What Do Teachers Do?

While I do not like the reason that we had to meet yesterday to discuss the low performing school status that is upon us, I did like many of the discussions and thoughtfulness that came as a result. Many of you have become quite adept at evaluation policy and understanding legislation concerning schools. I am proud that you understand what our school does for students and that many of you were more angry at the situation than worried or upset for yourselves. To be fair, it would be easy for you to simply not care. You could decide to wash your hands of the problem and switch schools or professions and walk away from the issue. But that's not what teachers do. Teachers fight the "I don't care" attitude. While that attitude is the bane of our existence, and is probably the #1 thing teachers complain about, it is 100% the reason that you are here.

Much like principals do not have an endless line of "blue data" teachers waiting at their door, no classroom consists of students that all walk in eager to learn and work each and every day. The human element within us all requires leadership, motivation and a personal connection to sustain or even begin hard work. That is where you come in. Any student in the digital age with enough personal drive and ambition can certainly learn anything that they want to know. Google and the Internet put knowledge at everyone's fingertips. So if all of the knowledge is already out there, why do we need people and places to give us knowledge? The truth is that we don't. What we need now and have needed always are people and places that inspire knowledge to want to be learned. And while your position calls you 'teachers' perhaps a more appropriate title would be 'hope dealers,' 'imagination builders' or simply 'inspirers.'

Any teacher that has been around long enough to have a student return to visit them is already aware of this. Students do not remember that fantastic lesson that you wrote on the Second National Bank or the cute rhyme you created to get them to learn the quadratic formula. They remember how you inspired them and challenged them to think. Teachers that grow students are the ones that battle apathy as it walks through the door and make students care. You turn on mental lightbulbs despite a student's best effort to cut the cord. Making a student care at any ability level will always be the deciding factor in establishing student growth on any subject. Despite any label placed upon us, know that you did your part in that arena. Keep growing and inspiring students to care and together we will take care of the rest.



I was reminded last night of this video, and while it was written from a student perspective in regards to frustration with standardized testing (likely a sentiment many of our students feel) I believe that it rings true for us as well.

Making Moves

Over the Thanksgiving break my family and I took the plunge and moved to Greene County. We have been wanting to move here for several months and the right opportunity presented itself so we went for it. (My house in Farmville still has not sold, so if you know anyone looking to buy I'd love you to tell them!) Growing up, my family moved about every four years and I grew to detest moving. It's not the heavy lifting I hate, but the process. Moving forces you to go through all of your old things and evaluate what you need to keep and what you should part with. It's time consuming and sometimes difficult to part with things that you know you have not seen or touched in years. Inevitably, you will end up in an argument with your spouse over an item or where something will or will not go in the new house.  While I hate the process, I have to admit that I am happy with the result. We love our new home and we are much better off having evaluated what we needed to keep and what we did not need. The process was messy but the end product was worth it.

The process did get me thinking about teaching. Teachers are notorious pack rats. We horde things that we think we will use later and things tend to sit around. Maybe a good clean out is good from time to time for us as well. But I'm not just talking about the physical things like old activities and lesson plan notebooks. What old practices do you still have that maybe need to be let go as well? Are there areas where you could clean out and move up?

I attended our District Literacy Framework Team meeting yesterday and we examined some common practices that we saw across all grade levels in our district. While most of the teaching practices had some very good things to offer, I also saw some things that commonly looked like teacher-centered instruction. The teacher was doing all the talking, and student engagement was low. These are old things that hang around in our practice. They are easy practices to keep, but we really know deep down that we should probably throw them out. Take some time to consider what you may be keeping in your practice that could use a good cleaning. Consider making a move up!

You're Faaannn-Tastic!

Yesterday I joined the other principals in the district in walking through math classrooms in several different schools so that we could look for mathematics practices at different levels. Math is a district priority this year and we are looking for some universal best-practices as they compare to research. I saw great teachers from the Early College all the way down to a Kindergarten classroom and I was really able to learn a lot from each. Despite the assignment of looking for math language and strategic questioning, I couldn't help but look for general teaching practice. I am a strong believer that you can teach anything to students of any age if your methods are engaging enough to capture their attention and interest.  Out of all of the classrooms, I think that the very best thing I saw yesterday was in the Kindergarten classroom. The teacher had a practice of having kids celebrate each other when they got a question right and celebrate themselves when they had mastered a concept as a group.  As each child answered a question correctly in front of the class, the whole class recited, "You're Faaannn-Tastic!" Each and every child walked back to their spot on the carpet with a smile and a glowing sense of accomplishment.

Certainly this classroom practice is too juvenile for our teenagers...or is it? Watch our successful athletes when they practice and compete. Leaders on the team often congratulate teammates when they do well and encourage them when they make mistakes. They do it in different ways, but what they are really saying is, "You're Faaannn-Tastic!" How many of us have this kind of culture in our classrooms? Sure, many of us encourage kids and praise them when they do well, but is it done by peers as well? Do we celebrate academic achievement publicly? If you have ever had the privilege of being recognized for your efforts at a staff meeting, just think about how it made you feel about your work and your willingness to continue to make a difference. If we did this in our classrooms, could it make an impact on student effort and in their grit toward things that are hard? I'm challenging you to work to build this kind of culture in your classrooms. Every one of your students learned this kind of practice in Kindergarten, so it shouldn't be hard to replicate. If you can build this in your class, you might just be Faaannn-Tastic too!

Alexander Hamilton

This past weekend I saw several television shows featuring a writer, actor and rap artist named Lin-Manuel Miranda. He currently has a Broadway musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton performed in modern rap. The show has been wildly successful and already has pre-orders for tickets over $56 million. I first heard of Lin-Manuel in 2009 when he performed a rap at a White House state dinner about the life of Hamilton. You can find the video here. A social studies teacher showed it to me and told me all about having her kids communicate with Lin-Manuel via Twitter to ask questions about his motivation and style as they were assigned to write similar performances about the lives of other founding fathers.

The story of Alexander Hamilton is great and one truly founded in the concept of grit. An orphaned immigrant moves to America, works incredibly hard and eventually designs the foundation for our entire monetary system. He was passionate about his goals and driven to success. It was these character traits that resonated with Lin-Manuel Miranda. 

Miranda attended a school for gifted and talented students, however his talent was in the arts, not in the regular classroom like almost all other students in the school. In his 60 minutes interview, the reporter asked Lin-Manuel why he had been so successful despite "treading water" academically in this school. Lin-Manuel responded, "I found my lane and I stuck with it and ran." He was simply determined to be successful in what he was passionate about. When he read a biography about the life of Hamilton on vacation, he was hooked.  Here was a man that he could connect with and a personality that resonated with his own.

Determination and passion to succeed can often overcome other shortcomings in life. When all signs point to failure (or in our world "at-risk") these traits seem to more than level the playing field. I see the same in many of you in your classrooms. Successful and memorable teachers are the ones that are determined and passionate about what they do. They are the ones that students truly believe eat, sleep and breathe the lessons that they teach because of how involved they become. So what is it that makes you passionate about what you teach? Can your students see it? Are you running in your lane? If so, maybe there's a little Alexander Hamilton in you too.

My Parent Hat

Dr. Miller has the principals of Greene County working on a book study on parental and community involvement. I'll admit that it is a topic that I struggle with from time to time. I think I can usually handle parents and community members well, but at least half of my parent interactions are negative due to grades or discipline and getting community partnerships that work is often a long and arduous process. I love my positive experiences with parents. I relish them. The not-so-positive ones can take the wind out of your sails and make you question every decision you ever made. Lately, many of my tough conversations with parents have had little or nothing to do with the academic success of their child and more to do with playing time, leaving for lunch or poor behavior choices. When parents and school personnel disagree on those items, there is usually not much middle ground. (Thought: By not finding an alternate viewpoint, did I just fail the Milgram test from last week?)

Amidst my struggling with ideas on how to engage parents, I visited the teachers of my own children to get their report cards this week. The duty has formerly been handled by my wife, but now that the girls are in school in Greene County, I have earned the job. My visit to Snow Hill Primary and Mrs. Cook's class was awesome! I had a great discussion on how my child is doing, what specifically she can do to improve, how it links to assessments and what I can do to help. As a parent, I left feeling so empowered and proud! While I'm certain that Mrs. Cook was probably hesitant about talking with a principal that she barely knows, her professionalism and honest critique of my child's learning were so great that it changed my mind about parent contact and communication all together.

So there I am on cloud nine, and then I visit West Greene for my oldest child, Rylee. Rylee is smart, but she is too much like her father and she gets herself into situations that often take great work to get out of. While her academics were good, I listened to her teacher talk about behaviors such as hanging from bathroom stall doors and a foiled attempt to purposely trip another girl in class. Her teacher was honest with me (and I appreciate that) but I left struggling with what to do (other than threaten to strangle my child before we left the parking lot.)

I say all of this, because we are at the point in the semester where we know that we need to do something about our kids that are not cutting it. Just about every teacher has kids that have given up, skipped classes or acted out to the point of utter frustration. You need administrative and parental reinforcements and for the right kid you might just do anything to get them working and behaving again! Being a parent is tough. Some do a great job at it and some down right suck at it, but both of those parents have times that are tough with their kids. Please make the effort to connect with your student's parents and if you need help, please let me help you do that. Remember to contact the parents of those kids that are doing well too. Those make us feel just as good as it makes them feel. If you're up to it, take up the challenge that I posted last year of making just one positive phone call home per week. Good or bad, all kids make mistakes and they desperately need adults in their lives to help them when they do.

The Milgram Experiment

I recently read an article that referenced the famous Milgram Experiment. I loved teaching this experiment to try to determine how students would act in a similar situation. In short, the experiment had Yale students shock a volunteer to test the link between electric shock and memory. The voltage increases each time the volunteer gets a question wrong. What the Yale students did not know was that they were the real experiment. The "volunteers" were actors. Stanley Milgram wanted to see how far people would go in hurting someone while acting under "orders" from a higher authority. The results were amazing and researchers throughout the world have studied the ethics of the experiment itself and the results.

In a similar study referenced within the article, a graduate professor asks banking students how they would respond if asked by a Senior Associate to fudge reports to show a client that they are doing better than they actually are doing. Most quickly respond that they would seek to talk with the Senior Associate about the ethics of the decision. When the role-play has the Senior Associate stick to the request, most students fall into two camps. They either comply with the request or resign from the job. What the researcher is really looking for is a third option. Very few students are creative enough to look for an alternate means of getting around the request such as speaking with a higher authority or another Senior Associate. These people are the creative problem solvers that the professor is looking for. Strangely enough, those people are a rare as the Yale students that refused to continue the shock experiment.

The Milgram Experiment taught us a lot about human nature. From the outside, it is easy for us to think that we are among the few that would react differently, but in practice, we can get caught up in our routine and what we think is normal. Take some time to really think about your practice. Do the things that you do really agree with your beliefs as an educator. Don't be afraid to be the rogue that steps out of the norm. Those are the teachers that are often remembered.

Getting Back to Good

Tonight's football game is a big deal for Greene Central. More than that, it is a big deal for Greene County and for our school system. On the surface, it's a rivalry football game and at the end, one team will emerge unbeaten and another will lick their wounds and seek to find a way to win down the road in the playoffs. More importantly than a football game is the community support behind Greene Central and the rest of Greene County Schools. Before the game even begins tonight, I think that it is important to acknowledge how we got here.

Several years ago Greene Central was struggling in more ways than one. The school was recognized as a low performing school in the state. Our graduation rate was well below the state average. Teacher turnover was high and morale was low. Who really knows how things got that way. Truthfully, it was probably a combination of many different factors that plague high poverty schools and school systems. On top of that, sports programs that receive a lot of press (like football) were not doing very well either. If memory serves me correctly, the season before Coach Wooten took over was winless. Those of you that have worked for the school for many years remember that time.

I was lucky enough to join the school (like most of you) during the upswing and I have seen the emotional struggle that getting back to good has caused. People, young and old, tend to wear their beliefs about themselves and their community. Much like a child labeled as "bad" will continue to misbehave, this community has struggled to forget that we once were not what we wanted to be. But things are changing.

This school year I have seen more community support for our school and our students than ever before. While the attention from the press for both athletics and academics has been exhausting at times, it is worth the time and effort to rally the community. When I thought up the theme of Teaching Grit, I could have never imagined or scripted an event like tonight's game. Win or lose, tonight is about grit. It took grit to get here. It will take grit to move on. The work has been tough, time consuming and exhausting. Tempers have flared. Tears were cried. Despite the struggle, the tide has turned. While we will always have students with issues and parents that disagree with us, wins and losses on any field, we are indeed, getting back to good.

Us

So maybe you guessed it. A post about you, a post about me and now a post about us. Really "us" is what homecoming is all about. We belong to a unit that is Greene Central High School. No matter if you grew up here and attended the school as a student, just arrived this year, or even went to a rival high school like I did, you are a part of us now. The "us" component of our school is what really makes it work. Students working with students. Teachers working with teachers. Teachers and students working together. The celebration of Homecoming brings us together to acknowledge what makes us unique. As exhausted as we all are, please enjoy today. We celebrate it for all of us.

Me

Last week I wrote about you. This week I'm going to write about someone else that struggles...me. This time of the year is hard for all educators, not just teachers. Balancing the many things that go on at the school day-to-day often means coming home, getting a bite to eat, working some more and passing out on the couch by 9:00. The look that I  have been coming home with finally prompted my wife to ask if I was ok. While I get that a lot from her, this time she had real meaning in her voice. I needed a dose of my own medicine. I needed a pep talk to get me back into the right frame of mind about school and about myself.

I said last week that teachers are gritty. Sometimes we are gritty to a fault. One of my mentors used to have a phrase that I have stolen from time to time. His rule was to "take care of yourself and take care of each other." Taking care of yourself sometimes means to put down the work when you get home to enjoy those few hours with friends and family. Taking care of each other sometimes just means accepting each others faults and helping each other anyway. So as I give myself advice this week, please learn from my mistake; take care of yourself and take care of each other. Without both parties, this place would fall apart pretty quickly.

You

Last week I had trouble determining what to write about. The soccer team saved me by coming up with a big win and delivering a great story. In contrast, this week I have no shortage of things to write about. I could easily stick to my athletics theme and write about Greene Central receiving an Ejection-Free Season award at the annual regional athletics meeting. (Coach Bass was so proud!) I could write about Joey Sanders and the grit he shows by showing up to school despite his cancer and the tremendous show of support our school has given to this brave young man. I could write about the annual Meet You at the Pole prayer this week and the fact that students and staff can stand side-by-side and pray together for our school and all students and staff within it. I can talk about Mrs. Vernon and the Real World group and how she is working so hard to make a difference with some of our toughest students.

Instead this week, I'm going to talk about a group that could be struggling...you. The start of October is usually one of the toughest times to be a teacher. The newness has worn off. Students show their bad habits and the job gets hard. Add to that, you have a million other things to do that only distract you from doing your job in the classroom. You don't have to say it. I can see it on your faces. Some days are just tough to get through. But you do it.

While I try to be supportive, I know that I am not always an easy person to work for. I ask a lot of you. I want teachers that are self-driven, motivated for change and never happy with "good enough." If you are reading this, then that's you. Never short change how amazing you are and how good you are at a seemingly impossible task. You are here for a reason. YOU ARE GRITTY! You make a difference and that means the world to our young people. Thank you for the grit that you show by being at teacher at Greene Central.

You Have to Hate to Lose

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with Mr. Castillo in my office after school and we noticed several young men running past my window over and over.  They must have run by a half dozen times before I noticed them. Once we started to pay attention, we realized that these young men were all members of our soccer team. We watched them run by for over 30 minutes before my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know why Coach Sullivan was making them run.

Upon further investigation, I learned that in the previous day's game. Coach Sullivan felt that his team had given up in a loss. They did not show grit and that was not acceptable. The team had lost that game 7-1 and they had to run a mile for every point they had given up. As each player passed Coach Sullivan, they all chanted the same phrase, "I hate losing Coach." According to Coach Sullivan, losing was ok, but giving up was not.

Earlier in the season, our soccer team lost to Northern Nash 10-1 and the game ended under the mercy rule. Something like that hurts for an athlete and it can certainly plague a team if they face that opponent again. Last night our soccer team defeated Northern Nash 3-1.  Teaching grit does not mean that you never lose. It means that you teach our young people to fight through losing so that you eventually win.  I have also seen this ideal translate to the classroom for many of these young men and ultimately, that's the point. Congratulations to Coach Sullivan and the young men on our soccer team for their grit.

Would You Want a Disability?

Researchers have noticed a very surprising trend among CEOs and top corporate leaders today. A large number (almost a third) of successful entrepreneurs are diagnosed dyslexics. If you expand the search to look for those with any type of learning disability, you get almost half of the group. We are not talking about lightweights here either. Some examples include: Richard Branson (founder of Virgin Group), Charles Schwab (broker and CEO of Charles Schwab), Craig McCaw (cell phone pioneer), David Neelman (founder of Jet Blue), John Chambers (CEO of Cisco) and Paul Orfalea (founder of Kinko's).

How can this be? We see these students in our classes and in our hallways. We understand their struggle and we work tirelessly to get most of them to adjust and compete in the classroom at the average level of their peers. If that learning struggle continues, how on earth are these people so successful in today's world? The difference is not in what they learn, but in how they learn. Most people are successful in school or in sports because of Capitalization Learning. In essence, we find what we are good at, and we capitalize on it by practicing and getting even better. Many people with a disability that are also successful have perfected Compensation Learning. Compensation Learning requires the learner to accept that they are not good at something and then compensate by finding an alternate way to master the material or task. Many dyslexics encounter this for the first time by memorizing material instead of reading it.

Compensation Learning is grit in action. It is refusing to fail despite a limitation. In essence, determination overcame disability. The outcome is an unusually determined and educated person. When you understand their skills in that context, their success is a no-brainer. These people are powerful examples of how grit can achieve anything.


I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messanger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Problems

We live in a world that is fascinated by solutions. Not just solutions, but quick solutions. Between kitchen gadgets that create great meals in half the time to 6 minute ab workouts that promise to undo what those meals did to us, we like what we want, when we want it. Why not?! We live in a consumer-based society where products and businesses seek to provide us with just that. Perhaps that is why education and learning can be frustrating. We want results now, not at the end of a unit, a semester or a year. What we get is often quite different.

Modern research on education says that it takes six full years to fully turn around a high school. While the evidence tells us that, none of us can imagine writing a 6-year PDP goal. Our SMART goals seek quick and measurable student growth highlighted with benchmark assessments that tell us exactly what we should predict on an end of course assessment. We further exacerbate this problem by seeking quick solutions through curriculum changes, technology updates, new programs and new textbooks. We spend millions of dollars and man hours on solutions. These are just tools. What we really need is a better understanding of our problems.

Just think. When your best plans failed because you realized that your students were not ready for that activity or method, you better understood them as students and made a change. You may have even felt failure at the lesson not working, but as a result, you changed and learned something valuable about your class. The solution was not the lesson, the solution was in understanding the classroom problem.

Educational solutions do not come quick. They are hard fought, hard learned, and come with long hours, sweat and tears. Growth is hard. Here is what I know...we are on the right track and we are understanding this unique problem that we call school. We are creating the solution.

A Teacher's Labor

There are certain American holidays that make history teachers pay attention. As a former high school history teacher, I jumped at the chance to teach the true meaning of many days that we celebrate. Columbus Day was my favorite because I despise it's meaning. (He discovered nothing!) My second favorite to teach was Labor Day.

At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worker spent 12 hours a day, 7 days a week on the job. Men were paid poorly (about $2 a day), women and immigrant workers were paid half that and children were paid a fraction of that. Worker's banned together, formed unions, went on strike without pay, and were beaten and arrested; all to change our way of life.  Life in the United States changed for the better.

If there remains an American profession that can at all relate to the plight of the American industrial worker, it is the American teacher. 12 hour days are normal. Most weeks involve some kind of work, every day of the week. Most teachers are not fairly compensated when compared to the average wage of a professional of equal education and training. I do not make this comparison to invoke depression or thoughts of organizing a strike, but to say thank you for your contribution to this school, our students and our society. Your hard work is noticed by many.

Our school year is off to an amazing start. I already see wonderful things going on in your classes and on the athletic fields. Students and teachers are working hard together. With the long weekend ahead of us, I hope that you take time to rest and celebrate your hard work. You deserve it!

The Start of Grit

This week we welcomed 900 students into our halls along with ten new staff members to greet them. As we got going and I saw familiar student faces and it was great to see everyone back at work. At the grade level meetings I introduced students to our theme for the year of "teaching grit" and in my classroom visits this week I have already seen some of you expressing this quality to your students.

I'm going to address the topic of grit many times this year in the Principal Ramblings and if something strikes a chord with you and your course, I encourage you to use it as you wish with your classes. Perhaps this will be the first opportunity.

I follow several dozen people online, both written and video. My iPad is almost completely used for the consumption of material and ideas. One of my favorite to follow is a spoken word artist, Suli Breaks. Below is a poem he did that I believe introduces the quality of grit quite well. If you would like to see the performed version, click here. While it speaks of making success, I firmly believe that it also accurately defines great teaching. Great teachers are "gritty" and are some of the best at overcoming obstacles on the road to success. On behalf of everyone that leads a school, thanks for starting another school year...we could never do it without you.

There are two types of people in this world

Those who are inspired, and those who inspire.

Those who constantly long for,

And those who acquire.

“No idea is original,”

Yes there’s truth in this.

But a person who has the strength to implement the idea,

Always is.

Because there are those that have dreams and chase them.

And those who sleep, waiting to be awakened;

Unaware that we can make a difference in our existence

Through hard work, resilience and persistence.

Because a man that wishes to move mountains must realize

That he must first start by shoveling pebbles from its base.

And be aware that no matter how long it takes,

A man CAN move mountains.

And most of you will think that this is just a saying,

And a majority won’t believe me.

But when you get a couple of minutes on your PC,

Google Dashrath Manjhi.

Because a man CAN move mountains.

Success is a ladder.

And only a few of us will find it.

And even less of us will have the strength to climb it.

Afraid of the prospect of spending your whole life climbing.

But just remember, no matter what route you take,

It is always up to you to decide it.

Don’t let your success define you.

Let your success be defining.

Have you seen that picture on Facebook of that guy that is mining?

Why give up when you’re so close to the diamond?

People that change the world,

Do not let the world change them.

Because there are two types of people in this world;

Those who are amazed

And those who are amazing.

So which one are you?

Surreal

It all seems very surreal this time of year. With testing and senior activities going on it is very easy to get caught up in the events of closing out the year. We all work so hard during this time of year and it can be incredibly frustrating and emotionally taxing. As I write this, there are currently 10 seniors that still have something standing between them and a diploma. Every one of them can get there, and motivating them to do so is a top priority. I admit that I get caught up in the events of this time of year. I worry. I stress. Every day this week I have woken up before my 5:00 am alarm thinking of what needed to happen. This morning I decided to use that time to reflect on where we are and to see the big picture.

Every one of you has worked incredibly hard this year and has been essential to student success. I am consistently amazed by what you produce and what you can get students to accomplish. We have come a long way in the past ten months and it does all seem quite surreal to think back to last August. This year I have watched tremendous growth happen for students and teachers. Some of you work so hard at perfecting instruction in your classroom, just to make it look easy for 80-90 teenagers. I have seen students recognize the work of their teachers through photos, cards, gifts, hugs and a whispered "thank you." Those signs of respect will always be the greatest form of payment that any teacher will ever receive. No matter what programs are purchased, laws are passed, what tests are given, a teacher will always be the most impactful resource on every child's education. They are simply unparalleled.

With one week left until graduation, this will likely be my last blog submission for the year. I want to use it to thank each of you for your service, your time, your tears and your patience. Most especially, I want to thank Mr. Rackley and Mrs. Wegmann for their years of service to Greene Central and to the teaching profession. You will be missed by teachers and students alike. Every day that I would rather be fishing than working, I remember those of you that have put in decades of work beyond my own experience and I stand in awe of your accomplishments. You are simply amazing.

What is a Learner?

Last week I walked by Mrs. Eason's classroom and noticed that students were intensely paying attention to another student presenting. I couldn't help myself and had to see what was going on. Her 9th grade students were presenting speeches on the topic, "What is a Learner?" The first full speech that I had the opportunity to hear came from Hannah Faulkner. If there is anything I could compare her presentation to, it would be an evangelical preacher. I found myself wanting to shout "Amen" several times as she spoke. I asked for a copy of her speech so that I can share it with you. Here are a few excerpts:

"2,340. That's how many days you'll be in school from kindergarten to 12th grade. That's how long you have to plan the rest of your life."
"What is a Learner? Learners can often be overlooked, because they aren't always an A+ student...they work their way around [problems] and persevere."
"Now you probably expect me to list off a bunch of people who persevered to reach the top, but of what relevance are they to us? There's those people like Katie Eason, Rebecca Burris, Lillian Corbitt, Caroline Clark and Charlie Howell who are looked at as only teachers. But that's the thing, they are teachers. Without them, how would we develop into learners? They are the ones that can help us make something of ourselves."
"As a student, stay committed to molding into a learner and use every last minute of those 2,340 days. Whether it's the best times or the worst times, it's the only time you've got."

Here we have a student that is impacted in very very best way possible. She gets it, and that is 100% due to the support she has received from her teachers at Greene Central. As we begin testing for our students, it's nice to also know that while we can teach students to answer questions on our content, we are also teaching students to become real learners.

Going to College

This week Greene Early College held its graduation ceremony. I was asked by the graduating class to speak at their ceremony and proudly accepted. For this particular group of students, I was one of five principals that served at their school in five years. I joked in my message to them that they had probably been exposed to more leadership styles than most people twice their age. Despite that turnover, this group turned out to be one exceptional class of graduates from Greene County. Three students received full scholarships and the others assembled a collective scholarship offering of over $1.7 million. One student alone amassed $400,000 in offerings. That is pretty exceptional.

I strongly believe that the key ingredient in their success is an overwhelming quality that anyone quickly notices among this group. This group of students works together and celebrates each other.  I have honestly never seen another group of teenagers do this like they do it. The call each other a family and treat each other that way. They still have times of disagreement, but in that disagreement, they seek to find resolve. Maybe it's because they learned to depend on one another, or because they are such a small group and know each other so well. Whatever the reason, it is successful and I would love to learn how to replicate it.

At this point, most of our seniors know where they will be next year. They may have been accepted to a university or community college, and with those students, we were successful. This year we started the process of building a college-going culture and that is a long and arduous journey.  Next year, more students have selected honors, AP and community college classes than ever before and we will have the task of pulling them up to prepare them for those rigors. It will be tough, but I am already smiling because by simply making the choice to be there shows that they are beginning to think like college-bound students. If we can teach them to celebrate and support one another along the way, we can make them successful students, but more importantly, we will make them successful adults.

Teacher Appreciation

I hope by now that you have felt some appreciation from your students and colleagues this week. Teacher Appreciation Week is a great time to recognize those individuals that do a lot for students. Ironically, the qualities that teachers are often appreciated for may have little or nothing to do with instruction. Teachers are often appreciated for the relationships and expectations that they have for their students. Students appreciate the way that they make them feel as individuals much more than the knowledge they impart. I vividly remember loving a high school English teacher that taught me so much more than how to write. She set such high expectations for me as a student and as a young man. When I stepped out of line, she called me out quickly, sometimes even going to the point of taking off her shoe to throw at me! (Please do not follow her example on this!)

This job requires inspiration and many of us were inspired to work in education because of a teacher that we had in school. That person made us want to be like them. I am still inspired by many of you. I stand in awe of your positivity, your dedication and your relentless pursuit of achieving more from your students. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and thank you for being an inspiration to students and adults alike.

Good Teaching is Like Pornography

A professor once told me that good teaching is like pornography; both are tough to define, but you definitely know it when you see it. We often want to simplify things so that they offer solutions for us in nice neat packages, but in arenas that rely on artful skill, it rarely works that way. Take the statue of David by Michelangelo for instance. Here is a fully nude man in an openly public place. If a person where to do that, it would be indecent and considered pornography, but because he is sculpted he becomes one of the greatest works ever and people take pictures with him. So where is the line between art and porn? It's tough to say and depends highly on the material and the audience.

Teaching is exactly the same; good teaching is anyway. It would be simple to say "just do this with your class and they will learn," but that will never hold true. Good teaching is highly dependent on the material and the audience. What works in one class, will bomb with another. What works one day, may fail tomorrow. The art is not in the execution of good teaching, but in recognizing what connects with the audience and delivering that. I recently visited Mrs. Lopez-Hodges's Spanish for Native Speakers II class and while I could only understand a little of what was being said during the observation, I knew that what I saw was good teaching. Students communicated with the teacher, responded to one another and through their mannerisms, I saw relationships, thinking, challenge and effort. I didn't need to understand it; I knew it, because I saw it.

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I think that good teaching should not only be recognized by students, parents and administrators. Good teaching should be recognized by fellow teachers as well. If you have seen good teaching lately, let a fellow teacher know. It will mean a lot to them that a fellow artist has recognized great work.

Teacher Leadership

There is no doubt that I try to be a little liberal with how I choose to manage a school. There are some things that students and teachers do that I may not 100% agree with, but I try to recognize a human element to the organization. I believe that you can spend a lot of time focusing on managing that human element or your can spend that same amount of time improving instruction and student effectiveness. The fact is, I am always outnumbered. With almost 900 students and close to 70 staff members, I can never watch all the people, all the time. I rely heavily on teacher and student leadership to find an effective balance. Last week we met with student leaders and I wrote about what those students said to out board members. This week I want to discuss teacher leadership.

I recently saved an article that highlighted 7 habits of teacher leaders. The author identified the following:

1. Model lifelong learning

2. Engage in effective collaborative learning

3. Assume collective responsibility for student success

4. Support newer colleagues

5. Contribute to the schoolwide improvement agenda

6. Impact school system performance

7. Build relationships with policymakers

All of these attributes are necessary but they also require action. Most teachers, even new teachers, know what should be done. Taking the next step to actively do those things can be hard sometimes. But that's what makes a leader.

It's the time of year when we start doing summative evaluations and I wish that teacher leadership (Standard 1) was even more emphasized because it impacts so much of a school. In the spirit of preparing for those evaluations and preparing for a strong finish, take a few minutes to self-reflect on your contribution to those 7 habits. Where do you excel and where can you improve? When we have 70 teacher leaders, it greatly increases our odds of leading an effective school!

Wisdom That Still Works

I was welcomed back in full force this week! We had a lot of events and it instantly reminded me of how busy the end of the school year will be. That became even more interesting when I inadvertently sent out a virus to everyone on Monday! (If you ever want to know who  reads your emails, just send them a virus! You'll find out really quick!) After the stress of that first day, I was already exhausted.





On Tuesday afternoon, I was invited to the Greene County Senior Center to celebrate Mr. William Davis. Mr. Davis is a former assistant principal for Greene County Schools and recently celebrated his 100th birthday. I was amazed at this man. He spoke to us after his recognition and said something that I instantly thought was worth writing down. It may even be my new mantra. He said, "If you can impress students by showing them that you care for them; they will take care of you." How simple, but how true. I hear from people in and out of education about how schools and students are just not the same as they used to be, but here was a 100 year-old administrator that knows what worked then and what still works today.

That idea instantly proved true for me on Wednesday as we hosted our annual School Board Luncheon. This event gives our student leaders an opportunity to speak with members of the school board and county office about our school, changes they have seen and goals that they would like to see. I never think that I should coach them into saying what I want them to say. For me, this is an authentic assessment of how well I am doing and how well we are doing collectively. I was impressed to hear from our student leaders that they believe that our teachers have improved in how they teach and in how they interact with students. They see you pushing them and caring for them and they told the people that matter most in our profession. I instantly thought of Mr. Davis and his words of wisdom.

Student feedback can be formal and informal and you have to treat that as your formative check. Are you impressing them by taking care of them? How do you know? While this may not be the best evaluation for that kid that you call down every day, it probably is a great evaluation from the majority of your students. Work to impress them and they should be taking care of you. 100 years of experience says so.

Communication

When I first knew that I was coming to Greene Central I wanted to meet with Mr. Marr to talk with him about what I needed to know before making the transition. I came over one morning that summer and Tammy asked me what I was doing there. She's not a very good liar. She knew exactly why I was there. She knew because she's a great communicator. Since then, communication between Tammy, the assistant principals and myself has been a hallmark of our working relationship. We talk to one another a lot, often trading texts before 6:00 am. The only breakdown in communication comes when Tammy is trying to get me to read her lips in a crowded office. I'm horrible at reading lips and I have no clue what she is talking about!

Tammy Oakes has proven everyday that good communication can solve most problems. It's something that we can all learn from. Good phone calls home to parents when students do well and tough ones when they fail are essential. Communication between teachers helps you all feel better about what you do each day, and maybe makes you feel normal when things go wrong. I've recently seen great teacher sharing with the Honors Portfolios and it is something that I hope continues afterward.

On Tammy's last day with us, I want to say thank you to her on behalf of everyone for the multitude of problems that she has solved for all of us over the past 12 years. She has laughed with us on our best days and helped support us on our worst days. We will miss her greatly.

Teaching Magic

I'm going to tell you something that every principal education program says that I should not tell you. Many of my graduate school professors will disagree with me. There are people with higher degrees than mine, that have written many books about how schools work and how students learn that will say that I am wrong. I can prove them wrong and I'll tell you why.

Here's the big secret: Direct instruction can work and can be incredibly effective.  Modern theory says not to speak to students through lecture as a means of whole group instruction (I won't even get into the fact that this is how most higher education classrooms are run despite their own theory). The problem is that most teachers cannot do it correctly. Doing it correctly is difficult unless you have seen it and have the courage and "magic" to recreate it. Those modern educational theorists claim that students cannot focus on a single activity for a prolonged period of time, yet they do it every time they watch a movie, play a sport, play video games or basically anything else they are interested in. The problem is that they are not interested in what we have to offer.

So the question really becomes how do we become interesting? The answer is to use "magic." I'm not talking about pulling a rabbit out of a hat or doing card tricks. I'm talking about the kind of magic that holds people at the edge of their seat and captivates them, not because of what is said, but because of how it is said. I'm talking about the kind of magic that most grandparents have that captivates their grandchildren to give them 110% of their attention when their parent can't seem to get them to sit still. Storytelling is an art that should be taught as a part of any teacher preparation program. While not everyone will be experts at this skill and while it may not work for every kid in every class, it certainly is a skill that can work for most students, some of the time and it deserves to be a tool in every teacher's skill set.


It seems that I'm not alone in this idea though. If you have an extra 7 minutes, I highly suggest watching the video below.  Focus on what he is saying, but more importantly, focus on how he delivers his message and what he does with his body. This guy is a magical teacher.

A Little Help From My Friends

This week I have been reminded of that Beatles song that Joe Cocker made famous at Woodstock. Never has a little help from my friends at Greene Central been more needed! Any principal that wants to appreciate the value of their assistant principals, needs to run a school without them for a few days. With Mrs. Blackman and Mr. Castillo at a conference in New Orleans, I found myself wearing many hats and I depended greatly on several of you to help support me along the way. I also truly appreciated all of the ways that they make my job easier without me knowing it. On Wednesday of this week I was going to use this metaphor to highlight how important it is that we support each other as much as we support students. Then Thursday afternoon happened.

This could be any of our teachers on Thursday afternoon

About ten minutes before the after school bus would load to take students home I heard a very distressing call from Ms. Hedgepeth on the radio. A fight had broken out between two students outside of the math hall and I went running. While we were able to break up the fight pretty quickly, I would not have been able to control the chaos that ensued from the students' families had it not been for the support of the many teachers that were there quickly to assist. They all jumped right in like they had done it a hundred times before. While I was upset at the situation, I could not have been more proud of my staff. (Gentlemen, those ladies on the math and English hall are no joke!) 

This week would have done me in had it not been for a little help from my friends. I can only hope that each of you feels the same way of the staff at Greene Central. Support from colleagues gets us all through tough spots and makes us shine brighter when we get to help each other. Thank you to everyone that helped me get through this week and every week and thank you for all of the help you give each other. It's nice to be reminded how amazing you are.

Trust

I don't even know why it surprises me anymore. I should be used to it by now. It's just so great to watch it happen. I guess I'm still in shock that everything came together as quickly as it did for the ACT. When I found out on Friday afternoon that we had to test on Tuesday, I was pretty upset. I quickly thought about all of the things that could go wrong, wouldn't happen on time and wouldn't be right. What I did was exactly what I shouldn't have done. I doubted the expertise, commitment and resolve of our staff and students. I thought about everything that could go wrong, instead of trusting in my people. Everyone did a fantastic job this week. Teachers helped one another throughout the day. Students worked as hard as they could for four hours during that test to give their best. Other staff members pitched in and covered classes and helped get the right people in place. It went off without a single problem.

I find it pretty amazing how trust works. When you have a group of people that believe in a common goal, they almost always seem to find a way to make it work. I think the same happens in effective classrooms. It is easy, and almost intuitive, for teachers to think about what could go wrong in a new lesson. We think about that one kid that can't handle the structure. The group that just couldn't handle the assignment that way or a million other things that could go wrong. But if you prepare them with what they need, set up structures that support them and allow them to support each other, it is always impressive what students can produce. The problem is that it can be scary to try for the first time. Stepping off the ledge and into the unknown means giving up control and you find yourself just like me last Friday. Sometimes it's not until you have no other choice that you find out just how incredible the people around you can be!

From February 20, 2015

We are entering the tough part of the school year. The next few weeks often put a strain on teachers and students (administrators too). I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that we are ready for warmer weather (I know I am after this week!) or if we are just ready for another break, but the end of February through March is always difficult for a school. Add to that the regular distractions of major testing like Work Keys and the ACT, scheduling for next school year, multiple events that disrupt the day or week and a change in athletic seasons and it begins to add up quickly. Just writing about all of it is enough to make me a bit anxious. The one thing that we do control in difficult times is how we react to one another and how we lead in our classrooms and in our building. Over the next several weeks, your support and encouragement of students and fellow teachers will be essential.  I strongly believe that we are on the edge of making even more progress at Greene Central, but any change is always most difficult just before it occurs. Keep your heads up and if you need support, please let us know. We're all in this together!

From February 6, 2015

This week I have been at the NC Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development conference. It is always a good time and I get to hear great speakers from different schools. It is inspiring and inspirational and I take notes that resonate with me that you will likely hear in the form of PrincipalRamblings in the coming weeks. While I get to be inspired, I have also heard the rumblings throughout the past few days about the NC School Report Cards that were released yesterday. You will be hard pressed to find a principal or superintendent in the state that will support the new school letter grades.  This is the first year of the grades and Greene Central finished with a C for last year. The problem is with how the grades are calculated. 20% of the grade comes from student growth on EOCs and 80% comes from proficiency on EOC exams. We find it very contradictory that the state places such a high value on growth for Standard 6 for teachers (Standard 8 for me) and only values it as 20% of what a school can achieve and only for three subjects. When you apply this formula on the 15 point grading scale you get the following breakdown among the 2565 schools in the state (including charter and non-traditional schools).

A - 132 (5.15%)

B - 582 (22.69%)

C - 1003 (39.10%)

D - 561 (21.87%)

F - 146 (5.69%)

No Grade - 141 (5.5%)

When you compare Greene Central to the comprehensive high schools from our surrounding counties you get the following:

GCHS - C

Jones - C

Lenoir - 1 C, 2 Ds

Pitt - 5 Cs, 1 D

Wayne - 1 B, 3 Cs, 2 Ds

Wilson - 3 Cs

The discussion that results from these letter grades can go one of two ways. We can use them to continue a discussion about what is wrong with schools and our state system or we can counter them with evidence and artifacts of what is right. I want to focus on what is right and I urge you to do the same. Our system has once again placed upon us the need to be our own cheerleaders and that is exactly what we need to do. Continue to promote your work and the work of your students, because we know that it is great. 

I heard a quote yesterday at the conference that I believe summarizes exactly what we do well.  "Our task is to provide and education for the kind of kids we have. Not the kind of kids we used to have, or want to have, or the kind that exists in our dreams."  You all do that well, and to me, that deserves an A.