Staying Power

Last night Greene Central hosted our annual athletic awards. It's a fun night where coaches reward students that participate and excel in team sports. In almost every speech you hear phrases and words like, "hard worker," "sportsmanship," and "dedicated." While student awards were the spotlight, our student athletes were not the stars of the evening. Not a single person that spoke forgot to mention thanks and admiration to Coach Bass and Coach Brann for their service and leadership to Greene County athletics. Last night was really a celebration of them.

I recently read an article that spoke about millennials and their inability to find careers for a long term. Today's younger workers tend to lose interest in careers around 5 years, and look for a change. The article spoke of the growing elimination of workers that have held one job for their career. That came to mind yesterday evening as I thought about our two future retirees. Here are two people that have dedicated the past three decades of their lives to one profession. To me, that moves beyond a career and into a passion.  The work that they have accomplished and the countless hours that they have contributed to this profession also personify passion. I can only imagine the countless number of times they must have questioned their own sanity for staying in education. I have no doubt that each of them have had several opportunities to go somewhere else, or to do something else along the way. Despite that, these two have staying power. They show determination. They don't believe in quitting. But these traits didn't happen all at once. Staying power happens every day. One day at a time.

So here's to Coach Bass and Coach Brann and everyone else that makes the decision to wake up, show up and do their best every day. The staying power to make it 30 years can come to us all.

Awarding Hard Work

Today is Awards Day at Greene Central High School. Today is the day when we celebrate academic achievement for all content areas and when seniors begin the first of several ceremonies that will
celebrate their completion of high school. While I am all for the promotion of academic achievement and the acknowledgement of students that do well in the classroom, I think that we have to also recognize what today really is. Today is the recognition of hard work. Each and every award given today is the result of hard work. Each senior college signing is the result of hard work. Highest class averages were earned from the determination of students that worked hard enough to be the best at something.

This week I had the privilege of attending the annual Boys and Girls Club breakfast. The keynote speaker for the event was Greene Central's own, Cliff Godwin. Coach Godwin told stories of how he was pushed into the mentality of hard work during his time at Greene Central. Coach believes that he is successful because his family, teachers and coaches forced him to work hard even when he was tired. They expected the same from him after a full day of school or a summer's day of work as they would expect any other day. Hard work got him to where he is today.

This year I have seen so many shining examples of hard work in the classroom, on the playing field and in your club activities. It has led our school to multiple athletic playoffs, higher SRI growth than our school has ever seen and to the realization of over $2 million in scholarship offers for this year's senior class. Hard work did that. And while we celebrate student achievement today, we also need to be reminded of the hard work of others that resulted in student achievement. Thank you for the hard work of all teachers, not just for the work done in the classroom, but also for the work done beyond the classroom planning events that make our school matter, and opportunities that make our students proud. Thank you to parents that support, counselors that stay on you until the job is done and community members that offer a helping hand. Thank you all for your hard work. That is what Ram Pride is all about.

Staying On Top

A turkey was chatting with a bull in a pasture. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. 

Finally, after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

The moral of the story: BS may get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

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With just one month left, this is the time of the year that students, teachers and even principals have to buckle down and do some hard work to finish out. Exams, graduation and a long list of expectations lay before each of us and we want to do our best. It will take hard work and GRIT to get us where we want to be in the end. This time of year always reminds me of the finish of any race. If you run it hard, you have a chance. If you're worn down, defeated and weary, you'll certainly get caught.

Let's all pitch in together to make this last month one where teamwork, a gritty attitude and a whole lot of determination gets us to where we want to be in the end!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

I have written a lot about grit and delayed gratification, and for the most part, those ideals have been directed toward student motivation and getting the children that we teach to work a little harder each day. During Teacher Appreciation Week it would be easy for me to write a "thank you" for the work that teachers do, but instead I'm going to write about grit and delayed gratification again. This time, it's not about the work, but about the reward. Educators need to do a better job of focusing on the fruits of our labor instead of the trials and tribulations we face along the way. Focusing on the successes of our efforts provides a model to go by for future efforts and fuels our passion to continue to do more.

This week I encountered many things to write about and I could see this post getting longer and longer in my head. Instead of berating you with so many of the different examples I saw, I'll focus on just two. The first example of a long term reward comes from a little practice I picked up from several of you. I decided a few years ago when I received a thank you letter from a student at Greene Central for the help that I had given him, that I was capable of doing the same as an adult. Each year I try to track down a former teacher and thank them. This year I chose my sophomore English teacher. Mrs. Dail was one of those teachers that taught me more about life and how to be a great person than anything I remember about subject/verb agreement or the plot of a novel we read. She continued to help me beyond the year I spent in her classroom and was personally responsible for me attending college and becoming a teacher. I wrote her an email to say thanks and did not receive a reply for several days. When she replied, she explained how she simply did not know how to respond. My thanks was two decades removed from her classroom, but the timing was right for her. Twenty years later, she had finally received the recognition that was due for her efforts for one kid.

My second example was two years removed of my efforts. Last night I had the privilege of making good on a promise that I made, and I attended the commencement ceremony of a former student of mine that graduated from nursing school. At that time I posted a blog about her and how her program was attempting to remove her due to her immigration status. Several of us that knew her fought long and hard for several weeks to keep her in school and were successful. Beyond that, we supported her in school and hours of encouragement and prayer went her way. Last night she was pinned as a nurse and it was probably the most satisfying thing in my career to date. She will begin work this summer at Vidant hospital. We won.

Many of you that have been teaching for a few years have stories similar to mine. Those of you well into your career probably have dozens of examples. At the end of Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to ask you to focus on those examples of how your own grit has produced success beyond your classroom. To those of you early in your career, please know that your efforts will produce quality results, sometimes it just takes years to see the full impact. Thank you all for what you do and I hope that you can take time to focus on your achievements.