The child’s mind is like a bank into which you can make daily deposits.

Many children come to school on “empty.” Their minds, their hearts, and their souls are like banks in which deposits or withdrawals can be made. Your job is to make lots of deposits, to help each child to be the best he or she can be. When you teach, you make deposits into the future, the future of each of your students. You are a difference maker.

Have an awesome day and a wonderful week-end, and remember to make some deposits into yourself this week-end too.

Maryln

Celebrate life.

On a Thursday morning many years ago, a seventeen year old teenager gave birth to a seven pound, ten ounce baby girl. That teen mom loved her little baby girl and loved watching her grow up, taking her first steps, saying her first words, going to school, meeting her friends, and watching the many milestones in her child’s life. And then, when her little girl grew into adulthood, the daughter became ill, and many times over the years the mom thought her daughter would die. But her daughter was a survivor, and despite all the illness, she kept going, and most of the time with a smile on her face. But one day very quietly, the daughter went to sleep and did not wake up.

That mom was me. Many of you know that my daughter Tobi passed quietly away on November 1st. Today would have been her birthday. I have a very important message for you on this special day – the day that she came into my world as my baby girl. That message is to enjoy the moments in your own life. Enjoy your time with your children. Always, always cherish the gift of life for we know not when that gift can be taken from us. For the first months following Tobi’s passing away, I grieved terribly, and then this past summer, I took a month time out to be with family and friends away from home. I felt reborn surrounded by love, and realized that I needed to celebrate life instead of dwelling on loss. I needed to celebrate the good things. So my message to you on this special day, is to open the windows of your heart to life, to love, to laughter, and to joy. Cherish the moments.

Have a great day and a wonderful new school year teaching.

Maryln

P.S. Go to our web site and you can see some photos of me starting to enjoy the precious gift of life again at http://www.atiseminars.org/en/cms/1566/ Enjoy and comment if you want on my blog at www.marylnandmore.org.

Make it appetizing.

One morning while we were eating breakfast, a bird hovered nearby. We could tell that the bird wanted to be fed but was afraid to come near the table while we were there. We put a few crumbs on the edge of the table and walked away so the bird would feel safer. Sure enough, the bird immediately came over to start eating.

It is the same with children. When you want to feed them new knowledge, new information, you have to make it appetizing. There are some students who will immediately jump in, and there are others like the bird, that will come at their own pace to do the lesson when they feel safe.

See the photo of the bird at http://www.atiseminars.org/en/cms/1564/

Have a great day.

Maryln

Help children dream big!

There are some children who don’t dare to dream. They set very low goals for themselves. I remember watching one youngster in a documentary about schools who said that he did not believe he would grow into adulthood. He said he would be killed first! He was growing up in a high poverty, high crime area.

Our children need to dare to dream, to dream of rising above things that could bring them down. I remember one successful adult who told me that a teacher said to him, “You can do better.” He said that no one had ever told him that in his whole life, and it changed his way of thinking.

Help your students change negative ways of thinking. Teach them ways to overcome adversity. Be there for them as a strong role model. You can do it. You are a difference maker.

Go to our web site at http://www.atiseminars.org/en/cms/1562/, and see a photo of a youth who told me in broken English he was going to be a Koby Bryant! He was on the PeacePlayers team that I spoke about yesterday.

Have an awesome day.

Maryln

Teach the joy of diversity.

This summer I got to observe something wonderful. I was in Israel, the Holy Land, and Marty was playing basketball there in a huge world-wide tournament. Several of his teammates were involved in an organization called PeacePlayers, and they arranged for us to go observe children playing sports together who were both Palestinian and Jewish. Through sports, the children are linked together as one, not seeing differences in religion or nationality, but instead seeing the goodness within each child.

I was almost moved to tears seeing a foundation for peace being built within youth, and thought about our schools today, and how we need to teach children to honor diversity. People are people regardless of how they look, and love is love no matter what.

I am attaching a video of Marty’s team, which won a silver medal, working with the children; the PeacePlayers web site, so you can see that they do this not only in the Middle East but in other parts of the world, and also if you go to our web site, you can see a couple of photos of me and Marty with these wonderful children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAnW9MHc5Fk

http://www.peaceplayersintl.org/index.aspx

http://www.atiseminars.org/en/cms/1558

Have an awesome day and a wonderful week.

Maryln