For ten years now we have been faithfully enjoying our summer “breather”. It is so important! Teachers as a rule in my opinion have in the past worked too hard for very sparse results. We are changing that now and learning in the process that the best teaching is the simplest and easiest (non-targeted) and along with it comes, at least as has happened in our little community here recently, a nuclear explosion in our awareness of guarding and keeping our mental health via a completely new way of teaching (the three Natural Approach books) that we quite enjoy. This new awareness is overdue.
It’s worth repeating: It is the opinion of many of us here in the PLC and equally over on the CI Liftoff FB site that the shift to non-targeted instruction brings with it a completely new notion of what mental health even is in our profession. For many of us this is not conjecture, but proven fact in our classrooms over the past two and a half years since the invention of the Invisibles in January of 2016.
So let’s look forward to resting now in these precious summer daze days, but also during the school year! If you think that that is an odd suggestion, break out some of your pay stubs from last year and take a good look at them. Plus, in Georgia some teachers go back into their classrooms in just a few weeks. So rest now. And then, if you have succeeded in adopting non-targeted instruction into your program, you will be able to work at roughly 60% less effort and time spent planning than last year.
This percentage is not a random number. I have figured out that with the Natural Approach program you will get Fridays off for the WCTG, as well as time off every sixth week for “Spa Week”, as well as ten minutes each day for Free Choice Reading which in itself adds up to 20% less work for you during the year, not to mention the two months off in the spring when the kids end the year with projects that they love to do. It all adds up to where you will work this year A LOT LESS.
Mental Health has not become the most important focus of this PLC over recent years by accident. We have paid our dues, and our new focus and way to implement it has been earned.
Plus, don’t forget that PLC members here will get free access to a $14.95 a month weekly video training program on the Natural Approach books (price may change) that Tina and I are putting together for launch in the fall, with the free access to that program being extended only to members of this PLC.
Now go rest some more, and get ready to have the most restful year of your career on top of that.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
