What I Wish You Knew #KidsDeserveIt

I wish you knew...

This teacher didn’t have breakfast

This teacher gets to school at 6:00am

This teacher leaves school at 5:30pm

This teacher gave up coaching his favorite sport, just to keep up

This teacher has no friends or family he can hang out with within 1500 miles

This teacher has created 2 walls devoted to data at his apartment

This teacher’s mother’s health is continuing to fail

This teacher will be celebrating Thanksgiving alone

This teacher works at school on Saturdays and Sundays

This teacher wishes you liked him

This teacher wishes you included him in on ideas

This teacher wishes you wouldn’t go back on your word

This teacher wishes you listened to his ideas

This teacher eats lunch with kids everyday

This teacher works when he gets home until he walls asleep on the coach

This teacher lives in a flooded apartment

This teacher spends too much time on social media

This teacher never feels good enough

This teacher has a fractured ankle

This teacher is lonely

This teacher was diagnosed with depression years ago

This teacher battles depression daily

This teacher fakes his happiness in front of his peers

This teacher desperately wants to give up…

This teacher has stopped going on Twitter chats

This teacher was bullied and harassed in school

This teacher was told he’s different and doesn’t fit in

This teacher was told to stop sharing books with students at lunch

This teacher wishes people hung out with him

This teacher wishes people invited him places

This teacher doesn’t feel like himself

This teacher wants to have his old friends back

This teacher wishes people accepted his invitations

This teacher wishes he knew who you were

This teacher has stopped running

This teacher wishes you view his emotions

This teacher wishes his ideas mattered

This teacher knows his ideas work

This teacher has stopped writing

This teacher had teachers laugh at him in school because of his grades

This teacher had a teacher threaten to fail him if he didn’t get AR points

This teacher gave his family & friends to teach at his current school

This teacher is sad

This teacher wants to be a leader

This teacher wishes you talked to him face to face

This  teacher lives in an apartment where people were killed

This teacher drives 30 minutes to work

This teacher has many regrets

This teacher eats the same meals every day and night

This teacher has been made fun for being too skinny

This teacher desires to be included

This teacher makes lots of mistakes

This teacher wants to enjoy teaching

This teacher has been doubted because of his age, experience, personality 

This teacher never knew how much he’d miss his family

This teacher cries

This teacher wants his school to succeed

This teacher is far from perfect

This teacher wants to lead events

This teacher is a catholic

This teacher attends church weekly

This teacher doesn’t feel like himself

This teacher listens and follows through on the direction of the school

This teacher gave up higher paying jobs with less work to stay here

This teacher didn’t know the workload when change this much

This teacher was a finalist for teacher of the year in city as a first year

This teacher wishes you had confidence in him

This teacher is exhausted

This teacher worries about dying

This teacher wishes you saw how hard he’s trying

This teacher taught in China, Ghana, and in Maryland while in college

This teacher survived an attempted kidnapping on a run in high school

This teacher used Crayfish to teach a science lesson, then kept them as class pets

This teacher has started a gentlemen’s and women’s group during lunch

This teacher wants feedback

This teacher wants friendship

This teacher wants to be better everyday

This teacher thought of suicide years ago

This teacher wrote a 170 page book in 4 months as a fifth grader

This teacher has written seven 170 page books

This teacher likes to eat chicken and pizza

This teacher loves driving his mustang

This teacher wants to be a better friend

This teacher has lost of his confidence

This teacher wants to get into a rhythm

This teacher has skipped meals

This teacher thinks he won’t be rehired after this school year

This teacher never had friends in school

This teacher hears gossip about him

This teacher loves elephants and cheetahs

This teacher puts on a happy face

This teacher loves cooking meals from scratch

This teacher doesn’t want to get in trouble

This teacher fears we won’t wake up in the morning

This teacher only saw his family for 2 weeks in the summer

This teacher wants to be liked

This teacher feels like an outcast

This teacher wishes he had a voice

This teacher wishes his voice mattered

This teacher never feels good enough

This teacher taught in a school house

This teacher has an older brother

This teacher wants to do the right thing

This teacher has an older sister, who’s married

This teacher desperately wants to be happy

This teacher is ignored a lot

This teacher has visited 37 states

This teacher knew about his father cheating on his mom, before his mother did

This teacher wants to enjoy his job

This teacher rode a roller coaster for the first time this summer…and loved it

This teacher wishes we had a strong professional relationships

This teacher tries to keep his mouth closed

This teacher survived a tornado while it decimated 23 of his cornfields

This teacher wants to eat healthier

This teacher had never been to Florida…until he moved here

This teacher wishes Floridians knew 50 degrees isn’t cold

This teacher has a double endorsement in special education

This teacher wants to work with special students in the future

This teacher convinced a group of kids that crayons were alive

This teacher puts the students first

This teacher convinced a group of kids that crayons were writing postcards to them

This teacher ran collegiate in cross country and track

This teacher has a cat at his parents house

This teacher wishes students weren’t treated like a number in education

This teacher misses the leaves falling

This teacher doesn’t miss driving in the snow

This teacher likes the color green

This teacher doesn’t feel like he’s succeeding

This teacher was never good at school

This teacher wants to please you

This teacher is grateful you’re here

This teacher is thankful you read this

...This teacher wishes you knew him

Alone #KidsDeserveIt

“Year number two was probably harder for me than year number one because I started to know what I now knew.” Ben Gilpin, Michigan Principal 

Ben Gilpin’s words have never been truer. My second year of teaching was unlike anything from my first year. Last summer I moved 24 hours away from my friends and family in Nebraska to accept a 4^th grade position at a wonderful public school in central Florida. My honeymoon arrival would be short-lived as I experienced trial after trial: the principal who hired me transferred, our school was rated a D for the third straight year, Hurricane Irma swept in, bugs invaded all cracks of my apartment, and my heart started to swell with pain.

At school the pressure of keeping my job and helping the school improve our school grade took its toll. Mid year, I switched from being our reading teacher to being our math teacher, which I gladly accepted. At one point, I met my Assistant Principal for breakfast to brainstorm ideas and strategies. I continued to dress up in characters and transformed my room. None of seemed to work as our assessments continued to slow minimal progress. Rumors started swirling. This was the not the teacher they hired.

In my personal life everything started to pile on top of me like the growing pile of clothes at my apartment. I stopped contacting my parents. I stayed off Twitter, keeping my PLN at bay. My diet started consisting of pizza, tacos, and more pizza. I slept on the floor for months. My heart started to arch, and my breathing was slowing down. I started worrying if I was going to wake up tomorrow. No one texted me. I was alone.

I don’t share my school and personal life to ask for sympathy, but rather to share it to hold myself accountable and growth. I had the answers in me. I typically have a happy-go-lucky optimistic personality and mindset. This time that mindset vanished. Instead I waited on things to change. I told myself things will change…when the school the year ends…when I move to my new apartment… when I get this and that…

You can’t keep waiting on change. You have to choose to change. Don’t wait until ____________ happens. It’ll likely never happen. Reach out. Do something different. You will waste your time and effort doing nothing if you keep waiting. Driving my Mustang to places unknown to me was my release. Splurging on Amazon for myself was also helpful.  Better yet, write yourself a note and post it somewhere you’ll see it everyday: mirror, laptop, etc. Repeat the phrase and BELIEVE IT.

 It’s easier said than done right? I understand and it’s a constant battle for some of us. For 8 hours a day in front of 65 kids I was a goofy, crazy, cheerful teacher, until I was alone. I didn’t accept compliments or believe what I was doing was working. My depression would set in and anyone trying to talk to me knew they were better off talking to a wall. I blocked it all out and chose to be alone.

It’s not going to be easy. It might not happen for quite awhile. You might see hours of sunshine, then days, weeks, MONTHS of rain. But don’t lose hope. You are stronger than this. You can overcome this. Share your story. You’ll be surprised who’s going through similar obstacles, as I found out. If you’re not happy where your mentality is, make the change TODAY!  

April 25: Dare to be Different Revisited

 “You’re different and don’t fit in.” A year ago a school employee said those words that have lit a fire in me ever since. Today I’m proud to say to say that I am different and don’t fit. Here’s why…

             Scenario 1: Imagine a classroom where ALL the students walked into your classroom, sat at their seats, and listened to their teacher teach a lesson. Imagine a day where no students ask to go to the bathroom or ask an off topic question. Scenario 2: Imagine a classroom where ALL the students where frantically searching your classroom, all are out of their seats, and no one is listening to their teacher. Students are asking off topic questions.

            Which scenario do you prefer? Which scenario sounds oh-so perfect? If you chose Scenario 1, you’re in the majority. Most people would choose Scenario 1 in a heartbeat, and rightly so. If this scernario happens in your classroom daily, let us know, we want to visit.  

           If you chose Scenario 2, what were you thinking? Are you CRAZY? (You probably are.) In Scenario 2, the idea of students being out of their seats & not listening to their teacher sounds like a disaster. Its total chaos! That’s where you might be wrong.

           In Scenario 2 the students are frantically searching the classroom… for clues because their teacher, who’s dressed as Indiana Jones hid the clues to their math problems around the school with map. No one is listening to the teacher… because the teacher is being tied to a tree with a rope with a lock. The only way to save him is to complete the map to find the key to free him. They’re asking questions because it’s almost lunchtime and the winners earn points for their house and get to eat first.

           Scenario 2 is my kind of teaching. I like to keep my students on their toes. Dressing up as characters and room transformations are reality constantly in our classroom. Once students get a taste for these lessons two things happen: our scores increase and the behaviors decrease. Everyone is genuinely happy and always looking forward to the next day. It’s unpredictable, especially when I tell them they’re going to have a substitute.  Scenario 1 isn’t for me. It’s boring and just like everyone else.

           I want to be different. I want to my students to be different, to dream bigger, and to think of ideas no one ever has. My students encourage it! I might have the first female president in my classroom or the boy who will be the first to go to planet x908W803 in my classroom. That’s why I dress up in a wide variety of characters. That’s why I have different handshakes with all my students. That’s why I spend the hours into my lessons. That’s why I teach differently. Maybe, just maybe they’ll grow up to be different and do something no one has ever done!

To get a glimpse into our classroom, visit my classroom anytime at Caldwell Elementary in Auburndale, Florida or visit us on Instagram or Twitter @jordanpotrzeba

January 10: Morning Routine #KidsDeserveIt

Today was a typical morning. I got to school, put on my earphones and started jamming out as I galloped out of my Mustang into my Spaceship (formerly known as my classroom). I flipped on all the Christmas lights and lamps and watched my room come to life in the darkness of the morning hours. I grabbed copies for a substitute folder that literally I ran the length of a football field to a teacher’s portable classroom. Next, I studied my Math lesson plan for the day. Visualizing what would happen, and what questions would be asked, as I walked on the student tables (because that’s how I teach).

 I few minutes I’m gave out FREE high fives to students getting off the buses. NO charge necessary. Today I noticed a few frowns so I did my best Donald Duck voice to lightened their mood as I complimented their hair, book-bags, and clothing style. One older student asked me about where Tornado Alley was and if I had ever survived a Tornado. It was an amazing conversation that ended too soon. (Fun fact: One of my top five lessons to teach is about Natural Disasters involving Tornados).

Shortly after, I received a staff text message asking if anyone had any hairnets. My face dropped because this text message involved me. My favorite assistant principal of all time forgot the bring the hairnets for me…WHAT?! No worries, the show would go on…literally. I few minutes later I picked up my students and told them I was going to be on the morning show so we’d be having part of our class in the library. As they sat working on their bell work, I put on a trash bag and a microphone for the big surprise. Mr. Wessels (wearing a running outfit) was promoting his third graders to come to game night with an AMAZING RACE theme. I went on the show to promote FAMILY GAME NIGHT…except Jimmy Fallon and Wade King Style. I explained the game to the audience: EGG RUSSIAN ROULETTE is where you randomly pick an egg: it might be hard boiled or raw. I guessed wrong, and splattered a raw egg in my hair to the delight of every student.

Tomorrow I’ll be wearing my Pac-Man suit to promote family game night during the day. Fourth grade will be playing giant Jenga, giant Connect Four, Pie in the Face, and Egg Russian Roulette. It’s a going to be EGG-celent!

-Mr. P 

January 8: Overheard Conversation #KidsDeserveIt

             Today I overheard a conversation about “the student” I’ve previous mentioned in a blog. It was a positive conversation. She was shocked. She couldn’t believe how he’s starting to behave. I just sat there and smiled with my, “I told you all so” face on. Not too long ago I sat in front my fellow educators, tears in my eyes and gave compelling reason after reason why I genuinely believed in my heart this student could make a learning gain. My words are coming true day after day.

 It’s not been easy. I remember when he tested me the first month with his foul words and aggressiveness. At first I struggled; venting like many teachers have about the young man, and then it clicked: I dug into my bag of tools and discovered how to work with him to make him successful. What many people don’t know about me is that I have a double endorsement in Special Education and my specialty is Behavior Disorders. I’ve worked in the worst of the worst, and my current friend is a fruitcake compared to other friends I’ve worked with.

The biggest thing that’s been working is keeping my cool and patience. I learned this the hard way and figured out getting on his level wasn’t working and understanding because of who he isn’t he can’t control what he’s doing without help. I remember the first day I didn’t get mad. My student was as loud as he could be in the room refusing to do any work. You could hear the students saying, “Oh no! Here it comes! Mr. Potrzeba is going to lose it. He won’t get away with this.” I didn’t lose it. I just let the situation be and moved on with my teaching. You could see the students shocked more at my reason than his. The truth is, I was shocked at myself; but I’ve never looked back.

I try to check on my friend when I have the chance in my free time during the day. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. Tomorrow he’s in a for real test: all substitutes in 4^th grade. No worries, we’ll be in the school library planning. You bet I’ll be checking on him for five minutes here and there; it’ll be more so for myself than his. Shhhhhh! 

-Mr. P

January 4: What Do You See? #KidsDeserveIt

Congratulations you are now taking a pop quiz. Please get out one pencil and one piece of lined paper in 5….4….3….2….1…0. Now you have 1 minute to write down the answers to the two following questions; What do you notice? What do you wonder? On your mark….get set….GO! 

(Feel free to try this before strolling below)

I see a student who attempted to wrap this gift. I notice my last name is capitalized correctly.  I’m wondering if he wanted to put more bows on the gift. I’m also wondering why he crossed out “the” when to me looks great! I notice a student who showed up to school on time (which is starting to happen a lot!) I see a student who stayed on his flexible all class. I also see a student who earned many tickets for his amazing effort in class today. I wonder if we can keep this streak going forever. I see a student who cares about me.

The truth is the story is so much deeper than just a picture. The backstory is a familiar for many veteran teachers: a student who is known around the school is put into your classroom, you stay positive but start pulling your hair out when the rumors become reality, and then…slowly but surely something happens and the student changes.

It’s a lovely story and I wish I could say that this change will stay like this everyday and that it will always work out this way. The truth is it might not. (I didn’t say won’t because I’m a optimist about everything). I’ve only taught for one and half years, but many co-workers will say there are some students that might never change no matter how hard a teacher tries. If that’s the case, then at least don’t stop trying.

            This gift (that I haven’t even opened) doesn’t happen without a relationship. Relationships have to come first to build trust, comfort, and safety. It wasn’t built on day one and it’s still far finished. This relationship is mainly built on a belief. For this student I had to dig deep to believe in him until when I finally saw him writing capitals and low case letters in the lines when asked to do so. I acknowledged it to him, bought into his capabilities and haven’t stopped since. So much that in a meeting with tears in my eyes defending in why I believe this kid can make a learning gain. When I met with his mom for the first time (weeks after the meeting), she said “I already know what you’re going to say. He…” I stopped her mid sentence and said, “has potential! He can write. He can think. He’s hearing what I’m teaching. He can do this with baby steps to independence.”

 The saddest part was no one has ever told him the things his mom told me. It blew my mind. It’s my belief that every person has good in them. People just make bad decisions. If you’re constantly hearing how bad you are you’re going to start believing it as a child because they’re still cognitive developing so much. Did you notice I didn’t mention any negative comments in my description about the package? I didn’t because the gift looked great the way it was given to me. The words “it’s the thought that costs” has never been truer when he gave me that gift this morning.

-Mr. P 

January 3: Are You Ready? #KidsDeserveIt

My apologizes, I've been sick since New Years Eve! I'm feeling better, but still not at 100%. With that said the message below is what I posted on my social media to my students and their families tonight since tomorrow is our final semester together. It's no secret that this year has been the craziest year my school in its history (more to come in the later blog). I try to send positive messages because I do believe in all my students. I honestly do. Below is exactly what I typed:

Ask yourself everyday: Are you ready...

to eat breakfast before school

to have a great night sleep daily

to work on multiplication facts nightly

to work hard

to ATTEND SCHOOL ALL DAY EVERY DAY! 

to give your best effort every day 

to give your best effort in every class

to give your best effort for every teacher

to respect yourself, classmates, custodians, teachers

to make mistakes then learn from them

to raise my FSA score

to get smarter

to be focused

to be prepared

to try my best when I don't feel like it

to spread kindness

for perfect attendance

for more learning

for crazy lessons

for crazy socks

for unpredictability 

for costumes

for awkward accents

for success

for Mr. Potrzeba

for math class

We have ONE MORE SEMESTER. That's it. We have have until April before FSA math arrives before we show the district, the state, and all the other grade levels just how much we've grown in the most diverse year Caldwell has arguably ever had. No matter what has happened this year, tomorrow it's in the past and we will keep moving forward. The work has already started and it's going to get deeper from here on out, but I believe. I really do, everyone. I believe in every single one of you, parents, friends, extended families included. I believe we can make these learning gains...but I just have one requirement...attendance. Give me the opportunity to do my favorite thing in the world! We know that no day in our classroom is ordinary! WE GOT THIS!

I... am... ready! Are you ready?

Let's have the most mind-blowing, head-turning semester,

-Mr. Potrzeba