Ernie's Subs

Strangely enough, the thing I miss the most about working and living in Greenville had nothing to do with my job or where I lived. I miss my frequent access to a small, cinderblock building restaurant named Ernie's Subs. Coach Willis was nice enough to bring me an Ernie's pepper steak sub this week and I was in heaven! For those of you that are not familiar with Ernie's, you have probably driven by it hundreds of times and never noticed it. The outside is nothing to look at. The restrooms are outside and remind me a lot of the men's restrooms under our press box. The only furniture inside consists of a non-matching plastic patio table and chairs. While they make several different kids of subs, but almost everyone orders the peppersteak. It is the best sandwich I have ever had and I can literally taste it as I am writing this.

While Mrs. Willis and I were enjoying our sandwiches this week, she mentioned our school was a lot like Ernie's. (She's always looking for a metaphor.) The building is old and we are a rural, low-income school. From the outside, people may not expect much. But on the inside, there is so much to love. While we have our struggles like any other place, we also have so much to be proud of. This year's senior class has already amassed over $500,000 in scholarships and we have two semi-finalists for the Park Scholarship and a semi-finalist for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship. Simply put, good things can come from small, unassuming places. Each of us is a part of the recipe that makes our school and our students what they are. You are all ingredients to student success. Over the break, please take time to rest and recharge and come back ready to put those ingredients to work.

"Do you know how lucky you are?"

When I came to Greene Central five years ago, the school was in a huge transition. I had to quickly verse myself with all of the terms and requirements of a priority school, the School Improvement Grant and a programs like STEM, READ 180 and Carnegie Math. Some of you remember this transition very well and for others that have arrived since then, it may be all that you have ever known of the school. Within my first couple of years, it seemed like we were also showing off the school or some program within it to legislators, federal transition coaches or groups that were interested in doing something similar. At the time it felt like I couldn't get anything done for having to talk with this group or that group, but over the years, the frequency of those tours has started to slow down.

We recently had two of these visits to our school that helped remind me of a lot of things. Last Friday I had a visit from a group of principals that I help mentor from across the east. They have schools with similar backgrounds and they have similar problems of poverty in their districts. On Monday, we were visited by a representative from the Successful Practices Network, a group that studies STEM learning and technology in schools across the United States. These site visits may have done more to remind me about just how great our school is, than it did for our visitors. Much like you do in your classrooms, I also focus on the problem areas. Too often I see problems of student discipline, problems of teacher effectiveness, problems with facilities that need repair or even more long term problems of programs or budget. With all that focus on problems, I think I had lost sight of all of the solutions that were in front of me. It wasn't until one of the principals from last Friday's visit asked our student leaders, "Do you know how lucky you are?" that I paused to ask myself the very same question.

It sounds simple, but do take time to step back and focus on the positives and not just the problems. They are all around us. They walk our halls as kids that we connected with. They come back to visit as ones that are success stories. They teach down the hall as new teachers that learned from you. They are there as parents that appreciate what we have done. While we will always have new problems to solve, it's also important to take time to look around and count our blessings to appreciate where we have come.

Adversity

This fall has been a tough time for several students and teachers. Several have lost family members or have been there for devastating medical news about a family member. Several students have received some tough news about their own health as well. Undoubtedly it is hard to focus on teaching and learning when things like this fill your attention and drive your emotions. In the face of this adversity I have seen students and staff members show true compassion for one another. I have seen students worry about grades and attendance because despite their troubles, they recognize that they still have goals to meet for their future. I have seen teachers show up and teach when every logical reason says that they could have taken another day or two off.

Even though no one would ever wish this type of adversity on themselves or anyone else for that matter, there is some truth to the idea that adversity builds strong character. Persisting through adverse times and troubling situations has statistically shown to build strong leaders and character traits of compassion and empathy. One of the most common characteristics among United States Presidents is that an unusually large number of them lost a parent as a young child. We think of this type of adversity leading to troubled teenagers that would be at risk for failure. But when we see people that face adversity and work to succeed in site of it, we often see tremendous results.

Thank you to all of you that help our students face their own forms of adversity, large and small. And thank you for choosing to stand and deliver for your students, when bad things come your way as well. Tremendous results are waiting.

Investment

Each month the administrators get together before the next scheduled staff meeting and talk about the agenda. One of the first things that we discuss is always the Whatever It Takes Award. We look for someone that stands out in what they do for a student or the school at large. I am not looking forward to having to make a decision for this month's staff meeting and there's a really good reason for that. Recently I have seen so many of our staff members doing very special things for students. These things have nothing to do with academics, content and language objectives, curriculum maps or anything like that. These are investments in our students as people and they often address issues that pull at our hearts.

In the past couple weeks I have seen some pretty dramatic examples of that. Between teachers that have purchased shoes for a student, another that purchased a belt for a troubled student that had done better and a teacher that served as a father in a daddy-daughter tennis match, I've seen some amazing things out of our staff. I'm certain that there are many more examples that many of you have kept to yourself. These acts of investing in children serve the exact same as money invested in an account. It doesn't just sit there; it grows.  Children that are shown kindness and understanding in times of need are much more likely to become adults that do the same for others. These acts of compassion grow upon one another.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want you all to know that I am thankful to work with a staff that sees children as more than a name on a roster. They know more about them than a predicted achievement level. They care about them more than just 90 minutes a day.

Water Your Seeds

I was talking with a Senior this week about grades and attendance. It's a fairly regular conversation that I have to have about this time of the year. We talk about finishing strong, maintaining focus so that colleges will accept you and getting back on the right track before it causes a real problem. Most of these conversations hinge on that student's specific goals beyond high school and trying to leverage that goal toward doing what they should do in class. I asked this particular student a rather simple question, "How are you going to get back on track in class?" She just looked at me. I asked it again. She replied, "Well I just hope that I can go in there and do it." That's not good enough.

There is an old proverb that states, "I pray for rain, but I cannot neglect to water my seeds." Sometimes when students (or any of us really) face a tough task, we go into it with optimism that if we want things to work out, then it will all be alright. Some people call it hope while others know it as faith. We want to believe that things will turn out well in the end. While I am a strong proponent of positive thinking, I also believe that hope or faith without action is usually fruitless. Anything worth hoping for is also worth working for and that means that you need a plan.

We are at the halfway point of the fall semester and that means that no matter where your students are, now is the time to push for growth. It's time to get serious and that means both us and them have to get our heads in the game. Whether your plan to growth them means a new instructional game plan or a different look at management or motivation, it's time to water our seeds. Even if you feel like things have been going great in your classroom and your "crops" have been getting plenty of "rain," know that we can still fertilize them as well. Be specific about a game plan and let's finish strong!

What We Teach

While the start of almost all school years will include some settling out of new faces, new needs and new attitudes, I'll easily admit that this year has been exceptional. It's been tough to get kids to effectively communicate in times of conflict. We have seen it the most amongst our freshman class. While teachers and students see the argument or fight in the hallway, those of us in the front office usually get to hear the rest of the story surrounding the event. In many of these cases, the students involved are friends. They are upset over something or someone and when they attempt to communicate that, it fails miserably.

In the wake of this, I was very quick to utter the statement, "Kids today just can't communicate!" On the surface it is easy to say that. Each new generation carries the blame and ridicule of an older generation that disagrees with how we have changed culturally. The more I thought about it though, I'm not certain it's all their fault. All children learn through observation. Their communication skills (or a lack thereof) are learned behaviors, not ones that are innate to a group of people, born at a particular time. So where are our kids learning this? Between families that increasingly split due to conflict, mass media that popularizes all kinds of dysfunctional behavior and political leaders that name call each other via social media, is it any wonder why our children behave the way that they do? So with that being said, what on earth do we do about it? I think that all we can do is educate. We teach kids, and if the truth was told, we teach them a lot more than what we see in our curriculum.  But just like the content knowledge that we want them to know, we have to be explicit about how to behave as well. We all get frustrated and upset at times, and that's perfectly normal. What we have to teach kids (and sometimes remind ourselves) is how to handle life when that happens. Remember that good or bad, we are all an example for our kids. We are the ones that children look to for knowledge and guidance. What we teach, often has nothing to do with what we are paid for.

Over Communicate

I genuinely think that the majority of problems in any organization occur from a failure to communicate. In schools, I think that is even more true. Wether we acknowledge it or not, we are in a relationship with one another. Like any relationship, both parties need to express what they think and how they feel. Also like most relationships, we often assume that the other party understands what we think and feel. We've all been guilty of that at one point or another and the moment we realize it, we usually understand how things could have happened differently. It's often easy to acknowledge that feeling with a spouse, family member or a child, but we are not as quick to see it in our professional lives. I recently read an article about leadership and it highlighted failing to over-communicate as a key problem in leadership. Basically, if you want to lead a group of people, you have to be clear about what you want, and follow up along the way quite often about it. This week I thought I would start with a simple exercise in over-communicating.

I appreciate you. I genuinely do. I've seen so many of you do extra things for each other and for your students, and all of that makes my job so much easier. Homecoming week is always a great time to see school staff work with students on creative projects. That collaboration builds relationships and fosters growth for both parties. Thanks for taking your time to make this week's events happen and for doing the extra little things that show kids that you care. It may be just a silly outfit, participating in the pep rally or organizing the lineup for the homecoming court, but to kids it matters. So thank you. I hope that you know that I appreciate you, but this week, I want to be sure that I've said it.

Own It

Last Friday's inservice from Tara Brown has certainly invoked quite a bit of discussion. Research says that educators usually only retain about 5-10% of what they hear in professional development. With that being the case, I've been very curious about what each person took away as their 5-10%. Several of you have discussed the assistant principal greeting students. Others really liked the smiling cow picture and the story about the milk. Having heard her twice last week, I personally resonated with one simple phrase, "Own it." I'm not sure how many of you remember that part, but the idea was that before you can change your practice (she talked about not smiling at kids) you have to own the fact that you have a deficit. I likened it to the idea that an addict has to first admit that they have a problem before they can start the road to becoming clean.

While I couldn't define it at the time, "owning it" was precisely what I was having a problem with. Wether you are leading a team, a classroom or a school, you have a vision of what you would like that to be. When something falls short of that vision, it can sometimes be difficult to admit where things went wrong. In Monday's staff meeting we are going to take a look at our school accountability data from last year. There are so many things that went well, but I was having trouble owning the fact that we did not make growth. While there are some mitigating factors that truly do make things more difficult for us in that arena, at the end of the day it is what it is and we are still expected to meet that goal. I have to own that.

Here's where that can create change. "Owning it" means taking a look at what went wrong and addressing it. Just like not smiling at kids requires owning that in an effort to smile more, we have to own what we can do to change our situation. Once I made that revelation, I was immediately renewed with a sense of encouragement and enthusiasm to do something about it. It's a challenge now and I'm ready to face it. I hope that you are too.

So what can you own about your teaching that you know (but are not ready to admit) that can make you a better teacher? Write it down. Say it out loud. Own it. It can be something small or something big, but we can all be better at something that just requires a little directed effort.

Boys Will Be Boys

It wasn't until I started coaching that I truly appreciated what my mother must have gone through. Seeing the interactions amongst a group of teenage boys made me feel bad for her. You see, my mom was surrounded by boys. The constant habits and behaviors of my father, my brother and myself must have been truly confusing and tiresome. But what could she do? You know...boys will be boys. 

That phrase has probably excused more bad behavior and reinforced more stereotypes than any other set of words in the English language. Boys in our culture are expected to display certain qualities. It is not enough to be born male. Instead, boys often have to "prove" their masculinity by displaying traits like toughness, athleticism, self-sufficiency and stoicism. When boys display these attributes, but otherwise break social rules, we are quick to write them off as male behavior. Think about it...you've never heard anyone use that phrase when observing a boy reading, being polite or exhibiting kindness. Those are not culturally masculine things for boys to do. 

So (once again) what does this have to do with school? Statistically, it has a lot to do with us. The EVAAS growth scores from last year's EOCs can be broken down into various subgroups. Any guesses which groups underperformed? That's right, males and particularly minority males. But can we just ignore this and write it off as "boys will be boys" behavior? After all, we had some great sports seasons, and our boys did well in those areas. It's hard to get boys to like to do things like read and write and learn about things that don't automatically appeal to their masculine interests. But let's be honest, if they can read a defense, they should be able to read an author's intent. If they can understand sports statistics, then they can read scientific data. Let's stop giving our boys a pass on poor classroom performance and bad habits. Instead, let's truly teach them that "manning up" means taking care of all of your responsibilities, not just the ones that they like. 

Mean Girls

By Tuesday evening of this week I had had enough of mean girls. Two girl-involved fights (despite our best efforts to prevent them) and my own daughter's first-hand experience with a mean girl on her bus had me just about done with these girls and their problems. I guess growing up with only a brother, I somehow missed out on some valuable experience in how girls operate, so I started reading to find an answer on why girls can be so mean. Psychology says that while boys generally participate in physical aggressiveness, girls are much more likely to participate in relational aggression. This can include public humiliation, spreading rumors, exclusion of a person from a group or pitting one friend against another. It probably would not take much for all of us to attach a face to these characteristics from our own personal experiences. So why do they do it? While we understand the seemingly easy answer to why boys are aggressive (and yes we are more likely to give that a pass culturally), the motivation for girls can be a bit more complex. Psychologists have several explanations as to why girls begin to behave this way. The majority of reasons seem to tie back to one of two things: establishing themselves as an Alpha female or personal insecurity. Genetically, girls may be hardwired to be the Alpha Female so that they can have first-dibs on the best mate. (Strangely enough that explains why girls will fight over a boy.) Girls that feel insecure, fear not belonging to the group, and can manipulate others, to secure their own relationship standings.

So what does all of this have to do with school? Apparently a lot. Researchers also find that environments either lend themselves to being breeding grounds for "mean girl behavior" or not. Schools (and work places later on) can be places that fuel social competition and can unintentionally foster this type of behavior. Either by allowing it passively or refusing to attack it head-on, we can sometimes be our own worst enemies. We all (yes, guys too) have participated in mean girl behaviors and our own need to fit in may have led us to ignoring and allowing the behaviors of others at times. Schools have to take a different approach to getting girls to understand their own feelings and motivations. We have to take the time to teach positive leadership characteristics while also addressing self-worth and positive self-image. Simply expecting their to be a change by admonishing the negative behaviors will not fix the problem. Girls have to understand why and attach that understanding to themselves personally.

I have two daughters and there are so many young ladies in our school that I would be proud to call my daughter. I want to see them all become successful adults. In schools, girls generally out-perform boys academically, are much less likely to be suspended and generally demonstrate more mature behaviors. So why do we still have a male-dominated culture beyond school? "Doing what counts" also means educating our young women on how to lead effectively if we expect that to change. They need examples, but they also need to know how to get there. That has probably become our job.

Don't worry ladies....I'm calling out the boys next week.

"I Can't"

My dad had a lot of sayings that were so very often repeated when I was growing up. Far too many of those stuck in my head, and as a parent, I find myself repeating them to my children. One of those sayings he used very often involved the words "I can't." My dad hated those words. If literally anyone in our home was caught uttering that phrase, we already knew what was coming next: "'I can't' hasn't ever done a thing." As a kid, it didn't make much sense to me. It was one of those phrases that you had to think about a little, and I sure wasn't asking any questions in the heat of the moment. What I learned later on was that my dad appreciated effort. You had to try and then persist at something, even if it was difficult. You were not allowed to say 'I can't' and give up.

School is hard, and while we sometimes think that kids have it easy these days, we don't always understand everything that is placed on them. What we do know is that standards and expectations are higher today in American schools than they were for any of us. Increased accountability and competition add multiple layers of stress and pressure to teachers and students alike. With increased stressors, we also know that we see increases in negative behaviors in adolescents. Much like stress builds up for us if we don't have an outlet for it, it builds for them and they do not always know how to manage it. They need someone encouraging and coaching them along the way. It has to be routine. We simply cannot expect children to arrive at those conclusions on their own. Effort and persistence are learned behaviors. When I repeat that phrase to my own children, I can literally hear my dad's voice in my head saying the same. We have to become that voice in our classrooms for all students. When an assignment is difficult or it is easy to mentally check out on a test, they need to hear your words in her own heads. In order to do that by the end of the semester, you have to start now. Cramming for this test simply won't work. It will take some effort, but believe you CAN'T afford not to.

Perspective

The start of a new school year means new people are welcomed into the Greene Central family. New students arrive to replace the graduates, some transfer in from surrounding places and we always have a handful of new teachers to join our staff. I'm always curious about what impression our school culture gives off to new people. School culture reflects your values and beliefs. It's how you feel about the school and how you act accordingly. This week our new students and teachers are sub-consciously evaluating that. People naturally seek to fit in to their environment and they have to make observations about that environment before they can do that. I took a few minutes this week to ask some of our new staff members what they have noticed about our school. Some of their answers were no surprise and others made me chuckle.

One of the most notable things was the freedom that students and staff have within the school. Some students wear hats and others listened to music from their phones in the hallway. If a teacher needed to grab a bite to eat during planning, it wasn't forbidden. Another frequently heard comment was on the wealth of resources. Jeremy Shaw and Kelly Garcia got shout-outs, as did the overwhelming amount of technology. The one comment that I heard the most was how friendly and helpful everyone had been to our new people. Teachers and support staff had reached out to them, checked up on them and had offered assistance multiple times. I head the terms "family atmosphere" and "team" over and over again.

It feels good to belong to a school that projects that feeling. I can only hope that our new students feel the same welcoming atmosphere within the halls that they walk through daily. I want them to be just as overwhelmed with the helpful resources at their fingertips. I'm sure that they may not think that our school is perfect. Much like we question hats and earbuds, they probably question why they can stand on one hall in the morning and not another. My hope is that even with those slightly differing perspectives, we find a common ground of helpfulness in the place where we spend the bulk of our time throughout the year. Teachers should be happy about the place where they come to work every day. Students should be happy about the place that they come to learn every day. If those groups have a shared perspective, the rest becomes much easier.

The Power of Graduation

Last Monday, on my way home from the beach, I stopped by my grandfather's house to help him with some chores. He is 87 now and while he still thinks that he can do everything, he probably shouldn't. While I was there he mentioned that he recently had his high school reunion. I had always heard there were some strange circumstances surrounding him finishing school, so I took the opportunity to get the whole story. It goes like this...

My grandfather was a dropout. Not just that, but he finally dropped out of school at 16 because he was still in the 7th grade. As the oldest son of tenant farmers, he often missed school to work in the tobacco fields and this led to him being held back numerous times. At 16, he just stopped going altogether. That year, a man that went to his church, who was a principal at another school, told him that he would help him study over the summer and would help him get back into school the next fall. My grandfather agreed to this and worked every night at this man's house. The next year, the man told him to go back to school and join the class of kids that were his age. That fall he entered Lucama School in the 12th grade. A couple of weeks later, his school records caught the attention of his principal. My grandfather explained the situation and asked him to talk to the other principal that helped him. Two weeks later he was told he could stay. The principal even purchased him a class ring. My grandfather paid him back at the end of the year with tobacco money after he graduated. After high school he joined the Army and fought in the Korean War. He came home to Kinston and got a job at Dupont and worked there for the next 30 years.

Can you just imagine the chatter among the teaching staff at learning about the kid that was just pushed through from 7th to 12th grade! Weren't there any standards? Wasn't this just social promotion? I'm sure they thought that school must just be pushing kids through with no regard to what they actually learned. It's the same things we say today, but that was 70 years ago. To be honest, kids today graduate with the highest set of standards in American history in regards to graduation requirements. It doesn't always feel that way when we see a kid that doesn't do much to earn that walk on the stage at the end of the year.

Since high school, no one has ever asked me my class rank or my high school GPA. Once the moment of graduating happens, life is all about what you do next. It's what you do with that opportunity. You have a chance to build a life and it can be better or worse than the one you had before. The principal that helped my grandfather saw a young man struggling to help his family. He must have known how poor they were and how they moved from place to place, each smaller than the last, to make ends meet. He must have known about the social issues in their home that still plague homes in poverty today.

Without graduating, it is very likely that my grandfather would have continued as a tenant farmer; poor and uneducated. Graduating high school gave him a shot at a better life and while it may have been unethical to put him in the 12th grade, it made him better and society better. My mom, his daughter, went on to be the valedictorian of her high school class. My grandfather had adopted a respect for the power of education that did not exist in his family before him and he pushed that on his children. It was pushed on me as well.

In one week the chairs will be set out and the tassels will be hanging from caps as eager high school students prepare to leave us. Some worked very hard and some not very much at times. Some are gifted and some are not. Once that diploma hits their hands, they all become equal with an opportunity to be whatever they want to be. They have a chance. That is the power of graduation.

Behind the Scenes

Over the past few weeks I have been pretty busy. There have been several end of year ceremonies, performances and awards that I've attended. At each of these events I've been paying attention to something other than the main event. I've been watching the people behind the scenes.

Those that work behind the scenes work exceptionally hard to go unnoticed. If they do their work well, your focus stays on the performer(s), the action or the stage. All you notice is that everything ran smoothly for you to see what you were intended to see. They work hard to make someone else shine.  Between the students that run lights, sound and props at the Ramblers show, assistants that organized and ordered plaques, and staff that mail home notifications to family, there are many things that get done that we often overlook. I saw that especially this week as we prepared for the Senior Signing as SGA officers worked with school staff to organize the event and as our staff worked hard to be certain that every student walked away with something to represent their school. All we saw was a large group of happy students that proudly signed their name for everyone to see.

Teaching is the same way. We have been working hard to prepare students for an exam that will lead to credit for a course, and ultimately, graduation. If we do our work well, students show up, do well in an exam and everyone congratulates them on their achievement. The work behind the scenes is what got them ready for that day. So as we prepare for the end of the year, much like the end of a performance, I want to thank the crew. Thanks for all of the work behind the scenes that has given our students the opportunity to shine. Their achievement comes from your work and while you may not be in the spotlight, your work hasn't gone unnoticed.

You Get What You Need

The Rolling Stones formed in 1962 and emerged in America as a part of the British rock invasion that swept the country. Unlike all other bands of that era, they are still around today. While they may have started out with lyrics like, "I can't get no satisfaction," they grew up to learn that, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you'll get what you need." There is a lot of maturity in that change and I think we go through the same changes in schools. When we see problems that are difficult to fix, we feel very unsatisfied, but when we put our own effort into it and roll up our sleeves, we often can get what we need to make it work.

Yesterday our student leaders met with the Board of Education. I try to never script what student say at this meeting and let students have a real voice for what matters to them. They discussed wanting some changes to Overtime, increased prep for college applications and scholarships and some general upgrades to school facilities. We try to work through these big requests and find a place where we can get what we need. That same philosophy holds true for me as well. This week and next I will be working with the counselors and data managers to build our schedule for next year. Right now I (and you) want a lot of things, hopefully, with some effort, we will get what we need.

Things that we want changed take effort and while we may not always get what we want, when we put forth that strong effort, we do usually come out just fine. Thanks in advance for all of the last minute effort that so many of you are putting forth, I'm certain that our students will get what they need.

Passion

Three bricklayers are hard at work. A man passes by and asks, "What are you doing?" 
The first bricklayer says, "I am laying bricks."
The second says, "I am building a church."
And the third says, "I am building the house of God."

The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling. 

                                                                                                                                                                   

On Wednesday when Marlanna Evans spoke to our senior class about her career and what inspired her, she talked about passion. She explained that she has put 10,000 hours over 10 years into what she calls her job before she has started to receive recognition. That passion for who she is and what she wanted to do has paid off. She asked that our seniors take the same approach in choosing what their next step in life will be. I hope that they listened.

Teaching is something that you have to be passionate about to appreciate. Much like the story of the bricklayers, the emphasis of our job changes depending on how we see ourselves, not how others see us. I think that if we applied this parable to education, the first person would be teaching students, the second would be growing young minds and the third would be building tomorrow's citizens. The passion that one has for their job and their goal can greatly impact how they perform. It is usually easy to spot someone that is passionate about their job. These are the people that are always enjoying what they do. They put extra time and effort into it and they genuinely care about the outcome. I have no doubt that any school has all three "bricklayers" on their staff and honestly, that's ok. It takes time to determine what you are passionate about. Inspiration does not come overnight. I do encourage you to find what you are passionate about in this job and seek to grow that into a career and if you're lucky, a calling.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and thanks to all of the "bricklayers" that are building tomorrow's citizens.

Perspective

I thoroughly enjoyed spring break this year. I spent some time with my family, relaxed and even managed to knock out a few chores that I have been putting off. One of those chores involved cleaning out old documents in my home office that needed to be thrown out. In this process I managed to find my first paycheck as a teacher. This instantly brought my productivity to a standstill. My first paycheck as a teacher was much smaller than I remembered. At the time, Erika and I were in our first year of marriage. She had a car payment and we had purchased our first house. Erika was still in school and was doing her nursing internship. Until February of that school year, this check was our sole source of income.

Those of you that are older than me will get this, those younger might not yet. There are a few key moments in your life when you first feel old. This was one of mine. After trying to figure out how on earth we managed to even buy groceries that year, I laughed at myself for feeling like my grandfather when he would tell me that a Pepsi used to cost five cents or when gas was more than a quarter a gallon. After the initial shock, I was hit with the fact that this paycheck brought me a lot of perspective. In thirteen years a lot has changed. I've grown and while my paycheck does look better now than it did then, I definitely spend it much differently as well. Children and things like insurance and savings start to take the place of nights out with friends and late night pizza orders. We grow and adapt and if you don't, you're stuck with what you had then.

In the coming weeks we will all be completing our end-of-year PDPs. We will look back on our goals for the year and how we did toward meeting them. We click a few boxes and determine if we reached our goal. This time of year is important for that same perspective. Where did we end up and where do we want to go next. How has our instruction changed and have our values changed? What are you good at and how can you be better at the other things? Reflection and this perspective of looking back allows us to appreciate where we have been and celebrate where we are now. Growth is not just an important word for student test data. It's just as important for each of us and it's a personal thing. I'm sure that in 2004 there were plenty of people that would have loved my paycheck and there were many others that would have laughed at it. Growth is specific to the individual. So what is your perspective? What mountains have you climbed? Where are you headed and what challenge will you take on next? Think back to your first year teaching, or if you're a beginning teacher, think back to your first month. How much better are you now and how have your priorities changed? Most importantly, take time to laugh at yourself when you think through your journey. Those things that looked like mountains then, just might look small to the goals that stand in front of you today.

Get Rested & Get Ready

One week from today we will all be enjoying a much deserved break. I have seen the looks on teacher and student faces over the past week of exhaustion. With spring break falling a little later this year than last year, many of us are simply doing our best to hold on through prom next Thursday night. Despite the mentally and physically demanding days, so many of you are neck deep in after school events that continue to help our school and our students. I want you all to know that your work hasn't gone unnoticed. We all appreciate you. 

When we return we will be in the sprint to the finish. So many things will be demanding our time and attention and graduation day will be here in the blink of an eye. In that short time I will be asking everyone to dig deep for test prep and to get all of our seniors to graduation. So much of school success comes in the last month of the school year. I say all of this to remind you all to follow one of my main rules...take care of yourself. Please take time to put away school work, put down lesson plans, log off of your email and log on with your family and friends. You've earned some time to be selfish and you need it. I want you rested and ready for when we return...have a lot to do when you get here!

Nothing

I recently saw a teacher post her frustrations with her students via social media. (Don't worry, it's not one of you!) The teacher remarked that her students had come to her with the age-old question, "What can I do to improve my grade?" in the week that grades were due. In her post, she stated that she always responds to that question with the same answer, "Nothing. I hope that this teaches you to do your work when it is due, but I doubt that it will." This teacher was obviously frustrated at the fact that this seems to happen every time grades are due.

That question is frustrating to a teacher. I remember that feeling very well. Objectively, I try to think back about myself as a teacher and what I did or could have done differently in that situation. All I can come up with is that if there is anything that you do not like as a result in your classroom, then you have to be the one to change the environment that causes that result. If this teacher is always frustrated with this response from students, my question to her is this: "What did you change to keep that from happening?" The answer that she gave her students applies to her as well. "Nothing."

I have written a lot about teacher leadership recently and how it has to start within the four walls of your classroom. Recognizing where things go awry and working toward changing that for the better is true teacher leadership. In this case, it's also data-driven leadership! It's never too late to assess, identify and respond to issues preventing student achievement. What can you do today that will change things for the better in your classroom?

What Aren't You Saying?

Recently a press conference video clip of Geno Auriemma, head coach of the University of Connecticut' s women's basketball team, has made a lot of news. (Click play if you haven't seen this) If you don't know Coach Auriemma, all you need to know is that he has coached UConn to eleven NCAA Division I National Championships. No one else has ever done that. Being the coach of the country's premier women's basketball program, he gets to do things his way. He chooses who he wants, when he wants them. Recruiting isn't his problem. He always has the top of the talent pool. His job is to manage that talent. In the clip, he does not talk about how many shots a player makes or their defensive skills. Instead he talks about body language and a player's attitude toward their teammates, even when they are on the bench.

Last week's blog was about teacher leadership and how we have to start by leading in our own classrooms. Beyond our rooms, teacher leaders are most valuable by building others around them and not themselves. That could not be more true today in our era of school accountability. If you can remember back to the beginning of the year when I showed everyone at a faculty meeting how our school report card grade is established, you know that very few classes directly impact that score. Just EOC courses count for growth and proficiency. Everyone else has the responsibility of building strong students in literacy, mathematics, science, critical thinking and career development, not to mention how we all contribute to the overall wellbeing of our students.

March is one of those tough times to be a teacher. We are tired and the kids are tired. It's an easy time to be frustrated. I get that way as well so I can't honestly tell you not to be. What I can ask is that, just like Coach Auriemma says, watch your body language. What are we telling our students and each other by not saying a word? Are we leading in the right direction? I think students and colleagues are particularly keen on seeing this in each other, probably because we spend so much time together. So even if you are not ready to be a vocal teacher leader, try being one that doesn't have to say anything at all.

What is Teacher Leadership

Teacher Leadership is the very first standard and element on the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation instrument. It's that important. Our school houses close to 100 employees (including teachers, assistants, clerical staff, support staff, cafeteria and custodial workers) and 800 students. Between myself and my assistant principals, we would be lucky to directly engage about 10-20% of those people on a daily basis. Teachers have to be leaders to direct the rest. The system simply would not work without it. While we recognize that teacher leadership is fundamental, we fail to prepare teacher leaders. Be honest, how many of us have actually had professional development in leadership?

Being a teacher leader is akin to being a captain on a team. You play alongside your teammates and cheer them on the majority of the time. Sometimes you also have to be the one to call out when things are not working and address that as well. If I am being honest about the problems that schools face, we can trace plenty of them back to ourselves. Adult problems of failing to enforce rules, set a proper example or perform to expectations allow students to run awry. At the same time, this isn't the Marine Corps either. Somewhere in there is a balance where we lead by example, support each other and our goals and enjoy what we do. Teacher leaders support that balance. The valuable voices of teachers support schools and the direction they move toward. They are not dependent on years of experience or pay scale. Each week I go to several teachers on our staff for ideas and direction. Teacher input is essential to school administration.

In the spirit of yesterday's fantastic professional development, (great job Shaw and Garcia), I'll share with you one of the first leadership lessons I was ever taught. It is one that still holds true for me today, and one I try to go back to often. "There are no part-time leaders. Real leaders are there all of the time." Work toward teacher leadership by first leading in your classroom, then seeking to lead beyond your students. Be consistent. Work to always be a leader that your students and colleagues can count on. If everyone did that, just imagine what example it would set for our students.

Very Superstitious

Over the past few months of basketball games, several of us became very superstitious. For me, it started with refusing to talk about a state championship. Then I would refuse to talk about anything other than the next game. By the end of the season, I had lucky shoes, a lucky shirt and specific places I would stand during the game. In my head, these things mattered somehow. All I knew was that things were working and I refused to change anything that worked. Anything.

Being superstitious is nothing new for athletes and sports fans. Most will likely admit to something small that they believe impacts the game. The funny thing about superstitions is that they require some form of constant assessment. When things go well, you evaluate what was right about that day. When you lose, you evaluate what was different. So with that thought in mind, is it smart to be superstitious about instruction? When students perform well in a lesson or unit, do we take the time to evaluate what made that difference? I'm not talking about a lucky shirt in this case, but more about what changed within the classroom. When students do not perform well, are we analyzing what changed to cause this? If we can approach instruction with the same mentality of a superstitious athlete or fan, we can take a much more critical approach to self-assessment. So while wearing your lucky shirt on exam days may help, try analyzing all parts of student achievement and try making those repeatable.

And by the way, we only had two losses this season in men's basketball. Both of those occurred on days that Duke and Carolina played each other. We should probably not schedule games on those days next year.

Confidence

Most of my blog posts are about metaphors. I am always looking for things I see throughout the week that can be applied to teaching and learning. Like many of you, I've been watching a lot of basketball lately. One thing I have noticed about this year's basketball team is how confident they look when they are playing. From the moment their name is called, to the final minutes, their faces show that they know what they are there for. There is never a look of confusion or doubt about what their job is. On Tuesday, I looked for that on the faces of our Juniors when they sat down to take the ACT. Did they look confident or afraid? Were they ready? To be honest, I saw both. I saw students that were smiling with two pencils and a calculator on their desk. I saw others that already looked like they were beaten down.

How can we replicate that confidence that our players have about their mission to academic achievement? I feel like anything like that can be coached. So what are coaches doing that classroom teachers are missing? Coaching brings instant feedback, positive and negative. Coaches applaud great work and make an example when a player steps out of line. But even when a player miss-steps, there is always a learning opportunity and a chance for redemption with a cheer at the end. I think that reinforcement from the coaches and teammates is what builds that confidence. So do we cheer enough in our classrooms? Do we encourage confidence in our students and can we even get them to encourage it amongst themselves? If you can, you've built a truly accomplished classroom culture based on collaboration and achievement. Try coaching along with your teaching and let's see if we can build some confidence in our students for their next big assessment.

Bragging

Last weekend I was asked to teach a course to aspiring school administrators on marketing your school to all stakeholders. The all-day lesson focused on school culture and how to get your vision out to the students, staff and community. I remembered how much I liked teaching and left at the end of the day feeling like they didn't even need to pay me. Throughout my lesson I got to tell several stories about our school and about several of the teachers and students. By the end of the day I felt like I was bragging. I had several of the students ask to come out and see our school. Essentially, I had just marketed our vision to them.

I thought about how we can use that concept at the classroom level. Each of you gets a chance to market yourselves as a part of our school and our community. Students leave your classroom telling a story about you. They tell how and what you do. They express to others the things you do that go above and beyond the requirements of a classroom teacher. You should be proud of that. Be sure to brag about yourself and about what you do. If we can't be proud of ourselves, we cannot expect our community to be proud of what we do.

Absent

I find it ironic that in the days after we issued a new attendance policy, illness and social events immediately took students out of school in large numbers. You would have to be living under a rock to be unaware of how bad the flu, strep throat and other viruses have plagued our schools lately. In fact, I am late sending this week's message out due to the fact that I had to get one of my own daughters from school today. Even our Superintendent had to urge parents not to send their children to school if they showed symptoms. In this case we wanted children to be absent to protect the others.

On Thursday, a social event also led to quite a few absences. Many of our hispanic students participated in a "day without immigrants" protest and stayed home from school and work. I learned about this early in the week and I have been torn on the subject ever since. Having worked closely with many undocumented students, I can understand how they and their families must feel recently. As someone that studied American History, I can empathize with their struggle as it is so similar to the struggle of almost every immigrant group before them. I can only imagine the internal struggle many families had deciding if they were to participate. On the other hand, the educator in me wanted these children at school. I want school to be sacred. I want it to be a place for everyone, all of the time. I think overall we do a very good job with that in our school. Like most schools, students align themselves in groups and cliques, but at our school they all generally respect one another. That has a lot to do with what you expect in your classrooms and in our halls.

The revised attendance policy was born in the idea that students were abusing the makeup policy and were absent far too often. When we look at problems like that, we only look at the data that is relative to the problem. We ignore the students that value school because they do not contribute to the attendance problem. This week's events made me see both sides. As the moderator of the school's social media accounts I get to see the posts from students, parents and alumni. I want to conclude this week's message with the following words from a Greene Central student (yes, we have a lot of good ones):

"My siblings woke up early, went to school. I woke up early, went to school...Mama woke up early, fixed my dad some lunch for work and dad left for work. Moral of the story, I still went to school on this "no immigrants day" because that was my purpose; to do so. That's what my parents came here for, a better education for me and my siblings and to make a move forward, little by little. Because every day that I or my siblings miss a school day is a day wasted. One last thing. I will not protest or march or anything because my parents crossed over. Instead, I went to school today to educate myself and so did my siblings so that my parents efforts in coming over are beneficial for them, for me and my siblings, for a successful life. I still support the movement."

Support Your School Counselor

Once upon a time, schools just had to teach students a set amount of information. After schools grew from the "one room schoolhouse" into multi-room buildings, the principal was simply the lead teacher that helped oversee the building. Still the focus was just on teaching that set of information. Today schools operate as so much more. Between feeding the hungry, athletic programs, college preparation, social and emotional wellness and so many other things, schools have become community centers designed to meet all of the needs children arrive with. Today, teaching content is just a part of what we do.

The people on the front lines of those "other things" that we do are the school counselors. While we often recognize that teachers have to wear many different hats in their job, it is the counselor's responsibility and sole purpose to wear all of those hats at once. I am always amazed at how quickly a counselor can transition between counseling a student with depression and thoughts of suicide one minute to finding scholarship avenues for top students the next. Literally every person that walks through their door needs something different from them.

In honor of National School Counselor's Week, please join me in saying thank you to our counselors and their support staff for the many things that they do for us and our students. Our school would be a very different place without them.

Dominating

I read and watch the blogs of several other people each week. Their thoughts sometimes spawn my own as I try to adapt them to education or our school. This week I watched a vlog (video blog) on the topic of winning versus dominating in what you do. The author highlighted the difference in why we know superstars in their field and are not familiar with others that are professionals at what they do. Even professional athletes. We know the big names because they dominate in their sport but we may not know the names of those that play on the same team. The author's purpose was to inspire us to become dominators in our own arena in life.

This week I met a man that I consider a dominator. Several of you had the opportunity to hear Barrington Irving speak at a STEM conference earlier this year and I had heard quite a bit about him. Barrington was the youngest person (and African-American) to fly solo around the world. While that is plenty impressive enough on its own, the story gets better. Captain Irving did this at 23, in an airplane that he built himself, from parts that he convinced manufacturers to give him. That's dominating your field.

Today Captain Irving has dedicated himself to improving STEM education and sponsors a flying classroom with hands on labs for students. He wants his passion to become infectious to others. While people like him are certainly a rare breed, there is plenty that we can learn from him. Imagine all of the obstacles that he must have met on his journey to fly around the world. They probably are not that foreign to a classroom teacher. You meet new obstacles every day. Things that stand between you and dominating at your craft. If we can focus on a single goal, much like Captain Irving did, then that goal becomes just a little easier to reach. So, what part of teaching do you want to dominate in? What can you pour you
r heart into and be proud of? Define that and then let's all get to work dominating at what we do!

New Things

As an American History teacher, I remember my lessons on the British invasion of America. When we hear that we think of early wars in our country's infancy. While I liked teaching that, my favorite British invasion was the musical one of the 1950s and 1960s. I love the Beatles and I love how changes in American and world culture can be tracked through their changes in musical style. A few boys from Liverpool started a revolution in culture and American thought using music. As much as I appreciate their music and the ever-evolving style, I also like their story. The world watched these young men grow up and change and it was this change that eventually led to their end. Some blame the influence of John Lennon's girlfriend, Yoko Ono, on the breakup, but true fans could see it coming back in 1968 (almost two years before they officially separated). The Beatles were changing and they were trying new things. Those things just didn't exactly move in the same direction anymore. Their evolution was moving them somewhere different.

Back in the fall semester, I sent an email to our math department urging them to try new things. I am certain that behind my back, I got some remarks or criticism. If I had received that email from my principal I would have done the same. The email simply said that they were working far too hard to be getting mediocre scores in Math 1. I didn't have a simple answer for what they should be doing, but I knew that it was time to try new things. This led to somewhat of an evolution. Our four Math 1 teachers took a field trip to see what math looks like in elementary schools. We observed math centers and guided small groups. We examined math software for K-8 students and how it is used. Then with some help from Mr. Shaw, the Math 1 teachers left the ways of traditional 9-12 math teaching and made a decision to try new things. They started this semester teaching every day through "rotations" (they are really centers). It's only been a few days, but I can tell you that it is the most engagement I have ever seen from 9th grade students. There have been a lot of visitors to these classes this week to see how it works and I have no doubt that there will be many more throughout the year.

My dad had a saying that I must have heard a hundred times growing up. "If you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always had." If you feel like you're working as hard as you can and getting the same results, maybe it's time to break away and try new things. I think Sir Paul McCartney would agree that it can work in your favor.

Taking My Medicine

After hitting the submit button on my blog each week, I read it one last time in the same format that you see it. I like to make sure that the layout looks right and check one more time for errors. When I read last week's message about having a hook and making your message interesting, I asked myself how I was practicing what I was preaching. You see, just like you, I complain about things that I sometimes think are beyond my control. I rant about laws and policies that I don't agree with and about parents that I cannot get to see things my way or engage at all. I am really always looking for that second part. I genuinely want our student's parents to support the school, you as teachers and their children's education. Just like you, I run into barriers and I complain.  It's tough when you hold a parent meeting and three to five parents attend. So when I read my words about making my message interesting, I realized that I was not doing that for parents. I needed to take a dose of my own medicine and I needed a hook.

This reflection prompted the insanely silly snow day message that went out to parents through phone calls and through Facebook and Twitter. I spent a morning writing the lyrics and Mr. Hazzard gave me a crash course in Garageband and I was off. I had no idea how well it would work. After over 100,000 views, 1,300 shares and a lot of texts, calls and comments in stores, I realized just how powerful a hook can be. I managed to get parents and the community to pay attention. While I don't intend on sending out every message from the school in the style of old-school rap, we do have plans for more creative messages that promote school events or important information that needs parent involvement. We have their attention, now we need to say something worth hearing.

The end of the semester is the perfect time to reflect on your practice as well. Take a minute and think about some of the great advice that we give to our students and how that can be applied and modeled in what you do. We preach attention and get distracted ourselves. We want creative solutions and problem solving and we give up on things we feel we cannot change. We are all guilty of it. We're human. But sometimes when we take a minute to try to see things in a different light we get a silly little idea that just might work.

Getting Hooked

As educators we spend quite a lot of time focusing our instruction and planning on content standards. We want to teach exactly what will be assessed and we want to maximize our time on those standards. Teachers spend time planning in their departments and over the summers focusing on the small nuances of state standards and how to fit each of those into lessons for the semester. With all of that time on standards, I think that sometimes we miss an essential first piece. We have to focus on the "hook." My clinical teacher always made me start each lesson with a hook. He said that if I didn't grab student attention in the first 5-10 minutes, then the rest of the lesson could be worthless.

Teaching has a lot in common with sales. You have to convince your class to buy into what you are doing. Your lesson is your product and they are your consumers. Every good salesman has a sales pitch and they know just when and how to use it. Teachers are the same. Now that the first semester's lessons are behind us and out content objectives have been taught, focus your second semester revisions on the hook. Grab student attention in the first few minutes to make all of your work on standards planning worth it.