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Homeroom 

Collection of Lessons, Ideas, Resources, & Conversation Starters

“You can’t change humanity by getting upset with it.”
- Mr. Streit

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." 
- President Calvin Coolidge

News & Political Discussions:


Establishing Homeroom Class Norms:
Discussions on Education:

How to Handle a Bully:
Help with Organization: 

Discussions on Equality, Race & Privilege (2):  


A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words (3):


Maps Explain Stuff / Understanding Chicago (4):


Using Music For Discussion (5): 

Just Some Fun Weird Stuff (6)

"You can’t be all things to all people."

- Mike Ditka

“People will come into your life for four reasons...to Add, Subtract, Multiply or Divide...choose wisely!”
- Jalen Rose

"I find the most effective way of discrediting someone is by letting them open their mouth and remove all doubt.
- Mr. Streit

Creating a Community Activities (8)

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Monthly Theme & Discussion Guides

Guide

Use this guide to help plan your homeroom/advisory/morning meeting SEL conversations. You have choice as to what each conversation will look like. If, for example, during your check-in a deep conversation sparks, feel free to continue with that topic for the remainder of the session. You may choose to use the same quote for multiple days if the conversation it creates is quality and engaging, or you can use a new quote every day. 

 Students should drive the discussion.

Guiding Questions:

  • What do you think this quote means?
  • How does it connect to this month’s theme of ____________________?
  • Have you had any experiences or witnessed anything that deals with _____________________?
  • Do you value ______(theme)_____?  Do you feel others value it?


Probing Questions/Statements:

  • Do you agree/disagree?
  • Tell me more.
  • What makes you think that?


Reflection (Independent or group reflection)

  • What went well during this discussion?
  • What could be better next time?
  • The group should commit to any changes necessary to ensure quality discussion next time.


September

Respect/Trust

“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters, can’t be trusted with important matters.”

– Albert Einstein

“Men trust their ears less than their eyes.”

– Herodotus

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.”

– Laurence Sterne

“Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.”

– U. Thant

“Never judge someone by the way he looks or a book by the way it’s covered; for inside those tattered pages, there’s a lot to be discovered.”

– Stephen Cosgrove

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

– Jackie Robinson
“Trust it built with consistency.”

– Lincoln Chafee

“Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.”

– Arthur Ashe

“Trust your own instinct.  Your mistake might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.”

– Billy Wilder

“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same.”

– C. JoyBell

“It’s not so much the journey that’s important; as is the way that we treat those we encounter and those around us, along the way.”

– Jeremy Aldana

“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”

– Albert Einstein
“Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of.”

– Bob Vanourek

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

– Ernest Hemingway

“Trust is like a piece of paper, once it’s been crumpled it can never be perfect again.”

– Unknown

“I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.”

– Julius Erving

“To be one, to be united, is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.”

– Bono (Singer for U2)

“Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.”

– Thomas Paine

“Be modest, be respectful of others, try to understand.”

– Lakhdar Brahim
“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”

– Maya Angelou

“When you completely trust a person without any doubt, you’ll automatically receive one of two things  – a friend for life, or a lesson for life.”

– Rita Ghatourey

“He who loves others is constantly loved by them. He who respects others is constantly respected by them.”

– Mencius

“Respect is a two –way street, if you want to get it, you’ve got to give it.”

– R.G. Risch

“Friendship – my definition – is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.”

– Stieg Larsson

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.”

– Laurence Sterne

“One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

– Bryan H. McGill

October

Goal Setting

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

- C. S. Lewis (author)

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

-Bruce Lee (martial artisit)

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”

-Henry Ford (entrepenuer)

“Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it.”

-Mahatma Gandhi (leader if Indian independence movement)

“If you want to reach a goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”

-Zig Ziglar (author, salesman, motivational salesman)

“My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal."

-Ronald Reagan (President)

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”

-Napoleon Hill (author)
“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path.”

-E. O. Wilson (biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist)

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.”

-Mario Andretti (race car driver)

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

-Zig Ziglar (author, salesman, motivational speaker)

“If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal.”

-Norman Vincent Peale (minister, author)

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.”

-Elbert Hubbard (writer, publisher, philosopher)

“A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”

-Thomas Carlyle (Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, historian and teacher)
“It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.”

-Brian Tracy

“Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try.”

-Dennis DeYoung

“You can’t hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can’t catch a fish unless you put your line in the water. You can’t reach your goals if you don’t try.

-Kathy Seligman

“People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.”

-Earl Nightingale

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.”

-Fitzhugh Dodson
“A dream is a seed.  Vision plants it.  Imagination nurtures growth.  Opportunities create blooms.  Thoughts become things!”
-Donna McGoff

“The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down.”

- Stephen Richards

“The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication. ”

- Cecel B. Demille

“Life’s problems wouldn’t be called “hurdles” if there wasn’t a way to get over them.”

-Author Unknown

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

-Jim Rohn
 

November

Choices/Decision Making

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady, politician)

“Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain... To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices”

- Kevyn Aucoin (artist, photographer, author)

“You can't make positive choices for the rest of your life without an environment that makes those choices easy, natural, and enjoyable.”

- Deepak Chopra (Indian American author, public speaker, physician)

“Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.”

- Tom Brady (quarterback)

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”

- Denis Waitley (motivational speaker, writer and author)

“It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

- J. K. Rowling (author)

“I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.”

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (psychiatrist, author)
“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.”

- Wayne Dyer (self-help author, motivational speaker)

“Behaviors are a choice. Feelings are sometimes out of our control. Behavior has to do with choices.”

- Randall Terry (social activist)

“Every person has free choice.  Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.”

- Alfred A. Montapert (author)

“We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.”

- Thomas Merton (Catholic writer, mystic, monk)

“Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.”

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (author, psychiatrist)

“When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It's all a matter of perspective.”

- Harvey Mackay (entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author)
“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

- Tony Robbins (motivational speaker)

“When someone makes a decision, they are  really diving into a strong current that will carry them to places they never dreamed of when they first made the decision.”

- Paul Coleho (novelist)

“It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are.”

- Roy E. Disney (co-founder of Walt Disney Productions)

“Good decision come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”

- Mark Twain (author)

“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.”

- Unknown

“You can’t make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen.”

- Michelle Obama (Former First Lady)

“Not making a decision means forgoing an opportunity.”

- Auliq Ice (author)

“Everyday decision-making around the world is constantly based on what came before us.”

- Steve Berry (author, professor, attorney)

“Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.  Right is right even if no one is doing it.”

- Unknown

“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

- Malcolm Gladwell (journalist)

December

Kindness/Empathy

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
- Mark Twain (author)
“A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.”
- John Ruskin (prominent social think, philanthropist and art critic of Victorian era)
“A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.”
- Joseph Joubert (French moralist and essayist)
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, lecturer and poet)
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
- Aesop (ancient Greek fabulist, known for his collection Aesop’s Fabels)
“A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.”
- Thomas Carlyle (Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher)
“Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.”
- George Sand (pseudonym for female French novelist and memoirist, Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin)
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (philosopher, writer and composer)
“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.”
- Samuel Johnson (English writer)
“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.”
- William Arthur Ward (one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims)
“You don’t need religion to have morals.  If you can’t determine right from wrong you lack empathy, not religion.”
- Unknown
“As much as we need a prosperous economy, we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.”
- Caroline Kennedy (author, attorney and current United States ambassador to Japan)
“One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.”
- Sophocles (Greek tragedian/playwright)
“The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.”
- Sarah Fielding (British author)
“You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.”
- Publilius Syrus (Latin writer)
“Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
- Plato (philosopher)
“No one heals themselves by wounding another."
- Anonymous
“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another."
- Alfred Adler (psychologist)
“If you find yourself saying ‘But I was just being honest’ chances are you’ve just been unkind.  Honesty doesn’t heal.  Empathy does.
- Dan Waldschmidt (author)
“Any fool can know.  The point is to understand."
- Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist)
“It’s the lack of empathy that makes it easy for us to plunge into wars.  It’s the lack of empathy that allows us to ignore the homeless on the streets.”
- Barak Obama (POTUS)
 
 

January

Courage

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

- Nelson Mandela  (anti-apartheid revolutionary, President of South Africa 1994-1999)

"Don't let the noise of other's' opinions drown out your own inner voice……have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

- Steve Jobs (IT entrepreneur and inventor)

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through

this. I can take the next thing that comes along."

- Eleanor Roosevelt (politician, diplomat, activist, First Lady 1933-1945)

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

- Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom)

"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.  (leader of the Civil Rights Movement)

"Courage is grace under pressure."

- Ernest Hemingway (author)

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

- Muhammad Ali (boxer)

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."

- Mark Twain (author)

"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor."

- Aristotle (Greek philosopher and scientist)

"There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right."

- Ronald Reagan (40th  POTUS and actor)

"Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.  Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama."

- Miguel Angel Ruiz (Mexican author and new age philosopher)

"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage."

- Confucius (Chinese teacher and philosopher)

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

- W. Clement Stone (business man and philanthropist)

"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."

- Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S.)

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself.  Aloud."

- Coco Chanel (fashion designer)

"From caring comes courage."

- Lao Tzu (ancient philosopher and poet, father of Taoism)

"The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself."

- George Bernard Shaw (Irish playwright and co-founder of London School of Economics)

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."

- John Wooden (basketball player and coach)

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

- E.E. Cummings (author/poet)

"Courage isn’t having the strength to go on - it’s going on when you don’t have the strength."

- Napoleon (French general and politician)

"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."

- Oprah Winfrey (TV personality/Talk show host/philanthropist)

"Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps more precious is the courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions."

- Aung San Suu Kyi (president of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar)

"Moral courage is higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage."

- William Slim (British military commander)

"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."

- Aesop (ancient Greek Fabulist/story teller)

February

Equality

"I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions."

- Barack Obama (President of the United States)

"Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact."

- Honore de Balzac (French novelist and playwright)

"Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism."

- Barry Goldwater (United States Senator)

"Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it."

- Frances Wright (lecturer, writer, abolitionist, feminist and social reformer)

"All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality."

- David Allan Coe (songwriter and singer)

“All men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality.” 

- David Allan Coe (songwriter and singer)

“Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.” 

- Irving Kristol (journalist)

“With ignorance comes fear- from fear comes bigotry. Education is the key to acceptance.” 

- Kathleen Patel (author)

“The beauty of standing up for your rights is others will see you standing and stand up as well.” 

- Cassandra Duffy (writer)

"We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges."

- Tim Berners-Lee (computer scientist, inventor of World Wide Web)

"People are pretty much alike. It's only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities."

-Linda Ellerbee (journalist)
“Equality is the soul of liberty; there is in fact, no liberty without it”

- Frances Wrtight

"These men ask for just the same thing: fairness, and fairness only. This is, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have."  

-Abraham Lincoln

"Equality is not in regarding different things similarly, equality is in regarding different things differently." 

- Tom Robbins

"Until we get equality in education, we won’t have an equal society."     

- Sonia Sotomayor

"The word ‘equality’ shows up too much in our founding documents for anyone to pretend it’s not the American way."
-Martha Plimpton
 

March

Honesty/Integrity


"The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively."

- Bob Marley (Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter)

"The truth needs so little rehearsal."

-Barbara Kingsolver (novelist, essayist, poet)

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not."

- Oprah Winfrey (talk show hose, actor, producer, philanthropist)

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.  Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang,  a football field,  in an army,  or in an office."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th President of the United States)

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth.  Do the right thing because it is right.  These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

- W. Clement Stone (businessman and philanthropist)

"We learned about honesty and integrity - that the truth matters... that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules... and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square."

- Michelle Obama(Former First Lady)

"If you don't have integrity, you have nothing.  You can't buy it.  You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing."

- Henry Kravis (Businessman)

"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home."

- Confucius (Chinese Teach, Politician, & Philosopher) 

"Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life - all areas of life.  The really good news is that anyone can develop both honesty and integrity."

- Zig Ziglar (author and motivational speaker) 

"A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity."

- Baltasar Gracian (writer)

"You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too."

-Anne Lamott  (novelist, non-fiction writer, progressive political activist)

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
- Samuel Jonhson (actor)

"The high road is always respected.  Honesty and integrity are always rewarded."

- Scott Hamilton (Olympic Gold Medalist) 

"Honest people don't hide their deeds."

-Emily Bronte (novelist and poet)

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive."

-Water Scott (novelist, playwright and poet)

"Truth never damages a cause that is just."

-Mahatma Ghandi (preeminent leader of Indian independence movement)

"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."

- Thomas Jefferson

"No legacy is so rich as honesty."

- William Shakespeare

(English poet, playwright and actor)
"Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters."

- Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist and philosopher of science)

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people."

- Virginia Woolf (writer and one of the foremost modernist of the 20th century)

"It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."

- Noel Coward (English playwright, composer, director, actor)

"Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.  Be honest and transparent anyway."

- Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic nun and  founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity

"It’s not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie."

- Victor Hugo (French poet, novelist and dramatist of the Romantic period)

April

Positive Attitude

“A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.”
-Hugh Downs
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
-Mahatma Ghandi
“In order to carry a positive action we must develop a positive vision.”
-Dalai Lama
“May I never miss a sunset or a rainbow because I’m looking down.”
-Sara June Parker
“The impossible can always be broken down into possibilities.”
-Author unknown
“It’s not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left.”
-Hubert Humphrey
“If you have the will to win, you have achieved half of your success; if you don’t you have achieved half your failure.”
-David Ambrose
“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.”
-Author unknown
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.”
 -Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Your life is a garden,
        Your thoughts are the seeds.
        If your life isn’t awesome,
        You’re watering the weeds.”
-Author unknown
“No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.”
-William Ellery Channing
“Think you can or think you can’t - either way you’ll be right.”
-Henry Ford
“Life is not happening to you.  Life is responding to you.”
 -Author Unknown
“So often times it happens, we live our life in chains, and we never know we have the key.”
-Don Henley
“If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”
-Mary Engelbreit
“You can bear your troubles or shrug them off.  They’re your shoulders.”
-Rober Brault
“The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude”
-William James
“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
-Dolly Parton



 
 

May

Responsibility

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”
-Les Brown
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity”
-Kahlil Gibran
“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”
-Les Brown
“Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame.”
-Ralph Marston
"We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future."
-George Bernard Shaw
"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them."
-Denis Waitley
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."
-Theodore Roosevelt
“If not us, then who?  If not now, then when?”
-John E. Lewis
“Every excuse I ever heard made perfect sense to the person who made it.”
-Dr. Daniel T. Drubin
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
-Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
“When you blame others, you give up the power to change.”
-Author Unknown
“Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it’s addressed to someone else.”
-Ivern Ball
“Work on yourself first, take responsibility for your own progress.”
-I Ching
“It’s our responsibility to pass on what we inherited, not to squander it, but to build on it.”
-Christine Gregoire
“I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.”
--Viktor E. Frankl
“Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”
-Booker T. Washington
"Successful people have a social responsibility to make the world a better place and not just take from it.”
-Carrie Underwood
“Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.”
-Mike Krzyzewski
“With awareness come responsibility and choice.”
-Amanda Lindhout

June

Sharing/Cooperation


“Alone we can do so little.  Together we can do so much.”
-Hellen Keller (author, political activist and lecturer)
“Teamwork divides the tasks and multiplies the successes.”
-Unknown
"No one can whistle a symphony.  It takes a whole orchestra to play it."
-H.E Luccock (minister and Yale professor)
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.”
-Martin Luther King Jr. (minister, leader of civil rights movement)
“Many hands make light work.”
-John Heywood (writer of plays, poems and proverbs)
“Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.”
-Vera Nazarian (writer of sci-fi, artist, publisher)
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
-Nelson Mandela (anti-apartheid revolutionary and former President of South Africa)
“Nothing truly valuable can be achieved except by the unselfish cooperation of many individuals.”
-Albert Einstein (physicist)
“Life has taught me that respect, caring and love must be shared, for it’s only through sharing that friendships are born.
-Donna A. Favors (author)
“The most effective form of creation is an act of cooperation, not force.”
-Bryant McGill (author, speaker and activist)
“Individually we are one drop.  Together we are an ocean.”
-Ryunosuke Satoro  (Japanese poet)
“Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.”
-Kenyan Proverb
“A thousand candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.”
-Buddah
“What we choose to share, defines who we are”
-Costas Voyatzis (founder of Yatzer.com)


 

Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Specific - A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six “W” questions:

*Who:      Who is involved?

*What:     What do I want to accomplish?

*Where:    Identify a location.

*When:     Establish a time frame.

*Which:    Identify requirements and constraints.

*Why:      Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.


EXAMPLE:  A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a specific goal would say, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.”

Smart Goals Video


Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as……

How much? How many?

How will I know when it is accomplished?


Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.


Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.  A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.


Timely – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1st”, then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.
Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.  T can also stand for Tangible – A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses, that is, taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing.

When your goal is tangible you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

Bloom's Taxonomy

The "I Like Notecards" Lessons

Time Capsule: Beginning of the year, students should answer the following in this order:
  • Print your name on the top like (Streit, Ryan)
  • What is your favorite sport to play?  
  • What is your favorite sport team?
  • What is your favorite food?
  • What is your favorite band/musician?
  • What HS do you hope to attend?  NOTE:  No worries - These won’t be read aloud if you don’t want to share.
  • Who is your best friend? 
  • What do you believe is your best personal quality?
  • What personality trait do you think could use some improvement?

What is self-respect to you?  
  • Think about it and write adjectives that describe self-respect
  • Share with a friend and openly discuss 


Rebuilding Relationships Notecard Experiment: 
Write a time when Mr. Streit wronged (small or major) in any way over the past 3 years. Start think about someone in your homeroom that may have “wronged” you or you “wronged” someone for a Rebuilding Relationships Notecard Experiment. Please remember to write and address in a way that will allow for a positive discussion and not force someone to become defensive.

Self-Evaluation Notecard: 
  • Good & Bad Qualities or Character Traits – Meet with your partner – Remember this is to better your relationships and not to tear them apart.
  • Are character traits a choice?
  • Does equality mean treating everyone the same?