Ms. Ross’ Playground

"The purpose of life is to matter, to count, to stand for something, to

have it make some difference that we lived at all." ~Leo Rosten

A leader is not one who says,

“Follow me.”

A leader is one who says,

“I’ll go first.”

“If you want to build a ship, don't herd people

together to collect wood and don't assign them

tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for

the endless immensity of the sea.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

You don’t stand behind your students, nudging them forward in an unclear direction…you go precisely to where you want them to be and say “Hey, you guys! Look what I found!” with great enthusiasm.

You don’t tell kids to read a story and answer the questions…you give them a story to read and ask what new understanding they have as a result of doing so.

~Monette Ross

Think Different

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,

disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones,

we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think

they can change the world, are the ones who do.

(Apple Computer Ad Campaign)

"How does one become a butterfly?" a little girl asked.

With a twinkle in her eye and a slight smile, the wise old woman

replied, "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up

being a caterpillar."

The Lego LessonAs my son scattered his Legos upon the floor, I

settled into my recliner, cup of tea at my side,

bravely prepared to assess my students’ work

collected earlier that day. Quietly going about

our own business as the stereo sang softly in the

background, I became increasing aware that Ari

was having much more fun at his endeavor than

I was at mine.

I was recently struggling to get my students to have some original thoughts and responses to what they were

reading in social studies.

As I watched Ari build a rather intricate skate park out of the small colored blocks, my frustration with my

students' progress and my lack of knowing how to help began to dissipate as an idea began to form.

Reading is very much like playing Legos. One doesn’t “play Legos” by moving the blocks individually around the floor,

or lining them up and properly identifying the color of each.

But that’s precisely how my students have been going about their reading. Each word they see on the page

represents a Lego, a building block, if you will. They line them up in their mind, identify the words in order, but

never build any of their own meaning with them!

If Ari’s skate park came out looking like a giraffe, I’d certainly know what questions to ask to help him think about

relocating a few of the blocks, or possibly even suggest he call it a “giraffe” instead.

But without building anything during their reading, without connecting any of the “blocks” into some structure or

Understanding, what COULD my students honestly have to share as a result? And how could I possibly know where

to start asking questions, or clarifying the material to aid in their understanding?

The next day I was most excited for the kids to arrive, eager to share my findings with them. “Eureka! I have

discovered a cure!” I cried out enthusiastically when the students had taken their seats. And my remedy? ...well, a

pocketful of Legos, of course. ~Monette Ross

“Go about everything as if it were impossible

to fail. When you're fishing for Moby Dick,

bring along the tartar sauce!”

“Don't say you don't have enough time.

You have exactly the same number of

hours per day that were given to Helen

Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother

Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas

Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.