate enough to raise, teach, and influence.
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| Funding Corner: The Fund for Teachers |
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Fund for Teachers is a unique foundation whose mission is
to enrich the lives of schoolteachers and students by
providing recognition and opportunities for renewal to
outstanding teachers. Making a difference one teacher at a
time, Fund for Teachers awards grants directly to teachers to
support professional development opportunities of their own
design.
The Fund for Teachers grants are awarded to teachers who
work with students in grades pre- kindergarten (K) through
twelve (12) grade.
Applicants must have a minimum of three years teaching
experience and be a fulltime teacher, spending at least 50% of
the time in the classroom, at the time grants are approved and
made.
Eligible applicants may apply as an individual or as a
team. An individual proposal will consist of one personal data
sheet, one project description and a budget sheet. Funding
limit is $5,000. A team application will consist of one
personal data sheet per team member, one project description
and budget sheet. Funding limit up to $7,500 total per team.
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| Guest Article: "Is It ... Just Another Day? My
Birthday" |
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By Tamara J. Hufford-Wong, Lecturer and Co- Author of
"Wise Women Speak: Changes Along the Path"
A few weeks ago I was in Seattle at my mother in-law's
birthday party in China Town. Our usual place didn't have room
for us, but this new one did. The food wasn't too good, but we
were all together and that was what mattered to my mother
in-law, May Wong. She uses the Lunar (Chinese) calendar to
determine which day is her special day, so the date changes
from year to year.
I was sitting next to my nephew Jeffery who would soon be
turning 18 years old in a few short months and I asked him
what he was going to do for his special 18th birthday.
"Nothin", he replied quite calmly. "Nothing", I said in a
shocked voice. "What do you mean, nothing?" "It's your
birthday", I said, and "you're turning 18 years old." "That's
a big deal", I said. His reply, "no, not really, it's just
another day." I felt so sad for him and tried to explain just
why it was such a special day. But it did not begin to faze
him. He wasn't even excited about his graduation from High
School next year.
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Guest Author: "Is it Just Adolescent Behavior? How to
Know if Your Teen is in Trouble and What to Do About
It" |
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By Joyce M. Gayles, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and
Success Coach
Adolescence is a time of transformation in multiple ways.
Teens face several important developmental tasks, the most
significant of which is individuating and forming early adult
identity. While there is great diversity in how kids move
through this transition, self-consciousness and insecurity,
moodiness and emotional outbursts, egocentricity, and
rebellious behavior are all normal expressions of this
developmental stage.
The ups and downs of adolescence may be misinterpreted as
clinical pathology and conversely actual psychological
problems may be missed because they can look quite similar to
basic adolescent instability. So, if all of the above are
normal, how, then, does one recognize the sources of trouble
and signs of a teenager in trouble? Read the Entire Article
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Education and Technology Resource
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