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.