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Mr. Edwards Letters for August 2007 |
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-sighs- I am just going to start over... on the whole letter thing XD
True Friends Are Angels
Friday, August 31, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Potentials!
Have you ever had a true friend? I have always liked the word friend. I equate it with positive things. Even the way I learned to spell it reinforced its meaning. I learned to spell the word friend correctly by remembering this phrase. “I will be your friend to the end.” It was easy to remember the “i” before “e” arrangement. Friendship is important to everyone. Valued friends are special to us.
Listen to this anonymous quote that a student shared with me.
“Friends are angels who lift us up to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.”
The student shared the quote with me because she said that it meant a great deal to her. It was the one powerful quote that she said described what her friends meant to her. She also shared with me that each of her friends had wonderful unique qualities that made them special individuals. They are always there for her and they help in any number of ways, especially when she needs them. She and her friends are close and they inspire each other to do well. She even shared the names of her friends with me. She did this in confidence that I would be discreet with their names. So I won’t give you their names, but I will tell you that I can appreciate these people all the more because of what this student has told me.
One more thing, she did say that she believes the quote means that friends are always there for you. The definition that she found for friend in the dictionary is that a friend is one person attached to another by affection or esteem.
If you are fortunate enough to have good friends, I want to remind you that good friends should not be taken lightly. We have a responsibility to nurture and care for our friendships. A friend is not a guaranteed relationship unless you place value and priority on it. True friends will be there for you, and you will be there for your true friends. I agree with the quote the student shared with me. True friends are angels. What do you think?
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Preparing or Repairing
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Preparers!
People go through life with one of two strategies. People spend most of their time preparing for the future or they spend the majority of their life repairing from the past. They are either focused on their direction and purpose and therefore go through life preparing. Or they are looking at the bad decisions they have made and continue to try to repair things because of them.
From a student perspective, you’re either doing your homework, making the grades and meeting the expectations of your parents or you’re trying to make up missing assignments, looking for extra credit and hiding your shortcomings from your parents. Everyday that you enter the school building, you are preparing for the next day. Believe it or not, what you become someday is the result of what you prepare to do each day now. The more time that you spend preparing for tomorrow; the less time you will have to spend repairing yesterday. We have a responsibility to live life right, because we only get one chance to do so.
Listen to this quote from John Maxwell:
“Life is not a dress rehearsal. You won’t get a second chance to relive each day.”
Maxwell goes on to share that he believes everyone chooses how to approach life, preparing or repairing. He said, “If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing. He spells out the two strategies or approaches to life. Listen closely to the two sets of traits.
Preparing: Lets you focus on today, increases efficiency, increases confidence, pays now for tomorrow and takes you to a higher level.
Repairing: Makes you focus on yesterday, consumes time, breeds discouragement, pays now for yesterday and becomes an obstacle to growth.
Where do you fit? Are you spending time preparing or are you busy scrambling around repairing? What do you really want for your life?
I challenge all of you to approach each day with an attitude and outlook of being preparers for your life. Keep this idea close—you won’t get a second chance to relive each day. I encourage you to prepare and go to the higher level of life.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Life Is Difficult
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Life Builders!
Listen to this three word quote.
“Life is difficult.”
It seems simple enough, but is it true? Is life difficult or is it easy? It’s hard to say, but I do know these two things. One, we aren’t promised that life is going to be easy and problem free. And two, living and enjoying life to the fullest will bring difficulties with it. So I guess if we are going to live life and enjoy life to the fullest, the statement will be true. Life is difficult, because it will present us with the opportunities of dealing with problems.
We all have problems, but problems give meaning to life. It is natural for us to want to give our problems to others and not deal with them. Every one goes to their mother or father when they are two or three years old and he or she has a hurt that they want their parent to make go away. That’s when it starts. In fact the first problem any of us dealt with was probably hunger that only one person could help us resolve. Where do people most often turn to for help with a problem? Better than half of the time when life becomes difficult and gives us a problem we turn to family and sometimes friends. If not people, then solutions are sought in the Bible or other books, and if the problem still exists, it is not unusual for us to turn to religious leaders. Once in a while difficulties require us to contact the law enforcement individuals in our community.
Listen to this story about a major problem from a book I read this last summer. “In the South, when cotton was “king,” the boll weevil crossed over from Mexico to the United States and destroyed the cotton plants. Farmers were forced to grow a variety of crops, such as soybeans and peanuts. They learned to use their land to raise cattle, hogs, and chickens. As a result, many more farmers became prosperous than in the days when the only crop grown was cotton.
The people of Enterprise, Alabama, were so grateful for what had occurred in 1910 they erected a monument to the boll weevil. The inscription on the monument reads: “In profound appreciation of the boll weevil and what it has done to herald prosperity.”
Life is difficult. We will all have problems, but I encourage you to not think of problems as only something negative in life. The difficulties almost always make us better people. It has been said this way. “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you’ve got to put up with the rain storm.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Don’t Do It!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Cougars!
Have you ever heard the phrase, “no man is an island unto himself” used by an adult? If you did hear it, would you have any idea what it meant? No man is an island unto himself. It is a line from a British poet named John Donne. It goes on to say, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never seek for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
This letter is meant to reinforce the idea from last Thursday’s letter that we are connected in many ways as the Sequoyah family. We have some responsibility to each other. Not one of us can make it completely alone. There is an interdependence that exists and we either help it or hurt it by our decisions each and every day. Here is a simple example. When we treat a fellow student with kindness, we help the interdependence. When we bully a person or simply are mean, then we are damaging that connectedness. Our sense of belonging with each other and our shared history that brings common values into our lives demonstrates that each person, no matter who he or she is, is important to our school.
When I was a kid there was a game show on television where contestants tried to get money by answering difficult questions. While one contestant was answering the questions, the other contestant was placed in an isolation booth. It was a glass box that was sound proof. There was no interaction with that person while they were in the isolation booth. That person was set aside basically from everyone and everything else. They were officially separated, disconnected, and cut off from other people. And in every show it was always done the same way. The game show host said, “Step into the Isolation Booth, please.”
Why do I tell you about this game show instruction? Because I think that people, and especially middle school students are choosing to step into isolation booths of their own creation. Many have become isolationist by spending more time with their I-pods, electronic games, and the non-person internet sites. Many people have converted their bedrooms into isolation booths. They have made their rooms almost like dorm rooms at universities. I even know a couple of students that have placed little refrigerators in their bedroom to store their own snacks, and one of those guys has a microwave oven in the room. Some people are choosing to be isolated. They are choosing to make themselves islands. I have three words for those creating an isolation booth for themselves--DON’T DO IT! Remember what John Donne wrote.
“No man is an island unto himself.”
Do you want to know why I don’t want you to be an island? Here it is plain and simple. I need you, all of you, in my life. I can be a better person for knowing all of you.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Resist the Reaction of Anger
Monday, August 27. 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Peacemakers!
One of the television series that was popular when I was a kid was the show Lost in Space. A few years ago they made a movie for the big screen with younger and better actors and it had a small following of fans. One of the scenes that you could count on being in the show each week occurred when the young boy, Will, was out and about on a planet. His faithful friend was a robot. The story seemed to always reach a point where the robot would start signaling with flashing lights and twirling antenna when something bad was going to happen. In a robot voice the same phrase would be repeated, “Danger, Danger, Danger Will Robinson!”
Anger is just one letter short of danger. There is always a sort of danger in anger. When a person allows anger to dwell within their mind and spirit, they are in a very real sense permitting an attitudinal disease to exist in their personal life. There is danger in that happening. It impairs a person’s decision making. It keeps a person from being able to trust others and it can even fog a person’s outlook on life in general. There is definitely danger in letting anger dwell in your life.
One of my favorite books to read is the Book of Psalms written thousands of years ago by King David. Listen to what he warns the reader about anger.
“Don’t be angry. Don’t be upset, it only leads to trouble.”
Even though he wrote these words centuries ago, the truth of it is relevant in our time. He warns us that anger only leads to trouble. Anger is dangerous, especially when there is no logic to it. When that emotion is in charge of our decisions, they are usually lousy decisions. I have never been able to be angry and make the best choice in resolving a problem at the same time.
Our visiting author, Wendelin Van Draanen, has some advice about anger that she added at the end of her novel Runaway. She suggests this, “Don’t take your anger out on yourself (through drugs, alcohol, or whatever), don’t take it out on other people (by being negative or aggressive or just plain mean), take it out on paper. Getting your anger or sadness or frustration out of your system and onto paper is very cheap and very real therapy.” She tells us that maybe it is a simplistic view of dealing with anger, but it works. She is a big believer in the power of written words.
I encourage you resolve anger at its lower level. You can get the better of it before it gets t he better of you. I challenge you to find a safe, cheap way to deal with anger issues. Odds are overwhelming that your life will be healthier and longer if you can keep yourself anger free.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
We All Farm Life
Friday, August 24, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Life Farmers!
I hope that this week has been a great first week for each of you. I expect wonderful, fantastic things to happen to everyone during this school year. When something great happens for one of you please let me know. Stop me in the hallway to tell me or drop a note in my mailbox in the office. I really do want to know.
In 1900, our nation had 98% of its citizens living on farms and only two percent living in the urban areas. The statistic had reversed itself in little over a hundred years. We entered the 21st century seven years ago with only 2% of the people in the United States living on farms. And yet more land is farmed in this country now than ever before in our history. One hundred years ago most of you would have been farmer’s children and you would have had daily chores to do before and after school each day. Farming has been a major aspect of our country’s history, and still is so. We couldn’t survive without farmers and their labor. Farmers are essential to our life. How do we fit into the concept of farming without living on farms?
We all tend to farm life. That sounds funny, but it is true. Using farming words and word pictures about farming is still very important to us, especially in the state of Oklahoma. OSU used to be Oklahoma A & M. The “A” stood for agriculture. Farm words appear on the letterhead of the University of Oklahoma Foundation to be read every time a letter or card is sent out to others. The words and terms from farming can be used elsewhere. One example would be like a baseball farm team, one like the Oklahoma City Redhawks, where major league players are cultivated for the Texas Rangers. The word pictures can help us to understand ideas better. Listen to the words that are found on the University of Oklahoma Foundation stationery:
“The seeds we sow today are tomorrow’s harvest.”
Some people may wonder what those words have in common with pursuing a college education or supporting a college campus. First off, they aren’t speaking of corn seed or seeds for fruit or vegetables. What kinds of seeds are meant by the foundation? They are the seeds of financial support and the “seeds of knowledge.” The seeds of knowledge are important to a learner’s life. The seeds of knowledge planted today in our minds will be tomorrow’s harvest in our hearts, attitudes, thoughts and actions. The seeds of knowledge planted in each of us will influence and impact our future when harvest time comes. Are any of us in Sequoyah full time farmers? No, not really. Do we have a responsibility to ourselves to farm our own life? Absolutely! Our life grows whether we cultivate it slowly and carefully, or we turn our back to it and simply ignore what is going on in it. It still grows. What kind of seeds are you planting in your own life? How well are you caring for what you plant? Are you looking the other way and letting weeds and “goat head stickers” work their way into your life? Or do you nurture your future harvest in life with attention and care? Remember, we all farm at least one life, our own. And we don’t get to farm the same ground twice, ever.
I encourage you to work hard, maximize your effort, be smart and follow through on your personal responsibilities. Cultivate a bumper-crop-like-life!
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Sequoyah Family
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Family!
One of the great authors of the 20th Century was Kurt Vonnegut. Unfortunately, he passed away this last winter. One of my regrets is that I didn’t get to Stillwater a couple of years ago when he visited OSU and gave a speech. He was well known on college campuses for his novels and his short stories. Several of his written pieces have been made into feature length movies and television episodes. Listen carefully to this comment he made about family.
“Every human endeavor is the search for family.”
What is the definition of endeavor? It is a conscientious or concerted effort towards a given end. It is also viewed as an earnest attempt or effort towards a goal. With that understanding of the definition, that makes Kurt Vonnegut’s words a pretty all-encompassing statement about what our motivation is for everything we do as humans. Why do we desire to be connected? Why do we take the time to carefully build lines of communication in the relationships that are most important to us? Why a search for family? It is because when a person is considered family then they are definitely connected to other people. He or she is tied by blood or law or choice to other people. Everyone wants to belong to a group of other people, and that is part of our make up as humans. We are social creations. I have always told other people that I would like to live in the mountains away from everyone, and to be left alone. But I can’t imagine life without my wife, and I have a tough time with both of my kids living on their own and being out of my home. And to be honest, one of my best days of the year is the first day of school because everyone returns to Sequoyah. I love being here because all of you are here and we share this environment and learn from each other.
The bottom line is that since we are social creations we need to be around people. Another way to say what Mr. Vonnegut said so well is this, “Everything we do is an attempt to be a part of the human race.” He is saying that we go to school in large groups because we desire to learn together, celebrate together, share disappointments together, and achieve greatness together. I like the words of Kurt Vonnegut and believe that Sequoyah’s family should always search for our connectedness.
Is there something you could do differently this year that would make your friends and classmates feel more connected to Sequoyah? What words of encouragement could you offer that build better bridges in the relationships you have here at Sequoyah?
I challenge everyone, students and teachers, to make a genuine, concerted effort to search for our fit as a family at Sequoyah. I promise that I will keep it as my endeavor.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Be Bored No More!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Super Students!
Just two quick weeks ago almost all of the Sequoyah students picked up their schedules in our gymnasium and cafeteria. It was next to the last Thursday of your summer break and there was mostly excitement in the building. I saw several of you and asked how your summer had gone. Some students were wishing there was a lot more summer left because they just weren’t ready to face the daily expectations of school. Believe it or not there were many, many students that told me they were bored and ready to come to school so they could be with their friends. As a 51-year-old man, I was thinking how could any of the students be bored? Then I realized what the students really meant was they wanted some change in their routines. It is a part of life; in fact, it is life to want some change. You are never the same from one moment to another. It is impossible for any of you to stay the same. Yet we don’t see the change happening very often, we think nothing is going on and we tend to claim that we are bored.
In fact, right after the summer break had begun, I saw several students at the Kickingbird movie theater and I asked them how their summer was going and their response was that they were already bored. I don’t know why I was surprised, but I was. Then I realized what the problem really happened to be. We get wrapped in the thought that we need to do something, when in actuality, we need to wrap ourselves in just being someone. It is okay for us to just sit and be who we are and enjoy life.
Listen to this quote from a book called Anger in the Sky.
“Millions long for immortality that don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
How does this fit with what happened on schedule pick up day? What difference does this quote make to a middle school person? It’s this. Why would kids want more summer break and yet also say they are bored? Maybe it is because they miss their friends. Maybe they miss a structured routine. Or maybe it’s because without daily contact with people, they don’t recognize the changes happening around them. When at school, 8th graders see the change because just 24 months ago they were the new sixth grade students in the building. Sixth grade students were the oldest students on the elementary school grounds 12 weeks ago and now they are the youngest. Personally, I have been in middle school for 29 years and I promise you—I have seen the changes and will continue to do so. Look around and be bored no more. I haven’t been bored since the Sixties when I was in middle school as a kid.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Wendelin Van Draanen
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Cougars!
I hope that you have had the opportunity to prepare for the author visit we have next week. Usually we don’t have an author coming to town so early in the school year, but Wendelin Van Draanen is making a trip to Oklahoma for the state conference we host for media center directors, librarians and teachers. Since she was speaking in Oklahoma City, I asked her to come by and visit our school again. I think that you will enjoy her visit next Monday. Most of the eighth grade students read Runaway last year in their reading class. If you haven’t read one of her books, I encourage you to do so in the next few days.
Ms. Van Draanen has created one of my favorite characters by the name of Sammy Keyes. Sammy is actually Samantha and she is a sharp teenager that takes no garbage from anyone. That’s because life has dealt her a difficult hand to play. And yet, as a seventh grade girl living secretly in a high-rise apartment built for senior citizens, she functions well and solves any problem that comes her way. She responds to complicated situations with self-control and her intention is to always resolve issues in the best way possible. She has a constant nemesis interfering in her life in the character of Heather Acosta. Sammy is convinced that Heather is pure evil. And yet Sammy is able to keep things in a proper perspective that Heather creates her own problems and has to live with their consequences. Each Sammy Keyes mystery is a stand alone book, but if you read them in order, you will find that you move through her school year with her. The first book begins on the first day of school when she ends up getting suspended for punching Heather Acosta in the nose. The year ends with Sammy and her friends renting a Humvee stretch limousine for the Good-bye dance and school party. The last mystery also is the most serious because it deals with a murder in the town.
Here’s a fact you might not know. The city the stories are set in is called Santa Martina in the books, but it is actually my hometown of Santa Maria, California. Most of the streets and buildings are real in the real city in which I grew up. Sammy’s fictitious school is William Rose Junior High School and is the real El Camino Junior High School. It was one of my junior high’s big rivals. We will put a map on the wall in one of the halls with an aerial photograph of the setting of most of Wendelin Van Draanen’s books. Take a look at it!
Listen to these words from Emerson that fit Sammy Keyes philosophy of life.
"Difficulties exist to be surmounted."
No matter what problems fall into Sammy’s life, she overcomes them. It doesn’t make any difference if it is a bully like Heather Acosta or a serious mystery to be solved. Sammy defeats and masters the difficulties. I challenge you to do likewise. No matter what troubles or difficulties surface, I encourage you to rise above and master them.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Transformers Have Arrived!
Monday, August 20, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Transformers!
Welcome back to Sequoyah! Summer break has ditched us and it is time to change from a state of relaxation to one of being about our business of learning. I know that this year will be fruitful for all of us. Each of you has the ability to transform yourselves during the next 175 school days.
One of the blockbuster movies released this summer was “Transformers.” It was based on the toys introduced in the mid 1980’s. Because my kids had played with the toys when they were children, I looked forward to seeing it. I wasn’t disappointed with the story line and the special effects were amazing. The transformations were realistic and the scenes of combat were believable. The good Transformers were the Autobots and they were cars, trucks or pick-ups. They were present to save the human race from the bad Transformers—the Decepticons. The life force in the technology was an out of this world energy. If you didn’t see the movie when it was in the theaters, you may want to rent the video when it gets released.
Transforming is changing from one thing to another. We all are in the process of transforming. When the Autobots did it in the movie, it took about eight seconds. With all of us it takes years. Even changing from an elementary kid to a high school student is at least a 36 month event. Transformation is the game of life. A few of the changes we can not control. Like our height or shoe size or natural eye sight is programmed by our genetic code. What is exciting is that most of the transformation can be controlled by us. Each student controls how they are going to change intellectually over the 13 years of public education. Some kids will study hard and some will hardly study. At the beginning of each school year everyone has a chance to focus on what they choose about the intellectual and academic changes or transformations. I encourage you to transform in positive academic ways. I charge you to adopt the transformation that will help you most in your school life.
At the beginning of the summer, Mrs. Wilhite gave me a book called Forces of Change. It had many great ideas and pieces of information about change. Listen to what Charles Darwin says about change or transformation.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
Those who are best are those that are most responsive to change. How will you transform yourself this year? How will you respond to your transformation?
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
-Melodic Time- · Mon Jun 16, 2008 @ 04:34am · 0 Comments |
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