Comment on Kelly's Week 3 Blog

Leading from Any Chair: I was really struck by this, because I feel as teachers we are supposed to do this every day. There's that old saying, to not be the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side? That's exactly what I thought of when I read this chapter. It's giving students more "power" in the classroom to learn. Once we do that, students will be more confident and might take more risks! I have a few tattoos that my students love to ask about, and one of them says "Believe" on my arm, so they always ask me what that means. I always tell them that everyone needs to believe in something, and even if you don't believe in anything, you need to especially believe in yourself. I think leading from any chair means that students need to believe in themselves to take charge in the classroom and in their lives!
I also love Rule Number 6! Speaking of my tattoos, I have another one on my ankle that says Live Laugh Love, and it's another one that my students ask about. This one is kind of self explanatory, and we see it all the time as it's a common expression, but do we really take that advice? Each day, do you make an effort to live, laugh AND love? Live and Love are the easier ones- everyone is already living (although I challenge you to take it to the next level and LIVE every day), and everyone loves something (their self, a family member, something else, hopefully!), but do we take a moment to LAUGH every day? Just remembering to never take life seriously (because we won't get out alive!) has saved me MANY a day when teaching in my school seemed impossible. Even this year, my classes are a little crazy (they gender-ized the freshman class, and I teach the majority of the GIRLS, so there's a-WHOLE-lot of attitude in my classroom on a daily basis), so just remembering Rule Number 6 makes me feel much better each day!

Kelly,
Live, laugh, love is great quote and can truly tell you like it as well since you got it as a tattoo. Ironically I was trying to get these words over archway above my bar in my living room. I didn’t work out but I haven’t given up, Im going to try it again.