The News

I've had a lot of opportunities to speak with the media over the past week. Most interviews have inquired about our school, my past, and my beliefs about education or leadership. Most have done an excellent job in trying to portray the special parts of our school. Even a few of the kids that we struggle with managed to make their way into a local news segment, and it made me chuckle to know that even the difficult ones seem to know what we are striving for if you make them answer the question. The news this week made me swell with pride and several times I found myself going back to see just how many people had viewed the articles or interviews. It's captivating and maybe even a little narcissistic, but I'm not too proud to admit that I started to enjoy the attention. It's great being on the right side of a news story.

Then I heard about the news of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Another school shooting. Children and teachers dead. The news erupted with the story and the all-too-typical debates over gun laws, mental health, and school security measures. After reading the events of that afternoon, my instinct was to turn off the news. I didn't want to hear it anymore. I'm sick of it. The same news that I had loved hours before, was now giving me the horrific details of yet another tragic incident. 

I'm not writing this to debate politics or gun laws. I'm not telling anyone that I know the answer. But I can tell you that my children, your children, and all children deserve to go to schools like the ones that were in the news earlier this week. They deserve to feel safe and protected without feeling like they are in a prison. They deserve to thrive, and when given the option between this week's news stories, there isn't anything I wouldn't give to provide them all with the happier of the two. 

Our jobs as educators have changed a lot over the past few years. Not just due to COVID and learning loss, but, also as a response to a changing society. Like so many times before, the role has been given to educators to keep children safe. But there is something that we can all do every day in preparation and prevention of the events like the one at Robb Elementary School. It is written all over our school. 

Choose Love

Choose Hope

Choose Joy

Choose Peace

And while it could be debated that teaching these ideals cannot stop a madman from choosing to target students, I believe that these values are contagious. They grow in a community and they begin to change the hearts and minds. So in a week full of news, some great and some awful, thank you for continuing to teach love, hope, joy, and peace to students. Thank you for caring for them. Thank you for giving your time, your food, and your money to them. Thank you for loving them in what has been a very tough year to be an educator. I promise you are winning and if you keep it up, there will be more good news to come.

Highlight Reel

This is the time of the year when football coaches and scouts visit the school to speak with prospective recruits for the upcoming year. Scouting players is one of the situations where the ones that show early interest can usually recruit the top talent. These coaches have seen highlight reels of the athletes and there's something that they liked. Based on that film, they make a visit and talk to the student, his coach, and his family to tell them about their program. It's an interesting thing to watch as both sides almost flirt with one another. But none of this happens without the highlight reel. 

Football highlight reels have become high-tech. Now they look professionally put together, they identify the player before the play they want you to see, and they are digitally cut and spliced to give you the most action in just a couple of minutes. A player's whole prior season can be assembled into 2-3 minutes and a handful of their best plays. It's a glimpse of how good they can be at their best. But any good coach knows, this isn't reality. 

Highlight reels never show the fumbles, dropped passes, or missed tackles. These are the things that players dread, coaches preach against and fans boo. They happen to every player and it's a real part of the game. To prevent these bad moments, coaches and players spend time planning, drilling, and practicing. It occupies a lot of time and that effort never makes it to a single highlight reel. 

As we begin to close out this school year, we have focused a lot on the places where we have found struggles. Student behaviors and apathy, adaptations in instruction, changes in COVID protocols, and all of the other stressors are where we focused a lot of our time. We tried not to fumble, but sometimes we did. And when we did, we worked to fix it and keep it from happening again. These things took a lot of time, effort, and patience and I'm glad we put that effort in. But what about our highlight reel? If you could direct a 2-minute clip of your best events and moments this year, what would make the cut? I think it's very important to think about that at this time of the year. You've given a lot of time and attention to the problems and needs that you faced, but I'm betting that those efforts produced a lot of really memorable moments for you and your students. Don't forget your highlight reel. It's the parts that show your best impact and it's the moments that everyone deserves to see.

Will Work for Beer

Teacher Appreciation Week always gets me thinking about the educators that influenced me. This week, I remembered a teacher and coach that inspired me a lot, even after I graduated. Mr. Baker was my AP US History teacher and cross country coach. No doubt, I took a lot from him since I became a history teacher and cross country coach myself. He was a mentor and guide through most of my high school years, but at times, his students struggled with where to place the line between mentor and friend. All teenagers push that limit and good teachers show us where it is. 

In my Senior year, our cross country team had been pretty successful. Coach Baker was driving us to a regional championship and a graduated member of our team had decided to follow the bus to come to cheer us on. Our coach always tried to get us in the right mindset before a race. He wanted us to be serious about it and even had a "silent within 10 minutes of arriving" rule. But with a friend driving behind us, the 17 to 18-year-old boys just couldn't pass up the opportunity to flash our "best sides" from the back of the bus. And wouldn't you know it, Coach Baker caught us from the rearview mirror. He immediately pulled the bus over and fussed us out better than we could ever remember. In frustration, he tore his hat from his head and broke the snaps on the back. When the bus started again, there was no need to remind us of the silent rule. 

We ran pretty well that day if memory serves me well. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station for snacks. Behind the counter, there were hats for sale and the team thought we needed to replace the hat that our coach broke as a sign of peace. Now if you're wondering what kind of hats are sold at a country gas station, you're thinking in the right direction. The most appropriate hat we saw had a patch that read, "Will Work for Beer." We pitched in a couple of bucks each and presented him with the hat at the bus. Coach Baker broke out in laughter and it seemed that somehow, we had restored that relationship. He wore the hat the rest of the way home. 

Today, I preach a lot about building relationships because I believe it is just as important as curriculum. But there's a wise saying in education: "You can't love them into being stupid." Good teachers care for us, maybe even love us, but great teachers remind us of why we are really there. They teach us purpose. If Coach Baker had not broken his hat in an effort to set us straight, we probably would not have done well that day. He had to set us straight, but despite that, we knew he still cared for us. And we cared about keeping that relationship enough to buy a him a silly hat. So for Teacher Appreciation Week, here's a big thanks to the teachers that care enough to teach students the important things in life. I can tell you from experience that those lessons carry on much farther than your classrooms.