One of the more interesting things that I learned on my trip to Peru earlier this year had nothing to do with the culture or education system. I was talking with our tour guide about their political structure. Like many Latin American countries, Peru has struggled with government corruption in the past. When I asked him about the process now and how elections work, I got a very interesting answer. In Peru, you are fined as a citizen if you do not vote. The fine isn't very steep and equates to about $25, but the fact that they place that much importance on voting impressed me.
As a social studies teacher, I always stressed the importance of voting to my students. Ultimately, we all want informed voters, not just voters. I had a running joke in my class that went like this: "The great thing about America is that everyone can vote. The problem with America is that everyone can vote." In a democratic society, each of our votes counts the same, even when we might think that they should not. Despite the ease and availability of voting, we seem to have low voter turnouts. Just four years ago, we participated in a primary election similar in importance to the one we face this Tuesday. In North Carolina, less than 36% of registered voters participated in the election. Even in the all-important Presidental election that November, only about two-thirds of registered voters participated.
While we place much higher importance on large, federal elections, the local and state offices probably impact our daily lives more than we suspect. The current primary election offers you a chance to select your candidate for offices such as our state legislature (they control your job and your paycheck), State Superintendent (they control many aspects of your job), Governor (they sign laws relating to education including budget) and many others that impact your life in and out of school. If you live in Greene County, you can also vote to select our local Board of Education. (We have two open positions!) If you want to see what all is on your ballot, I suggest using this site: https://ballotpedia.org/North_Carolina_elections,_2020.
I often have people ask me who I think they should vote for in local elections, but due to my position on the county Board of Elections, I cannot endorse or oppose any candidate. What I can tell you is that I want to see you vote. In an ever-increasing time of political polarity, I strongly feel that most non-voters are people in the middle of the political spectrum. Most people are not 100% liberal or conservative. People that don't vote usually don't feel excited about a candidate or the process because they can't personally identify with a candidate. But if you don't vote, you are allowing someone else's political identity and personal values to speak for you. Chances are, that doesn't always match what you believe or doesn't always give you the best possible scenario for your life and your profession.
So this week's message is simple. GO VOTE! (If you haven't done so already). And more than that, take a few minutes to do your homework. (That's what we tell our kids, right?) The next few years of our lives are counting on you.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
The Bathroom Wall
We managed to squeeze a lot of work and emotion into an otherwise very short school week. While starting the week on a teacher workday sounds relaxing to most, I had the cloud hanging over me of a threat written on a bathroom wall. I'm here to tell you that there is no specific training or plan for how to handle events like this one. All you can do is try to get as much knowledge on the event as you can and make the best decision that you can for the people that are under your care. Before I sent out my statement, I couldn't help but hang my head. I knew full and well that the critics would come out of everywhere. You have to have thick skin as a school administrator. There are parents and community members that don't always agree with you, teachers and students that sometimes see things in a different way, and news media that would love nothing more than to turn your misfortune into increased ratings. I knew that this would be tough and I woke up Tuesday morning at 2:45 am, with my mind full of questions and thoughts on the day.
With events that put schools in fear, you have no choice but to respond. But what happens after that day? I remembered back to my first year at Greene Central. My arrival at the school wasn't pleasant for everyone and we had a student that continued to express his distaste in me by writing it on a bathroom wall. "F*** Mr. Greene" was the common phrase and it was always in the same spot. The custodian asked me if I wanted him to shut down the bathroom to keep it from happening. My response then is my response now. "We don't tear down the school for a little bit of writing on a bathroom wall. We paint over it and move on."
While the "writing on the wall" this week won't make me fear students or redirect all students into policies based on fear, it did remind me that the most powerful thing about our school is the culture that we have developed among students, staff and our community. While I expected backlash about public schools being unsafe (and we got a little of that), what I saw much more were prayers for our safety and encouraging words from graduates. It reminded me that we found out about the writing because of relationships we had with students that cared enough to speak up. It reminded me to focus on continuing to invest in those relationships. I needed to get back to talking to kids more and to having fun with them as young people. And that's exactly what I tried to spend the rest of the week doing.
So while I wouldn't wish a threat of violence on any school or any student, I will say that my reflection on this week's event taught me to refocus my priorities. As administrators, it's easy to get caught up in data, policies, problems, and timelines. But absolutely no one remembers those things about their school experience. The reason that we open school every year, fully staffed with quality teachers and students ready to be back is because of how those groups feel about the place that they spend 8 or more hours each day. When you remember that schools are places with people and when you care about them as people, you can turn around a bad week pretty quickly.
With events that put schools in fear, you have no choice but to respond. But what happens after that day? I remembered back to my first year at Greene Central. My arrival at the school wasn't pleasant for everyone and we had a student that continued to express his distaste in me by writing it on a bathroom wall. "F*** Mr. Greene" was the common phrase and it was always in the same spot. The custodian asked me if I wanted him to shut down the bathroom to keep it from happening. My response then is my response now. "We don't tear down the school for a little bit of writing on a bathroom wall. We paint over it and move on."
While the "writing on the wall" this week won't make me fear students or redirect all students into policies based on fear, it did remind me that the most powerful thing about our school is the culture that we have developed among students, staff and our community. While I expected backlash about public schools being unsafe (and we got a little of that), what I saw much more were prayers for our safety and encouraging words from graduates. It reminded me that we found out about the writing because of relationships we had with students that cared enough to speak up. It reminded me to focus on continuing to invest in those relationships. I needed to get back to talking to kids more and to having fun with them as young people. And that's exactly what I tried to spend the rest of the week doing.
So while I wouldn't wish a threat of violence on any school or any student, I will say that my reflection on this week's event taught me to refocus my priorities. As administrators, it's easy to get caught up in data, policies, problems, and timelines. But absolutely no one remembers those things about their school experience. The reason that we open school every year, fully staffed with quality teachers and students ready to be back is because of how those groups feel about the place that they spend 8 or more hours each day. When you remember that schools are places with people and when you care about them as people, you can turn around a bad week pretty quickly.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Inadequate
It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting in an empty lecture hall that I once sat in for undergraduate history classes at ECU. I'm here because my daughter, Rylee, is taking the ACT as a part of the Duke TIP program for AIG students. When I took Rylee to the room, I saw a few other 7th graders there for the same reason. Most of them looked terrified at the thought of the four-hour test that was about to take place. I had tried to take some time to coach Rylee on what the test looked like and even had some help from a couple of our teachers that taught our ACT prep classes. I know that I couldn't teach her all of the skills needed to score well in just a few weeks, but I could make her feel a little more comfortable about it.
When I walked out, I saw the high school-aged students walking in to take their seats in the same room. I chuckled to myself. Can you imagine the thoughts that they had when they walked in and saw several 12-year-olds sitting in the room? Here they are, probably taking the test for at least the second time, to improve a score and try to get into their college of choice. They walk into the room and see young kids that they probably assume to be brilliant minds going into college way younger than them. Both the 12-year-olds and the high schoolers only have their own frame of reference to consider and both enter the room feeling inadequate.
Last week I watched a video of a fight that began in the gym before school. What started as a play-fight led to one of the boys getting the best of another. That boy let his feelings of inadequacy get the best of him and it turned into a real fight. Others saw and joined in. It's an all too common story. Students engage in bad behaviors because they feel inadequate in class or fear looking inadequate to their peers. It's a powerful feeling that causes some to withdraw and others to lash out and in some way, we have all been there. Even as I sat in my first doctorate classes, I wondered for a moment if I was as smart as everyone else, or if my writing was up to par. The feeling of self-doubt can be tough to get over, but if you do, something amazing can happen.
Later this week I was about to suspend a young lady that was escalating a confrontation through a group chat. (Unfortunately, policing messages has become a school responsibility.) As we spoke, I understood that her actions stemmed from her own self-doubt and I had an idea. I offered her a chance to admit her transgressions back in the same group message over a traditional disciplinary action. While it had been easy for her to lash out publicly, it was painful for her to admit her wrongdoings in the same group. But when she did, she instantly looked different. It was over and she moved on and so did the conflict among the group.
Too often our fears of inadequacy paralyze our best intentions. We fear standing out in our group or to be different from the norm. We fear failure so we marginalize ourselves. But if we want better students and more student leaders, then we all have to be examples of stepping away from that and we have to tell that story to them. Whenever we feel inadequate, we assume that we are the only ones in the world that feel that way, but we're not. We never are. Dealing with that feeling is empowering and just like everything else that we do, it's something that can be taught. Don't be afraid...go teach it.
When I walked out, I saw the high school-aged students walking in to take their seats in the same room. I chuckled to myself. Can you imagine the thoughts that they had when they walked in and saw several 12-year-olds sitting in the room? Here they are, probably taking the test for at least the second time, to improve a score and try to get into their college of choice. They walk into the room and see young kids that they probably assume to be brilliant minds going into college way younger than them. Both the 12-year-olds and the high schoolers only have their own frame of reference to consider and both enter the room feeling inadequate.
Last week I watched a video of a fight that began in the gym before school. What started as a play-fight led to one of the boys getting the best of another. That boy let his feelings of inadequacy get the best of him and it turned into a real fight. Others saw and joined in. It's an all too common story. Students engage in bad behaviors because they feel inadequate in class or fear looking inadequate to their peers. It's a powerful feeling that causes some to withdraw and others to lash out and in some way, we have all been there. Even as I sat in my first doctorate classes, I wondered for a moment if I was as smart as everyone else, or if my writing was up to par. The feeling of self-doubt can be tough to get over, but if you do, something amazing can happen.
Too often our fears of inadequacy paralyze our best intentions. We fear standing out in our group or to be different from the norm. We fear failure so we marginalize ourselves. But if we want better students and more student leaders, then we all have to be examples of stepping away from that and we have to tell that story to them. Whenever we feel inadequate, we assume that we are the only ones in the world that feel that way, but we're not. We never are. Dealing with that feeling is empowering and just like everything else that we do, it's something that can be taught. Don't be afraid...go teach it.
Friday, February 7, 2020
Inexperienced
This week I have been away from school at the annual NC School Administrator's conference. This conference gives administrators a chance to learn from each other, hear from some great speakers and also to network and talk with everyone outside of a principal's meeting or state meeting. Inevitably, you start swapping stories with people about crazy things that happen in schools. Sharing these stories this year started to make me realize that I am at the point where I can probably call myself experienced in my role. That's a strange feeling for me. I started as an assistant principal at 26 years old. I was a head principal for the first time at 29. At that age, it's tough to say that I was experienced in anything related to my career. At that time, I found myself frustrated by how young I was and how I sometimes felt alienated by my age. My dad often reassured me that no one takes you seriously until you are 40. So according to him, I'm still not experienced yet I guess.
At our conference, we heard from Steve Ventura on the topic of student-centered leadership. One of his statements quickly caught my attention. The statement was, "Experience doesn't count for expertise." That statement is probably not the way that we think of education. We often equate experience in the classroom with expertise. Those teachers and administrators that have been around the longest, certainly most have seen it all and they must know what to do. But the problem is that schools today are not the schools of just a few years ago. The experience of what may have worked a while back could very well be useless with today's students, classrooms, environments, curriculums, assessments and everything else. That's precisely why we have to become lifelong learners in this profession.
The one thing that my lack of experience taught me was that I had to work hard to prove myself and to do that, I had to learn what I was talking about. Every year we see this with beginning teachers and experienced ones that step out on a limb and try something new. That lack of experience causes them to learn and those that put in the work, gain expertise. So whether this is your 1st or 31st year in your roll, attack it with the same attitude of wanting desperately to become an expert in your field. It's the learning, not the time that gets you there.
At our conference, we heard from Steve Ventura on the topic of student-centered leadership. One of his statements quickly caught my attention. The statement was, "Experience doesn't count for expertise." That statement is probably not the way that we think of education. We often equate experience in the classroom with expertise. Those teachers and administrators that have been around the longest, certainly most have seen it all and they must know what to do. But the problem is that schools today are not the schools of just a few years ago. The experience of what may have worked a while back could very well be useless with today's students, classrooms, environments, curriculums, assessments and everything else. That's precisely why we have to become lifelong learners in this profession.
The one thing that my lack of experience taught me was that I had to work hard to prove myself and to do that, I had to learn what I was talking about. Every year we see this with beginning teachers and experienced ones that step out on a limb and try something new. That lack of experience causes them to learn and those that put in the work, gain expertise. So whether this is your 1st or 31st year in your roll, attack it with the same attitude of wanting desperately to become an expert in your field. It's the learning, not the time that gets you there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)