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This reminds me of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He twisted God’s words and made the untruth seem like reality. He weaseled into Eve’s mind and placed doubts. Ultimately, the wiles of Satan disrupted perfection for all mankind. Instigators don’t care who they hurt or what consequences befall them. All is fair in love and war and the line between the two is blurred on a regular basis.

Naysayers aren’t bad people; they are just blinded by the negative. And one thing I learned fast: sitting in the teacher’s lounge is a quick way to join the ranks of other naysayers. Well-meaning conversations are naturally drawn to negative places. Whining is allowed. Venting is encouraged. And before too long, whole attitudes sour and a naysayer is born.

Extroverts willingly dance on stage, volunteer to be in the dunking booth, and find it hilarious when they get chosen to receive the pie in their face. These are often the coaches, drama teachers, and choral directors. But they can also be the lunchroom worker, English teacher, science professor. One thing to remember about extroverts is they don’t do well with alone time and will often overfill their lives with opportunities to be with others. Their social battery is recharg

Even though I seem extroverted at times, I recharge alone. If my personal time doesn’t happen each week, I begin growing irritated, longing to isolate and hide. But I also need my people. Notice I said my people, not just people. Introverts have safe friends and family members who love, accept, and value them. When their social battery is running out, these are the people they run to for solace and comfort.

        As an adult, I learned that peacekeepers often become codependent, and that’s what I became. A fixer. A rescuer. A therapist. An advisor. Which none of them asked for. I took the position upon myself to help with my level of peace inside.

This week, we are taking a dive into a few of the prominent personality types that we may encounter in our schools. As we take a look, we need to ask ourselves which group we fall into as well. If we are nonconfrontational peacekeepers, we will feel intimidated by outspoken extroverts who love to debate. If we are snobbish, we may not see the value of others’ opinions. And if we are that teacher with A.D.D., we may not notice much of anything except that we drive others craz

The self-actualization level is where we tap into the drive to grow, no matter what stands in our way. I think of Ben Carson and Helen Keller; they stuck with their goals regardless of the obstacles. It’s being authentic, pursuing creativity and growth, and seeking purpose and meaning. No matter what, we never let go of that hidden dream.

Our inner dialogue matters. The words and phrases we beat ourselves up with impact us. And the lies we believe impact our self-esteem and self-worth. And our students do the same thing too.

Elise developed anxious attachments to her family and others around her. She shut off her emotions and built high emotional walls to keep from being hurt even more. This sounds like some of us adults, doesn’t it? When we are hurt by others enough times, we build walls so we don’t get hurt again. While we are protected in the moment, we are closing the door to finding healthy, trust-filled friendships, which according to Maslow, is a huge need for all of us.

When our safe spaces are no longer safe or we never have a place that we consider safe, then our second core need isn’t met. When we don’t have secure routines, protection from danger, financial and health stability, then our sense of safety is shaken. Do we have kids like Frank in our class?

Our students who have instability at this basic level of need are doing good to function during the day, much less perform at higher levels academically. When our students are worried about their next meal, math doesn’t matter. If they are concerned about being warm enough or whether they will have to spend the night in the car again, reading doesn’t matter. If they aren’t able to sleep because of the chaos happening in their house, catching a nap during science seems like a

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Opening Prayer Opening Story :                            In 2019, our church started a food pantry to help the occasional homeless person or family in need. What started as a small ministry grew into a much needed one when the pandemic of 2020 hit our small community. We outgrew our space within three months and needed a new one. By the end of 2020 we had grown from 12-17 families a month to 100 a month. Businesses closed, people lost jobs, and ou

  As a teacher, this level of thought is the hardest one to get all students to reach, but it’s not impossible. Compile, construct, develop, invent, solve, discuss, explain, deduct, rate, evaluate, modify, improve, and elaborate are all great directions starters for helping your students reach the Synthesis and Evaluation levels. These are the levels where students show total mastery. They can critique and make judgment calls or teach the content entirely.

Day 4, Bloom's Taxonomy The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper. Proverbs 19:8 (NIV)               I had two quiet girls in my fourth-grade classroom. They sat by each other, shared books between one another, kept journals, and loved to write stories. These girls also had an intellectual sense of humor; they made word plays and jokes under their breath with each other. I grew to enjoy their humor and banter, but especially the

Day 3, Bloom's Taxonomy Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11 (ESV)               My third-grade math students drove me bonkers at the beginning of the year. They were whiney, clingy, and had not been taught to think independently. I had gotten spoiled with my fourth and fifth grade math groups.               I decided to try something diff

Comprehension is the second level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. At this level of content mastery, students are able to organize, translate, compare, interpret, and state main ideas of concepts. In math, this would be performing basic word problems; in science, comparing two different elements; and in reading, expressing the main idea in a passage.

Day 1, Bloom's Taxonomy Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity. Hebrews 6:1a (ESV)                 Mr. N. was my sixth-grade math teacher. He came into class every morning and sat in his rolling chair behind his desk. After arranging his gradebook and finding the page to assign in his teacher’s edition, he rolled his chair to the side of his desk and leaned his body forward over the trashcan. Then he pulled a comb o

This week we will take a deep dive into these six levels of content mastery, but for today, I want to finish our lesson with taking a look at how Bloom’s Taxonomy connects to our walk with Christ. I’ve often wondered how a person can come to church every Sunday for twenty years but never grow in their walk with Christ. In my opinion, they are stuck at the bottom level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Our motives are the foundation for everything we do. Just like the foundation of our house, we need to pay careful attention to the whys behind our actions. Our whys dictate where we work, serve, live, and travel. They also affect relationships, friends, coworkers, and enemies. Our whys dictate how we navigate our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual selves too. If our why is off, then nothing we do from that position will be right.

Day 4, Motives Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18 (ESV) No one could tell me anything. I was eighteen and had the world in front of me. I rolled down the windows of my Geo Metro, cranked up Lenny Kravitz, and screamed the lyrics, “I want to get away, I want to fly away.” I couldn’t wait to finish my two years of community college and get out of the suffocating, small-minded, town of Madison. It’s funny looking back. Pride has a