Friday, November 20, 2009

While reading, The Motivation Breakthrough, by Richard Lavoie, I came across a quote which perfectly summed up the philosophy all staff at TMS will follow. The quote was taken from a book Between Teacher and Child by Haim Ginott. I believe this an important understanding of the role of a teacher:
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in my classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the
weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or
joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or
honor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will
be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.

The staff at Timothy Memorial School will also, at all times, take responsibility for student learning. If a child does not succeed at a task it will be the teacher who must change not the child. The teacher will change the approach and find the way that each particular child learns and then teach in that way. When a child does not learn it is through no fault of their own and they should not be blamed. It is the teacher's job to teach. Thus the title TEACHer.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

If you have a facebook page PLEASE become a fan at Chase Community Giving http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/. Then VOTE for Timothy Memorial School. TMS DESPERATELY needs this $25,000 grant to give a 3rd grader tuition to attend. Please help us to be the one of the top 100 charities with the most VOTES!!! There are 5,000 charities able to participate!!! We need your vote!