What Does a Graduate Look Like?

At the end of every school year, the Senior homeroom teachers sit and go through the cumulative folders of every graduate from our school and triple-check that everything is right and accounted for. One of those steps involves checking over each student's final transcript. It was a habit many years ago to shout out the class rank if it was exceptionally low or high. The first time I heard it, it quickly became one of those little idiosyncracies that turned me off. (In full disclosure, I am aware that administrators have strange quirks about our schools. We are not always right or wrong on these, but it doesn't take long to find them. I am no exception!) I guess the thing that rubbed me wrong was that I didn't see the point. I have two daughters that work hard to be among the top of their class, and I'm exceptionally proud of them. But if I'm being honest, their class rank doesn't define anything about how successful they will or will not be as an adult. Class rank is about academic success (which is really awesome) but I've never been in a job interview that asked me for my 11th-grade test scores nor have those scores ever helped me in the difficult moments of being a parent. Life isn't about scores, it's about navigating people and situations.

Near the end of last school year, I had the opportunity to participate in a statewide think tank of students, teachers, administrators, higher education leaders, business owners, and parents. Our goal was to define what exactly we wanted a graduate from North Carolina to look like. Several, multi-hour Zoom meetings allowed us to talk with one another to express frustrations and celebrations of what the modern workforce and society need from students today. We started with 50 competencies and by the end, we narrowed it down to 7. This week, I had the privilege of sitting on the media panel to unveil those seven competencies to the world. As a part of the announcement, they also filmed a video (you can watch it here and see several of our classes). 

So how did we do? I think we did pretty well to wrap up what a successful adult looks like today. Hopefully, the idea of teaching these skills to students isn't foreign to you. Many of these have been a part of our STEM initiative and even our curriculum maps for years. But whether they are new to you or something that you've been trying to practice for a long time, this week was important. It was a reminder from the very top of our school system that teaching students to be competent adults has a lot more to do with skills than test scores. And if you're a caring teacher, I know you can appreciate that.

Anything But a Backpack

I've had so many questions from students, teachers, and parents about homecoming next week. I think everyone is excited about it this year, including our community. But without a doubt, the most questions I have received have been about Anything But a Backpack Day. Everyone wants to know what they can bring to school in place of a backpack. I've had requests for everything from shopping carts, to pets and siblings. (By the way, pets and siblings are not allowed!) But the idea of it got me thinking about backpacks. When I attended school, I carried textbooks and notebooks. In a 6-period day, you carried around a lot of books and they easily filled a backpack on a night with multiple homework assignments. But today's school looks different. Textbooks have been replaced with online course content and for most subjects, notebooks have been replaced with iPads. So what's in those backpacks that kids keep carrying around?

The answer to this came to me from what I see teachers carry too. I laugh each morning as I see many of you haul your lives, sometimes in 3-4 bags into work each morning. Everything from lunch and snacks to a change of clothes for after school and all of the accompanying things that make our day better. Somewhere along the way, we started bringing our lives to school with us. We take the things that make us comfortable and come prepared for the things that we think we might need. And if you look a little deeper, we bring more than physical parts of our lives to school with us as well. We bring good and bad emotions, problems and successes, and all other parts of us to school each day. Those things that we bring are much more complex than a textbook or notebook to understand. 

So is it so strange that a student thinks that a sibling or a pet should come to school with them? I don't think so. Those things are as much a part of their lives as a hoodie or water bottle that they drag around. But the silver lining in their request is that they feel good enough about this place that we call school, and they trust the environment enough to bring the things most precious to them along. And similarly, we all unpack those intangible things that we bring with us in trust as well. Thanks for bringing anything but your backpack to school, but more importantly, thanks for making this a place where others can bring their items as well.