What does S.A.I.L.S. mean to me?

The next blog will consist of a multiple week project.  Our class is going to take the S.A.I.L.S. acronym and represent what each means to us.  We will do a letter per week.  When the overall project is done, we will have each player's feelings on what S.A.I.L.S. means to them.  The students will also have to answer what the acronym letters mean to our school and to our A5 program.  This can be a writing, art or combination piece.  Students will be encouraged to use Photo shop, Pixlr or Prezi to represent their answers to what S.A.I.L.S. means to them.  We will view different representations of each WORD during the beginning stages of the class.   I also would like to add, we as an A5 class will try and watch the film, "Pay It Forward."  This movie displays all parts of S.A.I.L.S.  We will watch the film, when the 5 week period is over for our S.A.I.L.S. assignment.  Here is the IMDB link for that film:
Pay It Forward

Enjoy!

Week 1: What does Service mean to you?  How do you represent or demonstrate this for yourself?  How do you see it represented in our school and in our A5 program?  We watched the video on Service:

We also watched this video:

Mr. Epple:

I am going to put my spin on what Service means to me.  I believe Service is demonstrated by any act of kindness towards others.  This can be done through a major or minor act.  We don't have to spend a large deal of time on one act, to make a life lasting impression on others.  It can be a smile, a gesture or anything that is born out of kindness towards others.  The interesting thing is, when we act in kindness, there is an immediate, positive feeling within us.  One cannot feel regret, if we act in kindness.  We could also view Service, as a representation of the "Pay It Forward" movement.  One act of kindness will produce another act of kindness, which will spread.  Who knows how far it will go.  Service starts with us.  Each person can change the world for the better and it is not hard to do.

Week 2:  What does Acceptance mean to you?  How do you represent or demonstrate this for yourself?  How do you see it represented in our school and in our A5 program? 
We watched this video:

And this video:

And this video:

Mr. Epple:

What does Acceptance mean to me?  Not putting labels on people.  Looking at us a one human family.  We define ourselves as black, white, catholic, agnostic, religious, non-religious, rich, poor, smart, dumb, lazy, motivated.  We are people.  We need each other.  We need to belong to something, hopefully positive.  We are more a like than we want admit.  We are a human family, that needs to work together for the common good of ALL on this planet.  We need to accept each other as our fellow humans, rather than separate ourselves with labels.  As Morrie Schwartz (Tuesday with Morrie)  once said, quoting the poet W. H. Auden, "Love is the only rational act," and "Love each other or die."  Great quotes and great ideas from some great people.

Week 3: What does Integrity mean to you?  How do you represent or demonstrate this for yourself?  How do you see it represented in our school and in our A5 program? 

We started the class by looking at the definition of Integrity:

Integrity:

the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

Synonyms for Integrity: honesty, virtue, straightforwardness, sincerity, goodness, wholeness, purity, (the inability to be corrupted)

Students could ask questions about integrity and give examples of when they have done it or where they have seen it.

We then watched the following video clips on Integrity:

A Life of Integrity:

Do what you say you will do (Abraham Lincoln Story):

Animation about Integrity:

Integrity gets you Everything (Motivational Video):

Mr. Epple

Integrity.  What is it?  How do we know if we do it?  Is it a part of us?  Do we have to try and live life with Integrity?  Ask yourself.  If you know you are someone who doesn't tell the truth, you are not living with Integrity.  If you do what is easy, rather than what is right, you are not living with Integrity.  If you need someone to watch over you, in order to do the right thing, you are not living with Integrity.  Look in the mirror.  What do you see?  If you see an honest, hard working, motivated, pure (will not be swayed by others) and straightforward person, then you are the definition of Integrity.  Your word should be your word.  A handshake counts, as your word.  You don't tell others what you think they need to here.  You tell others the truth, no matter the consequence.  You don't "yes" people, you are honest with people.  In the midst of criticism, negativity and anger, you do what is right.  You do not shy away from what is right because of difficulties.  If you are not living with Integrity, ask yourself why?  Why am I not living with Integrity?  This can not be taught.  We can see examples of Integrity, but it needs to come from within.  Integrity starts here........ with us.

Week 4: What does Leadership mean to you? How do you represent or demonstrate this for yourself?  How do you see it represented in our school and in our A5 program?  Please also answer what qualities you think a good leader should posses?  You can either list them out or write them in sentence form.

Definition of Leadership:  The action of leading a group of people or an organization

What should a good leader be like (what qualities do they posses?):

Please click on the link below to see the website for the upcoming article:

Profiles International: Top 10 Qualities of Great Leadership. Do you have what it takes?

Please check out the following Leadership video clips:

Middle School Speech:

Famous Failures:

Kid President: Leadership and Teamwork:

Abbot Middle School Leadership:

Mr. Epple

In creating this week's blog about leadership, I spent quite a long time putting it together.  Reason being, I couldn't stop.  I researched and found more and more information on Leadership, leadership qualities and video examples.  I wanted to include more, but was worried it might be too lengthy for the readers and I don't want to lose interest in any of our topics.  Everything I put into this week's blog are my feelings on leadership.  I don't want to restate what the blog has already said.  Without leaders we would be in trouble.  We need strong leaders, with integrity, who commit themselves to service,  for the common good.  These leaders need to be transparent.  They need to gain their followers through respect, not fear.  They need to lead by example.  Inspire us!  Lead us!  Treat others with kindness and respect.  Be honest.  Clearly communicate.  Doing this, will make others WANT to follow them.  As a teacher, father, man and just plain old human being, I try and live my life this way.  Being a leader is not easy, but it is necessary to accomplish greater things.  I hope you all have great leaders in your life.  By the way, everyone has the potential to be a great leader.  Find it in yourself.........

I would like to end this blog by giving you some examples of leaders that have changed my life for the better.  Thank you for reading.

William B. Epple, founder of Harmony animal hospital, veterinary doctor, farmer, loves Joe Montana, inspiration, a great son, down to earth, man whom I want to be like, man whom I want to impress, My father

Ruth G. Epple, co-founder of Harmony animal hospital, hard worker, friend, inspiration, major life influence, a great daughter, always positive, women I want to impress,  My mother

Lauren N.F. Epple, Independent soul, inspiration, artist, my partner in life, women I want to impress, best friend, soulmate, My wife

Jeffrey Destino, fellow teacher and inspirational leader

Eric Passeriello, high school best friend

Barry Jo Milenuc (Wambold), childhood best friend

Mitch Albom, author (Tuesday with Morrie, For One More Day, Magic Strings of Frankie Presto)

Dave Mustaine, lead singer, guitarist and creator of band: Megadeth

Guns N Roses (band), for providing the soundtrack to my life and a source of inspiration for me whether I am up or down

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President

Red Cloud (Makhpiya Luta),  Oglala Lakota (Sioux) warrior

Crazy Horse (Thasuka Witko), Sioux warrior

Sitting Bull (Tatanka lyotake), Hunkpapa Lakota (Sioux) warrior 

Pope Francis, Pontiff of the Catholic Church

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

Lady Diana, Princess of Wales

Zakk Wylde, leader singer, guitarist and creator of band: Black Label Society

Dalai Lama, Spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people

Morrie Schwartz, Brandeis professor, inspiration and subject of book: Tuesday with Morrie

Derek Jeter, shortstop and leader of the New York Yankees

Liz Murray, inspirational person that movie: Homeless to Harvard: was made about

Chris Gardner, Stock Broker, movie: Pursuit of Happiness: was made about his life

Pete Frates,  ALS patient whose story created the Ice Bucket Challenge 

Prince EA (Richard Williams), American rapper and activist

Tupac Shakur, American rapper, actor and activist

Daniel Day Lewis, English actor

Oskar Schindler, German industrialist, spy and member of Nazi party that is credited for saving 1,200 Jewish lives during World War II (the Holocaust) 

Elie Wiesel, writer (Night), political activist, professor and Nobel Laureate, Nobel Peace Prize Awardee (1986)

Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Inc.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:  American Baptist Minister, activist, humanitarian,  and leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement

John Lennon, co-creator of The Beatles, guitarist, poet and humanitarian

Bill Coutney, American football coach (documentary: undefeated) and CEO of Classic American Hardwoods

David and Tina Long, parents of Tyler Long (character that was mercilessly bullied and committed suicide in the documentary: Bully, They are also leaders in fighting to make schools a safer place for all students

Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals Quarterback

Walter Payton, Chicago Bears Running Back

Tom Brady, New England Patriots Quarterback

Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors Point Guard

Kevin Garnett,  Minnesota Timberwolves/ Boston Celtics/ Brooklyn Nets power forward/ center

Week 5: What does Success mean to you?  How do you represent or demonstrate this for yourself?  How do you see it represented in our school and in our A5 program?
  What is success?  
According to the dictionary....
the accomplishment of an aim or purpose (goal)

Sounds great to me, but what does it mean to me?  People can be successful in their careers, personal life, financially, spiritually, etc.  I believe success means different things to different people.  I will not put someone down who looks at riches as success; or being the president of a company as success, or being an athlete that goes pro as success.  Great examples.

My understanding of success is summed up in a few things.  I believe if one does their best, each day, at living a positive, learning from their mistakes type, hard working, responsible, respectful and thoughtful life: then they are successful.  If you look at what each letter of the S.A.I.L.S. stands for, I believe living your life with a focus on those standards is success:

S is for Service
A is for Acceptance
I is for Integrity
L is for leadership
These will eventually lead to Success.

I try and do my best everyday at my job,at being a good father, good husband, respectful person, responsible person, kind person, understanding person and thoughtful person.  When I look myself in the mirror every night, if I can do that and feel I accomplished the prior, than that was a successful day, which leads to successful weeks, which leads to successful months, years and eventually a lifetime.

That is my definition of Success.

Success (Motivational Video)

Sacrifice to Succeed

How do you see yourself?

This assignment is a combination of an artistic piece and a writing piece.  The students have to answer the question:   How do you see yourself?  in collage form.  We introduced the website,

www.pixlr.com/editor

to the students.  Student coaches and myself went over the website and how to use it for this project.  We set up an example project to show the students how to add pictures and manipulate them on the website.  We also handed out a write up for how to use this website, that students can refer to when creating their own collage.

The following questions were also handed out to the students to think about in creating their collage:
1.  What pictures would represent different aspects of who you are?
2.  What words or phrases would represent you?
3.  What words or phrases mean something to you?  Why?
4.  How would you describe yourself?
5.  What are your values?
6.  What are you proud of about yourself?
7.  What are you not proud of about yourself?
8.  What could you work on about yourself?
9.  What are your future goals in life?

This is a copy of the directions:

Mr. Epple: How do I see Myself?

Zaila Dort

Avery Emerson

Jack Patten

Jakob Parpart

Anthony Simonelli

Emily Shea

Nicholas Rapchuck

Jessica GreenBurke

Kylie O'Connell

ME COLLAGE :D

                                           

Ethan Williams

Daniel Hafey

Geoffrey Callahan

What does good sportsmanship mean to you? (Student's Unedited Work)

We watched a video titled: Sportsmanship Still Exists (Sports Compilation)

Sportsmanship Still Exists (Sports Compilation)

We had a discussion about sportsmanship, not only in sports, but in life.  Students shared stories of both good and bad sportsmanship.  The following stories are written by our 6th Grade A-5 class and it is their response to the following:  What does good sportsmanship mean to you?  Discuss a time when you either showed good sportsmanship or you witnessed good sportsmanship.
These are their stories:

Lucas Argentino:

A good sport is someone who is kind even if let's say his team got beat or a player on a different team got hurt, A good sport would go help them up and see what's wrong even though it's not his team. I think a good sport is someone that would go over the top to help someone and or would help someone even if he did or didn't want to.

Hailey Shea:

                WHAT DOES SPORTSMANSHIP MEAN TO  ME ?

what does good sportsmanship mean to me ?  To me it means to be competitive but at the same time you should care about the other player's   and make sure others are ok . For example when my team was doing a game for the championship  and the other team won they came up to us at the end and said  nice try and good job .  And my team was not as upset anymore ! Sportsmanship is a big part of a game !

Zaila Dort:

         Good sportsmanship means to me that somebody on one of the teams does something out of their way to make somebody feel good about themselves or about their team. One example of good sportsmanship is if somebody got hurt and you stopped the game just to make sure and see if that person is ok. Another example of good sportsmanship is if a team just lost the game and you or another player go over to that team and tell them that it’s alright, and that they played good, they appreciate it more than you think. One experience that really reminded me of good sportsmanship is when I was playing soccer on a rainy, windy, stormy day. I was running down the moist, wet field to cover a girl on another team when she shoved me and I fell straight into the mud. It was so cold and wet and I had nothing underneath my shirt or shorts. ( Like an extra pair of pants or sweatshirt. ) Then right when I’m about to stand up, Hope Miller comes and picks me up onto my feet and asks me if I’m ok. I told her I was ok but she didn’t know that it meant so much to me that she helped me up.

Kylie OConnell:

         What Sportsmanship means to me

To me sportsmanship is very important in playing sports, sportsmanship can be  kind, caring, and  motivating to fellow teammates. To me good sportsmanship from team members leads to a better game and team!  Plus, a team without good sportsmanship can be rude and not win or succeed at the games they play.On the other hand teams with good sportsmanship are respectful and have a better chance at being successful.

 In softball, last  season , my friend got hit in the face by the ball :(. Our team (including our coaches and me) helped her out, also me and some of  my friends sat an inning and helped her pull together.  After the game she was ok and feeling better, I’m very happy that we all helped her!  

                     

                                  By, Kylie O’Connell

Geoffrey Callahan:

       What Good Sportsmanship Means To Me

Good sportsmanship means to me “fair players during a sport that shows teamwork and cooperation. Also showing kindness to the opposing team and teammates(spectators to.) I showed good sportsmanship on a taekwondo tournament when another red belt and I were sparring. I back kicked him on the knee and hurt him. I lost points for it. I felt bad and walked  towards him and helped him up. He went over to his side and I went to my side. I won the match but I felt bad for what I did. I apologized after the round. He said it was ok.  

Not Me

Avery Emerson:

What Sportsmanship Means To Me

Sportsmanship means to me a good sport,an example is say someone got tackled in football and he got hurt if somebody on the opposite team comes over to him and sees if he is ok that is considered sportsmanship. An example of my doing sportsmanship is once my football team won A game and after the game both of the teams shake hands and after we shook hands I said to some other football player good game you did a great job.

 

Ethan Williams:

     Sportsmanship to me is when teammates or teammates on the other teammates helping each other. or thor people helping each other in a fight from stopping it. My favorite part of the clip is when the soccer player got hurt and another player caught the ball because he saw the hurt player.

     I was showing sportsmanship by when i was playing football at school and i help some other kids by saying good job. them if they did a good job.

Ethan williams

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAYQjB1qFQoTCNf9kqqDrMgCFUNvPgod170PGw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clipartpanda.com%2Fcategories%2Fsoccer-ball-clipart-no-background&psig=AFQjCNGh3ISdbqa0bVG5DPSzve7Av-2izQ&ust=1444158350397917

Daniel Hafey:

                             What Good Sportsmanship Means To Me

Good sportsmanship to me means when you or someone else makes sure that someone's okay when they get hurt. Or maybe because the player was mad at himself because he missed an easy shot or committed an error on an easy ground ball you go over to them and make them feel good. I witnessed good sportsmanship when I was on a baseball team and whenever someone struck out we made them feel better.

Nicholas Rapchuck:

               What Sportsmanship Means to me  

sportsmanship means to me is when someone picks someone up when they are hurt.Also being happy and congratulating a player if they win a big game and you're the loser.also having a good sense of humor when you lose.

A act of sportsmanship i had was when i lost a world series game in baseball and congratulated a a player and was happy for them.

for example this picture  

Johnny Ho:

       Good Sportsmanship
This is what good sportsmanship is to me. Showing kindness to one and another in some way.

Here is one time I witnessed good Sportsmanship. During recess my friend slide tackled somebody, then he went up to him to make sure he was okay and he was.

A5 Player Profiles

This is the second assignment for our A5 class.  The students observed examples of player profiles, in different types of sports.  We discussed what would be relevant items for our A5 player profiles.  Coaches (7th/ 8th Graders) had a rough draft of what they thought the 6th Grade A5 class should have (as profiles) and introduced it to the class.  We began taking student player pictures for this assignment and the students created their own player profiles.  We have listed the categories the A5 Coaches chose to have students write about.  Please enjoy our 6th grade player profiles:

Who are our A-5 Coaches?

We have 6 students from the 7th and 8th Grade A-5 course, who were chosen as leaders/ coaches for this 6th Grade A-5 class.  We would like for all readers of the blog to know a little about them.  We are very proud of our coaches and thankful for their positive attitudes, leadership skills and work ethic.  The coaches have been in the A-5 program for at least 2 years and know what to say to the younger A-5 students and how to lead them.  The coaches assist with support in the writing assignments and in the athletic activities.  Each coach is responsible for one team (leading, advising and mentoring).  The coaches for this quarter are:
Silas Emerson
Toshawnka Jenkins
Max Allen
Andrew Magnarelli
Luke Spear
Jason Levereault

Maxx Allen:

  I want to be an A-5 coach because we needed to join another activity and I wanted to help the younger kids out. Also,once Mr.Epple asked us to help out I definitely wanted to help him out. The A-5 6th grade should also get to have input on how to get better and to encourage them by telling them how they are doing.  So to wrap it all up I like coaching for the little kids and I'm glad I got picked.

Luke Spear:

I wanted to be an A-5 coach because I enjoy helping people. I wanted to do this class because i’m a good sport and a good leader. I think the A-5 program could benefit from me being in this class. The A-5 team can use some coaches from 8th grade to help Mr.Epple (who can’t play dodgeball). I also like helping with kids. I remember I helped out with the Special Olympics once. So I am used to this type of idea. All in all, I think I make a good addition to the A-5 coaching league.

Silas Emerson:

I am an A-5 6th grade dodgeball coach. I wanted to be a coach because I love this program. I have played all three years we have had this program. I am respectful of others, I care about everybody equally. I am a good sport and like to have fun, however I am very competitive. This is why I wanted to be a sixth grade A5 coach and Why i think I got accepted to be one.

Toshawnka Jenkins:

I want to be a A-5 Coach because we needed to join another after school program.Another reason is I thought it would be fun to coach a sports team.Also it would be fun to interact with younger kids.Also I like to have fun with Epple because he is really funny and he is really easy to beat in sports.I also want to be the best coach and the best team in the sport.  

Jason Levreault:

Why did I want to be a coach for sixth grade A5 Coach? I wanted to be a sixth grade A5 coach because i thought It would be a lot of fun to be able Influence how some of the teams may play and teach them, I wanted to be able to get extra time at A5, I wanted to be able to keep A5 going, and I also wanted to just be able to help the 6th graders If they feel confused on what they should be doing. Lastly I feel like I got chosen to be a coach because I am a good role model, (Other than when I am misbehaving) I have good sportsmanship, and I am to the younger kids. This is why I wanted to be a A5 coach and why i think I got chosen.