The Courageous Classroom

My “Louisiana” version of our class motto surrounded by our social contracts that each class agrees to follow and signs the contract.

I have been teaching for 27 plus years and I am currently a Math Interventionist for a 5-8 grade campus. My focus this year is all 8th grade. My school is a Title 1 school with over 85% socioeconomically disadvantaged children.

Our campus and district are part of The Flippen Group’s ‘Capturing Kids’ Hearts’ philosophy. The mission is simple : to win their hearts and to lead them to their personal best. The Flippen Group believes exactly what I believe: build relationships because they truly matter. While I am not the best Math teacher in the world, I am really good at building relationships with my “babies”.

Each day in my classroom, my students share good things. We also do a launch each day.  When “Go Be Great” came to my attention, I embraced It with all of my heart and mind. What a perfect lesson/daily launch for not only me, but for all of my students.

It is easy to tell someone to have a great day, but if we change that up and instead tell someone to Go Be Great… what a true difference that makes! Every day in my classroom, I send my kids off with a huge high five or hug and a reminder to Go Be Great!  The funny thing is if for some reason, I am in the middle of something when the bell rings, my students still leave my room telling me to Go Be Great or they will say… we know Miss… Go Be Great!

Can you imagine what the world would look like if we all used that for our daily launch into life? As I share with my kids, they get to do something great every single day and they get to be the light in someone’s or something’s darkness! I hope their lights continue to shine and I can’t wait to see how they get to “Go Be Great” in their future!:-)

-Rachel Seymour