Shifting The Monkey!!

It sounds funny but the more I hear about it the more I want to read it. "Shifting the Monkey" is a book written by one of the people I was following, Todd Whitaker, until recently when I decided that he was talking over my head. It was a fellow blogger, Justin Tarte who brought his book to my attention and I am thankful for this. I am now following him again on twitter @toddwhitaker. The author of "Shifting the Monkey" is  Todd Whitaker who has written 30 books and he focuses on leadership, teaching and motivation. I looked into it and this book is available at Amazon.com. Here is the beginning of the excerpt of the book on Amazon.com.

"Everyone has responsibilities, obligations, and problems to deal with in the workplace and in life. Some people, however, have mastered the art of shifting those monkeys onto the backs of others. They claim they don t know how to solve a problem or do the task, they say they don't have time, they complain, they perform poorly, they find any and every way to avoid the work - and yet somehow, they're never held accountable. Instead, hardworking, loyal employees who care about results end up shouldering those burdens for their lazy or unmotivated colleagues. The slackers get just what they want - less work - while the best employees become alienated and overworked."

It is available at Amazon.ca
Feel free to view  Justin Tarte's review of "Shifting the Monkey." I think if you are in management or a leadership role it is a 'must read.' This book is on my list to read.

Senior Kindergarten Students are Printmaking!!

Printmaking can be done at any age. Take a look at what a couple of students created when they were experimenting with printmaking. I used buzz groups to facilitate this lesson where I taught the same skills of printmaking to groups of two or three students at a time. I believe in a Progressivist teaching method where students learn by doing and this is exactly what my students are doing.

I taught William and Jefferson to use styrofoam plates and a dull pencil to make an imprint of shapes, then to cover the plate with marker, press a piece of paper over top of it, and voila! The result was that they learned to make a hand made print.

Take a look at what the older students came up with.

I showed both Dhillon and Benedict to carve letters backward onto a styrofoam plate so that when they covered it with marker they learned that when they pressed the paper on top of the plate the imprint was visible and legible.

Happy Easter!!

'Happy Easter' from all of the Primary students! Here are the results of their hard work when I taught them how to decorate eggs with paint, tissue paper & water/glue, and sparkles & glue.



 



Before School Activity

Some of the Intermediate students in the Before School Programme keep themselves amused by creating wonderful creations using K'nex such as a helicopter, airplane, ferris wheel, and here is an elephant!

By Jonathan!

Busy with Modelling Clay

The Primary students have been having fun creating all sorts of shapes and things using modelling clay. A couple students chose to paint theirs.

Credit for these lovelyshapes modelled from clay is for Natalie, Stephen, Benjamin, Hayden, and Joshua

Hayden and Joshua painted their shapes!

Blossoms Budding!

The Primary students created some lovely budding branches after I taught the students how to wrap a piece of tissue paper around the end of the pencil and glue it to the end of a branch. They learned to wrap the green tissue paper around a piece of peach/red/pink tissue paper, roll it around a pencil, and glue it to the end of a branch.

Credit goes to Benjamin, Bhavya, Hayden, and Benedict for creating these lovely budding branches.

The branches are real.

Thank You!

I would like to comment on the outpouring support that I have received. Thanks to all of you wonderful people who reached out and supported me in so many kind ways. I am truly grateful for all of your feedback and encouragement! Thanks…thanks…thanks a bunch!

I look forward to our continued communication.