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Does anyone have any short, quirky, uplifting, fun quotes to share?!?
I just got hired this past few weeks as a special education teacher. I will be teaching 7 or 8 emotionally disturbed middle schoolers. Some of them have histories that are heartbreaking. Others have supportive families but have mental illness (mostly bipolar, but also anxiety, depression, etc). I've only met one so far (school starts next week), and he was a very sweet, fragile little guy. I really want to reach these kids.
The problem is, as in many cases with special ed., my classroom is a former storage room, long and skinny and full of junk. The walls are painted cinder block, very ugly. I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with a way of decorating that does NOT involve trite posters of clouds and sunsets and "dare to follow your dreams" quotes on them. There is a teacher store nearby, but all of the posters and such from there are already being used in other classrooms.
I prayed about how to reach these kids, and the only thing that has come (repeatedly) to my mind is that I need to get long (maybe 36 inches by 6 inches) strips of paper with quotes on them that I can stick all over the room so that when a kid's eyes wander, they'll see these interesting, uplifting quotes.
There's only one problem...I can't think of any quotes! My friend recommended the following:
"Life's a feast, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" (Auntie Mame)
"Sense is not common." (from the New Era this month)" Popularity is often highly overrated...sometimes the crowd can be wrong."
Are there any such quotes that you have heard that you could share?! Back to school night is tomorrow night and I would like to have SOMETHING up on the walls....! I would appreciate anything you could come up with.
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"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
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quote: "I long to accomplish a great and noble task. But I realize that it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as though they are great and noble." ~Helen Keller
quote: "We read fairy tales not to convince us that dragons are real, but to remind us that they can be defeated."
quote: "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
posted
Is it? Doesn't the apostrophe count for like half a letter? Can't can't be a four and a half letter word?
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Actually, an apostrophe is a quarter of a letter, so "can't" is a four-and-a-quarter-letter word, but anything less than .5 gets rounded down so we're back to a four-letter word and it fits nicely on the poster. Posts: 1330 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I could post a bunch of links, but you can find them yourself if you simply google "quotes". There's loads of great stuff around. You have a great idea, just keep updating the messages. Feel free to hang onto ones that are especially worthwhile and have them make reappearances every so often or just move 'em around.
Posts: 144 | Registered: Aug 2006
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Wow, thanks guys. I thought of googling, but was afraid I'd have to wade through tons of stuff to get anything good. I'll be spending most of tonight and tomorrow on this, so I really appreciate it!
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posted
Down the road, maybe you could also have space to devote to each student- either w/their picture or description of their talents/accomplishments, etc
"Remember who you are, what you stand for and don't let it get you down" (unknown- my old mission comp used to say that to me)
"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity." (I don't know the author right now, I recenlty found out who said it however. If you use that quote, I can find the author. In the meantime, I will not look for the book)
I know what you mean about pictures of clouds, etc, but still some pictures might be nice - to help add cheer, esp if it is all cinderblocks. Are there windows?
Can all the kids read?
A lot of the border trims they have in the teacher store are not that bad and are age appropriate. Will you have both male and female students?
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quote: The walls are painted cinder block, very ugly
Raro- since some of the kids are depressed, etc, will the school allow those blocks to be repainted in a more cheerful color at least?
There is a website for teachers (I don't know what it is however) in which teachers can advertise for items to be donated to their classes. Perhaps you could advertise on there to get some cheerful pictures or tapestries, etc donated.
Also- if there is junk in the room, you probably shoudl insist the school store those items elsewhere, for safety reasons.
One other idea and I will shush. It might sound too childish but we did this w/activity day girls for our talent show. Each girl decorated a posterboard sized "star" and then wrote her name in glitter. Each girl used the glitter and decorated her name in a variety of creative ways. We then hung these on the walls. Something like that might be a fun idea though it is probably too girly for the guys. Also it might seem too trite to do a star motif.
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Thanks, Nita,you have some great ideas. There is one wall which is weirdly designed...about 18-inch wooden cabinets (like lockers, almost) with a sort of table in between them, all along the wall. I think there are five of these table thingies with the cabinets in between. I finally threw a tantrum about how ALL the cabinets were full of books (from every other class...the principal looked in one and it was full of French textbooks...our school doesn't even HAVE French!!) So he said he would guarantee me at least as many empty cabinets as I had kids. I was thinking that kind of like the star decorating thing, I'd have the kids take a day the first week and decorate a poster for "their" cabinet.
The kids are mostly on target for their age, although some are below par in a few areas. So far there are 5 boys and 2 girls.
Unfortunately, they won't let me paint the depressing walls (just painted, so at least they're reasonably white, though very sterile). One teacher came in and told me, "use a glue gun to put stuff up; it is the only thing that will stay." I asked if that was allowed and she said, "I never said it was allowed. I just said do it!" I pretty much have freedom to decorate as I wish, but a lot of the wall space is confined to 2 feet below the ceiling (above the cabinets) and a section near the chalkboard (for which they gave me dry erase markers instead of chalk...welcome to the world of education, LOL!)
I've been trying to look for quotes that are relevant to these kids' lives. And some I want to put up because they make me laugh:
"The only thing an IQ test measures is one's ability to take an IQ test." "There are more pleasant things to do than beat up people." (Mohammed Ali) "Don't worry about your difficulties in math; I assure you mine are greater." (Albert Einstein)
Posts: 1670 | Registered: Feb 2005
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If you do the stars, here is a quote: "Be the star of your own show!" (used by my Laurel teacher way back when)
That is too bad they won't let you paint. Let me know if you want a co-conspirator to sneak in to your room and paint the walls yellow or something more cheerful. (for those who don't know, I am in the county just north of Raro, so not too far away!) Still w/your idea of the quotes, I am sure you will cheer up the room.
That is a good idea to get quotes by Lincoln, etc The owner of Jet Blue has Adult ADD.
** I just read something in the paper the other day that Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read til he was 9! The article said that he was also the first pres to get his PhD. Not that would necessarily be the reality outcome for each student, but I think it is good to illustrate examples of hope.
* how about a calendar w/all those "fun holidays"- ie maybe you could celebrate some of the fun holidays,etc. Special ed can have such a stigma and it might be nice to have something like that for the kids.
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quote: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ~Thomas Edison "Hitch your wagon to a star." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson "If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius." ~Michelangelo "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much." ~Mother Teresa "If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves." ~Thomas Edison "All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them." ~Walt Disney "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr.Seuss "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts." ~Winston Churchill "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." ~Henry David Thoreau The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~Eleanor Roosevelt "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." ~Goethe "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes "Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared." ~Eddie Rickenbacker "Quit now, you'll never make it. If you disregard this advice, you'll be halfway there." ~David Zucker "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." ~Albert Einstein
posted
I'll bet I know something else that will stick to the walls, but odds are the glue gun is cheaper. If you can find 3M double-stick tape at an auto parts store, they may have to order it, that stuff is unbelievable. I know one guy who uses it to hold a fake hood scoop on his car (yeah, kinda tacky....ewww, that's a bad pun) and it holds the thing on even at speed for the past few years, through weather, heat, you name it. I keep a roll around the house.
Posts: 144 | Registered: Aug 2006
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I think it would be cool to get quotes from books they might like to read. For example:
quote: "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." ~J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," spoken by the character Sirius Black
quote:“Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and the keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people’s heads, any way at all so long as it was safe, free from moths, silverfish, rust and dry-rot, and men with matches.” -Ray Bradbury "Farenheit 451"
quote:"He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it--namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."-Mark Twain "The Adventures of Tom Saywer"
quote:"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." William Golding "Lord of the Flies"
quote:"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." Paulo Coelho "The Alchemist"
quote:"Sleep has no place it can call its own." -Bram Stoker "Dracula"
I don't know what their reading level is, but it could be adapted to whatever level they are at.
quote:"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." Dr Suess, "The Lorax"
posted
I may have to steal some of these for future email signature lines. I like your idea for using book quotes Brother Pink.
quote: Unfortunately, they won't let me paint the depressing walls
Maybe you could put your quotes on colorful paper/tagboard? Or at least make them colorful borders around the white word strips?
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posted
Here is one to keep on hand (not necessary on the walls) for the girls in your class, if they ever have guy problems and are "rejected" by a guy they like:
"I have not yet met the man who deserves to be as happy as I could make him!"~ ANON. (Definitely one of the best quotes I ever saw when I was at college.)
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friends are earthly angels who through love, prayer and hugs lift you above the storm clouds when YOUR wings have lost their strength to fly... anon
I have heard several versions, but I like this one the best... I made a sampler some years ago... it's on the wall of my family room.
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I don't have quotes on the top of my head (and for those students who may not be able to read the quotes, you may suggest an activity where they draw the quotes which pictures you put next to the quote). But I do know a lot about what the research says about how to effectively teach this population. So feel free to email me if I can help.
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You know if there's ever a time when you know you could be alone for an hour or so, you could paint portions. And then, if they ask how the walls got painted, you could say, "Ya know, I don't care how the walls got painted. I'm just so grateful that they were painted. I think it makes a wonderful difference." And if they directly ask, "Did you paint the walls?" You could reply, "Now why would I spend my money and time doing something like that? Don't be silly."
And unless their politically savy or bent on finding a reason to get rid of you. They should let it drop.
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"People can only boss you around if you do what they tell you to. Otherwise they're just making noise." -Gracie's Momma
Posts: 7961 | Registered: Jun 2005
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How many of you quote Shakespeare on a daily basis? Probably all of you. Here's some Shakespeare quotes that you probably use constantly, but never knew you were quoting the bard:
Hoodwinked (All's Well That Ends Well) We have seen better days (As You Like It) Too much of a good thing (As You Like It) Laid on with a trowell (As You Like It) Neither rhyme nor reason (The Comedy of Errors) The game is up (Cymbeline -- the last words of Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, before he poisoned himself in the Berlin bunker) More in sorrow than in anger (Hamlet) Brevity is the soul of wit (Hamlet) The primrose path (Hamlet) Neither a borrower nor a lender be (Hamlet) To thine own self be true (Hamlet) To the manner born (Hamlet) Frailty, thy name is Woman! (Hamlet) Not a mouse stirring (Hamlet) It smells to high heaven (Hamlet) The devil incarnate (Henry II) The better part of valor is discretion (Henry IV Part 1) Eaten me out of house and home (Henry IV Part 2) Dead as a doornail (Henry IV Part 2) Once more into the breach (Henry V) For England, Harry and St George (Henry V) Stand on ceremony (Julius Caesar) Cry havoc (Julius Caesar) Let slip the dogs of war (Julius Caesar) More sinned against than sinning (King Lear) The apple of her eye (Love's Labour's Lost) What's done is done (Macbeth) Fair is foul, and foul is fair (MacBeth) Toil and trouble (Macbeth) One fell swoop (MacBeth) Knock, knock! Who's there? (MacBeth) The milk of human kindness (MacBeth) The be-all and end-all (MacBeth) The course of true love never did run smooth (A Midsummer Night's dream) Bated breath (The Merchant of Venice) Laughing-stock (The Merry Wives of Windsor) What the dickens (The Merry Wives of Windsor -- "dickens" refers to the devil, not to Charles Dickens; thus the alternative "What the devil." But Shakespeare never wrote that) Foregone conclusion (Othello) Pomp and circumstance (Othello) Wear my heart on a sleeve (Othello) A tower of strength (Richard III) Star-crossed lovers (Romeo and Juliet) An eye-sore (The Taming of the Shrew) More fool you (The Taming of the Shrew) Such stuff as dreams are made on (The Tempest) Into thin air (The Tempest) Brave new world (The Tempest) Good riddance (Troilus and Cressida) To make a virtue of necessity (The Two Gentlemen of Verona) White as the driven snow (A Winter's Tale)
Edited because I kept thinking of new ones!!!!
[ September 01, 2006, 12:20 PM: Message edited by: Wizard of ID ]
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posted
Heh, abby, about 60 years ago, Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It or Not actualy presented this question, albeita little differently (he asked what weighed more, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold. Well, guess what? At the time (perhaps it's still true today) a pound of feathers weights *more* than a pound of gold... wanna know why?
At least up until the 1940's when this fact was published, Gold was weighed on the Troy scale, which I believe has 12 or 14 ounces per "pound". However, feathers are weighed on what's called an Avoirdupois Scale, which has 16 ounces per pound. In any event, the pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold according to that little story. Lead is weighed on the avoirdupois scale, though so they would be equal .
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Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
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